The Beginnings of San Francisco - Chapters VII-X



CHAPTER VII. COLONIZATION, 1769-1836

Before proceeding to the story of the formation of the modern city of San 
Francisco let us consider the method adopted for the reduction and 
settlement of the newly occupied territory and the administration of its 
affairs, temporal and spiritual. 

In the scheme to colonize California the missions were to play an 
important part. They were intended from the beginning to be temporary in 
their character, and it was contemplated that in ten years from their 
foundation they should cease. It was supposed that within that period of 
time the Indians would be sufficiently instructed in Christianity and the 
arts of civilized life to assume the position and character of citizens; 
that these mission settlements would become pueblos, and that the mission 
churches would become parish churches, organized like other establishments 
of an ecclesiastical character in other portions of the nation where no 
missions ever existed.(*) The missionary establishments were widely 
different from the ordinary ecclesiastical organizations. They had for 
their object something more than the spiritual care of those connected 
with them. They were intended not merely to christianize but to civilize 
the Indians; to instruct them in the arts, and to guide their labors; and 
the charge was committed to priests who were specially trained in such 
work. The scheme was not a new one; it had been in operation in Sonora and 
Lower California for a hundred years, but it was expanded in California 
and its results, aside from its colonizing value, justified those who put 
it into operation." At the end of sixty years (1834) the missionaries of 
Alta California found themselves in possession of twenty-one prosperous 
missions, planted upon a line of about seven hundred miles, running from 
San Diego north to the latitude of Sonoma. More than thirty thousand 
Indian converts were lodged in the mission buildings, receiving religious 
culture, assisting at divine worship and cheerfully performing their easy 
tasks. Over four hundred thousand horned cattle pastured on the plains as 
well as sixty thousand horses and more than three hundred thousand sheep, 
goats, and swine. Seventy thousand bushels of wheat were raised annually, 
which, with maize, beans and the like, made up an annual crop of one 
hundred and twenty thousand bushels; while, according to the climate, the 
different missions rivaled each other in the production of wine, brandy, 
soap, leather, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt, and 
soda. Of two hundred thousand horned cattle slaughtered annually, the 
missions furnished about one half, whose hides and tallow were sold at a 
net result of about ten dollars each, making a million dollars from that 
source alone, while other articles of which no definite statistics can be 
obtained doubtless reached an equal value, making a total production by 
the missions themselves, of two millions of dollars per annum. Gardens, 
vineyards, and orchards surrounded all the missions, except Dolores, San 
Rafael, and San Francisco Solano; the climate of the first being too 
inhospitable, and the two latter, born near the advent of the Mexican 
revolution, being stifled in their infancy. The other missions, according 
to their latitude, were ornamented and enriched with plantations of palm 
trees, bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, with orchards of European 
fruits, and with vast and fertile vineyards, whose products were equally 
valuable for sale and exchange, and for the diet and comfort of the 
inhabitants.

(* Judge Aipheus Felch, of the Land Commission: Opinion in re Petition of 
the Bishop of California)

"Aside from these valuable properties and from the mission buildings, the 
self-moving or live stock of the missions, valued at their current rates, 
amounted to three millions of dollars of the most active capital, bringing 
enormous annual returns upon its aggregate amount, and, owing to the great 
fertility of animals in California, more than repairing its annual waste 
by slaughter. 

"Such was the great religious success of the Catholic missions in Upper 
California; such their material prosperity in the year 1834, even after 
many depredations had been committed upon them by the first governors of 
the regime of 'Independence.'"(*)

(* John W. Dwinelle: The Colonial History of the City of San Francisco, 
page 44) 

After the conquest of California the absolute title to the land vested in 
the crown, and the Indians were recognized as the owners, under the crown, 
of all the land needed for their support. The missionaries had only the 
use of the land for mission purposes, namely: to prepare the Indians that 
they might, in time, take possession of the land then held in common. This 
accomplished, the missions were to be secularized and made pueblos and the 
missionaries returned to their convent. As the years rolled by the 
missions became wealthy and were indisposed to relinquish the power they 
had acquired. In their zealous efforts to protect the interests of their 
wards they claimed all the land, extending their possessions from one 
extremity of the territory to the other, making the bounds of one mission 
form those of another, and fighting every grant made to an individual. 
They held the Indians in subjection and were served by them without pay, 
receiving only food and a very limited amount of clothing. When it came to 
a division of the property under the orders for secularization, the 
Indians sold or otherwise disposed of their portions about as soon as they 
were put in possession. The entire scheme failed for the reason that the 
Indian's lazy, shiftless nature, further weakened by sixty years of 
slavery, made it impossible for him to assume the rights and 
responsibilities of citizenship. 

The most important factor in the colonization of California was the 
soldier. The presidial soldiers were enlisted for ten years and on the 
expiration of this term of service they were entitled to land in such 
quantity as they could use. Failure to put land to use worked a forfeiture 
of the grant. In the expectation of turning the soldier into a settler, 
care was taken to select only those who would make good citizens, and 
usually married men were taken. Settlers were also enrolled and received 
rations, and pay for a specified period. They were required to live in the 
pueblos of the Spaniards, where to each settler (poblador) was given a 
building lot, a lot for cultivation, varying from seven to fourteen acres, 
the use of the common pasture lands for his cattle, and for the common use 
of all were the rights of Montes and Aguas--the woods and waters. In 
return, the settler was bound to hold himself ready to march at the order 
of the governor. In spite of the inducements thus held out but few 
settlers would come, and the government was dependent for population on 
the natural increase from the families of the garrisons. When the 
establishment of the pueblo of Los Angeles was ordered, Rivera was sent to 
enroll twenty-four married men, healthy and robust, likely to lead regular 
lives, and to set a good example to the natives. Extra inducements in the 
way of increased pay and other privileges were promised, but the best he 
could do was the collection of twelve men and their families; viz: two 
Spaniards, two negros, four Indians, two mulatos, one mestizo, and one 
"Chino."(*) With this motley crew the famous pueblo of La Reina de los 
Angeles was founded. Three of these promising settlers were, within a 
year, pronounced worthless, their property was taken from them, and they 
were sent away.

(* A Chino is the off-spring of a Salta Atras and an Indian woman. A Salta 
Atras is the off-spring of white parents having a trace of Negro blood--
whether Moorish or other crossing. (Chas. F. Lummis.))

Nor was the attempt to establish the Villa de Branciforte more successful. 
A miserable band of vagabonds was collected at Guadalajara and sent up to 
Monterey on the transport Concepcion. They arrived May 12, 1797,(*) and 
the villa was founded some time in July. There were nine of the founders; 
one had a wife and five children and two others brought wives. They were a 
worthless lot and continually in trouble with the authorities. Later the 
village became the home of many retired soldiers. The site selected for 
the Villa de Branciforte was across the river from Santa Cruz, and there 
it was founded despite the protests of the padres, who did not wish a 
pueblo of Spaniards so near the mission. It was named in honor of the 
Marquis de Branciforte, viceroy of New Spain and now forms a part of the 
city of Santa Cruz. This ended the attempts of Spain to form pueblos of 
Spaniards in California. In all, three were founded, viz: San Jose de 
Guadalupe, in 1777, a description of which is given elsewhere,[22] La 
Reina de los Angeles in 1781, and La Villa de Branciforte in 1797. All 
the other pueblos were grown from mission and presidial sett1ements.

(* The colonists of Branciforte and those of Los Angeles were paid $116. 
per year for two years and $66. for the next three years, besides the live 
stock and implements furnished them.) 

To encourage the cultivation of the soil the viceroy, as early as 1773, 
authorized the comandante of California to distribute lands to such 
persons, either natives or Spanish, as were worthy and would devote 
themselves to agriculture or stock raising; and later, when discharged 
soldiers began to apply for land, Governor Fages was authorized to grant 
tracts of land not exceeding three sitios(*)--thirteen thousand, three 
hundred acres--on conditions which included the building of a stone house 
on each sitio and the keeping of at least two thousand head of live-stock. 
These conditions were not well regarded and but few grants were applied 
for before the close of the eighteenth century. Besides, the grants were 
made subject to the requirements of the missions. Thus a portion of the 
land granted to the soldier, Jose Manuel Nieto, by Fages in 1784, was 
taken from him in 1796, on the demand of the padres of San Gabriel who 
claimed it for their neophytes; and in 1797, when the mission of San 
Fernando was established, Los Encinos, the rancho of Francisco Reyes, was 
taken from him for the use of the friars.

(* Sitio: one square league--4438.68 acres)

Each governor of California endeavored to overcome the backwardness of the 
province in respect to population, and between 1792 and 1794, a number of 
artisans were imported to instruct the inhabitants in various trades. They 
were brought under contract for four and five years and every effort was 
made to induce them to remain, but most of them returned to Mexico. The 
friars received the benefit and their neophytes were taught the trades of 
mason, carpenter, tanner, weaver, shoemaker, etc. 

During the last decade of the century Mexico began sending her convicts to 
California. This undesirable class of settlers was unwelcome and the 
Californians bitterly resented the action of the Mexican authorities. 
Their protests were unheeded and the convicts continued to come, though 
never in large numbers and I do not find that they made much impression 
upon the character of the population. Under the rule of Borica, 1794--
1800, an attempt was made to import young marriageable women as wives for 
the settlers, especially for the convict settlers, as the padres objected 
to the convicts marrying the native women. Later the governor asks that 
one hundred young, healthy women be sent him for wives for the pobladores. 
These women did not come, but there were sent some small shipments of 
foundlings, both boys and girls, who were distributed among the families 
of the different presidios. 

The colonization of California was very slow and in 1790, the only year in 
which I have a full padron of the territory, the entire population, not 
counting aborigines, was but 989 souls. 

Why was it that in a country so blessed as California with a fertile soil, 
an agreeable climate, and all the conditions that go to make life easy and 
comfortable, the efforts to colonize it should meet with such difficulty? 
We find two obstacles to success: first, the prohibition of trade with the 
ships on the coast deprived the settlers of a market for their product, 
and, second, it was not to the interest of the missions to promote 
colonization. By the end of the century Spain had established in 
California eighteen missions, each without settlers, but each intending to 
become a pueblo, and each entitled under the law of Philip II, to four 
leagues of land. In addition to the missions were the three pueblos of 
Spaniards referred to, containing an aggregate of less than three hundred 
souls. Emigrants would not come. The pay and the rations offered only 
attracted the worthless and indolent. The mission scheme had failed. The 
vast missionary establishments absorbed the lands, business, and capital 
of the country and all interests were held under ecclesiastical sway; 
there was no individual enterprise and immigration was discouraged. The 
power of the padres was such that they not only dictated the religious 
policy of the country but even interfered with its civil management. All 
proposed grants of land were submitted to them and they virtually dictated 
where and to whom lands should be given.(*) In 1794, Colonel Costanso, the 
engineer officer who, as ensign, had accompanied Portola on his famous 
march to Monterey, was sent to California to investigate conditions and 
ascertain the reason for the lack of progress in the settlement of the 
country. His report condemned the mission plan so far as the colonization 
of the country was concerned. He said that missions many years old still 
remained in charge of friars and presidial guards; there were no ship 
owners on the Pacific coast; no trade in the South Sea and therefore no 
revenue; a lack of population, and the province was a great expense to the 
crown. There were no inducements to the farmer and stock-raiser, for no 
trade was permitted with either foreign or Spanish ships, but only with 
the regular transports. He said that settlers of Spanish blood should have 
been mingled with the natives from the beginning, and that every ship 
should bring a number of families supplied with proper outfit.

(* Colton: Three years in California, 440. Forbes: Hist. of Cal., 133, 
209.)

California was divided into four presidial districts. The military 
establishment, at the end of the eighteenth century, consisted of a 
lieutenant-colonel, who was the governor, four lieutenants, four ensigns, 
one surgeon, six sergeants, sixteen corporals, and two hundred and eighty-
two privates. This small force had to guard a coast line of six hundred 
miles, four presidios, three pueblos, and eighteen missions. The territory 
included within the jurisdiction of these missionary settlements was never 
definitely settled and very seldom even defined. Some boundary lines were 
usually recognized, but about all that is certain in this respect seems to 
be that the jurisdiction of the missions extended from one mission to 
another so that no portion of the coast country could be said not to be 
included in some one of them. The designs of the government of Spain were 
often interfered with by the religious power which it fostered. On the 4th 
of January, 1813, Spain passed a law expressly requiring that all vacant 
lands and all lands for municipal uses in her provinces beyond the sea, 
except commons necessary for villages, should be reduced to private 
ownership; and that in disposing of lands the settlers in the towns should 
be preferred over others. On the 13th of September, 1813, Spain passed 
another law expressly requiring that all her settlements beyond the sea 
should be taken from the control of the priests wherever they had been for 
ten years under their charge; that the missionary priests should 
immediately cease from the government and administration of the property 
of those Indians, leaving it to them to dispose of it through the medium 
of their ayuntamientos,(*) and requiring the superior political authority 
to name the most intelligent among the Indians to direct the disposition; 
and also again requiring that the lands be distributed and reduced to 
private property conformably to the law of January 4th. From this will be 
seen the intentions of Spain in regard to the missions. At the date of the 
decrees Ferdinand VII was a prisoner in Paris in the hands of Napoleon; 
upon his release, on the 22d of August, 1814, he repudiated these, with 
other acts of the Spanish cortes; but they were all revived by the 
revolution of 1819, and this one was in force when on the 27th of 
September, 1821, Mexico achieved her independence.

(* Ayuntamiento: town council. It was composed of one alcalde, two 
regidores (councilmen) and a sindico-procurador (city attorney). For a 
large town, the number of alcaldes and regidores was increased.)

Of all the aborigines of America, the Indians of California were perhaps 
the least capable of exercising the rights and privileges of citizenship, 
and the education they received from the friars was not of a nature to 
prepare them for such a responsibility. Nevertheless, Mexican independence 
was promptly followed by an order to liberate all pueblo Indians of good 
character and grant to them lands for their maintenance. It was ordered 
that the salaries paid the missionary priests ($400 per annum) should be 
stopped; that the mission settlements should be formed into pueblos with a 
curate for each; that the country should support its own priests, and that 
liberal donations of lands should be made to the pueblo Indians, who were 
supposed to be able to maintain themselves. But the Indians for the most 
part were mere slaves. The order for their sudden liberation proved 
disastrous and had to be modified. The reglamento of November 21, 1828, 
provided that the lands occupied by the missions should not be colonized 
at present. Some provision had to be first made for the Indians. This was 
a stay of proceedings and the rule of the friars continued. On the 17th of 
August, 1833, the Mexican congress passed a law on the basis of the 
Spanish law of January 4, 1813, to force the mission settlements from the 
control of the priests, to organize local civil governments, and to grant 
the lands they occupied to settlers. This act was supplemented by another, 
November 4th, of the same year, authorizing the government to transport 
emigrants from Mexico to settle upon these mission lands of Alta 
California. On the 16th of April, 1834, another law on the same subject 
was passed requiring all the missions in the republic to be secularized. 

In all, these acts of the Mexican congress for granting lots to settlers, 
the rights of the Indians were to be respected. The territorial diputacion 
of California declared on October 21, 1834, that all the property, real 
and personal, of the missions belonged to the converted or pueblo Indians, 
and that they were its only owners. General Jose Figueroa, the able and 
upright governor of California, mindful of the rights of the pueblo 
Indians who had created the wealth of the missions, published on the 9th 
of August, 1834, a reglamento giving effect to the law of 1833, to begin 
the conversion to the missions into pueblos. He decreed that to the head 
of each family, and to every man over twenty-one years of age whether the 
head of a family or not, should be given a lot of land, irrigable or 
otherwise, not more than four hundred nor less than one hundred varas 
square, from the common land of the missions; and in community, a 
sufficient quantity of land should be allotted to them for pasturage and 
for watering their cattle; that ejidos (common lands) should be assigned 
each pueblo and, when convenient, propios(*) also; that they should 
receive one-half of all self-moving property (live-stock), and one-half or 
less of all chattels, while instruments and seeds were to be divided among 
them in proportion to their needs. The rest of the property was to be 
retained by the government for the support of the churches, schools, etc., 
and the cost of administration of the missions.

(* Propios, were such lands, houses, and other properties of pueblos and 
cities as were rented and the proceeds thereof applied in the payment of 
municipal expenses) 



CHAPTER VIII. SECULARIZATION

The purpose for which the missions were created has been shown in the 
preceding pages. That the missionary establishments were to be retired 
when their work was done has also been made clear. There was no 
misunderstanding of the government's intentions in this respect, least of 
all on the part of the missionary priests, yet in many instances they 
allowed the impression to prevail that they were cruelly wronged. The 
secularization of the missions has been denounced in unmeasured terms. It 
has been represented as an outrage against the thirty thousand 
Christianized Indians who enjoyed the beneficence and created the wealth 
of the missions of California, against the good and devoted men who with 
such wisdom, sagacity, and self-sacrifice reared those wonderful 
institutions in the wilderness; against the church, and against the peace 
and welfare of the province. The Franciscan monks were generally driven 
out, says De Mofras, but the parish priests did not arrive, so that the 
neophytes were generally left without teachers or protectors, and the 
services for the most part ceased. The mayor-domos appointed to take 
charge of the missions were often brutal and illiterate persons--sometimes 
those who had been menial servants; so that frequently the missionary was 
at the mercy of one of his former herdsmen. The few missionaries who 
remained were insulted, thwarted, stinted in their allowance, and, in some 
instances, died of starvation while ministering at the altar.(*) Wilkes, 
who found little to commend in California, said that with the change of 
rulers anarchy and confusion began to reign, that the want of authority 
was everywhere felt, that some of the missions were deserted, the property 
dissipated and the Indians turned out to seek their native wilds. 
Secularization had brought ruin to the missions and that the property that 
was still left became a prey to the rapacity of the governor, the needy 
officers, and the administrador.(**) The Indians complained of the fact 
that they had endured outrages from the whites who had deprived them of 
the cattle which had been given them, and pastured their own flocks upon 
the small patches of ground which had been assigned to them for 
cultivation and that the civil authorities themselves had pillaged them. 
They returned therefore to their native tribes among the tulares whence 
they issued in raids upon the missions and settlements sweeping off herds 
of cattle and horses, and sometimes carrying into captivity the wives and 
daughters of the whites. These latter retaliated by excursions into the 
Indian country, in which whole villages were devoted to slaughter, rapine, 
and burning, by the wild and indiscriminate fury of revenge.(***) Edwin 
Bryant says: "The administrators have made themselves and those by whom 
they were appointed, rich upon the spoils of the missions."(****) Alfred 
Robinson too, who, whatever may have been his training in his New England 
home, was a faithful friend of the church in California, loses no 
opportunity to score the government and the administrators of the missions.

(* De Mofras: Exploration i, pp. 273, 303, 342, 380-390, 421)
(** Wilkes: Exploring Expedition v, 162, 168)
(*** De Mofras i, 347, 414: Wilkes, Exp. Expedition v, 173, 174)
(**** Bryant; What I saw in California, 444)

Let us consider for a moment how much of this censure is deserved. Bryant 
was here for a few months only, long after the secularization of the 
missions was accomplished. De Mofras' observation was superficial, and 
while he wrote copiously of the secularization his information was largely 
hearsay. Wilkes was here in the same year, 1841, and his information on 
this point was from the same source as that of De Mofras.[25] Alfred 
Robinson was in California throughout most of the period of secularization 
and his opportunities for observation were excellent, but his statements 
are so general that little can be done with them by way of analysis. 

Most of the writers of the period following the secularization assume that 
the missions, with their great holdings of real and personal property, 
belonged to the church or that the property belonged to the missionary 
establishments as corporations. Such however was not the case. The 
missions belonged to the government and were established under its 
direction. The missions of Lower California established by the Jesuits 
were, in 1768, taken from them by order of the king and placed in the 
custody of the Franciscans. Later, when the establishment of a chain of 
missions in Alta California was determined, the Franciscans relinquished 
the missions of Lower California to the Dominicans, who felt that their 
order had not received proper consideration, and confined themselves to 
the new establishments of Alta California. Moreover, the government 
control and direction of the missions is seen in all the orders and 
regulations concerning them. It was the duty of the governor to choose 
their sites, direct the construction and arrangement of their edifices, 
and to lay out their streets regularly, as, the viceroy advised, a mission 
may become a pueblo and the pueblo grow into a great city. Not only this, 
but the governor had a right to reduce their possessions by grants of land 
to Indians and to settlers (pobladores) within their so-called boundaries, 
and could change a mission into a pueblo and subject it to the same laws 
that governed other pueblos. Bucareli,[26] viceroy of New Spain, in his 
letter of instructions to the comandante of the new establishments of San 
Diego and Monterey, dated August 17, 1773, said: "When it becomes 
expedient to change any mission into a pueblo, the comandante will proceed 
to reduce it to the civil and economical government, which, according to 
the laws, is observed in the other pueblos of this kingdom, giving it a 
name, and declaring for its patron the saint under whose auspices and 
venerable protection the mission was founded."(*) Thus at the very 
foundation of these California establishments did Spain announce the end 
and complete fulfilment of all missions.

(* H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 17, 31st Cong., 1st Session 1850, p. 133-4)

The change by which the monastic monopoly was to be broken up involved no 
wrong to the church, the Franciscan order, or to the Indians. Figueroa' s 
regulations by which the policy and the law were to be carried out were 
wise and humane, but it cannot be denied that sixty-five years of tutelage 
had left the Indian no more fitted to assume the responsibilities of 
citizenship than it found him. Colonization was obliged to wait upon 
secularization, and there could be no political organization where there 
was no population. The missions occupied all California, and while all the 
land was not needed, and ought not to be distributed among the Indians, 
the government could not undertake to make grants of national lands until 
the requirements of the Indians were ascertained and provided for. 
Secularization would accomplish this and the property of the government 
and that of the Indians would be separated when the missions became 
pueblos. 

The great wealth of the missions could not fail to excite the avarice of 
those whose official position gave opportunity for plunder. Already the 
looting had begun and in some instances a decline in the prosperity of the 
missions had been noticed before the process of secularization was under 
way. Under the influence of Echeandía, governor from 1825 to 1831, 
assisted by his inspector-general, Jose María Padres, a spirit of revolt 
had been incited among the neophytes and a general feeling of unrest 
prevailed. In 1833 a scheme for the colonization of California was 
organized in the city of Mexico which received the aid and support of the 
Federal government. So far as the planting of a colony in California was 
concerned the scheme was apparently legitimate. But the fact that its 
chief promoter was Jose María Padres, the person mainly responsible for 
the revolt of the neophytes, caused a feeling of uneasiness among the 
missions. Associated with Padres was Jose María Híjar, a man of wealth and 
position. Híjar was appointed governor of California and director of 
colonization, and Figueroa was directed to deliver to him the missions. 
With two hundred and fifty colonists Híjar and Padres, who had been 
appointed sub-director, sailed from San Blas in August, 1834, in two 
ships, and after a rough voyage landed, one at San Diego and the other at 
Monterey. Meanwhile a change of administration in Mexico had retired the 
friends of the scheme from office; the appointment of Híjar was revoked 
and a special courier was sent express to Governor Figueroa forbidding him 
to deliver the missions to Híjar and his associates. These instructions 
reached Monterey in advance of Híjar and confronted him when he presented 
his orders to the governor. He tried to bribe Figueroa to deliver him the 
missions but in this he failed, and charges of conspiracy being preferred 
against him and his associates, they were returned to Mexico to answer. 
The unfortunate colonists, deprived of the support of their leaders, were 
after a period of distress merged in the settlers of the northern 
missions. Among them all there was not one of the class California stood 
most in need of, agriculturists. 

Some of the missionary fathers regarded secularization as an outrage upon 
themselves and their neophytes and, when convinced that it could not be 
averted, ceased to care for the buildings, vineyards, and gardens, as in 
former times, and attempted to realize in ready money as large an amount 
as possible. Information concerning the Híjar-Padres company was 
circulated throughout the missions and the priests resolved to defeat the 
scheme if possible. At many of the establishments orders were given for 
the immediate slaughter of their cattle, and contracts were made with 
individuals to kill them and divide the proceeds with the missions. 
Thousands of cattle were slain for their hides only, while their carcases 
remained to rot on the plains, and in this way a vast amount of tallow and 
beef was entirely lost. The rascally contractors who were enriching 
themselves so easily, were not satisfied with their legitimate profit, but 
secretly appropriated to themselves two hides for one given to the 
missions. A wanton spirit of destruction seemed to possess them, co-equal 
with their desire for plunder, and they continued to ravage and lay waste. 
In like manner other interests of the establishments were neglected by the 
missionaries and the missions gradually fell to decay.(*)

(* Robinson: Life in California, 168-9) 

The curates that were to be appointed to the newly created parishes never 
came, and the friars remained to serve as curates, being relieved of 
temporal management but coöperating with the mayor-domos in supervising 
the labors and conduct of the Indians. Many of the friars accepted the 
situation and did the best they could, striving to reconcile discordant 
elements and retain their influence over the neophytes; others, soured and 
disappointed, retired sullenly to the habitations assigned them by law and 
mechanically performed the duties of parish priests when applied to; 
others were belligerent, quarreled with everybody, and protested against 
everything on every possible occasion.(*)

(* Bancroft: Hist. Cal. iv, 42, 51) 

The secularization proceeded. Lands were assigned to the neophytes who 
also received a portion of the mission property consisting of cattle, 
horses, sheep, grain, implements, etc. It was forbidden to buy from them, 
but this precaution amounted to nothing, and in about a year the Indians 
had either sold or gambled away what they had not eaten or drunk. After a 
while some died and the rest dispersed, abandoning their lands which 
eventually fell into the hands of rancheros under grants from the 
government.(*)

(* Bancroft: Hist. Cal. iv, 230)

In the midst of the work the honest and humane Figueroa died, mind and 
body worn out by the repeated attacks of the missionaries, the 
representations of the Indians, and the disordered state of the country. 
He was mourned by the people and proclaimed by the most excellent 
diputacion "Bienhechor del territorio de la Alta California" (Benefactor 
of the territory of Alta California). Then followed a period of 
revolution, the reign of four governors of California, and the 
proclamation of the diputacion of November 7, 1836, declaring that Alta 
California was independent of Mexico and a free and governing state, under 
the governorship of Juan Bautista Alvarado, with Mariano Guadalupe 
Vallejo, raised from the rank of lieutenant to colonel of cavalry, 
comandante-general, and Jose Castro, president of the diputacion. 

The evils that befell the missions in the process of secularization have 
been largely attributed to the administration of Alvarado, but a careful 
study of the evidence will not justify the censure he has received. It 
must be remembered that the period of his administration, 1836-1842, was 
one of revolution, strife, and political unrest. The north was divided 
against the south; the province was filled with warring factions, and 
among them, engaged first with one party then with another, were bands of 
armed foreigners, chiefly Americans. In spite of the condition of the 
country Alvarado made earnest efforts to supervise the work of 
secularization and check the spoliation of the missions. He appointed 
William E. P. Hartnell, an Englishman of high standing and intelligence, 
fifteen years a resident of California, inspector and visitador of the 
missions. Hartnell visited each mission and made a most conscientious 
examination of its affairs, and on his report the governor made a number 
of changes in the administration looking to a betterment of the service. 

If Alvarado had had an intelligent and industrious body of neophytes to 
organize into self-governing pueblos, the hearty coöperation of the 
missionaries, and a community free from sectional strife, the story might 
have been different. There is no evidence that he profited personally 
through the secularization and he passed the later years of his life in 
modest retirement on the rancho his wife inherited from her father. 

The secularization of the missions opened up California to settlement. In 
1830 there were in the entire province not more than fifty ranchos in 
private possession. In 1846, above seven hundred land grants had been made 
by the authorities. Many of these, it is true, had been distributed among 
the friends of the administration, and Alvarado also loaned mission stock 
to rancheros to be returned in kind later, though it does not appear what 
proportion, if any, of this property was returned to the government. The 
policy of the government towards foreigners was liberal and many of them 
obtained valuable tracts of land. 

Altogether the secularization of the missions was of the greatest benefit 
to California, notwithstanding the evils which accompanied it. Alfred 
Robinson, true friend of the church as he was, says: "To secure lands for 
farming purposes, it was, in former years, necessary to get the written 
consent of the missionaries under whose control they were, ere the 
government could give legitimate possession, therefore their acquisition 
depended entirely upon the good will of the friars. It may be justly 
supposed that by this restriction the advancement of California was rather 
retarded. So it was, for the immigrant was placed at the mercy of a 
prejudiced missionary who might be averse to anything like secular 
improvement; for although these religionists were generally possessed of 
generous feelings, still, many of them were extremely jealous of an 
infringement upon the interests of their institutions. * * * At first the 
change (secularization) was considered disastrous to the prosperity of 
California, and the wanton destruction of property which followed seemed 
to warrant the conclusion; but the result, however, proved quite the 
contrary. Individual enterprise which succeeded has placed the country in 
a more flourishing condition, and the wealth instead of being confined to 
the monastic institutions as before, has been distributed among the 
people."(*)

(* Robinson: Life in California, 224-5)

The era of the missions was closed, and the rancheros with their flocks 
and herds rivaled the patriarchs. 



CHAPTER IX. THE GOLDEN AGE

In 1834 the California of the Spaniards had as yet undergone no great 
change. Figueroa, then administering the affairs of the country, found 
himself in the midst of an era of innovations--at the end of the spiritual 
dominion of the missionary fathers and the beginning of the attempt to 
introduce a new civilization. "From 1769," says Edmond Randolph,(*) "when 
Father Junípero Serra and the body of missionary priests who followed him 
first reached the spot where they founded San Diego, sixty-five years had 
elapsed of a tranquillity seldom witnessed on this earth." The cattle upon 
the rich pasture multiplied and the missions grew in wealth and 
importance. Shrewd traders too were the good padres, and the Boston ships 
trading on the coast soon learned to respect the business ability of the 
priests. To the Indians they were, as a rule, kind and gentle, teaching 
them the Christian religion, accustoming them to a regular life, and 
inuring them to labor. They were well qualified for their work and many of 
them were highly cultivated men--soldiers, engineers, artists, lawyers, 
and physicians before they became Franciscans. Up to the year 1833 they 
were all from the College of San Fernando in the City of Mexico, but in 
that year the seven missions north of San Carlos de Monterey were given in 
charge of the priests of the college of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de 
Zacatecas. The Zacatecans were, as a rule, inferior to the Fernandinos and 
less successful in their administration.

(* Argument: Hart vs. Burnett et al. Sup. Court of California, 1859)

The Franciscan monks generally treated the neophyte Indians with paternal 
kindness and did not scorn to labor with them in the field, the brickyard, 
the forge, and the mill. "When we view the vast constructions of the 
mission buildings, including the churches, the refectories, the 
dormitories, and the granaries, sometimes constructed with huge timbers 
brought many miles on the shoulders of the Indians, it cannot be denied 
that the missionary fathers had the wisdom, sagacity, and patience to 
bring their neophyte pupils far forward on the road from barbarism to 
civilization and that these Indians were not destitute of taste and 
capacity."(*) A complete chain of missions had been established from San 
Diego to San Francisco, and thence across the straits to San Rafael and 
Sonoma; the scheme being to plant the missions throughout the whole length 
of the coast, says Father Palou, so that the Indians might fall within the 
reach, if not of one, then of another of these establishments, and thus 
all be drawn into the apostolic net.

(* Dwinelle: Colonial Hist. p. 84)

The Indians received no pay but were fed and clothed: each Indian 
receiving one blanket a year, and if he wore it out, another; each 
received also a loin cloth (taparrabo) and a serge blouse. Every woman got 
serge for a petticoat. They were flogged for failure to do the work 
assigned to them, for non-attendance at mass, and for other causes, and at 
times the discipline was so severe that the neophytes ran away and 
soldiers had to be sent to capture and bring them back. But on the whole, 
they were fairly well treated and were attached to the priests. The 
Spaniards, having a wholesome dread of mounted Indians born of encounters 
with the Apaches, permitted no Indians to ride except those employed as 
vaqueros. 

Notwithstanding the claims of the missionaries to all the land from one 
mission to another, there were, in 1830, about fifty ranchos in possession 
of private individuals. There were a number of ranchos in the south and 
along the coast, while around the bay of San Francisco the Vallejos, 
Argüellos, Castros, Peraltas, Estudillos, and other historic families of 
California occupied ranchos which, according to Davis,(*) supported some 
two hundred thousand cattle, fifty thousand horses, and many thousand 
sheep. These lands had been granted to the soldiers of Portola, Rivera, 
and Anza, and their descendants, and California was being slowly populated 
by the natural increase from the families of the garrisons. The families 
of the soldiers were so large as to excite the wonder of visitors. General 
Vallejo had sixteen children; Argüello had thirteen; Carrillo, twelve; 
Jose de la Guerra, ten; Jose Antonio Castro, twenty-two, and so on. 
Governor Borica, on taking command in 1794, expressed to the engineer 
Cordero his satisfaction with the society at the capital (Monterey), the 
fine climate, the abundance of wine of the Rhine, of Madeira, and of 
Oporto, of the good bread, beef, fish, and other good eatables, and says: 
"But what astonishes one is the general fecundity both of rationals and 
irrationals" (pero lo que espanta es la fecundidad general en racionales e 
irracionales).(**) Within the presidio reservation of San Francisco is a 
spring called El Polin to whose marvelous virtues were attributed the 
large families of the garrisons.(***) Its existence and peculiar qualities 
were known to the Indians from a remote period and its fame was spread 
throughout California.

(* Davis: Sixty Years in California, 29-32)
(** Borica a Cordero: Prov. State Papers, M. S. XXI, 208-9, Academy of 
Pacific Coast History)
(*** "It gave very good water, and experience afterwards demonstrated that 
it was excellent and of miraculous qualities. In proof of my assertion I 
appeal to the families of Miramontes, Martinez, Sanchez, Soto, Briones, 
and others; all of whom several times had twins; and public opinion, not 
without reason, attributed these salutary effects to the virtues of the 
water of El Polin, which still exists." Vallejo: Discurso Historico, San 
Francisco Centenary, Oct. 8, 1876, MS. Academy of Pacific Coast History 
(Bancroft Collection))

Among the followers of Portola in the first expedition were Mariano de la 
Luz Verdugo and his brother Jose María and both served for many years in 
the companies of San Diego and Monterey. Mariano brought from Loreto in 
Lower California cuttings from the grape vine planted there by the Jesuit 
fathers. These he planted at the San Diego mission and in a few years the 
Franciscan fathers were able to make from the fruit of these vines the 
wine used in the mass. Cuttings were sent to other missions and all the 
mission vineyards were planted from these vines of San Diego. This is the 
origin in California of the famous Mission grape.(*)

(* Taylor: Fragments and Scraps, MS. p. 87, Statement of Don Anastacio 
Carrillo (Bancroft Collection). Hayes, in Emigrant Notes, MS. p.150, says: 
"The grape cultivated at the missions of California is the same as that of 
the Island of Madeira--according to Maj. George H. Ringold, an 
accomplished officer of the U. S. Army who is stationed here" (San Diego). 
(Bancroft Collection.))

Reference has been made in the previous chapter to the convicts sent to 
California by the home government. This was a cause of hatred towards 
Mexico; but neither the convicts nor the few settlers she sent appear to 
have made much impression on the country; the descendants of the soldiers 
were the ruling class. 

It has sometimes been held and believed that the founders of the great 
California families were men of rank and birth (sangre azul). This is not 
the case. With but few exceptions they were men of humble origin and 
station. The founders of the Alvarado, Argüello, Arellanes, Castro, 
Carrillo, Estudillo, Ortega, Pico, Peralta, Vallejo, and Yorba families, 
and many others hardly less known, were private soldiers, and only four of 
the eleven named reached the commission grade. But these families were 
among the most prominent in California and furnished six governors to the 
province. 

The Californians were a fine handsome race. The men were tall, robust, and 
well made; the women were beautiful. "Particularly is the hijo del pais(*) 
well-formed, graceful in his movements, and athletic. Spending his life in 
manly pursuits, roaming his native hills, breathing the pure air of the 
Pacific, the horse his companion, the lasso his weapon, he carries about 
him and into all life's commonplaces the chivalrous bearing of the 
cavaliers of old Spain. His courage no one will question who has seen him 
face a herd of wild cattle, or lasso a grizzly, or mount an unbroken 
horse, or fix his unflinching gaze upon the muzzle of a pistol pointed at 
his breast. He is by nature kind and frank. The treatment he received at 
the hand of hard featured, ill-mannered, grasping, and unprincipled 
strangers taught him to be suspicious; but his confidence once gained, he 
is yours, wholly and forever."(**) Costanso, an officer of the regular 
army, said of the presidial soldiers of California, "It is not too much to 
say that they are the best horsemen in the world and among the best 
soldiers who eat the bread of the king."(***) The defeat of the veterans 
of the "Army of the West," under General Kearny, by the caballeros of 
Andres Pico on the field of San Pascual, and that of Mervine by Carrillo, 
at San Pedro, proves that the descendants of the soldiers of Portola and 
Anza were not lacking in either skill or courage. Davis says: "The 
Vallejos; the Bernals; the Berreyesas, of whom Don Jose Santos was 
particularly noble looking and intelligent; the Estradas, half-brothers of 
Alvarado, were all fine looking; also the Santa Cruz Castros, three or 
four brothers; the De la Guerras; Don Antonio María Lugo; Don Teodoro 
Arrellanes; Don Tomas Yorba and his brothers; splendid looking, proud and 
dignified in address and manners, the cream of the country. The Sepúlvedas 
of Los Angeles were also fine specimens. The Argüellos, sons of the 
prefect (Santiago) were finely formed men; Dona Modesta Castro, wife of 
General Castro, was beautiful and queenly in her appearance and bearing. 
The wife of David Spence, sister of Prefect Estrada, was of medium size, 
with fine figure and beautiful, transparent complexion. The sisters of 
General Vallejo: Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Leese, were strikingly 
beautiful."(****)

(* Native of the country)
(** Bancroft: California Pastoral, p. 276)
(*** Diario Historico. MS. original in Sutro library.)
(**** Davis: Sixty Years in California, 176, 201)

Bartlett,(*) writing from Monterey in 1852, says: "Many officers of the 
United States army have married in California and from what I have heard 
here and at other places, others intend to follow their example. The young 
senoritas certainly possess many attractions; and although shut up in this 
secluded part of the world, without the advantages of good education or of 
intercourse with refined society, they need not fear a comparison with our 
own ladies. In deportment they are exceedingly gentle and ladylike with 
all the natural grace and dignity which belong to the Castillian nation. 
Their complexion is generally as fair as the Anglo-Saxon, particularly 
along the seacoast, with large black eyes and hair, * * * and they are as 
slender and delicate in form as those of our Atlantic states. I was 
struck, too, with the elegance and purity of their language, which 
presented a marked contrast with the corrupt dialect spoken in Mexico." 
Even Sir George Simpson, who could see little to commend either in 
California or in the Californians was finally overcome and surrendered a 
captive to grace and beauty: "Of the women, with their witchery of
manner," he writes, "it is not easy, or rather it is not possible for a 
stranger to speak with impartiality * * * of those who, in every look, 
tone, and gesture, have apparently no other end in view than the pleasure 
of pleasing us. With regard, however, to their physical charms, as 
distinguished from the adventitious accomplishments of education, it is 
difficult, even for a willing pen, to exaggerate. Independently of feeling 
or motion, their sparkling eyes and glossy hair are in themselves 
sufficient to negative the idea of tameness or insipidity; while their 
sylph-like forms evolve fresh graces at every step, and their eloquent 
features eclipse their own inherent comeliness by the higher beauty of 
expression. Though doubtless fully conscious of their attractions, yet the 
women of California, to their credit be it spoken, do not 'before their 
mirrors count the time,' being, on the contrary by far the most 
industrious half of the population. In California, such a thing as a white 
servant is absolutely unknown, inasmuch as neither man nor woman will 
barter freedom in a country where provisions are actually a drug and 
clothes almost a superfluity."(**) The men he describes as tall and 
handsome, most showily and elaborately dressed and mounted.

(* Bartlett: Narrative, p. 73, 74)
(** Simpson: Narrative, p. 280-1)

The daughters of Jose Bandini were famous for their beauty. Bandini was 
the son of a trader who came from Lima in 1819 and settled in San Diego. 
He had six lovely daughters, four of whom married Americans. The heroine 
of Bret Harte's beautiful poem, "Concepcion Argüello," was the daughter of 
Jose Darío Argüello, comandante of San Francisco. How Dona Concepcion's 
black eyes won the heart of the chamberlain of the tsar has often been 
told; it is the most famous romance of California.[27] 

The daughters of Jose de la Guerra were very beautiful. Teresa married W. 
E. P. Hartnell, an English merchant at Monterey; Angustias married Jimeno, 
secretary of state, and after his death, Dr. J. L. Ord, United States 
army; and Ana María married Alfred Robinson. Dana, who attended Robinson's 
marriage in Santa Barbara in 1836, gives a most delightful picture of the 
handsome and sprightly Dona Angustias, and in his "Twenty-four years 
after" says: "'Dona Angustias' he (Captain Wilson) said, 'I had made 
famous by my praises of her beauty and dancing and I should have from her 
a royal reception.' She had been a widow and had remarried since and had a 
daughter as handsome as herself. * * * In due time I paid my respects to 
Dona Angustias, and notwithstanding what Wilson had told me I could 
scarcely believe that after twenty-four years there would still be so much 
of the enchanting woman about her. She thanked me for the kind, and as she 
called them, greatly exaggerated compliments I have paid her; and her 
daughter told me that all travelers who came to Santa Barbara called to 
see her mother, and that she, herself, never expected to live long enough 
to be a belle."(*) Bayard Taylor, writing from Monterey in 1849, says of 
this same lady: "The most favorite resort of the Americans is that (house) 
of Dona Angustias Ximeno, the sister of Don Pablo de la Guerra.(**) This 
lady whose active charity in aiding the sick and distressed has won her 
the enduring gratitude of many and the esteem of all, has made her house 
the home of every American officer who visits Monterey. With a rare 
liberality she has given up a great part of it to their use, when it is 
impossible for them to procure quarters, and they have always been welcome 
guests at her table. She is a woman whose nobility of character, native 
vigor, and activity of intellect, and above all, whose instinctive 
refinement and winning grace of manner would have given her a complete 
supremacy in society, had her lot been cast in Europe, or in the United 
States. During the session of the convention(***) her house was the 
favorite resort of all the leading members, both American and Californian. 
She was thoroughly versed in Spanish literature, as well as the works of 
Scott and Cooper, through translations, and I have frequently been 
surprised at the justness and elegance of her remarks on various authors. 
She possessed, moreover, all those bold and daring qualities which are so 
fascinating in a woman when softened and made graceful by true feminine 
delicacy. She was a splendid horsewoman, and had even considerable skill 
in throwing the lariat."(****)

(* Dana: Two Years Before the Mast. Reprint, 1895. He revisited California 
in 1859.)
(** She was then a widow, and about thirty-five years old)
(*** The Constitutional Convention, 1849)
(**** Bayard Taylor: El Dorado, p. 141-2)

In the little company of soldados de cuera that followed Portola to 
Monterey, were two brothers, Guillermo and Mariano Carrillo, and their 
nephew, Jose Raimundo Carrillo. Guillermo died, a sergeant, in 1782, and 
Mariano, an ensign, the same year. Neither left any children. Jose 
Raimundo was twenty-three years old when he joined the expedition. For 
twenty-six years he served as private and non-commissioned officer in the 
presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, and in 
1795, received his commission as ensign. He served until his death in 
1809, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain, becoming, in turn comandante of 
Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. His wife was a daughter of the 
patriarch de Lugo,(*) to whom he was married at San Carlos by Junípero 
Serra. He was the founder of what may perhaps, by reason of the number and 
prominence of its members, be considered the leading family of California. 
His son Carlos Antonio became governor of California. Don Carlos had a 
number of handsome daughters one of whom married William G. Dana; one 
married Thomas W. Robbins; one Alpheus B. Thompson; one John Coffin Jones; 
one Lewis T. Burton, and one Thomas W. Doak, all Americans. Don Raimundo's 
sons were men of prominence who took an active part in the affairs of the 
province and married into the best families. They were distinguished for 
their courtly manners and dignified and magnificent presence. Each was 
over six feet tall and over two hundred pounds in weight. Joaquin Carrillo 
had five beautiful daughters one of whom married Henry D. Fitch and was 
the heroine of another California romance; one married General Vallejo, 
who named the town of Benicia for her, one married his brother, Salvador, 
one married Ramuldo Pacheco, and after his death Captain John Wilson and 
was the Ramona of R. H. Dana's enthusiasm, and one married Victor Castro. 
Of Ramona, Sir George Simpson writes: "Then returning to Captain Wilson's 
house (at Santa Barbara) we had the pleasure of being introduced to Mrs. 
Wilson whom we already knew by name as a sister of Senora Vallejo and whom 
we now found to be one of the prettiest and most agreeable women that we 
have ever met with either here or elsewhere."(**) Lieutenant Martinez, 
comandante of San Francisco, had nine lovely daughters, one of whom 
married Captain W. A. Richardson, for whom Richardson's bay was named, one 
married William S. Hinckley, alcalde of San Francisco, and one, Dr. Samuel 
Tennant.

(* Another daughter married Ignacio Vallejo and was mother of General 
Vallejo)
(** Simpson: Narrative, p. 376)


These personal descriptions of contemporary writers will enable the reader 
to realize more fully than he could otherwise do the character of the 
people of California. 

Alfred Robinson(*) gives a description of a passing visit at the Rancho 
Santiago de Santa Ana in 1830. "The proprietor, Don Tomas Yorba, a tall, 
lean, personage, dressed in all the extravagance of his country's costume, 
received us at the door of his house. He came towards us, embraced Gale 
and his compadre,(**) Don Manuel, took me cordially by the hand, and 
invited us to enter. Arrangements were soon made for dinner, which, 
notwithstanding the haste with which it was served, did much credit to the 
provider, as did our appetites to its excellent qualities.

(* Robinson: Life in California, p. 42-3)
(** The term compadre implies more than the relationship of friend or 
benefactor. It denotes a closer association, a somewhat sacred 
relationship, as that of godfather and godmother, not only in its 
relationship to the child, but to each other.)

"Don Tomas and friend Gale then commencing a business conversation, I got 
up from the table and retreated to the corridor, where I could study, 
unobserved, the character and appearance of our host. Upon his head he 
wore a black silk handkerchief, the four corners of which hung down his 
neck behind. An embroidered shirt, a cravat of white jaconet tastefully 
tied, a blue damask vest, short clothes of crimson velvet, a bright green 
cloth jacket, with large silver buttons, and shoes of embroidered deer 
skin, comprised his dress. I was afterwards informed by Don Manuel, that 
on some occasions such as some particular feast day or festival his entire 
display often exceeded in value a thousand dollars." 

Davis(*) describes the California costume: Short breeches extending to the 
knee, ornamented with gold or silver lace at the bottom, with botas 
(leggins) below made of fine soft deer skin, well tanned and finished, 
richly colored and stamped with beautiful devices and tied at the knee 
with a silk cord wound two or three times around the leg with gold or 
silver tassels hanging below the knee; long vest with filagree buttons of 
gold or silver, although men of ordinary means had them of brass; a 
jacket, generally of dark blue cloth, also adorned with filagree buttons. 
Over that was the serape or poncho, made in Mexico and costing from twenty 
to one hundred dollars, according to the quality of the cloth and the 
richness of the ornamentation. The serape and poncho were made in the same 
way as to size and cut, the former of coarser texture than the latter and 
of a variety of colors and patterns, while the poncho was of dark blue or 
black cloth of finer quality, generally of broadcloth. The serape was 
always plain while the poncho was heavily trimmed with gold or silver 
fringe around the edges and a little below the collar around the 
shoulders. Hat from Mexico or Peru, generally stiff, the finer quality, 
soft, of vicuna--a kind of beaver skin--and cost forty dollars. Saddle, 
silver mounted; bridle, heavily mounted with silver; reins of select hair 
of horses' mane with links of silver at a distance of every foot; spurs 
inlaid with gold or silver. The whole outfit sometimes costing several 
thousand dollars. Simpson, in 1842, describes the men as wearing the 
pantaloons, split on the outside from the hip to the foot, with a row of 
buttons on either edge of the opening which is laced together nearly down 
to the knee; underneath a full pair of linen drawers and a boot of 
untanned deerskin, and a silk scarf around the waist. The women wore gowns 
of silk, crape, calico, etc., short sleeves and loose waist without 
corset; shoes of kid or satin, sashes, or belts of bright colors, and 
almost always a necklace and earings. They wore no bonnets, the hair 
hanging loose or in long braids. Married women did the hair up on a high 
comb. Over the head a mantilla was thrown, drawn close around the face 
when out of doors. In the house they wore a small scarf or neckerchief and 
on top of the head a band with a star or other ornament in front.

(* Davis: Sixty Years in California, p. 84)

All travelers unite in the statement that the Californians were vastly 
superior to the Mexicans. Bayard Taylor says they had larger frames, 
stronger muscles, and a fresh ruddy complexion, entirely different from 
the sallow skins of the tierra caliente, or the swarthy features of those 
Bedouins of the West, the Sonorians. One reason for this difference was 
the fact that the Californians were of purer blood. Father Lasuen, 
president of the missions, testifies that from the beginning, in 1769, to 
the end of the century, but twenty-nine Spaniards had married native 
women. While there was more or less mixture among the soldiers who came 
with the first expeditions, the race improved in California. The sons of 
soldiers married soldiers' daughters. The cool moist air of the coast gave 
them fresh complexions; the habit of life in the open air with its 
accompanying exercise gave them vigorous frames and elastic muscles. As 
all things grow and improve in California; so it is with the people. The 
men become larger and stronger, the women more beautiful. The soldiers who 
established the presidios and missions were not, as a rule, large men, yet 
they developed in California a race that in proportions and symmetry was 
fair to look upon. They were also a happy and contented people. Incivility 
was unknown. They were always ready to reply to a question and answered in 
the politest manner. The poorest vaquero would salute the traveler 
politely, and a favor was always granted with an air of courtesy and grace 
that was very pleasing. Implicit obedience and profound respect were shown 
parents by children, even after they were grown up. A son, though himself 
the head of a family, never presumed to sit, smoke, or remain covered in 
the presence of his father; nor did the daughter, whether married or 
unmarried, enter into great familiarity with the mother. With these 
exceptions, the Californians gave little regard to the restraints of 
etiquette, and, generally speaking, all classes mingled together on a 
footing of equality. Honest and kindly, the Californian's word was as good 
as his bond. Indeed bonds and notes of hand were entirely unknown among 
them. The trading ships would sell goods along the coast and returning in 
twelve or eighteen months would receive in hides and tallow payment for 
goods sold the previous year. Don Antonio Aguirre was a prominent merchant 
of Los Angeles, and owner of the brig Leonidas. His supercargo, a new man, 
sold a bill of goods and asked for payment or a note of hand. The 
purchaser, Agustin Machado, was well to do, but could neither read nor 
write. He looked at the supercargo in astonishment, but finally realizing 
he was distrusted, plucked one hair from his beard and handing it to the 
young man, said: "Here! deliver this to Senor Aguirre and tell him it is a 
hair from the beard of Agustin Machado. It will cover your responsibility. 
It is a sufficient guaranty." Aguirre was chagrined on hearing that the 
supercargo had demanded a document from Machado, a man whose word was as 
good as the best bond even for the entire ship's cargo.(*) The old 
inhabitants maintain that California was a perfect paradise before the 
foreign immigration set in to corrupt patriarchal customs; then robbery 
and assassination were unheard of, blasphemy rare, and fraudulent 
creditors unknown. In 1839 Jose Antonio Galindo of San Francisco, who in 
his expediente of 1835 for the Rancho Laguna de la Merced is described by 
Justice de Haro as an "honest man," appears now to have lapsed into the 
position of a criminal,(**) and the same Justice de Haro reports to the 
govenor that the population having become rancheros, there are few 
remaining in San Francisco to guard him, and as there is no jail the 
justice asks that Galindo be sent to San Jose for security. This document 
illustrates the primitive simplicity of the Golden Age in California in 
which the cause came always before the effect, and no necessity was found 
for jails until criminals existed to be restrained of their liberty.(***) 
"Happy was San Francisco," says Dwinelle, "to whom the 'fact' criminal had 
not yet suggested the word 'jail'; less happy, but more wise San Jose, 
whose experience had already advanced to the word and fact 'prison.'"

(* Bancroft: California Pastoral, p. 472)
(** He had killed his relative, Jose Peralta, in a quarrel)
(*** Dwinelle: Colonial History of the City of San Francisco, p. 65)

Among the light-hearted and easy-tempered Californians the virtue of 
hospitality knew no bounds. "They literally vie with each other in 
devoting their time, their homes, and their means, to the entertainment of 
strangers."(*) On arriving at a rancho the traveler was received with joy 
and the best things were prepared for him. He was pressed to remain as 
long as he would and when he went on his way horses and servants were 
furnished to take him to his next stopping place. It was the same with the 
missions. The padres gladly received and entertained all travelers, 
setting before them the best of meats, fruits, and native wines, providing 
them with good beds and on their departure furnishing them with fresh 
horses and guides, caring for the tired animals of the travelers until the 
owners came or sent for them. No pay was expected and none was given. 

(* Simpson: Narrative, p. 387)

Such was the hospitality and such were the men and women of the Golden Age 
of California.



CHAPTER X. EDUCATION, TRADE, LAND GRANTS

In the matter of education California was backward. The military rosters 
of 1782 show that only about one-third of the soldiers could read and 
write. The officers taught their children and occasionally a soldier of 
the escolta was taught by a priest to read and write. The padres confined 
their attentions to the spiritual welfare of the people and took little 
interest in their education. Borica endeavored during his administration--
1794 to 1800--to establish schools, and the first was started in 1794 at 
the pueblo of San Jose by the retired sergeant Manuel de Vargas. He was 
succeeded a year later by the retired ensign Ramon Lasso de la Vega, and 
Vargas was sent to San Diego to open a school there. In San Francisco the 
corporal Manuel Boronda taught the children, in Monterey the soldier Jose 
Rodrigues, and in Santa Barbara they were taught by Jose Manuel Toca, a 
ship's boy from one of the transports. The children were taught the 
doctrina cristiana and to read and write. They learned very little, books 
were rare, and in the simple life led by the people extensive book-
learning was not considered necessary. In 1818 Corporal Miguel Archuleta 
had a school at Monterey which was attended by Vallejo, Alvarado, Castro, 
Estrada, Pico, and other well known Californians. Outside of the "three 
R's" but little was taught and the line of reading was confined mostly to 
the lives of the saints and martyrs. The bigger boys, however, managed to 
secure from the foreign ships many prohibited books which they contrived 
to prevent falling into the hands of the watchful friars. In 1834 William 
E. P. Hartnell, an educated man, and Father Patrick Short established on 
the Hartnell rancho of Patrocino, a seminario which for two or three years 
was attended by the sons of a few prominent families, but the attempt was 
soon given up. 

Governor Sola, during his term, 1815-1822, interested himself in the cause 
of education and contributed from his private funds for the support of the 
schools, but the most he could do was to maintain a primary school at each 
of the four presidios and the two pueblos. Governor Echeandía recommended 
an appropriation for the employment of teachers, but nothing was done. 
There was no money to pay teachers and teachers themselves were scarce; 
the lack of education however, was partly due to apathy on the part of the 
people themselves. They had but little intellectual ambition, though some 
of the more noteworthy families contained men of intellect and scholarly 
attainments. There was no necessity for the soldier to read and write 
unless he wished to be a corporal, then, if the desire was sufficiently 
strong, he learned. 

California in the eighteenth century had no trade. The garrisons bought 
from the missions and rancheros such supplies as they required, paying for 
them by drafts on the royal treasury, and each year sent requisitions to 
Mexico for articles California could not supply. Twice a year the 
government transports brought the supplies and the people had to be 
content with the goods so furnished. No foreign ships were permitted to 
trade but the settlers could buy from the transports such articles as they 
had, paying for them by their products. This cutting off of all outlet for 
the products of their farms and labor could only result in stagnation. 
With a fertile soil, a sea filled with fish, and a coast swarming with fur-
seals and sea-otter, the California settler could only sell a few skins, a 
few hides, a little tallow, and a few fanegas of grain. 

About the beginning of the nineteenth century American ships began to 
visit the Pacific coast of North America for skins of sea-otter and other 
fur-bearing animals. These vessels carried goods for trade and landed 
their wares whenever opportunity offered. With the assistance of Aleuts 
furnished by the Russian-American company, they took great numbers of fur-
seals and sea-otter. The Farallon islands, off San Francisco, and the 
islands of the Santa Barbara channel furnished quantities of these 
animals. The bay of San Francisco was full of sea-otter and the Russians 
entered in their canoes and hunted them under the very guns of the Spanish 
fort. The Russians maintained a station on the Farallones, whence in 1810-
11, the ship Albatross took 73,402 fur-seals according to the log of the 
captain's clerk, W. A. Gale. Robinson tells of landing on the largest 
Farallon with him in 1833, when Gale attempted to show Robinson how he 
bagged the seals and taking a club started to descend the rocks to head 
off a couple of big fellows they discovered asleep; but Gale had lost his 
youthful vigor and activity and, his courage failing him, the seals 
escaped. Down to the year 1830 the Russians took a large number of otter 
on the California coast, variously estimated from five to ten thousand per 
year, the best skins selling in China at sixty dollars each. It seems 
strange that the Spanish and Mexican authorities should permit their 
coasts to be stripped of this great wealth by foreigners who returned no 
revenue. Later otter hunting was licensed on condition that two-thirds of 
the crews should be Californians and that the foreigners paid duties on 
their share of skins. Free licenses were also granted to Californians. The 
sea-otter which in 1812 were so plentiful that, according to Vallejo they 
were killed by the boatmen with their oars in passing through the seaweed,
(*) were now growing scarce.

(* Vallejo: Hist. Cal. MS. 1, 105-6. Bancroft Coll.)

Before the end of the second decade the prohibition of foreign trade had 
become a dead letter. California, left to herself, had to get on as best 
she could. The needs of the government were such that the governor was 
glad to purchase any supplies that could be paid for in produce and for 
revenue he levied import and export duties. In 1821 Monterey and San Diego 
were formally opened to foreign trade, and in 1822 the Lima firm of John 
Begg & Co. entered into a contract with the missions to take all the hides 
offered, and at least twenty-five thousand arrobas(*) of tallow per year. 
The contract was for three years from January 1, 1823, and the price was 
one dollar each for hides and two dollars per arroba for tallow. The Lima 
firm was represented by Hugh McCulloch and William Edward Paty Hartnell 
who formed the firm of McCulloch, Hartnell & Co. Hartnell remained as the 
resident partner of the firm and became a citizen of California. He was 
baptized into the Roman Catholic faith; married María Teresa, daughter of 
Jose de la Guerra y Noriega, and thus became allied with one of the most 
prominent families of California.

(* Arroba--twenty-five pounds)

In 1822 came Henry Gyzelaar and William A. Gale for hides and tallow, in 
the American ship Sachem from Boston, the first ship to engage in the 
profitable trade so long continued between California and Boston. Gyzelaar 
was master and Gale supercargo of the Sachem and both were part owners. 
Both had been in the fur trade in California before, and Gale had, as we 
have seen, taken large quantities of seal-skins on the Farallon rocks at 
San Francisco. Some difficulty was encountered by Gale in getting a cargo 
by reason of the contract the missions had entered into with the Lima 
house, but by offering one dollar and fifty cents per hide and one dollar 
and seventy-five cents per arroba for tallow, he disposed of his cargo of 
notions and secured a load of hides, tallow, and other produce. These 
prices were later advanced to two dollars for hides and five dollars per 
arroba for tallow, while two dollars and fifty cents per pound was paid 
for beaver skins, and thirty to forty dollars apiece for sea-otter. The 
opening of the ports to foreign trade was a great stimulus to California 
development and the secularization of the missions opened the lands to 
settlement. Cattle raising became a great industry and each year more 
ships came to the coast for hides and tallow. The trade was largely in the 
hands of Americans, Boston houses predominating. The ships came loaded 
with cloths, silks, hardware, utensils, wines, liquors, and all the 
miscellaneous articles needed by the Californians, and after entering the 
cargo at Monterey and paying the duties, the ship would trade up and down 
the coast until all the goods were disposed of. A trade room was fitted up 
on the ship with shelves, counters, etc., like a country store, and the 
goods displayed to the best advantage. The arrival of a Boston ship always 
excited the greatest interest, lining the roads with people coming to 
inspect the goods and to make purchases, and with cattle and carts laden 
with hides and tallow for the ship. Smuggling was extensively carried on. 
Most of the merchants engaged in it and, it is said, some of the padres 
were wont to indulge in the practice of evading the customs dues. The 
method pursued by the customs officials made smuggling easy. Monterey was 
made sole port of entry. If a vessel on any pretext entered any other 
port, a guard was placed on board and she was ordered to depart with the 
shortest possible delay for Monterey. On arrival at that port she was 
visited by the collector who was received on board with all due ceremony. 
The event was usually made one of social entertainment and the merchants 
and prominent residents of the town were invited to accompany the customs 
officials. In the cabin would be laid out refreshments, solid and liquid, 
in the greatest variety and abundance, and after feasting and the drinking 
of numerous healths and toasts, the collector would proceed to inspect the 
cargo and fix the amount of duty to be paid. A favorite method of 
smuggling was for a vessel to land the more valuable portion of her cargo 
on some lonely part of the coast or island and re-load after passing the 
Monterey custom house inspection. So openly was smuggling conducted during 
the latter part of the Mexican administration that the officials could 
hardly be ignorant of its extent. The duties were about one hundred per 
cent, and, it was argued, if the traders were obliged to pay the whole 
tax, instead of about one-quarter of it the goods would have to be sold at 
so high a price the people would be unable to buy them, thus the trade 
would be destroyed, the people suffer, and the government receive no 
benefit. Davis tells of the arrival at San Francisco of the American bark 
Don Quixote, of which he was supercargo, from Honolulu with a full cargo 
valued at twenty thousand dollars. The sub-prefect ordered the ship to 
Monterey and placed a guard on board. The obliging guard was put in a 
state room, furnished with a bottle of madeira, one of aguardiente, a box 
of cigars, was promised twenty dollars in the morning and locked up for 
the night. All night the crew worked landing the cargo on the beach in 
front of Spear's store, whence it was taken inside. Davis says they landed 
half the cargo, but it would seem nearer the whole, for the subsequent 
appraisal at Monterey was but one thousand one hundred and eight dollars. 
After paying dues at Monterey and getting her permit, the Don Quixote 
returned to San Francisco, openly reloaded her cargo and proceeded south 
on her trading expedition, maintaining a fiction that Spear was shipping 
some of his goods south.(*) Another practice was to exhibit a fictitious 
invoice and pay, say ten thousand dollars on a cargo worth forty thousand 
dollars. The trader considered that there was nothing particularly wrong 
about this, as the invoice did not have to be sworn to. Davis says that 
the merchants and owners engaged in smuggling were just as much respected 
as any one else in the community. Sometimes whole cargoes would be 
transferred at sea to vessels having the custom's permit. It is said that 
the Sandwich islands traders were the particular offenders in these 
transactions. Occasionally a smuggler would be caught up and ship and 
cargo condemned and sold. The whalers coming into San Francisco bay for 
supplies and anchoring at Sausalito were allowed to trade goods in limited 
amounts in payment of supplies and they took. advantage of their privilege 
to engage in extensive smuggling operations. 

(* Davis: Sixty Years in California)

Having attended to the formalities of the customhouse at Monterey the ship 
became a floating store and traded up and down the coast until her cargo 
was disposed of and a return load secured. As the hides were collected 
they were taken to La Playa at San Diego where great hide houses were 
erected for their curing and storing and where the ship loaded for her 
homeward voyage. The Boston houses found the trade very lucrative. They 
sold their goods at a large profit and bought their return cargoes at a 
low price. A voyage generally took between two and three years, and a 
house engaged in the trade contrived to have one or two ships on the coast 
all the time. Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast gives a most 
interesting account of these "hide droghing" days and second only to this 
is William H. Thomes' On Land and Sea. The customs duties that in 1826 
were thirteen thousand dollars, rose in 1835, the year of Dana's arrival, 
to fifty thousand dollars and in 1840 to seventy thousand dollars. These 
sums may be safely estimated at about one-half of what they should have 
been, while the annual exports of California were valued at that time at 
two hundred and forty-one thousand dollars, of which San Francisco 
furnished eighty-three thousand dollars. The Boston ships paid the greater 
part of these duties, but so extensive became the operations of the 
smugglers that the trade ceased to be profitable to houses that paid 
duties and the Boston ships retired. 

The first private land grant in California was made November 22, 1775, to 
Manuel Butron, a soldier of the Monterey presidio, by virtue of his 
military services and also in recognition of the claims of his wife, 
Margarita, a daughter of the mission of the Carmelo. The grant was for a 
piece of land one hundred and forty varas square and was made by Don 
Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, comandante of California, and attested by 
Corporal Hermenegildo Sal, who acted as a sort of secretary of state. 

This grant was made pursuant to a reglamento of Bucareli, viceroy of New 
Spain, dated August 17, 1773. This reglamento authorized the comandante of 
California to distribute lands in private to such Indians as would devote 
themselves to agriculture and the breeding of cattle; it also gave the 
comandante authority to distribute lands to settlers according to their 
merit and means of labor. The reglamento of Felipe de Neve, governor of 
California, approved by the king October 24, 1781, provided that the 
colonist (poblador) should receive one hundred and sixteen dollars and 
forty-four cents per year for two years and sixty dollars per year for the 
next three years, in lieu of rations; each was to receive a house lot 
(solar), and a planting lot (suerte) two hundred varas square, together 
with cattle, sheep, pigs, fowls, and implements, and was to be exempt from 
all taxes for five years. Each poblador was to hold himself equipped with 
two horses, a saddle complete, musket and other arms, for defense at the 
call of the governor. In the decree of August 18, 1824, the Mexican nation 
"promises to those foreigners who may come to establish themselves in its 
territory, security in their persons and property, provided they subject 
themselves to the laws of the country." It provided for distribution of 
lands to Mexican citizens, without distinction except only such as is due 
to private merit and services rendered. No one person could obtain 
ownership of more than one league square of five thousand varas of 
irrigable land (tierra de regadio), four superficial ones of land 
dependent on the seasons (de temporal), and six superficial ones for the 
purpose of rearing cattle (de abrevadero). Land within twenty leagues of 
the boundaries of any foreign nation, or within ten leagues of the coast 
could not be colonized without the previous approval of the general 
government. The general rules and regulations of November 21, 1828, 
authorized the governors of the territories, in compliance with the law of 
August 18, 1824, to grant vacant lands to such contractors (empresarios), 
families, or private persons, whether Mexicans or foreigners, who might 
ask for them for the purpose of cultivating and inhabiting them. These 
were the laws under which lands were granted down to the time of the 
American occupation in 1846. The law made provision for the method to be 
followed in the granting of lands and no private grant was valid without 
the consent of the territorial diputacion, though an appeal to the supreme 
government could be taken by the governor should the diputacion reject a 
grant. The petitioner filed with his application a plan or sketch (diseno) 
of the desired tract. The request was then referred to the proper 
authorities for information concerning the applicant and the land desired, 
and if all was favorable, the grant was made, the papers (expediente) 
transmitted to the diputacion where they were copied into the record, and 
were then delivered to the applicant for his protection and constituted 
his title. But few grants were made prior to the establishment of the 
republic, but after the opening of the ports to foreign trade the 
applications for ranchos became more numerous and with the secularization 
of the missions, the advent of the foreigners, and the general expectation 
of American domination, the scramble for land became very great. The 
foreigners were very well treated and by becoming naturalized obtained 
grants of land. Many of the Americans who came during the last days of 
Mexican control imagined that they were entitled to land, and refused to 
comply with the requirements of law, expecting to obtain it without doing 
so. Some even claimed that land had been promised them to induce them to 
emigrate to California. Perhaps it had, but not by those who owned it. 
With the conquest and the subsequent discovery of gold, the land question 
became acute. Americans with guns in their hands asserted their right to 
"preëmpt" such land as they chose to consider vacant, and in the opinion 
of the "squatters" the Californians had no rights the conquerors were 
bound to respect. The matter was further complicated by the appearance of 
a number of alleged grants, whose timely production was, to say the least, 
suspicious. 

In 1851 Congress passed an act creating a commission to examine all 
California land claims. Within a stated period all claims must be 
presented before the board by the claimants and those not so presented 
were to be no longer regarded, but the lands in question were then to be 
considered part of the public domain. All claimants were to appear before 
the board as suitors against the United States which as represented by its 
attorneys was to resist their claims. Either party could appeal from the 
decision of the board to the United States district court and thence to 
the United States supreme court. 

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had guaranteed to Californians the 
protection of their property rights and the land bill of 1851 was an act 
of injustice and a violation of the spirit of the treaty. Instead of the 
protection guaranteed, the land owner was obliged to defend his title to 
land which had perhaps been in his family for many years and to which his 
right was well known and had never been disputed. He was placed in the 
position of holding a fraudulent title which he had to defend at his own 
expense against a powerful opponent. The lawyers took immense fees in land 
and cattle, while the United States through its able attorneys contested 
the claims. By questioning the title, the law rendered the land hard to 
sell and the owner in order to raise money for taxes, support, and defense 
was obliged to part with a good portion at a fraction of its value and 
thus vast tracts fell into the hands of lawyers and speculating land 
sharpers. The resulting concentration in a few hands of a great part of 
the agricultural lands worked to the detriment of the development of the 
state, while to the individual Californian the result was disastrous. If 
the land commission decided in his favor the case could be, and usually 
was, appealed to the district court and thence to the supreme court at 
Washington; the struggle for "protection" lasting anywhere from five to 
twenty-five years, and long before a final decision was reached the once 
ranchero prince had perhaps parted with his last acre and was a vagabond 
and a wanderer.