The Beginnings of San Francisco - Chapters XIII-XIV



CHAPTER XIII. THE COMING OF THE ARGONAUTS, 1849-1850

Years before the discovery of gold on the American river gold placers had 
been worked in California with varying degrees of success. But little 
attention was paid to this industry and it was not considered of much 
importance by either the Californians or the foreigners residing in their 
midst. The priests discouraged mining, the rancheros were indifferent to 
it, and neither class wished to see the country filled with a mining 
population. On March 2, 1844, the deputy for California to the Mexican 
congress, Don Manuel Castanares,(*) reported to his government the 
discovery of gold in the vicinity of Los Angeles the previous year. These 
mines had produced from about the middle of the year to December 1843 two 
thousand ounces, the most of which had been sent to the United States. He 
said the placers extended a distance of nearly thirty leagues (seventy-
eight miles). William H. Thomes, writing from San Pedro where the ship 
Admittance was taking cargo June 30, 1843, says: "Here we also received 
ten iron flasks of gold dust, although where the latter came from no one 
knew, but it was reported that the merchants of the Pueblo los Angeles 
traded for it with the Indians and the latter would not reveal the source 
whence it came.(**) When Alfred Robinson went to the United States in 
1843, he carried to the mint in Philadelphia a package of gold dust from 
Abel Stearns of Los Angeles, the assay of which showed it to be .906 fine. 

(* Castanares: Coleccion de Documentos)
(** Thomes: On Land and Sea, p. 253)

The placers from which this gold came were on the San Francisco rancho, 
near the mission of San Fernando. The rancho had formerly belonged to the 
mission, but at this time was in possession of the Del Valle family. The 
discovery was made in March 1842 and in the following May, Ignacio Del 
Valle was appointed encargo de justicias to preserve order in the mining 
district. William H. Davis says that from eighty to one hundred thousand 
dollars of gold was taken from these places in two years. Colonel Mason in 
his report of August 17, 1848, on the gold fields of California says: "The 
gold placer near the mission of San Fernando has long been known but has 
been but little wrought for want of water." 

But the event that was to set the world ablaze and create an empire on the 
shores of the Pacific was the discovery by James W. Marshall of gold on 
the American river January 24, 1848. It may seem strange that in a 
community where the somewhat extensive placers of the San Fernando valley 
received so little attention a discovery of gold placers in the Sacramento 
valley should have created such intense excitement. It may be that the 
reason for this was that the discovery on the American river was so 
quickly followed by reports of the great extent of the gold region and the 
astonishing richness of the placers. The gold deposits were on or near the 
surface, no capital was required to work them, and a laboring man with 
nothing but his pick, shovel, and pan could obtain from one to two or more 
ounces per day, with the possibility, always, of acquiring a fortune in a 
few weeks. 

In the foothills of the sierras about forty-five miles northeast of the 
Embarcadero of the Sacramento, on the south fork of the American river, 
Captain Sutter was building a sawmill in the fall and winter of 1847, and 
employed James W. Marshall to superintend the work. In digging a tail race 
for the mill, Marshall was in the habit of turning the water into the 
ditch at night to wash out the dirt loosened by the workmen during the 
day. On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall saw and picked up in the 
mill race a glittering piece of gold weighing about half an ounce. The men 
picked up other particles and, satisfied of the importance of the find, 
Marshall went to Sutter with it. Sutter was anxious to complete his mill 
and also a grist mill he was erecting on the American river, and he and 
Marshall agreed to keep the discovery quiet. The attempt was useless; the 
men soon quit work and went to digging gold. Sutter, who was sub-Indian 
agent for the Sacramento valley, obtained from the Indians of the Yalesumi 
tribe a lease of twelve square miles on the American fork and sent it to 
Governor Mason for confirmation. This Mason refused, saying that the 
United States did not recognize the right of Indians to sell or lease to 
private individuals land on which they resided.(*) The news of the 
discovery spread like magic. Remarkable success attended the labors of the 
first explorers and in a few weeks hundreds were engaged in the placers. 
By August 1st it was estimated that four thousand men were working in the 
gold district, of whom more than one-half were Indians, and that from 
thirty to fifty thousand dollars worth of gold was daily obtained. Colonel 
Mason reports that no thefts or robberies had been committed in the gold 
region, and it was a matter of surprise to him that so peaceful and quiet 
a state of things should continue to exist.

(* Ex. Doc. 17, p. 490)

The discovery changed the whole character of California. Its people, 
before engaged in agriculture and in cattle raising, had gone to the mines 
or were on their way thither. Laborers left their workbenches and 
tradesmen their shops; sailors deserted their ships as fast as they 
arrived on the coast. Mason reports that seventy-six soldiers had deserted 
from the posts of Sonoma, San Francisco, and Monterey, and for a few days 
he feared that garrisons would desert in a body. As a laborer, a soldier 
could earn in one day at the mines double a soldier's pay and allowances 
for a month; while a carpenter or mechanic would not listen to an offer of 
less than fifteen or twenty dollars a day. "Could any combination of 
affairs try a man's fidelity more than this?" writes the governor, "I 
really think some extraordinary mark of favor should be given to those 
soldiers who remain faithful to their flag throughout this tempting 
crisis." In July 1848 Colonel Mason made a tour of the mining region. 
"Many private letters have gone to the United States," he says, "giving 
accounts of the vast quantity of gold recently discovered, and it may be a 
matter of surprise why I have made no report on this subject at an earlier 
date. The reason is that I could not bring myself to believe the reports 
that I heard of the wealth of the gold district until I visited it myself. 
I have no hesitation now in saying that there is more gold in the country 
drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers than will pay the cost of 
the present war with Mexico a hundred times over."(*) In November he 
writes: "Gold continues to be found in increased quantities and over an 
increased extent of country. I stated to you in my letter, No. 37, that 
there was more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin rivers than would pay all the cost of the war with Mexico one 
hundred times over; if I had said five hundred times over, I should have 
been nearer the mark. Any reports that may reach you of the vast 
quantities of gold in California can scarcely be too exaggerated for 
belief."(**)

(* Mason to Jones, Adj. Gen. U. S. A., Aug. 17, 1848. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 528.)
(** Mason to Jones, November 24, 1848. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 648.) 

San Francisco was not inclined to accept the reports of gold discoveries. 
Bancroft says a few men slipped out of town to investigate for themselves, 
keeping their movements quiet as if fearing ridicule. Presently several 
well-laden diggers arrived bringing bottles, tin cans, and buckskin bags 
filled with the precious metal. "Sam Brannan, holding in one hand a bottle 
of gold dust and swinging his hat with the other, passed along the street 
shouting: 'Gold! Gold! Gold from the American river."(*) The excitement 
was prodigious and in a few days the exodus had begun. By boat, by mule 
and horse, or on foot they went, all eager to reach the mines, fearful 
that the gold would be gone before they could get there and receive their 
share. Business houses closed their doors. There was no service in the 
little church on the plaza and a padlock was on the door of the alcalde's 
office. The ships in the harbor were deserted alike by masters and 
sailors. Soldiers deserted their posts and fled, taking their arms, 
horses, blankets, etc., with them; others were sent after them to force 
them back to duty and all, pursuers and pursued, went to the mines 
together. General Sherman, then lieutenant of 3d artillery, tells how he 
organized a force of seven officers to pursue and bring back twenty-eight 
men of the 2d Infantry who had deserted in a body taking their arms and 
accoutrements. They captured and brought in twenty-seven of them.(**)

(* Bigler: Diary of a Mormon in California, MS. 79)
(** Sherman: Memoirs i, pp. 71-72) 

On the 25th of July, 1848, Governor Mason issued a proclamation(*) which 
recited the fact that many citizens had gone to the gold mines without 
making proper provision for the families they had left behind; that many 
soldiers, tempted by the flattering prospects of sudden wealth had 
deserted their colors to go to the same region, regardless of their oaths 
and obligations to the government, thus endangering the safety of the 
garrison; and he declared that unless families were guarded and provided 
for by their natural protectors, and unless citizens lent their aid to 
prevent desertions, the military force in California would concentrate in 
the gold region, take military possession of the mining district, and 
exclude therefrom all unlicensed persons. All citizens employing or 
harboring deserters would be arrested, tried by military commissions, and 
punished according to the articles of war.

(* Ex. Doc. 17, p. 580)

Let us see what military force the governor had at command to enforce his 
decrees. Twelve days after issuing the foregoing proclamation the governor 
received notice of the ratification of the treaty of peace between the 
United States and Mexico and he at once ordered the New York volunteers--
Stevenson's regiment--mustered out, their term of service ending with the 
war. The Mormon battalion had been previously mustered out on expiration 
of their term of service. This left the commander but two companies of 
regular troops, viz: F company, 3d artillery, numbering sixty-two officers 
and men, and C company, 1st dragoons, eighty-three, a total in California 
of one hundred and forty-five soldiers, with the ranks being depleted 
daily by desertions, and not a warship on the coast of the province. The 
governor, without the machinery of civil government, with no civil 
officers save the few alcaldes he had appointed, and unsustained by 
adequate military force, was compelled to exercise control and maintain 
order in a country extending over six hundred miles in length by two 
hundred in width, over a community composed of about equal numbers of 
Californians and foreigners, the latter largely made up of runaway sailors 
and men accustomed to a lawless life, jealous of each other and of the 
Californians, all wrought up to an intensity of excitement by the gold 
discoveries, and now increased by a thousand soldiers discharged without 
pay.(*) It was a case requiring skill, judgment, and determination. All 
the complex responsibilities of a civil administration thrust upon a 
military commander, without council or legislative support, were to be met 
and the honor of the United States government maintained. The trial of 
criminals, the establishment of port duties, the registration of vessels, 
the making of custom house regulations, the examination of ship's papers, 
the collection of duties, the appointment of collectors, alcaldes, judges, 
etc., the prevention of smuggling, represent a few of the responsibilities 
of the governor. On August 14, 1848, Major Hardie wrote the governor from 
San Francisco that the deficiency of force to support the civil 
organization at that place was likely to be productive of the most serious 
consequences. That the lower classes of the community were of the most 
lawless kind, and when their ranks were swelled by disbanded volunteers, 
freed from the restraints of discipline, there would be no security for 
life or property. Captain Folsom, assistant quartermaster, wrote the same 
day that acts of disgraceful violence were of almost daily occurrence on 
board the shipping in the harbor and the officials had no power to 
preserve order; that his "office is left with a large amount of money and 
gold dust in it, and the volunteers are discharged without pay." "We 
collect port charges, etc.," he writes, "from both foreign and American 
vessels, and in return we are under the most imperative obligation to 
protect trade."(**) It is not to be wondered at that Mason, as colonel of 
1st dragoons, applied to the War Department November 24, 1848, to be 
ordered home, having been absent from the United States for two years.

(* Mason to Adj. Gen. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 338. Mason says he should have a 
full regiment of infantry, a battalion of dragoons, and one of artillery.)
(** Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 612-613)

In addition to the outrages committed by lawless men, the disbanding of 
the Mormon battalion and the Stevenson regiment, together with the absence 
at the mines of a large portion of the citizens, left the country 
defenceless against inroads of hostile Indians. 

In the attempt to stay the desertion of his men Colonel Mason granted 
furloughs permitting them to go to the gold fields for periods of two or 
three months. These soldiers met with varying degrees of success. One of 
them, private John K. Haggerty, of F company, 3d artillery, came back from 
the mines with sixty pounds of gold ($15,000). 

Throughout the Americas and Europe the most astonishing reports were 
received from the gold fields of California. General Smith writing from 
Panama January 7, 1849, says that none of the accounts received were 
exaggerated; that there had been brought to Valparaiso and Lima before the 
end of 1848, gold valued at $1,800,000; that the British consul at Panama 
had forwarded 15,000 ozs. ($240,000) across the isthmus, and that the 
commander of the Pandora, Royal Navy, informed him that the truth was 
beyond the accounts he had heard. General Smith was also informed that 
hundreds of people from the west coast of South America were embarking for 
the gold fields. In a subsequent letter he says that he has learned from 
many sources that there was a great emigration of people of all nations to 
California and that many are going off with large quantities of gold. He 
says that on his arrival there he shall consider every one, not a citizen 
of the United States, who enters on public land and digs for gold, as a 
trespasser and shall so treat him. 

On the 12th of April 1848, the Pacific Mail was incorporated with a 
capital of five hundred thousand dollars, and contracts were entered into 
for the building of three steamers; the California, 1050 tons, the Oregon, 
1099 tons, and the Panama, 1087 tons, the California was completed first 
and sailed from New York October 6, 1848, under command of Cleveland 
Forbes. She carried no passengers for California.(*)

(* The Pacific Mail was incorporated for the purpose of carrying the mails 
between Panama and the Columbia river. The enormous business consequent on 
the discovery of gold in California caused the original design to be 
abandoned.)

Meanwhile the reports from California of the extent of the gold fields, 
and the marvelous quantities of the metal obtained by men unskilled in 
mining and without capital were received in the eastern states and in 
Europe. In November 1848 came Lieutenant Loeser of the 3d artillery, with 
despatches from the military governor of California, confirming the most 
extravagant reports from the gold fields, and bringing tangible evidence 
in the shape of a box filled with gold dust. The gold was placed on 
exhibition at the war office and the president embodied Mason's report in 
his message to congress December 5th.(*) The entire community went wild 
with excitement. Mason's report with the president's indorsement was 
published in the principal newspapers throughout the world. The "gold 
fever" was on and from all parts of the world companies were fitting out 
for California. From Sonora in Mexico, thousands of men came overland, 
while from the coasts of Chili and Peru as many more came by sea. 
Thousands started from the Atlantic ports of the United States for Panama, 
for Vera Cruz, and for Nicaragua. The steamer Falcon from New Orleans 
landed at Chagres the first adventurers for California, several hundred in 
number, all determined to board the steamer California at Panama, if 
possible. The route across the isthmus was a fearful one; by canoe up the 
Chagres river to Cruces, the head of navigation, thence on mule, if one 
was to be had, or on foot to Panama. There was an insufficient number of 
boats to carry the adventurers up the river--a journey of several days--
and consequently a vexatious wait at Chagres had to be endured. From 
Cruces to Panama the baggage had to be carried on the backs of men. The 
excessive rains, the trouble, vexation, and exposure caused a vast amount 
of sickness and few escaped the "Chagres fever." To augment their troubles 
the cholera made its appearance followed by a number of deaths. This 
caused a stampede when all baggage and property of every description was 
abandoned and left on the route while the panic-stricken emigrants fled to 
Panama. Their belongings were afterwards brought in by natives who were 
satisfied with a reasonable compensation for their faithful services. The 
Falcon brought to Chagres Major-general Persifer F. Smith appointed to 
command the Third (Pacific) Division. Captain Elliott and Major Fitzgerald 
of his staff were taken with cholera, and Elliott died and was buried in 
the church yard at Cruces.(**) Arriving at Panama there was a long wait 
for the steamer, while the numbers of emigrants increased daily and the 
inhabitants of the city became alarmed at the prospect of pestilence and 
famine. Provisions rose to famine prices and there was much distress and 
suffering among the emigrants. At length the long looked for steamer was 
sighted and anchored in the harbor January 17th. All was excitement and 
many hurried off to the ship thinking to secure passage, but they were not 
permitted to board and were obliged to return. The ship had accommodation 
for seventy-five, cabin and steerage, and fifteen hundred clamored for 
passage. She had stopped at Callao and had taken on fifty passengers for 
San Francisco, although it was understood that none were to be accepted 
until Panama was reached. It was decided that the New York passengers 
holding through tickets should be first provided for; afterwards those 
from South America, and finally as many as possible from among the first 
applicants for passage at the office in Panama.(***) On the 1st of 
February the California sailed for San Francisco with three hundred and 
fifty passengers.(****) The ship was so crowded it was difficult to move 
about, either on deck or in the cabin.

(* The gold was later deposited at the mint at Philadelphia and found to 
be .894 fine, value: a few cents over $18.00 per oz)
(** The death rate from cholera was so great at Cruces that the later 
parties, panic stricken, left the river at Gongora and made their way to 
the coast as best they could)
(*** Robinson: Life in California, p. 236)
(**** Smith to Adj. Gen. Executive Doc. 17, p. 710. The number of 
emigrants on the California has been variously stated from 350 to 500. 
Robinson says 400.)

It was on the 28th of February that this modern Argo steamed past the 
rugged cliffs of the Golden Gate into the warm sunshine of a California 
spring, past the green slopes of Marin and the purple heights of 
Tamalpais, past the islands of the bay and the Alta Loma, and cast anchor 
before a most disreputable collection of adobe houses, wooden shacks, and 
tents--the outpost of this new Colchis--with its background of wind swept 
dunes, bleak and desolate. The weary Argonauts were joyfully welcomed. The 
ships in the harbor donned their gayest bunting; the guns of the Pacific 
squadron boomed while the yards of the war ships were manned with blue 
jackets. The rains of winter had driven the miners to cover and the town 
was full. Gold dust was plenty and the gambling houses ran day and night. 
The people were rough and uncouth but they gave the new comers a hearty 
welcome and celebrated with ardor the establishment of steam communication 
with the world. 

There was nothing lofty in the motive that brought this band of 
adventurers to these shores and nothing particularly remarkable about the 
men who composed it. They were strong, courageous, undaunted. They came to 
make a fortune and return; they remained to create an empire. It was the 
part the Argonauts played in founding and building a great commonwealth on 
the Pacific coast that gives significance to their coming. Among this 
first band were De Witt Clinton Thompson, who commanded a California 
regiment in the war of the Rebellion, John Bigelow, first mayor of 
Sacramento, Rev. O. C. Wheeler, who erected the first Baptist church, Rev. 
S. W. Willey, founder of the State University, Pacificus Ord, judge and 
member of constitutional convention, Wm. Van Voorhies, first secretary of 
State, Rodman M. Price, member of constitutional convention, later 
governor of New Jersey, William Pratt, surveyor general of California, 
Eugene L. Sullivan, collector of the port, Lloyd Brooke, one of the 
founders of Portland, Oregon, Alexander Austin, Asa Porter, Samuel F. 
Blaisdell, Henry F. Williams, Richard W. Heath, Robert B. Ord, William P. 
Walters, Edwin L. Morgan, Malachi Fallon, B. F. Butterfield, A. M. Van 
Nostrand, Charles M. Radcliff, Samuel Woodbury, Isaac B. Pine, and Oscar 
J. Backus. Alfred Robinson, who had been appointed agent of the Pacific 
Mail, also returned on the California, and Major General Persifer F. Smith 
and staff were on board. Hardly had the ship come to anchor when her crew 
deserted, only one engineer remaining faithful to his obligations. 

When the California sailed away from Panama she left behind a multitude of 
emigrants, all disappointed, some filled with rage, some with despair. A 
few sailing vessels were chartered to carry the adventurers to California 
and it is said that a few tried in log canoes to follow the coast only to 
perish or be driven back after futile struggles with winds and 
currents.(*) The Oregon, second steamer of the Pacific Mail, arrived at 
Panama about the middle of March. The crowd had doubled. The Oregon took 
on about five hundred, and reached San Francisco April 1st. Profiting by 
the experience of the California, the captain took the precaution to 
anchor his ship under the guns of a man-of-war, and placed the most 
rebellious of his crew under arrest. With barely enough coal to carry him 
to San Blas he sailed April 12th, carrying back the first mail, treasure, 
and passengers. On the 1st of May, the California having obtained a crew 
sailed for Panama. The Panama, third steamer of the Pacific Mail, arrived 
at San Francisco June 4th, sixteen days from Panama. The Oregon brought 
John H. Redington, Dr. McMullan, John McComb, Stephen Franklin, Ferdinand 
Vassault, George K. Fitch, A. J. McCabe, S. H. Brodie, John M. Birdsell, 
Joseph Tobin, and many others well known in California, while on board the 
Panama were Wm. M. Gwin, first United States senator from California, John 
B. Weller, boundary commissioner, D. D. Porter,(**) Major W. H. Emory,
(***) of the boundary survey. Lieut. Colonel Joseph Hooker,(****) Major 
McKinstry, T. Butler King, agent of the United States to California, Hall 
McAllister, Lieut. George H. Derby ("John Phoenix"), John V. Plume, P. A. 
Morse, Lafayette Maynard, H. B. Livingston, Alfred De Witt, Andrew G. Gray,
(*****) surveyor of the boundary commission.

(* Bancroft: Hist. Cal., p. 135)
(** Afterwards admiral)
(*** Emory first came with Kearny in 1846)
(**** Later Major General (Fighting Joe). He came to California as Asst. 
Adj. General to General Smith, Pacific Division.)
(***** Gray made the survey and laid out the "New Town" at San Diego, 
which was called "Gray Town" by the people of "Old Town")

Ships now began to arrive from all parts of the world, crowded with 
treasure seekers, and by the middle of November upwards of six hundred 
vessels had entered the harbor and the larger part of these were left 
swinging at their anchors while their crews rushed to the gold mines. 
Colonel Mason advises the adjutant general of the arrival of a ship at 
Monterey loaded with ordinance stores and says that it will cost more to 
unload the ship than the total freight from New York to Monterey. 

The sufferings of the emigrants who came by sea, great as they were, were 
as nothing compared with those who came by land. Not since the crusades of 
the Middle Ages, has there been anything approaching the overland 
emigration in magnitude, peril, and endurance. It is estimated that during 
the year 1849, forty-two thousand emigrants came overland to California, 
of whom nine thousand were from Mexico. Eight thousand Americans came by 
the Santa Fe route and twenty-five thousand by the South pass and the 
Humboldt river.(*) The horrors of the Camino del Diablo have been 
portrayed in a previous chapter. Bayard Taylor writes: "The emigrants we 
took on board at San Diego were objects of general interest. The stories 
of adventures by the way sounded more marvellous than anything I had heard 
or read since my boyish acquaintance with Robinson Crusoe, Captain Cook, 
and John Ledyard. * * * The emigrants by the Gila route gave a terrible 
account of the crossing of the great desert lying west of the Colorado. 
They describe this region as scorching and sterile--a country of burning 
salt plains and shifting hills of sand, whose only signs of human 
visitation are the bones of animals and men scattered along the trails 
that cross it. The corpses of several emigrants, out of companies who 
passed before them, lay half buried in sand, and the hot air was made 
stifling by the effluvia that rose from the dry carcasses of hundreds of 
mules. There, if a man faltered, he was gone; no one could stop to lend 
him a hand without a likelihood of sharing his fate."(**)

(* The figures are Mr. Bancroft's. He had, perhaps, the best opportunities 
for estimating the numbers.)
(** Taylor: El Dorado, p. 47) 

The rendezvous for overland emigrants was usually Independence (Mo.) for 
both the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. Throughout the eastern states the 
winter of 1848-49 was one of preparation. Emigration parties were formed 
in almost every town, each member contributing a fixed amount for outfit. 
These were as elaborate as the taste of the members suggested or their 
means permitted. Provisions for the journey and for one or two years in 
California, with every known implement for digging and washing gold, arms, 
ammunition, large supplies of clothing, blankets, etc., and in some cases, 
goods for barter or sale, characterized the equipment of the emigration of 
1849. Vehicles of every conceivable kind and quality were seen, from the 
ponderous "prairie schooner" drawn by three yoke of oxen, to the light 
spring wagon; riding horses and pack mules; together with relays of 
animals for heavy hauls. Arriving at the rendezvous the small parties were 
joined in a large party together with such individuals and families as 
came in singly, a captain was selected and the caravan set out on its two 
thousand mile journey. The northern route was by the so-called Oregon 
trail, up the north fork of the Platte to the Sweetwater, up the 
Sweetwater, through the South pass, to the Green river, down the Bear to 
Soda springs, to Fort Hall on the Snake, to the Humboldt, down the 
Humboldt to the sink, across the desert to the Truckee river, over the 
Sierra Nevada to the head waters of the Bear river, thence down the river 
to the Sacramento and to Sutter' s fort. From the sink of the Humboldt, 
three routes offered themselves: northerly to the Pitt river pass; west, 
across the desert to the Truckee, and southerly to Carson valley, where 
was grass and water, and thence over the sierra to the south fork of the 
American river. It is estimated that by the end of April 1849, twenty 
thousand emigrants were in camp on the Missouri waiting for the grass on 
the plains to be high enough to feed. Many companies had started earlier 
and by the middle of May the trail from the Missouri river to Fort Laramie 
presented a continuous line of wagons and pack trains. Through the valley 
of the Platte the cholera broke out, claiming many victims and spreading 
terror through the ranks of the emigrants. This began to disappear as they 
approached the Rocky mountains. At last, after some days of travel through 
a rugged and broken country where high bluffs force them from the river to 
make long detours, Fort Laramie is reached and the first stage of the 
journey is completed. For the next three hundred miles the country is a 
desert, with little grass and less water, through the forbidding Black 
hills, up the Sweetwater, across the continental divide by the South pass, 
at an elevation of seven thousand and eighty-five feet; thence through a 
somewhat better country, the Green river valley, to Bear river, which here 
flows northward, making a horseshoe around the mountains. Down the Bear 
they travel for a distance of about ninety miles to Soda springs. Here the 
Bear turns southward and the emigrants proceed westerly to the Portneuf 
river down which they travel to Fort Hall, on the Snake river. The route 
is now down the Snake to Raft river, thence over the hills to Goose creek 
and up Goose creek to the head waters of the Mary, or Humboldt, as the 
river now began to be called. This was the regular route. There were a 
number of short cuts which saved the travelers from one to two hundred 
miles of distance, but cost them weeks of extra time to get through; short 
cuts which were all right for pack-trains, but all wrong for wagons. On 
reaching the Humboldt the traveler has two-thirds of the whole distance 
behind him and is on the last stage of his journey. And what a journey it 
has been, and how changed he is from the one who set out so blithely from 
Independence three months ago. How bright the anticipations then! how 
cosey the snug family retreat within the great canvas-covered "prairie 
schooner!" how jolly the conversation and the stories around the camp 
fire! the song and music after the day's toil was over. The long weary 
journey, the dreadful monotony of the endless plains, the barren desert, 
the bleak and almost impassable mountains, the heat and dust, the 
scorching sun and the drenching rains, the sickness and suffering, and the 
deaths that have thinned his party, have long since dulled his spirits and 
left in place of the joyous buoyancy of the start, a sullen, dogged 
determination to push forward. The faint-hearted abandoned him at the 
Platte, at Laramie, and at Salt Lake; the weak died; and before him now 
was the greatest trial of the journey, the greatest test of strength. Many 
were yet to fail, to die of starvation, of cholera, of scurvy, and some, 
who had passed through so much of hardship and suffering, were to die by 
their own hands as they approached the fatal desert and saw in the 
distance the lofty barrier of the Sierra Nevada.(*)

(* Delano: Life on the Plains, p. 238. Five drowned themselves in one day 
in the Humboldt river.) 

Almost before the trains had reached the Platte the emigrants realized 
that they had overloaded their wagons and already began to throw away 
useless freight and baggage. As the difficulties of the journey increased 
and animals gave out, wagons, provisions, and property of all kinds were 
abandoned. Large quantities of bacon were tried out and the fat used for 
axle grease. During the latter part of the emigration of 1849, the 
difficulties were greatly increased. Feed became very scarce; the water of 
the Humboldt had a bad effect on the horses and they died in great 
numbers; the Indians, ever on the alert became more aggressive, stealing 
the stock and leaving many families from four to six hundred miles from 
the settlements without teams or means of conveyance. The remaining 
animals are now giving out. Everything that can be dispensed with is 
thrown away that the loads may be lightened for the weakened oxen. The 
destruction of property is immense and the road is lined with abandoned 
wagons, sheet iron stoves, shovels, picks, pans, clothing, and other 
articles--even guns.(*) From halfway down the Humboldt to the sink the 
carcasses of animals were so thick that had they been lain along the road, 
one could walk over them without putting foot to ground.

(* It is said that $50,000 worth of guns were thrown away in 1849, being 
first broken to prevent their use by Indians)

At last the sink of the Humboldt is reached and before the emigrant lies 
the most dreaded desert of all. Here are long stretches of alkali with 
drifts of ashy earth in which the cattle sink to their bellies and go 
moaning along their way, midst a cloud of dust and beneath a broiling sun. 
The road is covered with putrifying carcasses and the effluvia arising 
from them poisons the air. Even feeble women must walk and the animals 
relieved of every possible burden. To add to the general distress the 
cholera again broke out and carried the emigrants off by hundreds. The 
march now resembles the rout of an army. All organization is at an end and 
each one pushes on with what strength he has. Wagons come to a stop and 
are abandoned, while the animals are detached and driven forward. No one 
now thinks of gold. It has become a struggle for life. 

In an effort to avoid the desert a large part of the emigration of 1849 
was diverted to the northern route through Lassen's pass. They left the 
Humboldt at the big bend, sixty-five miles above the sink, and took a 
northwesterly course. They were told they would find grass in ten miles, 
grass and water in twelve, and at Rabbit springs, thirty-five miles 
distant, abundance of both, and from there on they would have no further 
trouble. It was false information and it lured thousands to their ruin. 
There was little water or grass; the deserts to be crossed were much 
greater in extent than those of the Humboldt; the emigrants traveled some 
three hundred miles out of their way and those late in the season found 
themselves in a rugged mountain region, in three feet of snow, and two 
hundred and fifty miles from the nearest settlement. The Pitt river 
Indians were hostile and active, and many lives were lost. Major Rucker, 
commanding the relief expedition, reported that between seven and nine 
thousand emigrants with from one thousand to twelve hundred wagons had 
taken this route. 

Many took the lower or Carson river route. Crossing from the sink of the 
Humboldt to the sink of the Carson, a distance of fifteen miles, they 
followed up the Carson river some eighty miles to Eagle valley, where 
there was abundant grass, then southerly through Carson valley and over 
the sierra to the south fork of the American. 

In the latter part of July, the advance trains of the emigration began to 
arrive in the Sacramento valley and soon a steady stream poured in. Gaunt, 
hollow-eyed men and women leading or carrying children told tales of 
horror. Behind these, in the great basin, were thousands battling with 
famine and pestilence. Notwithstanding the absorbing character of their 
occupation, the rough miners did not hesitate to go to the relief of the 
sufferers or to contribute generously of their gold. General Smith ordered 
all available troops to the Sacramento valley and Major Rucker of the 
First dragoons was put in charge of the relief operations, while one 
hundred thousand dollars was appropriated for supplies. Parties were sent 
in all directions with hard bread, pork, flour, rice, and barley, beef 
cattle and work oxen, and riding mules. A relief station was established 
at the Truckee lower crossing (Wadsworth), at the Hot springs in the 
Carson valley (Genoa), and on the upper Feather river. From the relief 
stations men were sent out on the desert as far as the sink of the 
Humboldt, and the sufferers brought in. They met whole families, men, 
women, and children on foot, without food. Women, whose husbands had died 
of cholera, with their little children, without water or food; men 
scarcely able to walk, who said that for two hundred miles back they had 
eaten nothing but dead mules; one old man with his wife and daughter, on 
foot, had nothing but a few blankets which they carried on their backs. 
The number of sufferers was so great the relief corps could furnish barely 
enough food to enable them to reach the nearest station. It is said that 
in the emigration of this year five thousand died on the plains from 
cholera alone. 

In 1849 the rains began much earlier than usual and the fall was heavy. In 
the mountains the snow was of prodigious depth. The northern relief 
station on the Feather river sent out men on all the trails with food and 
riding mules, to meet the emigrants coming through by the Lassen route. 
The amount of suffering was dreadful. Many of the emigrants had been two 
or three days without food when the government trains reached them. There 
were three feet of snow on the ground through which many were making their 
way on foot. Three men made desperate efforts to get through. For some 
days they had been on an allowance of one meal per day. When still seventy 
miles distant from the nearest settlement they took stock and found they 
had bread for two days only. Pushing on through the snow they came in a 
few miles to a wagon containing two women and two or three children who 
had eaten nothing for two days. With a generosity which was rare under the 
circumstances, they gave all they had to these helpless ones and went on 
without. They got through. The relief corps met women wading through the 
deep snow carrying their children, and strong men who had fallen through 
utter exhaustion. The officer in charge of the camp writes: "A more 
pitiable sight I never beheld as they were brought into camp; there were 
cripples from scurvy and other diseases, women prostrated by weakness, and 
children who could not move a limb, and men mounted on mules who had to be 
lifted off the animals, so entirely disabled had they become from the 
effects of the scurvy."(*) On December 20th, Major Rucker reported that he 
had brought in all who had crossed the mountains and had closed the relief 
camps.

(* Report of Maj. Rucker: Senate Doc. 52, pp. 96-151. See also Delano: 
Life on the Plains, pp. 178-235.)

In 1850, the suffering was even more severe than in 1849. Throughout the 
States the reports of the overloaded wagons had been received and many 
went to the opposite extreme. By the time Fort Laramie was reached 
provisions had begun to give out, but the emigrants went forward 
recklessly, trusting to chance to get through. The Mormons at Salt Lake 
were able to afford some relief but they were short of provisions 
themselves. The supplies of many of the trains held out until the Humboldt 
river was reached when their stores became exhausted. Emigrants arriving 
at Sacramento in July, 1850, reported the desperate condition of those in 
the desert; that Mary's river (Humboldt) was six or seven feet higher than 
it was ever known to be before, and that the bottoms, where the only feed 
grew, were almost entirely under water. One traveler hired some Indians 
for fifteen dollars to swim the river and float some grass across to him, 
thus saving the lives of his oxen. Another said that what little grass 
they procured on the way down the Humboldt they had to swim for, sometimes 
cutting it and sometimes being compelled to pull it while standing in the 
water up to their waists. "I have seen hundreds, more than one hundred and 
fifty miles on the other side of the Sink of Mary's River," writes W. Crum 
to the Sacramento Transcript, "that were out of provisions, or had but a 
few pounds to sustain a miserable and wretched existence, with animals 
that could never reach the Desert,(*) by reason of the scarcity of forage. 
* * * From this circumstance alone it may be possible that three-fourths 
of the animals now on the plains must perish from hunger, and the 
emigrant, with his scanty fare, must foot until life itself becomes a 
burden. Those who started late will fare still worse; as the season 
becomes warmer, feed less, and provisions shorter. I saw one man with two 
small boys 120 miles beyond the Sink, who had left his wagon and lost all 
his animals but one, and all the provisions he had was three or four 
pounds of rice; another, with his wife and children, I overtook seventy 
miles beyond the Sink, with four horses that were just able to move with 
the empty wagon, the wife walking ahead in the burning sand and scorching 
sun, to relieve the poor laden animals that were destined never to see the 
Sink." J. M. Sheppards, who arrived about August 1st, reported that only 
about one wagon out of five would get through. His company started with 
twelve wagons of which two would get in; many that start with three or 
four horses get in with one; many emigrants on arriving in Carson valley 
sell their finest horses for ten or fifteen pounds of flour. After 
arriving at the Truckee river or the Carson valley, the emigrants still 
had the difficult passage of the Sierra Nevada to make and most of them 
were destitute of animals or food and many of both.

(* The desert referred to in these reports and communications, always 
means that between the sink of the Humboldt and the Truckee river)

Tales of distress were brought by each arrival. The cholera had again 
broken out and its ravages were appalling. Nine-tenths of those in the 
desert were on foot and starving. "Mothers may be seen wading through deep 
dust or heavy sand of the desert, or climbing mountain steeps, leading the 
poor children by the hand; or the once strong man, pale, emaciated by 
hunger and fatigue, carrying upon his back his feeble infant, crying for 
water and nourishment, and appeasing a ravenous appetite from the carcass 
of a dead horse or mule; and when they sunk exhausted on the ground at 
night overcome with weariness and want of food, it was with the certainty 
that the morning sun would only be the prelude to another day of suffering 
and torture."(*)

(* Delano: Life on the Plains, p. 237) 

The miners contributed liberally to succor the unfortunate emigrants. From 
lack of organization and direction much of the effort was wasted and 
supplies were slow in reaching the desert. Captain William Waldo left 
Johnson's ranch August 27th with a drove of beef cattle, after waiting 
three days for the trains promised from Marysville and Yuba City. 
Seventeen hundred pounds of flour were deposited on the western side of 
the sierra, the committee being unable to get it across for lack of mules. 
At the Truckee lower crossing beef was deposited with the relief committee 
and Waldo left with them ten good horses and mules to help the sick and 
destitute to cross the desert. He entered the desert September 7th and 
pushed on as far as the Great meadows of the Humboldt, about the locality 
of the present town of Palisade. About midway of the desert he came upon 
two men who had laid themselves down to die. They had been living on the 
putrified flesh of the dead animals on the road which had made them sick 
and for three days had eaten nothing. He relieved their needs and they 
reached the station. Two other men had died of starvation. From Boiling 
springs to the Great meadows he met few who had any provisions at all. One-
fourth of the entire number on the road were reduced to the necessity of 
subsisting on the putrified flesh of dead animals. This had produced the 
most fatal consequences and disease and death were mowing them down by 
hundreds. "The cholera has carried off eight in one small train in three 
hours, and seven others are attacked and, it is thought, will die ere 
three hours more have elapsed." From the sink westward the havoc was 
fearful. "Sir," he writes, "by the time this reaches you I presume that 
you will need no evidence from me to satisfy you of the alarming and 
wretched condition of these people. It appears that the judgment of God 
has pursued them from the time they set out up to the present. First 
cholera--then starvation--next war, starvation, and cholera. The day has 
now passed when anyone will have the hardihood to say that there is no 
suffering amongst the Overland Emigrants; at least no one who is within 
200 miles of this place will make such a declaration. * * * When I tell 
them (the emigrants) that they are 400 miles from Sacramento, they are 
astonished and horrified; many disbelieve me. They were induced to believe 
when at Salt Lake, that they were then within 450 miles of Sacramento 
City." Indians have stolen a great  number of the emigrants' stock, he 
says, and scarcely a day passes when there is not a skirmish with them. 
Many women are on the road with families of children, who have lost their 
husbands by cholera, and who will never cross the mountains without aid. 
There are yet twenty thousand back of the desert, and fifteen thousand of 
this number are now destitute of all kinds of provisions, yet the period 
of the greatest suffering has not arrived. It will be impossible for ten 
thousand of this number to reach the mountains before the commencement of 
winter. All remember the fate of the Donner party.[33] On September 15th 
Waldo is back on the Truckee river sending in frantic appeals for 
supplies. He is issuing, he says, from five to eight thousand pounds of 
beef per day, and flour only to the sick. The station is surrounded by 
sick, unable to proceed on their journey. The flour deposited at Bear 
valley by the Marysville train has not arrived. The relief raised by the 
Feather river towns has failed for want of system. If the people of 
California wish to extend efficient relief to the emigrants, their 
supplies must be placed under the control of one agent. The emigrants must 
have bread; thousands must die unless they can be supplied with bread. The 
cholera is killing them off from this point to the head of the Humboldt. 
Ten thousand pounds of flour should be immediately forwarded to the 
Truckee station and another station established near the summit with the 
same amount, and such other articles as are necessary for the sick. If the 
money cannot be raised for this, he offers to turn over to the committee, 
or to any other body of men, real estate in Sacramento which has cost him 
ten thousand dollars, if they will advance at once eight or ten thousand 
dollars, forwarded in flour and other necessary articles for the sick, to 
the summit and to the Truckee station. This, in connection with the beef, 
horses, mules, and the dead stock that can be jerked before it putrifies, 
will save ten thousand human beings from starvation. He says that if he 
were to describe the cases of extreme suffering that he has seen in the 
last fifteen days the account would occupy a quire of paper. He was to 
leave on the morning of the 16th for the head of the Humboldt to induce 
all that are yet from four to six hundred miles back to return to Salt 
Lake. Ten persons died of cholera, the day before, while trying to cross 
the desert.(*)

(* Captain Waldo's report is printed in the Sacramento Transcript of 
September 23, 1850)

By September traders were flocking to the desert with supplies, selling 
flour at one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars and fifty cents 
per pound. They also carried water and grass into the desert and gathered 
up the animals they found abandoned. They sold water at half a dollar a 
pint.(*) Many of the emigrants had no money and were obliged to part with 
their property. In starting out many put nearly all they had into outfit; 
others thinking they were going to a land of gold did not bring much money 
with them. It was a great mistake. Money was required for ferrage across 
streams, for supplies, and for various purposes, and the want of it caused 
loss and hardship.[34]

(* Letters and reports in Sacramento Transcript Sept. 3, Aug. 5, 1850; 
Alta California July 31, Sept. 13, and Oct. 6, 1850)

At length the emigrants reached the end of their journey, but their 
troubles were not over; they were attacked with fevers and bloody flux, 
and many perished miserably after having endured all but death in crossing 
the plains; they reached the Sacramento valley sick and weary, with the 
horror of the scenes through which they had passed still upon them. For a 
time they were distressed and unsettled. Their numbers were so great that 
the relief extended by the miners, large as it was, could not reach them 
all, and many suffered and died for want of proper care and the 
nourishment which their condition required. Many were happy at first to 
get employment to pay their board, and even those accustomed to the 
luxuries of life were glad to get any servile employment suited to their 
strength and ability. Gradually the dark gloom that over-shadowed them was 
dispelled by the kind treatment and aid they received on all sides, the 
memory of their suffering faded, and with returning health hope revived 
and ambition again awoke. 

Most of the states of the Union were peopled by a steady influx of 
settlers from other communities. California was suddenly changed from a 
quiet pastoral community, to a mining camp. A great population was poured 
into it from all quarters of the globe, all actuated by the most intense 
and absorbing of motives, the quest of gold. Some to mine for it, some to 
supply the gold miner with the means of existence, and some to prey upon 
him. Some saw fortunes in trade and in the building of cities; others 
sought to reap the great profits resulting from the cultivation of the 
fertile soil. The farming class found a large amount of the best lands in 
private ownership under the Spanish grants. They were not disposed to 
submit quietly to this condition of affairs and in many cases "preëmpted" 
what they chose to consider unoccupied land, ignoring the obligations of 
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which guaranteed to the Californians the 
enjoyment of their liberty and property. Both Colonel Mason the governor, 
and General Riley his successor, endeavored to protect the owners of 
property, but the failure of Congress to provide a civil government for 
the territory, together with an insufficient force to compel obedience to 
their mandates, made the matter a difficult one. As James Bryce says, a 
great population had gathered before there was any regular government to 
keep it in order.(*) The great mass of the population was American, and 
the inhabitants formed for their own government and preservation local 
laws regarding the punishment of crime--unwritten, but none the less 
understood--the size, manner of locating and recording mining claims, and 
they visited summary punishment on those who violated the code. All things 
else were left to individual taste and discretion. The alcalde of 
Monterey, Walter Colton, a chaplain in the navy, sold the land on which 
was situated the old Spanish fort (Castillo de San Carlos).  This 
transaction brought from Colonel Mason a letter asking what law or decree 
conferred on an alcalde the right to sell the title of a Mexican fort or 
battery. In reply the alcalde writes: "No Mexican law or decree, as I can 
find, designates any particular spot as sites for forts or batteries. Each 
military chief put up a post where he chose, or demolished those put up by 
his predecessor. He asked no leave to build, and none to abandon. When 
guns were mounted no alcalde ventured with his right to sell, but eagerly 
extended that right over an abandoned position.

(* Bryce: The American Commonwealth, ii, 385)

"The only rule which appears to have governed the military and civil 
authorities in these matters seems to have been that of Rob Roy-- 

------'The simple plan, 
That they shall take who have the power, 
And they shall keep who can.'" 

This flippant reply well illustrates the American ignorance of and 
contempt for the Spanish law and Spanish methods. Colton was an educated 
man, a graduate of Harvard College and of Andover Theological Seminary, 
and should have known better. A rebuke was administered him by Henry W. 
Halleck, captain of engineers and secretary of state. In a formal report 
to the governor Halleck says: "Monterey is the next point on the coast 
deemed of sufficient importance at the present time for permanent works. 
The old battery (San Carlos) was built soon after the establishment of the 
mission of the same name (1770) and though much dilapidated was maintained 
up to about the time the Americans took possession of the country. Another 
battery in the rear of and auxiliary to this was begun by the Mexicans 
previous to July 7, 1846, and afterwards enlarged by the Americans, and 
occupied by them, without intermission, to the present time. Copies of the 
several claims to the land on which these batteries are situated, or which 
lie so immediately in the vicinity as to be necessary for the public 
service, if the batteries themselves are retained, are given in appendix 
No. 27, papers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the accompanying letters of the 
alcalde, dated March 23, June 14, and August 10, 1848. It appears from 
these papers that titles Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, were given while Monterey 
was in possession of the American troops, and by an alcalde who was an 
officer in the United States navy; that Nos. 1 and 2 were given while the 
troops were occupying and holding the ground so deeded away and after both 
seller and buyers had been informed that the land would be required for 
government purposes.(*)

(* The buyers were Commodore Shubrick and Lieutenant-commander Bailey of 
the United States navy, and they were both notified by Halleck himself 
that the land would be required by the government. In these days of 
investigations the whole thing looks a little queer.)

"Unfortunately for the plea set up by the alcalde, the laws relating to 
the granting of lands in California are, as has already been shown, very 
minute and perfect, resting upon no such doubtful authority as that of Rob 
Roy, but upon positive and definite decrees of the Mexican Congress, and 
the subordinate but no less distinct enactments of the territorial 
legislature--laws which seem to have been perfectly understood and pretty 
generally obeyed here previous to the irregular proceedings springing out 
of the mania for land speculations following the conquest of the country 
by the Americans. * * * Nor is the alcalde more accurate in his opinion, 
that the Mexican government has never designated any particular spot or 
site for forts or batteries. If he had examined the subject with care, he 
would have found that the ground which he sold has been occupied by works 
of military defence from about the year 1772 to the present moment; that 
when, in 1775, it was proposed by the authorities here to remove these 
works to a point on the bay further north, the viceroy positively forbid 
the removal; that there are in the government archives numerous orders, 
both from the viceroys of New Spain and the ministers of the Mexican 
republic, for the repair of these identical works, for the mounting of 
guns in them, etc.; that these are the very works that were captured by 
the insurgents under Alvarado and Graham in 1836, by the naval forces 
under Commodore Jones in 1842, and, though greatly dilapidated, 
constituted the only defences for the harbor and town of Monterey on the 
7th of July, 1846."(*)

(* Report of Halleck to Mason, Mar. 1, 1849, on Land Titles in California 
Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 119-182)

In the winter of 1846-47, a party of immigrants from the United States 
applied to the priests in charge of the missions of San Jose and Santa 
Clara for shelter. This was readily granted them and in the spring they 
proceeded to plant the mission fields and make themselves at home. So much 
at home did they become that they finally put the priests out and excluded 
them from the premises altogether. The priests complained to Col. Mason 
and he ordered Captain Henry M. Naglee, of the New York volunteers, to 
proceed with his command to Pueblo de San Jose and assist the alcalde in 
ejecting the intruders. If the alcalde did not act promptly and 
efficiently in the matter, then the officer must proceed to execute the 
order himself. He instructed him to use mild and persuasive means to 
induce the intruders to vacate the premises before resorting to force. 
"Say to those people they have no right whatever to dispossess the priest 
and occupy those missions contrary to his consent, any more than they have 
to dispossess the rancheros and occupy their ranches; that they must 
respect the rights of others before they can claim any respect for their 
own; that we are bound to protect, and will protect, the priests in the 
quiet possession of the mission at Santa Clara and San Jose, and not 
suffer their premises to be wrested from them even by the Californians, 
much less by a people who have just come into the country, who have not a 
shadow of claim to the premises, and who, in the first place, were 
permitted from motives of charity to occupy them temporarily to shield 
them from the last winter's rains."(*)

(* Mason to Naglee, July 10, 1847. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 341.)

The immigrants did dispossess the rancheros and occupy their ranchos, in a 
great many instances. In Santa Clara county the "Squatters' League" 
organized an armed force, resisted the execution of the sheriff's writ, 
held public meetings and barbecues--which the sheriff's men attended--and 
indulged in many speeches regarding their rights as American citizens, 
while their women kind presented flags to the riflemen and extolled the 
defenders of their homes. In the contra costa armed men took possession of 
the San Antonio rancho (Oakland), mounted a cannon, and announced that 
they would defend their rights (to the Peraltas' property) to the death. 
They even put Don Domingo Peralta in jail, kept him there six months, and 
made him pay a heavy fine, for attempting to drive them off his rancho. 

The better class of immigrants did not approve the squatter method and 
strongly condemned all such proceedings; but a portion of the early 
immigration was from the western frontier states and of the class that 
considered a dead Indian the only good Indian, and to whom a Spaniard, no 
matter what his condition or degree of culture and refinement, was a 
"greaser" and entitled to no respect or consideration when their several 
claims were in conflict. They were in full sympathy with and consistent 
believers in the good old rule of Rob Roy, and did not hesitate to take 
when they had the power and hold when they could. In 1848, thousands of 
Indians were engaged in washing gold in the placers,(*) some on their own 
account, others employed by Americans, who turned their labor to good 
profit. The men of the later emigration, and in particular those who came 
from Oregon, abused the Indians shamefully and began a war of 
extermination upon them, shooting them down on the slightest pretext and 
driving them from their claims which they took for themselves.(**) They 
also undertook to drive all foreigners from the gold mines under color of 
a proclamation from General Smith informing all foreign adventurers coming 
to California to search for gold, that trespassing on the public lands was 
punishable by fine and imprisonment, and that the laws relating thereto 
would be strictly enforced.(***) In this movement the Americans were 
joined by English, Irish, and German emigrants, and it was especially 
directed against the Sonorans, Chilians, and Peruvians.(****) They even 
included Californians among the "foreigners." They attempted to drive Don 
Andres Pico from a claim he was working on the Mokelumne river, but the 
hero of San Pascual was not to be frightened as easily as the timid 
Sonorans and he maintained his rights as an American citizen.(*****)

(* Mason's report. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 532.)
(** Johnson: Sights in the Gold Region, p. 152)
(*** Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 719-720)
(**** Bennet Riley to Adj. Gen. Aug. 30, 1849. Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 785-792.)
(***** Taylor: El Dorado, p. 87) 

With the immigration there came, as was to be expected, a plentiful supply 
of the scum and riff-raff of the world; escaped convicts and ticket-of-
leave men from Botany bay, desperadoes, fugitives from justice, ne'er-do-
wells, and gamblers from all parts of the globe, drawn to California by 
the promise of easy money which the rapid accumulation of gold by the 
people seemed to hold out. Armed bands of desperadoes rode through the 
country committing the most atrocious crimes until the citizens, unable to 
endure longer the reign of disorder, rose and hunted the criminals like 
wild beasts and drove them from the country. Mason, in an official 
communication to the war office, reports a number of murders and the 
hanging of several men by the citizens, and says: "You are perfectly aware 
that no competent civil courts exist in this country, and that strictly 
speaking there is no legal power to execute the sentence of death; but the 
necessity of protecting their lives and property against the many lawless 
men at large in this country, compels the good citizens to take the law 
into their own hands. I shall not disapprove of the course that has been 
taken in this instance, and shall only endeavor to restrain the people so 
far as to insure to every man charged with a capital crime an open and 
fair trial by a jury of his countrymen."(*)

(* Mason to Adj. Gen. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 653) 

It is evident from the military dispatches that the deserters from the 
army contributed to the general disorder and committed many outrages 
against life and property. These deserters were protected by the great 
mass of the citizens of the mining region who thought it a shame that the 
soldiers should be obliged to serve for what was really a nominal sum 
while all those around them were reaping an extraordinary reward for their 
labor. Riley recommended the restoration of the war penalty for desertion, 
and in a letter to the general commanding the division said: "Information 
from the south * * * shows that, with very few exceptions, the dragoons of 
the squadron of the 1st regiment deserted upon being ordered to San Luis 
Rey. Many had previously deserted from Los Angeles, carrying with them 
their horses, arms and equipments; and it is believed that the desertions 
at that place will be greatly increased when the order breaking up the 
companies of the 2d dragoons is received; so that I fear I shall not be 
able to organize from four companies of dragoons one required for the 
escort of the commissioners.(*) It is known that these deserters had 
committed many outrages upon the property, and, it is feared, upon the 
persons of the inhabitants they encountered in the route to the mines.*** 
The disposition I have proposed (that of establishing a four company post 
in the mining region and allowing the men limited furloughs) will be an 
experiment, but one that should be tried, if only for the sake of 
preventing a repetition of the outrages unoffending people have suffered 
from those they have been led to suppose would protect them from Indian 
depredations and domestic violence."(**)

(* The boundary commissioners. The escort was under command of Lieutenant 
Cave J. Coutts. Later, in August, Riley reports that more than one half of 
the escort had deserted.)
(** Riley to Sherman, Asst. Adj. Gen. April 16, 1849. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 899.)

The Indians of the Tulares, who, joined by many of the neophytes of the 
missions, had for some years been a source of great annoyance to the 
rancheros by stealing their cattle and horses, now renewed their 
depredations, emboldened by the withdrawal of the troops from the south. 
The situation was further complicated by robberies committed by Sonorans, 
driven from the northern mines, on their way out of the country. The 
troops under command of General Riley were the 2d infantry; companies A 
and E, 1st dragoons; companies D and E, 2d dragoons; and companies F and 
M, 3d artillery; in all six hundred and fifty men, the number being 
constantly reduced by desertion.(*) With this force he had to garrison the 
forts at San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego, furnish an escort for the 
boundary commission, guard the government stores, send expeditions against 
marauding Indians, succor starving emigrants, establish relief stations at 
Warner' s pass and in the Sacramento, and police the territory.

(* Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 899, 938)

More than two years had elapsed since the conquest. Congress had met and 
adjourned without providing California with a government. The authorities 
at Washington recognized the military government established in 
California, under the laws of war, as a government de facto, to continue 
until the congress should provide another. The people of California, with 
that executive instinct of self-government and self-preservation which 
first challenged the wonder of the civilized world and afterwards won its 
approbation, determined they would have a responsible and representative 
government. In full sympathy with this sentiment, Governor Riley issued, 
on June 3, 1849, a proclamation calling for the election of delegates to a 
convention to be held in Monterey on the first of September, for the 
purpose of forming a state constitution. The territory was divided into 
ten districts, with thirty-seven delegates, and the election set for 
August 1st. The number of delegates was later increased to forty-eight, 
owing to the rapid growth in population of some of the districts. The 
convention was composed of men in the full vigor of life, was fairly 
representative, contained several men of talent, and a good proportion of 
men of education and refinement. There were five men of European birth, 
six Californians, twelve natives of New York, five of Maryland, three each 
from Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, two from Massachusetts, and one each 
from Tennessee, Florida, Missouri, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. All the men of European birth 
and nine or ten of the Americans were citizens of California before the 
conquest. Among the Californians were the distinguished Mariano Guadelupe 
Vallejo, the courtly Pablo de la Guerra, the polished Jacinto Rodriguez, 
and the dignified and handsome Jose Antonio Carrillo. Among the Americans 
who later became more or less famous, were Henry W. Halleck, later general-
in-chief of the United States army; W. M. Gwin, U. S. Senator; John 
McDougal, governor and U. S. Senator; Rodman M. Price, member of congress 
for and governor of New Jersey; Thomas O. Larkin, consul and special agent 
of the United States; Edward Gilbert, member of congress and editor of the 
Alta California; Pacificus Ord, Francis J. Lippitt, Stephen C. Foster, 
Robert Semple and others whose names are well known. The convention 
completed its labors October 12, 1849, and the same day Governor Riley 
issued his proclamation announcing the formation of a constitution and 
calling for a vote on November 13th for its ratification by the people, 
and for the election at the same time of a legislature and state 
officials. The members presented to Governor Riley their bill for 
services, charging sixteen dollars per day, and sixteen dollars for each 
twenty miles traveled. This the governor paid from the civil fund.(*) The 
members now gave themselves up to congratulations on the success of the 
convention, and assessing themselves twenty-five dollars apiece for 
expenses cleared the hall for a grand ball given to the citizens of 
Monterey. The ball, held October 13th was a great success. General Riley 
was there in full uniform and wearing the yellow sash he won at Contreras; 
Majors Canby, Hill, and Smith, Captains Burton and Kane, and the other 
officers stationed at Monterey, accompanying him. Don Pablo de la Guerra 
acted as floor manager, and gallantly discharged the duties of his office. 
Conspicuous among the Californians were General Vallejo, Manuel Dominguez, 
and Jacinto Rodriguez, while Captain John A. Sutter, late of Switzerland, 
and Don Miguel de Pedrorena, formerly of Spain, took an active part in the 
festivities.

(* The "Civil fund" was the money collected for duties by the military and 
civil governors of California during the period between the conquest and 
the inauguration of the state government)

On December 12th Governor Riley issued a proclamation declaring the 
constitution ratified November 13th as the ordained and established 
constitution of the State of California. The legislature met December 15th 
and on December 20th Riley resigned his powers as governor into the hands 
of Peter H. Burnett,(*) the new executive. A great population, coming 
together from the four winds of heaven with but one idea, to enrich 
themselves as quickly as possible and then depart, had, recognizing the 
necessities of the situation, founded a commonwealth.[35]

(* Peter H. Burnett, the first governor of the State of California, was 
born in Tennessee in 1807, came to Oregon in 1843, and thence to 
California in 1848. In 1857, he was elected judge of the supreme court; in 
1863 with Sam Brannan and J. W. Winans, he organized the Pacific Bank of 
which he was the first president, retiring in 1880.)

Many who tried their luck at the mines returned to San Francisco. Even 
their great success in obtaining gold could not compensate them for all 
their privations, the exposure, the sickness, the hard labor, and harder 
fare which fell to their lot. And the shrewd trader saw that, rich as were 
the gold placers, a richer field for acquiring wealth lay before him in 
the town itself. The great prices and great rise in various kinds of 
goods, provisions, and other necessaries of life, opened the brightest 
prospects to those who preferred trade to gold hunting. The immigration 
from the nearest territory was but a mite to that which would flow from 
abroad when the wild reports of abundant gold should reach and be 
accredited throughout the eastern states, in Europe, and among the nations 
of Asia. 

It was inevitable that in a community composed almost entirely of men(*) 
and living far from the steadying influences of the eastern states there 
should develop a spirit of recklessness and an indulgence in exciting 
pastimes that led to disorder. Every man did as seemed good in his own 
eyes until the lawless element aroused in the people the instinct of self-
preservation, and a form of order was established. The Argonauts were like 
boys let loose from school. Overflowing with vigor and abounding in high 
spirits, their exuberance found vent in the ghastly names with which they 
afflicted the map of California.(**)

(* The census of 1850 placed the female population of the mining counties 
below two per cent)
(** Jayhawk, Pinchemtight, Fleatown, Whisky Flat, Shirttail Canon, 
Dogtown, Plugtown, Hangtown, Frogtown, Gouge Eye, Red Dog, Jim Crow, You 
Bet, Yankee Jims, Lousey Level, are examples of what Bret Harte calls 
"unhallowed christenings." With advancing refinement some of these names 
were discarded for more euphonious ones; some died the death of abandoned 
mining camps, and some still ornament the map.)

The struggle for wealth was redeemed by a whole-souled liberality and no 
tale of woe failed of a generous response from the miners. The life, hard 
as it was, was not without its compensations and comforts. Old 
distinctions of caste were abolished and the professional man dug for gold 
with his own hands or worked for wages by the side of the common laborer. 
The angularities of the ungainly and illiterate in time wore off in the 
contact with educated men, and to many a farmer boy, raised within the 
narrow confines of a New England village, the experience of a few years in 
the mines was an education, while fitness to grasp opportunity brought 
independence. 



CHAPTER XIV. EL PARAJE DE YERBA BUENA, 1792-1839

Amidst the hills near the financial center of the present city of San 
Francisco, there was a little space free from brushwood, called El Paraje 
de Yerba Buena (the Place of Mint). It fronted on a little cove of about 
half a mile indentation with five-sixths of a mile space between the outer 
points. The only practical landing for small boats at low tide was at the 
northerly point where the shoulder of a high hill (Loma Alta) came down 
abruptly to the water. The cove was protected on the south by another 
range of hills from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height, 
running out into the bay and forming the southerly point of the cove at a 
height of thirty or forty feet. The inside of the cove was shallow and the 
ebb tide uncovered a quarter of a mile of mud flats. Beyond that the water 
deepened to five or six fathoms and continued from six to twenty-two 
fathoms to a little island fronting the cove about a mile distant, also 
called Yerba Buena. The northerly point was called Punta del Embarcadero, 
later known as Clark's Point, and the southerly, Punta del Rincon, and 
still called Rincon Point. The bottom was mud and sand and was excellent 
holding ground, and at high tide boats could land at the beach. Beginning 
at the water's edge about where Sacramento street reached the shore and 
running thence beyond Washington street on the north a steep bank rose 
from the beach to a height of ten feet at Clay street diminishing in both 
directions until it disappeared; the flat below was about one hundred feet 
wide at Clay street where the bank touched the line of Montgomery street. 
This cantil shows on Richardson's map. 

On the night of November 14, 1792, Captain George Vancouver in command of 
H. B. M. sloop-of-war Discovery sailed into the port of San Francisco. As 
he passed the Punta del Cantil Blanco (Fort Point) he was saluted by two 
guns, to which he replied. As night closed in a fire was lighted on the 
beach before the presidio and other guns were fired; but as he did not 
understand their meaning he continued up the port under easy sail, taking 
soundings. He proceeded along the southern coast in constant expectation 
of seeing the lights of the town, off which he proposed to anchor. As 
these did not appear, he found himself at eight o'clock in a snug cove 
with six fathoms of water and a clear bottom, and he dropped his anchor to 
await the return of day. In the morning he discovered his anchorage to be 
in a most excellent small bay, three quarters of a mile from the nearest 
shore. The cattle and sheep grazing on the surrounding hills awakened in 
the sea-farers the most pleasing recollections, but they could perceive 
neither habitations nor inhabitants. Shortly after sunrise a party of 
horsemen were seen coming over the hills down to the beach and on sending 
a boat to the shore Vancouver was favored with the good company of a 
priest of the order of Franciscans and a sergeant in the Spanish army for 
breakfast. The priest expressed his pleasure at the arrival of the English 
captain and assured him he would confer special obligations upon them by 
commanding any refreshment or service he or his mission could bestow. The 
sergeant informed Vancouver that in the absence of the commandant, he was 
directed to render him every accommodation the settlement could afford. 
Attending his visitors ashore after breakfast Vancouver was presented with 
a fat ox, a sheep, and some vegetables. With permission of the sergeant 
Vancouver erected a tent for the accommodation of his men engaged in 
procuring wood and water; this being, I presume, the first structure of 
any kind erected on the site of modern San Francisco. The English officers 
amused themselves with shooting quail and in the afternoon the boat 
brought off Father Antonio Dantí, principal of the San Francisco mission, 
and Don Hermenegildo Sal, ensign in the Spanish army and comandante of the 
post. Sal suggested that Vancouver move his ship to the presidio anchorage 
as being more convenient and accessible. This was done on the following 
day and the Englishmen were entertained with the greatest courtesy and 
hospitality. Vancouver's descriptions of the country, the bay, the 
presidio, and the garrison are most interesting. His entertainment 
included a trip to Santa Clara on horseback and so pleased and 
appreciative was he at the courtesy shown him that although treated with 
such cold and distant formality on the occasion of his second visit in 
1793 that he left California in disgust, he named the point below San Luis 
Obispo Point Sal in honor of his San Francisco host.(*)

(* Sal was sharply reprimanded by the governor (Arrillaga) for permitting 
Vancouver to see the poverty and defenceless state of the California 
establishments, and particularly for allowing him to visit the Santa Clara 
mission.)

In a letter to the governor advising him of the Englishman's visit, Sal 
says that Vancouver entered in the night and passed down the bay and 
anchored about a league below the presidio in a place they called Yerba 
Buena.(*) That is the first reference we have to the name of the little 
cove where forty-three years later Richardson's tent marked the beginning 
of the modern city. Vancouver's map, which is here reproduced, shows the 
anchorage in Yerba Buena cove, in other words, off the foot of Market 
street. In this cove of Yerba Buena the Predpriatie a Russian frigate, 
under command of Otto von Kotzebue, dropped her anchor October 8, 1824, 
"in the little bay surrounded by a romantic landscape where Vancouver 
formerly lay." In 1825 Captain Benjamin Morrell in the American schooner 
Tartar anchored in Yerba Buena cove, and November 6, 1826, Captain 
Frederick William Beechey, R. N., in H. M. S. Blossom entered the port and 
dropped his anchor "in the spot where Vancouver had moored his ship thirty-
three years before." Auguste Duhaut-Cilly in the French ship Le Heros 
anchored here January 27, 1827. In fact so well was this anchorage 
becoming known that on November 14, 1827, Governor Echeandía gave orders 
for the erection of a guard house on the beach to be occupied by a 
corporal and three soldiers. If this was done, all trace of it had 
disappeared before December 4, 1835, when Richard Henry Dana in the ship 
Alert anchored in Yerba Buena cove. Around him was a solitude. The only 
other vessel in the cove was a Russian brig which had come down from Sitka 
to winter and take back a cargo of grain and tallow. On rising ground 
above the beach an enterprising Yankee, he says, years in advance of his 
time, had put up a shanty of rough boards where he carried on a very small 
retail trade between the hide ships and the Indians. This enterprising 
"Yankee" was William A. Richardson, an Englishman, and the structure was 
simply a canvas tent stretched on pine posts. This stood on what was later 
Dupont street, on the block bounded by Dupont, Stockton, Clay and 
Washington streets. On the site of this tent Richardson built in 1837 the 
adobe "Casa Grande" which up to 1848 was one of the largest and most 
pretentious buildings in town. This was the "Casa Fundadora" of the 
Limantour diseno. The house which escaped the fires that repeatedly 
destroyed San Francisco was taken down in 1852, and its site was afterward 
occupied by the Adelphi Theatre. 

(* Bancroft says, (Hist. Cal. i, 702): "It (the battery on Point San Jose) 
was known as the Battery at Yerba Buena designed to command the shore 
stretching westward to Fort Point and that stretching eastward to what was 
called later North Point, together with that body of water between that 
shore and Alcatraz island, already so called, known as the anchorage of 
Yerba Buena, though it does not appear that any other vessel except that 
of Vancouver ever anchored there. Thus it will be seen that the name Yerba 
Buena, while it may have been given in a general way to the whole eastern 
part of the peninsula from Black Point to Rincon Point, was applied in 
these early times to the North Beach region and not, as is commonly 
supposed and as was the case after 1830, to the cove south of Telegraph 
hill." "Vancouver's anchorage was about midway between Black Point and 
North Point. Vancouver's Voyage Atlas." Compare Vancouver's map with that 
of Lieutenant Warner.)

In February 1834 the comandante of San Francisco, Ensign M. G. Vallejo, 
wrote to Governor Figueroa complaining that the Villa de Branciforte 
which, until 1828, had reported the padrones (census lists) to the 
comandancia of San Francisco, now refused to do so and he asked to be 
informed what were the limits of his domain. After some correspondence the 
governor advised the comandante that his jurisdiction comprised all the 
territory north of the Las Pulgas rancho and of a line parallel with the 
boundaries of the ranchos of Castro and Peralta; that is, all the northern 
frontier and down to San Mateo on the peninsula and Alvarado and Niles on 
the contra costa. All the functions of local government--executive, 
judicial, and economical--were exercised by the comandante. On the 4th of 
November Governor Figueroa addressed a letter to Vallejo stating that the 
territorial diputacion had on the previous day ordered the formation of a 
civil government for the partido of San Francisco by the election of an 
ayuntamiento consisting of one alcalde, two regidores, and a sindico-
produrador,  saying, "I also notify you that the ayuntamiento, when 
installed, will exercise the political functions with which you have been 
charged; and the alcalde, the judicial functions which the laws, for want 
of a juez de letrado confer on him; you remaining restricted to the 
military command alone; and receiving, in anticipation, the thanks due for 
the prudence and exactness with which you have carried on the political 
government of that demarcation." On the same day he addressed Vallejo 
another letter as follows: 

"Political Government of Alta California. 
General Comandancia of Alta California. 

"This government, satisfied of the zeal and activity which characterize 
you, as well as the patriotism which animate you, sees in your note of the 
24th of October ultimo, a new proof of your desire for progress, and of 
your untiring efforts for the enlightenment of your country and of your 
fellow citizens. 

"In consideration of this, it takes pleasure in making known to you that, 
with the consent of the Most Excellent Territorial Diputacion, it has 
adopted entire the plan you have presented in your note referred to, with 
respect to the pueblo of San Francisco, declaring its boundary to be the 
same which you describe in said note; that is, commencing from the little 
cove (caleta) to the east of the fort, following the line drawn by you to 
the beach, leaving to the north the casamata and fortress; thence 
following the shore line of said beach to Point Lobos on its southern 
part; thence following a right line to the summit of El Divisadero, 
continuing said line towards the east to La Punta del Rincon including the 
Canutales and El Gentil; said line will terminate in the Bay of the 
Mission of Dolores. 

"This government, as a proof of the confidence with which your services 
inspire it, has directed that you should have the honor of installing the 
first ayuntamiento in that pueblo of San Francisco, for which you have 
already done so much. 

"In consequence, you will proceed in the time and manner prescribed by 
law, in the election of the municipal authorities, in order that they may 
be installed the first day of January of the coming year, 1835, 
designating for town houses the buildings which you deem most fit. 

God and Liberty, 
Jose Figueroa. 

"Monterey, November 4, 1834. 
Don Mariano G. Vallejo, 
Comandante Militar of San Francisco. 
A true copy 
Zamorano." 

The above described line, commonly called the Vallejo line, was adopted by 
the United States board of land commissioners as the southern boundary of 
the pueblo of San Francisco, and may be indicated by a line drawn from 
Steamboat Point on the south side of Rincon Point (Fourth and Berry 
streets) to the Divisadero (Lone Mountain); thence to the south side of 
Point Lobos. The validity of this document was hotly contested by the 
attorneys for the United States in the Pueblo Lands case, but its 
authenticity was sworn to by Vallejo and accepted by the land commission. 

The official returns show that an election was held at the presidio in the 
comandante's house on the 7th day of December 1834, at which eleven 
electors were chosen; and that these electors met on the following Sunday 
and chose the members of the ayuntamiento of the new pueblo who were to 
enter upon the duties of their respective offices on the first of January 
1835. This was the first election in San Francisco, and the highest number 
of votes cast on December 7th was twenty-seven. Francisco de Haro was 
elected alcalde and Francisco Sanchez, secretary. Francisco de Haro had 
come in 1819 as sub-lieutenant of the San Blas infantry at the time of the 
Bouchard attack. He took part in various military expeditions and in 1822-
3, was secretary of the newly created territorial diputacion. On May 12, 
1837, he bought from Jose Antonio Galindo the Rancho Laguna de la Merced 
(San Francisco and San Mateo counties) for a consideration of one hundred 
cows and twenty-five dollars in goods. His wife was Josefa, daughter of 
Jose Sanchez, and his twin sons, Francisco and Ramon, were grantees in 
184, of the Potrero de San Francisco, later known as the Potrero Nuevo. 
These two young men, with their uncle, Jose Reyes Berreyesa, were among 
the first victims in California of the American conquest, being slain by 
Fremont's men at San Rafael in June 1846. The death of his sons was a 
terrible blow to De Haro. He would brood over their murder for days at a 
time and he never recovered from it. He died November 28, 1849. Francisco 
Sanchez was a grandson of a soldier of Anza's company of founders and his 
father came with the expedition. He served in the presidial company and 
was appointed captain of the militia company organized in 1837 for the 
defense of San Francisco. He was captain of the port in 1845, and acting 
comandante of San Francisco at the time of its occupation by Montgomery. 

The growing importance of San Francisco bay and the increasing number of 
ships coming for hides and tallow determined Governor Figueroa to 
establish in Yerba Buena cove a commercial town or trading post. The cove 
was two and a half miles from the presidio and about the same distance 
from the mission. It was small and well protected and had the best 
anchorage in the bay. Under the instructions and guidance of the priests 
and after plans drawn by them, the Indians at the missions around the bay 
built schooners or launches in which the missions sent down their produce 
to the vessels in Yerba Buena cove and brought back the goods received in 
exchange. Captain William A. Richardson, who may be considered the first 
inhabitant of Yerba Buena, obtained two schooners from the missions of 
Santa Clara and Dolores which he manned with Indian crews and employed in 
collecting and bringing to the ships produce from the missions and farms 
around the bay. He charged as freight twelve cents a hide and one dollar a 
bag for tallow. The tallow was melted and run into hide bags of five 
hundred pounds each. For grain the freight was twenty cents a fanega. 

When Figueroa decided to establish a town in the Paraje de Yerba Buena he 
withdrew from settlement the land running two hundred varas back from the 
water front. He also instructed Richardson to draw a plan for the town; 
this was done and the plan accepted. I reproduce the draft. He made but 
one street, the "Calle de la Fundacion," upon which he projected the 
"Solar de Dn. Guillo. Richardson." On September 29, 1835, Figueroa died, 
leaving a reputation for honesty and ability in the discharge of his 
duties. 

About the middle of 1835 Jose Joaquin Estudillo applied to the governor 
for a grant of two hundred varas of land in the place called Yerba Buena. 
As the application was for a larger amount than that designated for house 
lots (solares) the matter was referred to the territorial diputacion which 
decided that the ayuntamiento of San Francisco had power to grant lots of 
one hundred varas in the place called Yerba Buena, at a distance of two 
hundred varas from the beach. I find no record of Estudillo's receiving 
this lot. The first grant on record is that to William A. Richardson, June 
2, 1836, and is signed by Estudillo, he having been elected alcalde 
January 1st. Richardson claimed that he had been granted the lot in 1835. 
He had probably been permitted to occupy it provisionally in that year, as 
it was in 1835 that he had put up the structure described by Dana. In 1837 
he built the "Casa Grande" on the site of the tent. 

In the winter of 1835-6 Jacob Primer Leese, a native of Ohio, then 
residing in Los Angeles, was advised by some shipowners, trading on the 
coast to establish a store and commission house in San Francisco. He 
consulted his friends Nathan Spear and William S. Hinckley of Monterey, 
and induced them to join in a partnership for establishing a business in 
that place. Through the favor of Governor Chico he obtained the grant of a 
one hundred vara lot on what was later the block bounded by Dupont, 
Stockton, Sacramento, and Clay streets and there built the first house in 
Yerba Buena. It was completed in time for a celebration of the fourth of 
July 1836, and the American flag was on that day hoisted for the first 
time in San Francisco. The celebration was a great event. Leese invited 
the officers of the frontier garrison, the people of the mission, the 
officers of the ships in the harbor, and the rancheros of the whole 
country side. They came from Sausalito, from Canada del Hambre, from San 
Antonio, from San Pedro, Las Pulgas, and from far and near. Lieutenant 
Martinez and his handsome daughters, Susana, Francisca, Rafaela, and 
Dolores were there; Richardson and his wife--another daughter of Martinez--
with their daughter, Mariana; Victor Castro and wife--another daughter of 
Martinez; Jose Joaquin Estudillo and wife and daughter Concepcion; 
Francisco Guerrero and his beautiful wife, Josefa, a daughter of Francisco 
de Haro; De Haro and his daughters Rosalia and Natividad--all the beauty, 
wealth, and fashion of northern California graced the festivities, and the 
feasting, dancing, and other forms of entertainment including a picnic at 
Rincon Point, were kept up for three days. 

Leese's house was used for a store and dwelling, but he found it 
inconvenient to do business so far from the water. Both Richardson's and 
Leese's lots, which were adjoining, fronted on Richardson's "Calle de la 
Fundacion," a road running from northeast to southwest and leading from 
Yerba Buena to the presidio. Later this portion of the road was swung into 
its present position as Dupont street, by Jasper O'Farrell. In 1837, or 
1838, Leese obtained permission to erect a building on a hundred vara lot 
near the beach. Here he built a large wooden store and dwelling on what 
became the westerly line of Montgomery street, between Sacramento and 
Clay, where he lived and conducted his business until 1841, when he sold 
the building and the four lots(*) to the Hudson's Bay.[36]

(* A one hundred vara lot makes four fifty vara lots)

Near the beginning of 1838 Nathan Spear, a native of Boston who came in 
1823 via Honolulu, bought of Captain Steele, master of the American bark 
Kent, a ship's house twelve by eighteen feet, and placed it near the beach 
on what is now the northwest corner of Clay and Montgomery streets. Spear 
was permitted to occupy this lot by Governor Alvarado, who was a personal 
friend. He would not be naturalized and could not, therefore, be granted 
land. A little later Spear built a wooden store building just north of 
"Kent Hall," as the ship's house was called, and here he lived and 
conducted his business until 1846, when he sold out his business and his 
half of the lot to William H. Davis. In 1838 John Perry, an American 
merchant, came from Realejo, Nicaragua, and associated himself with Spear 
in business; Perry became naturalized and Alvarado granted to him the 
fifty vara lot which Spear occupied and he deeded it to Spear. William S. 
Hinckley, Spear's partner, owned the north half of the lot. 

On the 18th of January 1839 Governor Alvarado addressed an official 
communication to the alcalde of San Francisco, in which he stated that 
inasmuch as many individuals had asked for solares for building houses in 
the lands of Yerba Buena which had previously been withdrawn from 
settlement, and as he was desirous of advancing the commerce in that 
recent congregation of settlers, he therefore had decreed that grants for 
house lots could be made of any part of said prohibited lands.