California.--Pearl Fisheries.--Missions.--Indian
Marriages.--Villages.--Precious Metals.--The Conquest of
California compared with that of Mexico.--Upper California
under the Spaniards.--Mexican Conquest of California in 1825.--The
March.--The Conquest.--California under the Mexicans.--American
Conquest.--Sinews of foreign Wars.--A Protestant and religious
War.--Early Settlers compared.--Mexico in the Heyday of
Prosperity.--Rich Costume of the Women.--Superstitious Worship.--When
I first saw California.--Lawyers without Laws.--A primitive
Court.--A Territorial Judge in San Francisco.--Mistaken
Philanthropy.--Mexican Side of the Picture.--Great Alms.--City
of Mexico overwhelmed by a Water-spout.--The Superiority of
Californians.
I can not enter the valley of Mexico, and there discuss the various
subjects that present themselves, without first gathering from
California the data that will elucidate the condition of a country
abounding in precious metals.
MEXICAN CALIFORNIA.
There is a striking dissimilarity between the two Californias. The
American State of California is as celebrated for its fertility as for
its mineral wealth. Peninsular California, on the other hand, is not
distinguished for its minerals, nor remarkable for its fertility. With
the sea washing it on either side, it is a country of drought and
barrenness. It is like a neutral ground between the two rainy seasons.
To the north of it, the winter is the season of abundant rains, with
dry summers. To the south of it, the summer rains are heavy and
continuous, without any showers in winter. Thus, lying between the
opposite climates, it rarely enjoys the refreshing rains of either. Its
back-bone is not a continuation of the rich Sierra Nevada, but of the
coast range, which is poor in minerals. The Mexican estimates set down
the population as amounting to 12,000,[26] but an American, who has
carefully examined the country, going down the whole length of the
peninsula on the one side, and returning by the other, fixes it at
4000. The inhabitants are an imbecile race of mixed bloods and Indians,
dwelling in the few small villages which the country contains, and upon
the ranchos and haciendas.
CALIFORNIAN PEARL-FISHERY.
Cattle thrive where water is to be found, and many of the natives are
excellent herdsmen. Fish are abundant, but the Californians lack the
necessary energy to become successful fishermen upon a large scale. The
pearl fisheries have for centuries brought strangers to this shore of
the Gulf, and many of the inhabitants have served as divers with
success. The production of pearls in the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of
California, has been so great during the last three centuries, that
Mexico has become the greatest country for pearls yet known. Every
female above the rank of a peasant must have at least one pearl to
ornament the pin that fastens her shawl or mantilla upon the top of her
head. Most of these pearls are of small value, on account of their
imperfection in shape or color; but their abundance is one of the first
things that strike a stranger on entering Mexico. With a change of
fashions, the foreign demand for pearls fell off so much that, for the
last half century, these fisheries have been almost discontinued; but
with the reviving demand for pearls, the fisheries have again risen to
importance. For a more detailed account of these pearl-fisheries, I
must refer to the following note.[27]
In the year 1600 the Jesuits first undertook the establishment of a
mission at Loretto, on the Gulf coast, which has ever since been the
capital of the Peninsula. From the time of their first establishment
here down to the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the
dominions of Spain, in 1767, they continued to cultivate this field,
though it proved more than a match for their wonted perseverance. In a
few places, the soil was made to yield its increase by the skillful
application of the waters that sprung up among the mountains and rocks.
Wherever irrigation was possible at small expense, there an oasis made
its appearance, which was in striking contrast to the general
barrenness that prevailed.
The manner in which conversions were effected by the Spanish priests
may seem a little strange to the "voluntaries" of our day. The idea of
running down a convert with dogs may seem to be rather an original
method of proselyting, and has been severely commented upon by Forbes,
and other Americans who have visited the Missions. But then such men
should bear in mind that Catholics are not voluntaries, and never rely
upon persuasion to make converts when they have the power to use a
stronger argument. If this same class of missionaries used dogs to
convert the Waldenses in Italy, there is a greater reason for using
them among the half-brutish Indians of California. With such a race,
moral suasion has no force; and to adduce arguments to convince a man
whose only rule of action is the gratification of his sensual
appetites, would be labor thrown away.
The good fathers took a more sensible view of the case. Having once
obtained the consent of an Indian to receive Christian baptism, they
took good care that he should not fall back from his profession, but
retained him a prisoner of the cross. They used as much mildness as is
compatible with their system, and only compelled their converts to
labor as much as was necessary to the success of the mission, the rest
of the time being devoted to their spiritual edification; that is, they
were employed in repeating Latin prayers and a Spanish catechism, after
an old Indian who acted as prompter. Sometimes it was necessary to
allow the Indians to go abroad for a time, but then their return was
provided for by retaining the squaws and papooses as hostages, in the
same manner as they provided for the return of the plantation bulls, by
shutting up the cows and calves in the _corral_.
The system pursued by the Jesuits, and, after their expulsion, by the
Dominicans, was to treat the Indians as though they were half human and
the other half bestial. Abstractly considered, this was very wrong; but
it was practically the only system of treatment that gave any promise
of improving their condition. Though in many respects they were treated
as slaves, yet the missionaries had generally at heart the best
interests of the Indians. With them it was a settled rule, that when an
Indian was to be married, his kindred should be carefully inquired
after, and that among them he was to marry, or not at all; for long
experience had taught the fathers that certain diseases, hereditary
among them, were checked by each marrying into his own clan, while they
were aggravated by intermarriage with a stranger.
We may sum up the whole story of the combined missionary and
governmental efforts at colonization in Lower Peninsular California,
during a period of two hundred and fifty years, by saying that they
jointly succeeded in establishing a poverty-stricken village of mud
huts, called San Josef, at Cape San Lucas, where the Manilla galleon,
on its voyage to Acapulco, could procure a supply of fresh vegetables
to stay the ravages of the scurvy among its crew. They also established
a less important village at La Paz, which, with Loretto, and divers
small hamlets and ranches, constitutes all there is of this parched
peninsula.
Upper California comes to my aid in illustration of the early condition
of Mexico, for, without this assistance, many phenomena that are
witnessed in Mexico would be inexplicable. The effects of sudden
wealth, the great accumulations of precious metals in few hands, the
gross immoralities to which such a state of things gives rise, the
almost fabulous state of society that arises when, by delays in its
export, the accumulations become burdensome to the possessors, are no
longer novelties in our day, and they now serve to illustrate the
romance of the history of other times.
When, in the year 1847, a party of American settlers and trappers
hoisted the bear-flag in Upper California, their situation was
strikingly similar to that of Cortez and his party. Numbers were about
equal in each case. The Territory of California was equal to the whole
empire of Montezuma. The hunters and trappers had a more formidable
enemy to contend with than Cortez had; but they proved themselves more
than a match for all antagonists. Like Cortez, they found numerous
villages of mud huts and a country governed by priests, but immensely
superior in civilization and in arms to the Aztecs.
MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA.
In 1776, the monks of the angelic order of San Francis had established
missions along the coast. Adopting in this fertile country the practice
of enforcing the labor of the Indians, the missions became vast grazing
farms, where the priest, like the patriarchs of old, was the spiritual
and temporal head of the establishment, and had flocks and herds
innumerable. Villages (_pueblos_) had been established by the aid of
the royal government, and mud forts (_presidios_) were founded as a
protection to both mission and pueblo; and ranges (_ranchos_) for
cattle were granted to individuals.
Such was California when it submitted to the "Plan of Iguala." It was
reported to have had 75,000 Indians in connection with its missions,
and a large white and mixed population. But, according to our custom,
we must deduct two thirds from all Spanish enumerations, and estimate
the population of every class at only 25,000 at most.
The priests of the missions had quietly acquiesced in the usurpation of
Iturbide, and acknowledged his empire; but when Santa Anna proclaimed a
republic, they were struck with horror. The idea of conferring civil
rights upon Indians was monstrous. The very existence of the missions
depended on keeping these poor creatures in servitude. And as for
republicanism, that was incompatible with the government of the Church;
and, as good Catholics and priests, they solemnly protested against it.
Had these missionaries been as poor as the apostles, they probably
would not have been disturbed for their want of republicanism. But
their wealth proved their ruin, and the ruin of Upper California.
The new republic was at peace, and the surplus soldiery had to be got
rid of. It was not safe to disband them at home, where they might take
to the roads and become successful robbers; but 1500 of the worst were
selected for a distant expedition--the conquest of the far-off
territory of California. And then a general was found who was in all
respects worthy of his soldiery. He was pre-eminently the greatest
coward in the Mexican army--so great a coward, that he subsequently,
without striking a blow, surrendered a fort, with a garrison of 500
men, unconditionally, to a party of 50 foreigners.
MEXICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA.
Such was the great General Echandrea, the Mexican conqueror of
California; and such was the army that he led to the conquest of
unarmed priests and an unarmed province. It was a perilous
expedition--perilous, not to the soldiers, but to the villagers upon
their route. All dreaded their approach and rejoiced at their
departure, for their march through their own country was a continued
triumph, if one may judge from the amount of plunder they took from
their friends upon the road. It was an expedition that Falstaff would
have rejoiced to command, and his regiment would have distinguished
themselves in such a war. Dry and dusty were the desert plains over
which they marched, and dry and dusty were the throats of the army, for
_cigaritos_ were scarce, and _muscal_ could seldom be found. But the
toils of the long marches were relieved by frequent _fandangoes_, for
the wives that followed the expedition equaled the men in numbers and
courage.
This long journey, and these days of perilous marching and nights of
dancing, at length came to an end by their arrival at the enemy's
frontier--the frontier of California, which, to their joy, they found
unguarded; nor was there any found to dispute their passage or "to make
them afraid;" for, had there been fifty resolute persons to oppose
them, this valiant army would have absconded, and California would have
remained an appanage of the crown of Spain. But Providence had ordered
it otherwise; and this horde of vagabonds (_leperos_) came rushing
on, with their wives and children, until they reached the cattle-yards
(_corrals_), and then was displayed their valor and their capacity
for beef, and in the name of "God and Liberty" they gratified their
appetite for plunder. The priests, on their part, stood up manfully,
and witnessed a good confession. They refused to accept this phantom of
liberty which a party of vagabonds brought to them. The conquerors,
however, could afford to be magnanimous in the midst of so much good
eating, and no vengeance was inflicted upon unarmed men. But when the
prefect of the missions was shipped off to Manilla, the war was at an
end, for there was no means of defense, or, rather, it was changed from
a war against priests to one against the cattle.
Thus was California conquered and annexed to the United States of
Mexico in the year 1825, and the laws and constitution of that republic
extended over it. But it is an abuse of words to say that any law
existed from that time onward. The confusion produced by the irruption
of this horde of vagabonds continued uninterrupted, and it involved, in
one chaotic mass, law, order, and every public and private right. The
history of the country is inexplicable, and its public archives are a
mass of such gross irregularities, and show such a total disregard of
all law, that they are little better than the Sibylline leaves.
AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA.
The party that raised the "bear flag" met with no opposition. The party
that landed from the shipping, and took possession of Monterey and San
Francisco, were alike successful. But when a small party of American
soldiers, under General Kearney, entered the country from the west, the
_rancheros_ took the alarm, and rushed forth on their fleet horses to
defend their private property from spoliation, for they had no idea of
regular soldiers disconnected from robbery and cattle-stealing! The
Californians fought bravely, and hemmed in the little army of Americans
until they were in a suffering condition for provisions, and until the
dreaded hunters and trappers, and draughts from the shipping, routed
the herdsmen and released the beleaguered force. This is all there was
that looked like war in the American acquisition of this most valuable
territory.
Not only was there this similarity in respect to the inadequate means
by which Mexico and California were acquired, but there is also a
striking similarity in the fact of the immediate discovery of
inexhaustible mines of precious metals, that gave importance to an
otherwise comparatively insignificant conquest. Though so many
centuries apart, each produced the same effect upon the political
affairs of nations by suddenly furnishing the world with an abundant
supply of the precious metals. The mines of Mexico, with some small
supplies from South America, furnished the sinews of those religious
wars that desolated Europe after the Reformation, and enabled Spain to
maintain her vast armaments in the Spanish peninsula, and in her
Italian kingdoms and principalities, and in her Belgian provinces.
Spain was able to subsidize the armies of the Catholic League in
France, and the forces of the Catholic Princes of Germany, and to turn
back the tide of the Protestant Reformation after it had entered Italy,
overrun Navarre, and reached her own frontier. The gold of California
and Australia has furnished England the sinews by which she has set on
foot armies, and subsidized nations in the present crusade against
Russia.
At the time of the Reformation, all the precious metals were poured
into the lap of a fanatical Catholic government; now they are in
Protestant hands, and all, at last, find their resting-place, even
those of Mexico, in the London market; while out of English
Protestantism has our republic arisen, which is still united to her by
a common language, a common religion, and commercial relations, so that
the London market regulates the value of our stocks and the price of
the food we eat. But our common Protestantism is not the Protestantism
of the Reformation: that was the Protestantism of princes, and every
where rested for support upon state patronage, the people, in that
epoch, having no political existence. Protestantism was then a state
institution, and soon lost its vitality in such an unnatural alliance.
The Protestantism of our day is the Protestantism of dissent, which
rejects state support, yet has shown itself more powerful than
governments. It has restored peace to Ireland, and made its proselytes
there by tens of thousands after the last British regiment was
withdrawn. It has rent in twain the Church of Scotland, and is fast
revolutionizing the Church of England, by driving to Rome those who
prefer superstition to democracy, while it draws the remainder of the
nation to itself. In the United States it is the ruling power, though
it has here no political authority. It has penetrated the most obscure
hamlets of France and Spain, and made thousands of converts in Italy
itself. And where its preachers could not penetrate, there the written
Word has found its way.
MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO.
The letters of Cortez show that he, like his master, was above the
superstitions of the Spanish race; yet both, skillful diplomatists,
knew well how to avail themselves of the superstitions of others. The
early Spanish adventurers to Mexico were a good illustration of the
doctrine of total depravity, and the priests, that held them in
leading-strings, were as depraved as themselves. "Like priests, like
people." Our first settlers in California had learned self-government
and self-control in the school of Protestantism; and when they took
possession of that part of the country beyond the limit of Spanish
settlements, where there were no laws and no written code, they were a
law unto themselves, and the Spanish Americans that gathered about them
found more perfect protection to life and property than they had ever
before enjoyed. The Spanish adventurers at Mexico lavished the wealth
which they had acquired by the forced labor of the Indians in the mines
upon priests and monks, who amused them with lying miracles. They also
gave money as an atonement for the criminal lives they led, and to
shield themselves from the vengeance of the Inquisition, where they
were suspected of being rich. The religion of the Californians was a
simple veneration for the truths of Scripture. In some it amounted to
devotion, but it was devotion sanctioned by reason and the
understanding. They all alike despised superstition and abhorred
despotism. In conclusion, I may add, that, had such a race of men as I
saw in the mountains and villages of California at an early period of
its settlement existed at the time of the conquest of Mexico, they
would have revolutionized the world.
We have heard much of the immorality, excessive extravagance and luxury
of the cities of California; but the following picture of the state of
the city of Mexico in the heyday of its prosperity, five years before
it was destroyed by an inundation, is from the black-letter volume of
Thomas Gage, of which I have already availed myself.
"Almost all Mexico is now built with very fair and spacious houses,
with gardens of recreation. The streets are very broad; in the
narrowest of them three coaches may go, and in the broadest of them six
may go in the breadth of them, which makes the city seem a great deal
bigger than it is. In my time it was thought to be of between thirty
and forty thousand inhabitants, Spaniards, who are so proud and rich,
that half the city was judged to keep coaches; for it was a most
credible report that in Mexico there were about 15,000 coaches.
"It is a by-word that at Mexico there are four things fair; that is to
say, the women, the apparel, the horses, and the streets. But to this I
may add the beauty of some of the coaches of the gentry, which do
exceed in cost the best of the court of Madrid, and other parts of
Christendom, for they spare no silver, nor gold, nor precious stones,
nor cloth of gold, nor the best silks from China, to enrich them; and
to the gallantry of their horses the pride of some doth add the cost of
bridles and shoes of silver. The streets of Christendom must not
compare with those in breadth and cleanness, but especially in the
riches of the shops which do adorn them. Above all, the goldsmith's
shops and works are to be admired. The [East] Indians, and the people
of China, that have been made Christians, and every year come thither,
have perfected the Spaniards in that trade. There is in the cloister of
the Dominicans a lamp hanging in the Church, with three hundred
branches wrought in silver, to hold so many candles, besides a hundred
little lamps for oil set in it, every one being made with several
workmanship so exquisitely that it is valued to be worth four hundred
thousand ducats; and with such like curious works are many streets made
more rich and beautiful from the shops of goldsmiths.
"To the by-word touching the beauty of the women I must add the liberty
they enjoy for gaming, which is such that the day and night is too
short for them to end a _primera_ when once it is begun; nay, gaming is
so common to them, that they invite gentlemen to their houses for no
other end. To myself it happened that, passing along the streets in
company with a friar that came with me the year before from Spain, a
gentlewoman of great birth, knowing us to be new-comers, from her
window called unto us, and, after two or three slight questions
concerning Spain, asked us if we would come in and play with her a game
at _primera_. Both men and women are excessive in their apparel, using
more silks than stuffs and cloth. Precious stones and pearls farther
much this vain ostentation. A hatband and rose made of diamonds in a
gentleman's hat is common, and a hatband of pearls is ordinary in a
tradesman; nay, a blackamore, or tawney young maid and slave, will make
hard shift but she will be in fashion with her neck-chain and Bracelets
of pearls, and her ear-bobs of considerable jewels.
[Illustration: MEXICAN COSTUMES.]
"Their clothing is a petticoat of silk or cloth, with many silver or
golden laces, with a very double ribbon of some light color, with long
silver or golden tags hanging down in front the whole length of their
petticoat to the ground, and the like behind; their waistcoats made
like bodies, with skirts, laced likewise with gold and silver, without
sleeves, and a girdle about their waist of great price, stuck with
pearls and knobs of gold. Their sleeves are broad and open at the end,
of Holland or fine China linen, wrought, some with colored silks, some
with silk and gold, some with silk and silver, hanging down almost to
the ground; the locks of their heads are covered with some wrought
quoif, and over it another of net-work of silk, bound with a fair silk,
or silver, or golden ribbon, which crosses the upper part of their
foreheads, and hath commonly worked out in letters some light and
foolish love posie; their bare, black, and tawney breasts, are covered
with bobs hanging from their chains of pearls. And when they go abroad,
they use a white mantle of lawn or cambric, rounded with a broad lace,
which some put over their heads, the breadth reaching only to their
middles behind, that their girdle and ribbons may be seen, and the two
ends before reaching to the ground almost; others cast their mantles
only upon their shoulders; and swaggerers like to cast the one end over
the left shoulder, while with their right arm they support the lower
part of it, more like roaring boys than honest civil maids. Their shoes
are high and of many soles, the outside whereof of the profaner sort
are plated over with a lift of silver, which is fastened with small
nails with broad silver heads. Most of these are or have been slaves,
though love have set them loose at liberty to enslave souls to sin and
Satan; and for the looseness of their lives, and public scandals
committed by them and the better sort of the Spaniards, I have heard
them say often, who possessed more religion and fear of God, they
verily thought God would destroy that city, and give up the country
into the power of some other nation.
"And I doubt not but the flourishing of Mexico in coaches, horses,
streets, women, and apparel, is very slippery, and will make those
proud inhabitants slip and fall into the power and dominion of some
other prince of this world, and hereafter, in the world to come, into
the powerful hands of an angry Judge, who is the King of kings and Lord
of lords, which Paul saith (Heb. x. 31) is a fearful thing. For this
city doth not only flourish in the ways aforesaid, but also in the
superstitious worshiping of God and the saints they exceed Rome itself,
and all other places of Christendom. And it is a thing which I have
very much and carefully observed in all my travels, both in Europe and
America, that in those cities wherein there is most lewd licentiousness
of life, there is also most cost in the temples, and most public
superstitious worship of God and the saints."
So much for worthy Thomas Gage, and his estimate of the Mexicans of his
day.
AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA.
I arrived at San Francisco in the midst of the gold excitement. The
town was crowded with rough-looking muscular men in red shirts, slouch
hats, and trowsers over which were drawn high-topped boots. A Colt's
revolver, a belt filled with gold, and an unshaven visage completed the
_tout ensemble_ of a crowd who were purchasing supplies for their
companions in the mines. They strode along, conscious that they
belonged to the Anglo-Saxon race and the aristocracy of labor. As they
turned into the temporary houses or booths which then constituted the
town, or threaded their way among the piles of merchandise that
encumbered the streets, the effeminate natives instinctively shrunk
back, conscious of their own imbecility; the Spanish Americans were
overawed by their presence; and even Sidney convicts thought it most
profitable to turn their thoughts to honest labor.
The miner had his vices too as well as his virtues. If you will follow
him as he opens right and left a crowd that surrounds a table heaped
with lumps of gold and silver coin, you will see how carelessly he
throws down a piece of metal, looking sharply into the eye of the
cunning dealer of the monte cards. If he detects a false move, he cocks
his weapon, and draws the gold back into his bag and strides away.
Such were the men who knew no fear, and dreaded no labor or fatigue,
and who have made California in five short years a state more powerful
than the Republic of Mexico.
In an interior town I was called to practice as an attorney. My first
client was the driver of an ox-team, who was suing for extra services
in addition to his regular wages of five hundred dollars a month and
board (Doe _vs._ Pickett). My office was a space of four feet by six,
partitioned off by two cotton sheets, in the corner of a canvas store.
The ground was for a while the floor; yet I paid in advance the monthly
rent of two ounces of gold, and never had occasion to regret the
outlay. The heavy winter rains at length compelled my landlord to lay a
floor of rough boards, which cost him seven hundred dollars for a
thousand feet.
Before the establishment of the state government, there was a judiciary
created by an autocratical edict of General Riley; and a pamphlet,
extracted and translated from the Mexican Constitutional laws of 1836,
constituted the _Corpus Juris Civilis_ of the Territory of California.
The remainder of the law was made up of the judge's ideas of equity,
and of the law he had read before leaving home. Inartificial and rude
as was this system, still it was wonderfully efficient; and it was well
for the people of California that it was so, for an unparalleled
immigration had brought with it an unparalleled amount of litigation.
With the daily occurring causes of litigation, crowds assembled at the
school-house on the Plaza, where from morning to night sat a judge
dispensing off-hand justice. In front of him sat three or four clerks
conducting the business. The crowds of lawyers, litigants, and
witnesses that surrounded the court were not idle spectators, but
represented the ordinary accumulation of business for the day, which
was to be disposed of before the adjournment of the court. Speedy
justice was more desirable than exact justice, where labor was valued
at a gold ounce a day; and none were more desirous of speed than the
lawyers, whose prospects of compensation depended much upon the
promptitude with which judgment was rendered.
The moving spirit of the whole scene, Judge A----, watched from behind
the desk all that was said or done, seldom withdrawing his attention
unless to administer an oath for the consideration of one dollar, or to
sign an order for the consideration of two dollars. Sometimes he would
change his position; but, whether warming his uncovered feet at the
fire-place, or drawing on his boots, or replenishing his stock of
tobacco, there was the same unalterable attention on his part. As soon
as he comprehended a case, his authoritative voice was heard, closing
the discussion, and dictating to a clerk the exact number of dollars
and cents for which he should enter up a judgment. And then another,
and another case was called up, and submitted to this summary process,
until about nine o'clock at night, when the day's work terminated. All
orders asked for by a responsible attorney were granted _ex parte_, the
judge remarking that if the order was not a proper one, the other party
would soon appear, and then he could ascertain the real merits of the
case. The grand feature of this court was the facility with which an
injunction could be obtained, and the rapidity with which it could be
set aside.
CALIFORNIAN COURTS.
Crime was almost unknown until we got a state government and a code of
laws, which, with misplaced philanthropy, had made the legal practice
so easy upon criminals that a conviction was next to impossible. Then
it was that crime stalked abroad in the face of day, and Sidney
convicts plied their trade in San Francisco after it had become a city.
Shops were entered and robbed in business hours; and by night, men were
murdered in the streets; and thefts escaped punishment. Then it was
that men, caught in the commission of crime, were hanged in the open
streets, and combinations were formed for self-defense. But when a new
Legislature gave efficiency to the laws, the community yielded a
willing obedience to the magistrate. From an early day there had been
"miners' courts," which, with their alcaldes, had conciliated
differences. But when magistrates were elected, these courts
disappeared. This was a change from bad to worse, for no condition is
so deplorable as that of a people whose magistracy are powerless.
Such is a fair picture of California in its worst estate, when the
worst and the best of all nations were there congregated, and kept in
subjection by the law-abiding spirit of an Anglo-Saxon immigration--a
state of society in the first year of its existence, yet infinitely
superior to that existing in the city of Mexico a hundred years after
the discovery of the mines of Haxal and Pachuca. But we may complete
the contrast by adding the more deplorable part of the picture which
Friar Thomas Gage has drawn.
"It seems," says he, "that religion teaches that all wickedness is
allowable, so that the churches and clergy flourish. Nay, while the
purse is open to lasciviousness, if it be likewise open to enrich the
temple walls and roofs, this is better than any holy water, or water to
wash away the filth of the other. Rome is held to be the head of
superstition; and what stately churches, chapels, and cloisters are in
it! What fastings, what processions, what appearances of devotion! And,
on the other side, what liberty, what profaneness, what whoredoms, nay,
what sins of Sodom are committed in it, insomuch that it could be the
saying of a friar to myself, while I was in it, that he verily thought
there was no one city in the world wherein were more Atheists than in
Rome. I might show this much in Madrid, Seville, Valladolid, and other
famous cities in Spain and in Italy; in Milan, Genoa, and Naples;
relating many instances of scandals committed in those places, and yet
the temples are mightily enriched by those who have thought their alms
a sufficient warrant to free them from hell and purgatory. But I must
return to Mexico, which furnishes a thousand witnesses of this
truth--sin and wickedness abounding in it--and yet no such people in
the world toward the Church and clergy. In their lifetime they strive
to excel one another in their gifts to the cloisters of nuns and
friars, some erecting altars to their best-devoted saints, worth many
thousand ducats, others presenting crowns of gold to the pictures of
Mary, others lamps, others golden chains, others building cloisters at
their own charge, others repairing them, others, at their death,
leaving to them two or three thousand ducats for an annual stipend.
MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO.
"Among these great benefactors to the churches of that city, I should
wrong my history if I should forget one that lived in my time, called
Alonzo Cuellar, who was reported to have a closet in his house laid
with bars of gold instead of brick; though indeed it was not so, but
only reported for his abundant riches and store of bars of gold, which
he had in one chest, standing in a closet distant from another, where
he had a chest full of wedges of silver. This man alone built a nunnery
for Franciscan nuns, which stood him in above 30,000 ducats, and left
unto it, for the maintenance of the nuns, 2000 ducats yearly, with
obligation of some masses to be said in the church every year for his
soul after his decease. And yet this man's life was so scandalous, that
commonly, in the night, with two servants, he would go round the city
visiting such scandalous persons, whose attire before hath been
described, carrying his beads in his hands, and at every house letting
fall a bead, and tying a false knot, that when he came home in the
morning, toward break of the day, he might number by his beads the
uncivil stations he had walked and visited that night.
"Great alms and liberality toward religious houses in that city
commonly are coupled with great and scandalous wickedness. They wallow
in the bed of riches and wealth, and make their alms the coverlet to
cover their loose and lascivious lives. From hence are the churches so
fairly built and adorned. There are not above fifty churches and
chapels, cloisters and nunneries, and parish churches in the city; but
those that are there are the fairest that ever my eyes beheld, the
roofs and beams being, in many of them, all daubed with gold, and many
altars with sundry marble pillars, and others with Brazil-wood stays
standing one above another, with tabernacles for several saints, richly
wrought with golden colors, so that twenty thousand ducats is a common
price of many of them. These cause admiration in the common sort of
people, and admiration brings on daily adoration in them to those
glorious spectacles and images of saints; so Satan shows Christ all the
glory of the kingdoms to entice him to admiration, and then he said,
'_All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship
me_' (Matthew, iv. 8, 9). The devil will give all the world to be
adored.
"Besides these beautiful buildings, the inward riches belonging to the
altars are infinite in price and value, such as copes, canopies,
hangings, altar-cloths, candlesticks, jewels belonging to the saints,
and crowns of gold and silver, and tabernacles of gold and crystal to
carry about their sacrament [the Saviour of the world in the form of a
wafer] in procession, all of which would mount to the worth of a
reasonable mine of silver, and would be a rich prey for any nation that
could make better use of wealth and riches. I will not speak much of
the lives of the friars and nuns of this city, but only that they there
enjoy more liberty than in Europe--where they have too much--and that
surely the scandals committed by them do cry up to Heaven for
vengeance, judgment, destruction.
"It is ordinary for the friars to visit their devoted nuns, and to
spend whole days with them, hearing their music, feeding on their
sweetmeats; and for this purpose they have many chambers, which they
call _loquatories_, to talk in, with wooden bars between the nuns and
them; and in these chambers are tables for the friars to dine at, and
while they dine the nuns recreate them with their voices. Gentlemen and
citizens give their daughters to be brought up in these nunneries,
where they are taught to make all sorts of conserves and preserves, all
sorts of music, which is so exquisite in that city that I dare be bold
to say that the people are drawn to churches more for the delight of
the music than for any delight in the service of God. More, they teach
these young children to act like players; and, to entice the people to
the churches, they make these children act short dialogues in their
choirs, richly attiring them with men and women's apparel, especially
upon Midsummer's day and the eight days before their Christmas, which
is so gallantly performed that many factious strifes and single combats
have been, and some were in my time, for defending which of these
nunneries most excelled in music and in the training up of children."
Such is a picture drawn by a candid writer of one of the most devout
Catholic cities in the world, where licentiousness and papacy went hand
in hand until they reached that extreme point of corruption, that, as
in the case of Sodom, God overthrew the city by a judgment from heaven;
not by fire and brimstone, but by a water-spout, which, in the space of
the five years that it lay upon the town three feet deep, loosened the
foundations of all buildings and impoverished the inhabitants. And when
at length the earth opened and swallowed up these waters, the city had
to be rebuilt. The misery and distress that this flood inflicted upon
the lower orders of the inhabitants was great in the extreme.
It was on Sunday morning that the cause of the moral superiority of the
American miners over those of Mexico was visible. Then the noise and
bustle about my residence was hushed. The most immoral seemed to be
overawed by a sense of respect for the religious opinions of others;
and when the sound of a ship-bell, hung on the limb of a tree, was
heard, all except the baser sort repaired to the shade of an oak, so
large and venerable that it might have shielded the whole household of
Abraham while engaged in family worship. A portable seraphine gave
forth a familiar tune, in which all joined in singing with a zest which
is only realized by those whom it carries back in recollection to
distant home. Then the voice of the preacher was heard invoking the
blessing of God upon the assembled worshipers, and his pardon of their
offenses; and then followed his exhortation to seek from God the pardon
of their many sins; and as he, with heartfelt earnestness, "reasoned of
righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come," many a
stern-visaged miner trembled for his condition, and went away a better
and a more honest man--ten thousand times more improved than if he had
presented a crown of gold to the Virgin Mary.
We are now prepared to enter the valley of Mexico, and examine the
objects that there present themselves.
[26] _Colleccion de Leyes_, p. 180.
[27] "The whole Pacific coast produces pearls, but the most
extensive pearl-fisheries, at the present time, are in the Gulf
of California, where, among an inexhaustible supply of little
pearls, there are produced some of the very finest quality. The
pearls of the Countess de Regla, those of the Marquesa de
Gudalupe, and Madame Velasco, are from these fisheries, and are
remarkable for their great size and value. The great pearl
presented to General Victoria, while he was President, was from
the same locality." (WARD, vol. ii. p. 293.)
"The pearls of this gulf are considered of excellent water, but
their rather irregular figure somewhat reduces their value. The
manner of obtaining pearls is not without interest. The vessels
employed in the fisheries are from fifteen to thirty tons burden.
They are usually fitted out by private individuals. The armador
or owner commands them. Crews are shipped to work them, and from
forty to fifty Indians, called Busos, to dive for the oyster. A
stock of provisions and spirits, a small sum of money to advance
the people during the cruise, a limited supply of calaboose
furniture, a sufficient number of hammocks to sleep in, and a
quantity of ballast, constitute nearly all the cargo outward
bound.
"Thus arranged, they sail into the Gulf; and, having arrived at
the oyster banks, cast anchor and commence business. The divers
are first called to duty. They plunge to the bottom in four or
five fathom water, dig up with sharpened sticks as many oysters
as they are able, rise to the surface, and deposit them in sacks
hung to receive them at the vessel's side. And thus they continue
to do till the sacks are filled, or the hours allotted to this
part of the labor are ended.
"When the diving of the day is done, all come on board and place
themselves in a circle around the armador, who divides what they
have obtained in the following manner: two oysters for himself,
the same number for the Busos, or divers, and one for the
government. This division having been concluded, they next
proceed, without moving from their places, to open the oysters
which have fallen to the lot of the armador. During this
operation, that dignitary has to watch the Busos with the
greatest scrutiny, to prevent them from swallowing the pearls
with the oysters, a trick which they perform with so much
dexterity as to almost defy detection, and by means of which they
often manage to secrete the most valuable pearls.
"The government portion is next opened with the same precautions,
and taken into possession by the armador. And, last of all, the
Busos open theirs, and sell them to the armador in liquidation of
debts incurred for their outfits, or of moneys advanced during
the voyage. They usually reserve a few to sell to dealers on
shore, who always accompany these expeditions with spirituous
liquors, chocolate, sugar, cigars, and other articles of which
Indian divers are especially fond. Since the Mexicans obtained
their independence, another mode of division has been adopted.
Every time the Busos come up, the largest oyster which he has
obtained is taken by the armador, and laid aside for the use of
the Virgin Mary. The rest are thrown in a pile; and, when the
day's diving is ended, eight oysters are laid out for the
armador, eight for the Busos, and two for the government.
"In the year 1831, one vessel with seventy Busos, another with
fifty, and two with thirty each, and two boats with ten each,
from the coast of Sonora, engaged in this fishery. The one
brought in forty ounces of pearls, valued at $6500; another,
twenty-one ounces, valued at $3000; another, twelve ounces,
valued at $2000, and the two boats a proportionate quantity.
There were, in the same season, ten or twelve other vessels, from
other parts, employed in the same trade, which, if equally
successful, swelled the value of pearls taken in that year to the
sum of more than forty thousand dollars."--FARNHAM'S _Scenes in
the Pacific_, p. 307.