After the return of Anza to Monterey in 1776 the San Francisco Presidio
was founded. After this a joint expedition was sent out under Jose
Joaquin Moraga and Francisco Quiros. The latter was to proceed by water
and the former by land to a junction near the mouths of the rivers. The
plan, however, miscarried, and Moraga went off on the earliest and the
least known exploration of the main San Joaquin River. Meanwhile Quiros,
with Jose Canizares and Father Pedro Cambon, sailed up the Bay to a
point quite close to that described by Canizares in his first trip. The
only account we have of this journey is contained in Palou's New
California (1926, IV: 127-130). No details of ecological interest are
given and there is no mention of natives. For a detailed discussion of
the exploration, reference may be made to Cutter (1950, pp. 24-26).
One further document requires mention at this point: The Historical,
Political and Natural Description of California, by Pedro Fages, as
translated by Herbert I. Priestley (1937). Written in 1775, this little
volume has become a classic for its thorough and sympathetic description
of the Indians of California by one who was in a position to write on
the subject. Unfortunately, however, Fages discusses the Indians of the
San Francisco Mission area and of the Central Valley of the interior,
but he does not specifically refer to the natives of the East Bay. Hence
his essay must be passed over with this brief citation.
Following the series of explorations which culminated in the Anza
Expedition of 1776, little further official notice was taken of the East
Bay counties until approximately 1794. There is an item in the Bancroft
Library Transcript series (hereafter designated Bancroft Transcripts, or
Bancroft Trans.), consisting of a letter from Fages to Moraga, January
23, 1783 (Prov. Rec., III: 83), noting that the latter had pursued the
"indios gentiles Serranos" who had killed 18 head of livestock belonging
to the Mission of San Jose. It is probable that many other unrecorded
punitive expeditions were being undertaken throughout the two decades
from 1775 to 1795.
In 1793 there was activity along the coast, in the course of which
Lieutenant Francisco Eliza spent approximately two weeks exploring the
Bay, but the documents available (Cutter, 1950, p. 29; Archivo General
de la Nacion, Mexico, Ramo Historia, Vol. 71, Expediente on Matute and
the Bodega Settlement, and Account by Eliza, dated November 4, 1793, at
San Blas) include no details of topography, vegetation, or ethnography
worth recording.
Late in the following year, 1794, trouble began with the natives of the
Contra Costa. The immediate cause appears to have been the zeal of the
missionaries to push conversion in the area. On November 30, 1794, the
military commander at San Francisco, Perez-Fernandez, wrote to Governor
Borica (Bancroft Trans., Prov. St. Pap., XII: 29-30) that "the
missionaries of San Francisco have requested an additional two or three
men for the guard in order to go from Santa Clara to the other shore, in
a northerly direction, as far as opposite the port [of San Francisco] to
make conquests of the heathen...." The request was refused for reasons
which in themselves throw light on the status of the East Bay natives:
1st. Because it is almost unknown country: there are indications
that the heathen who occupy it are uncooperative.
2nd. He [the Commandant] does not believe that a priest, with two
or three soldiers and some Christian Indians, constitutes a
party sufficiently strong to cross and camp overnight in
strange territory.
3rd. Although the Fathers believe this to be a favorable
opportunity, because the heathen lack food, having lost
their crop due to the severity of the drouth, and this
will facilitate catching them, he does not have the means
at his disposal for expeditions of this type.
Nevertheless, such forays were already in progress, for Perez-Fernandez
reported that the Fathers at San Francisco "sent by sea to the islands
and other shore opposite the mouth of the port some Mission Indians in
rafts of tule on the 4th of this month to capture heathen." One of the
rafts was carried as far out to sea as the Farallones, and two men were
lost.
On March 3, 1795, Perez-Fernandez again wrote to Governor Borica from
San Francisco (Bancroft Trans., Prov. St. Pap., XIII: 455-456.). (This,
and many other letters cited here, are also to be found in the Archivo
General de la Nacion, Mexico City, Ramo Californias, Vol. 65, Expediente
no. 3, entitled "Sobre la Muerte que dieron los Indios Gentiles a siete
Indios cristianos de la Mission de San Fran^{co}.") He now announced the
murder by the heathen of seven Christian Indians sent across the bay by
Fray Antonio Danti to hunt for runaway neophytes. The culprits belonged
to the rancheria of the Chaclanes, and, says Perez-Fernandez, "these
rancherias of the Chaclanes are in the country where the said Father
Danti wanted to go, and whom I prevented from going, as I told your
Excellency under date of November 29 last."
A lively correspondence ensued, reference to most of which may be
omitted. An investigation was inaugurated and some type of scouting
party was sent out. At least, we have record of a letter dated at
Monterey, June 2, 1795, from Governor Borica to Jose Perez (Bancroft
Trans., Prov. Rec., V: 56) in which the Governor orders Perez "to tell
Sergeant Amador that he has received the report he sent concerning the
reconnaissance to the Alameda, and that he shall continue this with the
others who went with him." This is no doubt the expedition by Amador
referred to by Danti in his diary (see below).
On June 23, 1795, from Monterey, Governor Borica rendered a full and
final account of the affair to Viceroy Branciforte (Archivo General de
la Nacion, Californias, Vol. 65, Expediente no. 3, "Sobra la muerte ..."
etc. Doc. no. 122, MS p. 79). Parts of this document are worth quoting.
One of the survivors was a neophyte named Othon, whose story follows.
Five old Christian Indians set out from the San Francisco
Mission, including the alcaldes Pasqual and Rogerio, together
with nine new Christians of the rancherias from the other shore
of the bay, with orders from Father Missionary Fray Antonio
Danti to bring back all the Christians who had run away. On the
first day they crossed the bay in their boats and slept on the
beach. On the second day at dawn they set out for the rancheria
of the Chaclanes where they arrived at noon, and not having
found any people in it, they kept on all that day and all night,
travelling without sleep or rest, in spite of the rain, and
reached the rancheria of the Chimenes at about two o'clock in
the afternoon. They encountered there a great multitude, as many
as there are in the mission [perhaps 900, according to Borica].
The men, armed with bows and arrows, came out of a big temascal
with such a rush that they broke it to pieces, immediately
beginning to shoot arrows, shouting, "Kill our enemies." The
alcaldes, seeing this violence, tried to persuade the natives
that we had not come to fight or to do harm, but the others took
no heed and kept on shooting until they killed as many as
seven....
Governor Borica goes on to say:
This Othon and others told me that these Chimenes Indians are of
a rough and valiant nature. They are at continual war with the
neighboring villages, and particularly with the Tegunes. They
live toward the north coast in the vicinity of the Port of
Bodega. Their food is amole, bellota and pinole and their chiefs
are called Mule and Yuma.
The identity of these Chimenes is something of a mystery. Certainly the
Christian Indians, after leaving the rancheria of the Chaclanes (i.e.,
Saclanes), somewhere behind the Oakland hills, could not have even
approached the port of Bodega, for they could not have crossed the Bay
and the rivers on foot. Yet they traveled twenty-four hours, if Othon's
account is even approximately correct. Hence they must have covered
fully twenty-five or thirty miles, a distance which would have brought
them to some point on the south shore of Carquinez Strait or Suisun Bay.
If this is true, then they encountered representatives of the Huchiunes,
the Karkines, or the Chupunes, the only tribal groups known definitely
to have inhabited the area. The statements of Othon, as transmitted by
the Governor, regarding the number of Chimenes, as well as their
ferocity, must be heavily discounted (although the smashing of the
temescal is a touch which would hardly be supplied by imagination
alone). One hundred, or even fifty, infuriated warriors would no doubt
have appeared to be thousands to the fourteen terrified Christians, and
the Governor would hardly want to report to the viceroy that his Mission
Indians had been routed by a handful of wild natives. On the other hand,
the incident proves the existence of a sizable rancheria somewhere in
northern Contra Costa County in 1795.