Since we have no other information and since there is no obvious tribal
designation associated with the region, the geographical description
will have to suffice to designate the area.
The aboriginal population of the East Bay was tentatively estimated from
the village counts of the Fages and Anza expeditions as 2,400 and 2,150,
respectively. It is possible to arrive at a new and independent estimate
by means of the mission statistics.
The missionaries, or their agents, entered the area in question and
sought converts to Christianity, who were immediately baptized and
entered in the mission archive as Christians. Alameda and Contra Costa
counties, except for the extreme eastern border in the San Joaquin
Valley, were completely Christianized by 1810. Theoretically,
therefore, the total baptisms should equal the population. However,
during the process of conversion a serious population decline was in
progress for other reasons. Disease, fugitivism to the deep interior,
depression of the birth rate, economic and social upheaval, military
butchery, all took such a toll of the nonmissionized, or surviving,
Indians that certainly no more than one-half of the aboriginal number
could have been actually baptized. At all events, the total number of
baptisms represents a subminimal estimate of population.
The baptisms are here tabulated according to the mission and according
to the five areas described previously. No attempt is made to segregate
the entries by year, since we are interested in the total, not the
annual increment. Certain particular problems deserve comment.
The San Francisco record is very precise, since it allocates each
neophyte to his rancheria, or at least to the local region of his
origin. Santa Clara, however, as noted previously, gives no indication
of the origin before 1805. By this time, all the local natives had been
exhausted and only valley tribes are mentioned. It is probable that from
1777 to 1789 the natives in the immediate vicinity were being converted.
From 1790 to 1801, inclusive, 1,392 baptisms of gentiles were recorded.
Some of these came from the south and the southwest, some from the hills
to the east, and probably some represented early conquests in the San
Joaquin Valley. Many, however, must have come from the north and
northeast, in particular, before the foundation of San Jose in 1797. A
conservative guess for this fraction would be 400, and this figure will
be adopted.
San Jose, from 1797 to 1802 inclusive, indicates the origin of its
converts only by general area or direction, as previously pointed out.
Some arbitrary allocation is demanded. Hence, as a reasonable solution,
those natives from "Palos colorados," "de la Alameda," "del Estero," and
"del Sur" are assigned to area 1. Those from "del Norte" are considered
Huchiun and those "del Este" are allocated to area 5. After 1802, the
San Jose records specify the villages, which are all from area 5. The
tabulated totals are shown at bottom of page.
The total for San Francisco and San Jose equals 1,848 baptisms. Adding
an estimated 400 for Santa Clara makes 2,248. This figure, which has to
be regarded as a minimum for population since it covers only mission
baptisms from the region, is as great as the estimates based on the
expeditions of the first decade of settlement, and proves beyond
question that those estimates were highly conservative. If we assume
that the aboriginal population was twice the value of the baptisms, the
total would have reached 4,496. If it be allowed that conversion close
to the missions was exceptionally rapid and thorough, a somewhat lower
figure may be accepted, say 3,000. This estimate, however, must be
regarded as the lowest consistent with the known facts.
Although little direct information pertaining to population
can be secured, it is nevertheless interesting to consider the
prehistoric sites in the East Bay which have been noted by California
archaeologists. Most of those which can be regarded as habitation mounds
have been recorded by the University of California Archaeological
Survey, and have been plotted on map 1.