[Illustration: NEVADA FALLS (height 617 feet). Yosemite Valley.]
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
BY
ELLA M. SEXTON
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1903
_All rights reserved_
1902,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up, electrotyped, and published September, 1902. Reprinted
October, 1903.
Normond Press J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass.,
U.S.A.
FOREWORD
To recount in simple, accurate narratives the early conditions and
subsequent development of California is the purpose of this book. In
attempting to picture the romantic events embodied in the wonderful
history of the state, and to make each sketch clear and concise as
well as interesting, the author has avoided many dry details and
dates.
Several of the stories endeavor to explain the remarkable physical
characteristics of California. The work to this end was rendered
lighter by the hope that the reader might find the book merely an
introduction to that larger knowledge of personal observation and
inquiry.
But the writer's chief aim has been to interest the children of
California in the beautiful land of their birth, to unfold to them the
life and occurrences of bygone days, and to lead them to note and to
enjoy their fortunate surroundings.
Among the many authorities consulted for the work, special
acknowledgment is due to the historians, Theodore H. Hittell and H.H.
Bancroft.
CONTENTS
CALIFORNIA'S NAME AND EARLY HISTORY
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS AND OF FATHER SERRA
BEFORE THE GRINGOS CAME
THE AMERICANS AND THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC
THE DAYS OF GOLD AND THE ARGONAUTS OF '49
MINING STORIES
HOW POLLY ELLIOTT CAME ACROSS THE PLAINS
THE BUILDING OF THE OVERLAND RAILROAD
STORY OF THE WHEAT FIELDS
ORCHARD, FARM, AND VINEYARD
THE STORY OF THE NAVEL ORANGE
THE LEMON
FLOWERS AND PLANTS
THE BIG TREES AND LUMBERING
OUR BIRDS
OUR WILD ANIMALS
IN SALT WATER AND FRESH
ABOUT CALIFORNIA'S INDIANS
THE STORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
MEN CALIFORNIA REMEMBERS
OUR GLORIOUS CLIMATE
SOME WONDERFUL SIGHTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
NEVADA FALLS (height 617 feet), YOSEMITE VALLEY
FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA
MISSION CHURCH, MONTEREY
OLD SAN DIEGO MISSION. Founded 1769
MISSION SAN LUIS REY. Founded 1798
MISSION DOLORES. Established 1776
SANTA BARBARA MISSION. Founded 1786
UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER
PLACER GOLD MINING. Washing with Cradle
AN ORANGE TREE WITH FRUIT AND BLOSSOMS
PALMS OVER 100 YEARS OLD AT LOS ANGELES
HOP VINES
AMONG THE HOP VINES
WHITE SANTA BARBARA POPPY
WILD CALIFORNIA POPPY
IN A MISSION GARDEN
A CHRISTMAS GARDEN
"WAWONA" (28 feet in diameter)
THE GRIZZLY GIANT (33 feet in diameter)
BIG TREES AT FELTON, SANTA CRUZ CO.
YOUNG TOWHEE
BABY YELLOW WARBLERS. From photographs by Elizabeth Grinnell
CALIFORNIA RED DEER. From a photograph by George V. Robinson
LEAPING TUNA
BLACK SEA BASS
HUMPBACK WHALE (57 feet long)
TROUT FROM LAKE TAHOE
INDIAN WOMAN WITH PAPPOOSE
INDIAN WOMAN WITH BASKETS
INDIAN BASKETS
SEAL ROCKS, SAN FRANCISCO
THE NEW CLIFF HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO
ENTRANCE TO JAPANESE TEA GARDEN, SAN FRANCISCO
FALLEN LEAF LAKE
MOUNT SHASTA FROM STRAWBERRY VALLEY
"EL CAPITAN" (3300 feet in height)
YOSEMITE FALLS
NATURAL BRIDGE, SANTA CRUZ
[Compiler's note 1: Four illustrations were omitted from the published
book, but were listed in the Illustrations pages.]
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA'S NAME AND EARLY HISTORY
A Spanish story written four hundred years ago speaks of California as
an island rich in pearls and gold. Only black women lived there, the
story says, and they had golden spears, and collars and harness of
gold for the wild beasts which they had tamed to ride upon. This
island was said to be at a ten days' journey from Mexico, and was
supposed to lie near Asia and the East Indies.
Among those who believed such fairy tales about this wonderful island
of California was Cortes, a Spanish soldier and traveller. He had
conquered Mexico in 1521 and had made Montezuma, the Mexican emperor,
give him a fortune in gold and precious stones. Then Cortes wished
to find another rich country to capture, and California, he thought,
would be the very place. He wrote home to Spain promising to bring
back gold from the island, and also silks, spices, and diamonds from
Asia. For he was sure that the two countries were near together, and
that both might be found in the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, as he
called it, by sailing northwest.
So for years Cortes built ships in New Spain (or Mexico), and sent out
men to hunt for this golden island. They found the Gulf of California,
and at last Cortes himself sailed up and down its waters. He explored
the land on both sides, and saw only poor, naked Indians who had a few
pearls but no gold. Cortes never found the golden island. We should
remember, however, that his ships first sailed on the North Pacific
and explored Lower California, and that he first used the name
California for the peninsula.
It was left for a Portuguese ship-captain called Cabrillo to find the
port of San Diego in 1542. He was the first white man to land upon
the shores of California, as we know it. Afterwards he sailed north to
Monterey. Many Indians living along the coast came out to his ship
in canoes with fish and game for the white men. Then Cabrillo sailed
north past Monterey Bay, and almost in sight of the Golden Gate. But
the weather was rough and stormy, and without knowing of the fine
harbor so near him, he turned his ship round and sailed south again.
He reached the Santa Barbara Islands, intending to spend the winter
there, but he died soon after his arrival. The people of San Diego
now honor Cabrillo with a festival every year. He was the sea-king who
found their bay and first set foot on California ground.
About this time Magellan had discovered the Philippine Islands, and
Spain began to send ships from Mexico to those islands to buy silks,
spices, and other rich treasures. The Spanish galleons, or vessels,
loaded with their costly freight, used to come home by crossing
the Pacific to Cape Mendocino, and then sailing down the coast of
California to Mexico. Before long the English, who hated Spain and
were at war with her, sent out brave sea-captains to capture the
Spanish galleons and their cargoes. Sir Francis Drake, one of the
boldest Englishmen, knew this South Sea very well, and on a ship
called the _Golden Hind_ (which meant the Golden Deer), he came to the
New World and captured every Spanish vessel he sighted. He loaded
his ship with their treasures, gold and silver bars, chests of
silver money, velvets and silks, and wished to take his cargo back to
England. He tried to find a northern, or shorter way home, and at last
got so far north that his sailors suffered from cold, and his ship was
nearly lost. Obliged to sail south, he found a sheltered harbor near
Point Reyes, and landed there in 1579. Drake claimed the new country
for the English Queen, Elizabeth, and named it New Albion. A great
many friendly Indians in the neighborhood brought presents of feather
and bead work to the commander and his men. These Indians killed
small game and deer with bows and arrows, and had coats or mantles
of squirrel skins.
[Illustration: FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA.]
Drake and his sailors repaired and refitted their vessel during the
month they stayed at Drake's Bay. They made several trips inland also
and saw the pine and redwood forests with many deer feeding on the
hills; but they did not discover San Francisco Bay. On leaving New
Albion, Drake sailed the _Golden Hind_ across the Pacific to the East
Indies and the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope home to
England, with all the treasure he had taken. The queen received him
with great honors and his ship was kept a hundred years in memory of
the brave admiral, who had commanded it on this voyage.
During the next century several English commanders of vessels sailed
the South Sea while hunting Spanish galleons to capture, and these
ships often touched at Lower California for fresh water. Some of
the captains explored the coast and traded with the Indians, but no
settlements were made.
Then the Spanish tried to find and settle the country they had heard
so many reports of, thinking to provide stations where their trading
ships might anchor for supplies and protection. Viscaino, on his
second voyage for this purpose, landed at San Diego in 1602. Sailing
on to the island he named Santa Catalina, Viscaino found there a tribe
of fine-looking Indians who had large houses and canoes. They were
good hunters and fishermen and clothed themselves in sealskins.
Viscaino went on to Monterey and finally as far north as Oregon, but
owing to severe storms, and to sickness among his sailors, he was
obliged to return to Mexico.
For a long time after this failure to settle upon the coast, the
Spanish came to Lower California for the pearl-fisheries. Along the
Gulf of California were many oyster-beds where the Indians secured
the shells by diving for them. Large and valuable pearls were found
in many of the oysters, and the Spanish collected them in great
quantities from the Indians who did not know their real value.
In this peninsula of Lower California fifteen Missions, or
settlements, each having a church, were founded by Padres of the
Jesuits. But later the Jesuits were ordered out of the country, and
their Missions turned over to the Franciscan order of Mexico.
With the coming of the Franciscans a new period of California's
history began. Spain wished to settle Alta California, or that region
north of the peninsula, and Father Serra, the head and leader of these
Franciscans, was chosen to begin this work.
How he did this, and how he and his followers founded the California
Missions you will read in the story of that time.
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS AND OF FATHER SERRA
The old Missions of California are landmarks that remind us of Father
Serra and his band of faithful workers. There were twenty-one of their
beautiful churches, and though some are ruined and neglected, others
like the Mission Dolores of San Francisco and the Santa Barbara and
Monterey buildings are still in excellent condition. From San Diego to
San Francisco these Missions were located, about thirty miles apart,
and so well were the sites chosen that the finest cities of the state
have grown round the old churches.
Father Junipero Serra was the president and leader of the Franciscan
missionaries and the founder of the Missions. He had been brought up
in Spain, and had dreamed from his boyhood of going to the New
World, as the Spanish called America, to tell the savages how to be
Christians. He began his work as a missionary in Mexico and there
labored faithfully among the Indians for nearly twenty years. But as
his greatest wish was to preach to those in unknown places he was glad
to be chosen to explore Alta or Upper California.
Marching by land from Loreto, a Mission of Lower California, Father
Serra, with Governor Portola and his soldiers, reached San Diego in
1769. Here he planted the first Mission on California ground. The
church was a rude arbor of boughs, and the bells were hung in an oak
tree. Father Serra rang the bells himself, and called loudly to the
wondering Indians to come to the Holy Church and hear about Christ.
But the natives were suspicious and not ready to listen to the good
man's teachings, and several times they attacked the newcomers.
Finally, after six years, they burnt the church and killed one of the
missionaries. But later on there was peace, and the priests, or Padres
as they were called, taught the Indians to raise corn and wheat, and
to plant olive orchards and fig trees, and grapes for wine. They built
a new church and round it the huts, or cabins, of the Indians, the
storehouses, and the Padre's dwelling. In the early morning the bells
called every member of the Mission family to a church service. After a
breakfast of corn and beans they spent the morning in outdoor work or
in building. At noon either mutton or beef was served with corn and
beans, and at two o'clock work began again, to last till evening
service. A supper of corn-meal mush was the Indians' favorite
meal. They had many holidays, when their amusements were dancing,
bull-fighting, or cock-fighting.
San Diego, called the Mother Mission, because it is the oldest church,
is now also most in ruins. But its friends hope to put new foundations
under the old walls, and to recap firm ones with cement, and preserve
this monument of early California history.
After Father Serra had started the San Diego settlement he set sail
for Monterey. Landing at Monterey Bay, he built an altar under a large
oak tree, hung the Mission bells upon the boughs, and held the usual
services. The Spanish soldiers fired off their guns in honor of the
day and put up a great cross. The Indians had never heard the sound of
guns and were so frightened that they ran away to the mountains. The
second Mission was built on the Carmel River, a little distance from
the site of the first altar. This was called San Carlos of Monterey,
and the settlement was the capital of Alta California for many years.
It was also the Mission that Father Serra loved the best, and after
every trip to other and newer settlements he returned to San Carlos as
his home. This Monterey Mission is well preserved, and books, carved
church furniture, and embroidered robes used in the old services are
still shown.
At both San Diego and Monterey a presidio, or fort, was built for the
soldiers. These forts had one or two cannon brought from Spain, and
had around them high walls, or stockades, to protect, if it should be
necessary, the Mission people from the Indians. The cannon were fired
on holidays, or to frighten troublesome Indians.
All the Mission buildings were of brown clay made into large bricks
about a foot and a half long and broad, and three or four inches
thick. These bricks, dried in the sun, were called adobes, and were
plastered together and made smooth by a mortar of the same clay.
Then the walls were coated outside and inside with a lime stucco and
whitewashed. The roof timbers were covered with hollow red tiles, each
like the half of a sewer pipe, and these were laid to overlap each
other so that they kept the rain out. The floors were of earth beaten
hard, and the windows had bars or latticework, but no glass. The large
church was snowy white within and without and had pictures brought
from Spain and much carved furniture, such as chairs, benches, and
the pulpit made by the Indians. One or two round-topped towers and
five or six belfries, each holding a large bell, were on the church roof,
and a great iron cross at the very top.
[Illustration: MISSION CHURCH, MONTEREY.]
[Illustration: OLD SAN DIEGO MISSION. Founded 1769.]
Night and morning the Mission bells rang to call the Indians to mass
or service, and chimes or tunes were rung on holidays or for weddings.
These Mission bells were brought from Spain, and it was thought a
blessing rested on the ship which carried them, and that shipwreck
could not come to such a vessel. We read of one captain joyfully
receiving the Mission bells to take to San Diego. When nearing the
coast his vessel struck a rock, yet passed on in safety because, as
he said, no harm could happen with the bells on board. On his journeys
every missionary carried a bell with him for the new church he was to
build. Father Serra's first act on reaching a stopping-place was to
hang the bell in a tree and ring it to gather the Indians and people
for service.
San Antonio, a very successful Mission, was the third one established,
and it was in a beautiful little valley of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
Every kind of fruit grew in its orchards, and the Indians there were
very happy and contented, and in large workshops made cloth, saddles,
and other things. San Gabriel, not far from Los Angeles and sometimes
called the finest church of all, was the next to be built. This was
the richest of the Missions and had great stores of wool, wheat, and
fruit, which the hard-working Indians earned and gave to the church.
The Indians, indeed, were almost slaves, and worked all their
lives for the Padres without rest or pay. At San Gabriel the first
California flour-mill worked by a stream of water turning the wheel,
was put up. Some of the old palms and olive trees are still growing
there.
San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776, was one of the best-known
Missions, for it had a seaport of its own at San Juan. Vessels came to
its port for the hides and tallow of thousands of cattle herded round
the Mission. The first fine church of this Mission was destroyed by
an earthquake, and many people were killed by its falling roof. It was
rebuilt, however, and still shows its fine front, and long corridors
or porches round a hollow square where a garden and fountain used to
be.
Old records tell us that Father Serra felt that there should be a
church named in honor of Francis, who was the founder and patron saint
of the Franciscan brotherhood of monks to which these missionaries
belonged. When Father Serra spoke of this to Galvez, that priest
replied, "If our good Saint Francis wants a Mission, let him show us
that fine harbor up above Monterey and we will build him one there."
Several explorers had failed to find this port about which Indians had
spoken to the Spanish. At last Ortega discovered it, and Father Palou,
in 1776, consecrated the Mission of San Francisco. Near the spot was
a small lake called the "Laguna de los Dolores," and from this the
church was at last known as the Mission Dolores. But the great city
bears the Spanish name of Saint Francis, or San Francisco. A fort
was erected where the present Presidio stands, and later a battery
of cannon was placed at Black Point. It is told that the Indians were
very quarrelsome here and fought so among themselves that the Padres
could get no church built for a year. In that part of San Francisco
called the Mission, the old building with its odd roof and three of
the ancient bells is a very interesting place to visit. There are
pictures, and other relics of the past to see, and in the graveyard
many of San Francisco's early settlers were buried. This was the sixth
Mission of Alta California.
The Santa Barbara Mission, where Franciscan fathers still live, has
a fine church with double towers and a long row of two-story adobe
buildings enclosing a hollow square where a beautiful garden is kept.
One of the brotherhood, wearing a long brown robe just as Father Serra
did, takes visitors into the church, and also shows them the garden
and a large carved stone fountain. This church is built of sandstone
with two large towers and a chime of six bells, and was finished in
1820.
The Santa Ynez Mission was much damaged by the heavy earthquake that
in 1812 ruined other Missions. Here the Indians raised large crops
of wheat and herded many cattle. Over a thousand Indians, it is said,
attacked this church in 1822, but the priest in charge frightened them
away by firing guns. This warlike conduct so displeased the Padres,
who wished the natives ruled by kindness, that the poor priest was
sent away from the Mission.
One of the early Missions was San Luis Obispo, where services are
still held. It was specially noted for a fine blue cloth woven by
the Indians from the wool of the Mission flocks of sheep. The Indians
there also wove blankets, and cloth from cotton raised upon their own
lands.
San Juan Bautista, or St. John the Baptist, north of Monterey, had a
splendid chime of nine bells said to have been brought from Peru and
to have very rich, mellow tones. San Miguel had a bell hung up on a
platform in front of the church, and now at Santa Ysabel, sixty miles
from San Diego, where the Mission itself is only a heap of adobe
ruins, two bells hang on a rude framework of logs. The Indian
bell-ringer rings them by a rope fastened to each clapper. The bells
were cast in Spain and much silver jewellery and household plate were
melted with the bell-metal. Near them the Diegueño Indians worship in
a rude arbor of green boughs with their priest, Father Antonio, who
has worked for thirty years among the tribe. They live on a rancheria
near by and are making adobe bricks, hoping soon to build a church
like the old Mission long since crumbled away.
The last of the Missions was built in 1823 at Sonoma, and proved very
active in church work, some fifteen hundred Indians having been there
baptized.
Father Junipero Serra died at more than seventy years of age, at San
Carlos. During all his life in America he endured great hardships
and suffering to bring the gospel to the heathen as he had dreamed of
doing in his boyish days. A monument to his memory has been erected
at Monterey by Mrs. Stanford, but the Missions he founded are his best
and most lasting remembrances.
BEFORE THE GRINGOS CAME
This is the story Señora Sanchez told us children as we sat on the
sunny, rose-covered porch of her old adobe house at Monterey one
summer afternoon. And as she talked of those early times she worked
at her fine linen "drawn-work" with bright, dark eyes that needed no
glasses for all her eighty years and snow-white hair.
"When I was a girl, California was a Mexican republic," said the
Señora, "and Los Gringos, as we called the Americans, came in ships
from Boston. They brought us our shoes and dresses, our blankets and
groceries; all kinds of goods, indeed, to trade for hides and tallow,
which was all our people had to sell in those days. For no one raised
anything but cattle then, and all summer long the cows cropped the
rich clover and wild oats till they were fat and ready to kill. In
the fall the Indians and vaqueros, or cowboys as you children call
them, drove great herds of cattle to the Missions near the ocean where
the Gringos came with their ship-loads of fine things and waited for
trading-days.
[Illustration: MISSION SAN LUIS REY. Founded 1798.]
[Illustration: MISSION DOLORES. Established 1776.]
"For weeks every one worked hard, killing the cattle, stripping off
their skins and hanging the green or fresh hides over poles to dry in
the sun. When dried hard and stiff as a board the skins were folded
hair-side in, and were then worth about two dollars apiece. The
beef-suet, or fat, from these cattle was put into large iron kettles
and melted. While still hot it was dipped out with wooden dippers
into rawhide bags, each made from an animal's skin. When cold and hard
these bags of tallow were sewed up with leather strings, and thus they
were taken to Boston.
"So much beef was on hand at such times that not even the hungry
Indians could eat it all while it was fresh. The nicest pieces were
cut into long strips, dipped into a boiling salt brine full of hot
red peppers and hung up to dry where the sunshine soon turned the meat
into carne seca, or dried beef. We put it away in sacks, and very good
it was all the year for stews, and to eat with the frijoles, or red
beans, and tortillas, which were corn-cakes.
"All we bought from the Gringos was paid for with hides and tallow,
so it was well, you see, children, that my father owned ten thousand
cattle; for counting relatives and Indian servants, we always had more
than thirty people on our ranch to feed and clothe. We raised grain
and corn and beans enough for the family, but had to buy sugar,
coffee, and such things.
"Did we have many horses, you say? Yes, droves of them, and we almost
lived on horseback, for no one walked if he could help it, and there
were almost no carriages or roads. Neither were there any barns or
stables, for the mustangs, or tough little ponies, fed on the wild
grass and took care of themselves. Every morning a horse was caught,
saddled and bridled, and tied by the door ready to use. All the ladies
rode, too, and I often used to ride twenty miles to a dance with Juan,
my young husband, and back again in a day or so.
"Sometimes we went to the rodeo, where once a year the great herds of
cattle were driven into corrals, and each ranchero or farmer picked
out his own stock. Then those young calves or yearlings not already
marked were branded with their owner's stamp by a red-hot iron that
burnt the mark into the skin. After that the bellowing, frightened
animals were turned out to roam the grassy plains for another year. We
had plenty of feasting and merry-making at these rodeos, and a whole
ox was roasted every day for the hungry crowds, so no one went fasting
to bed.
"Those were gay times, my children," and Señora Sanchez sighed and
sewed quietly for a while till Harry asked her if they kept Christmas
before the Gringos came.
"Yes, indeed," she said, laughing, "we kept Christmas for a week,
and all our friends and relatives were welcome, so that our big
ranch-house was full of company. Indeed, some of the visitors slept in
hammocks or rolled up in blankets on the verandas. Our house was built
round the four sides of a square garden, with wide porches, where we
sat on pleasant days. There was a fountain in this garden, and orange
trees, which at Christmas-time hung full of golden fruit and sweet
white flowers. On 'the holy night,' as we called Christmas Eve, we
hung lanterns in the porches, and everybody crowded there or in the
garden for their gifts.
"No, we had no Santa Claus nor Christmas tree, but my father gave
presents to all, even to the Indian servants and their children. A fan
or a string of pearls, perhaps, for my sisters, the young señoritas; a
fine saddle or a velvet jacket for my brother; and red blankets or gay
handkerchiefs for the Indians, with sacks of beans or sweet potatoes
to eat with their Christmas feast of roast ox or a fat sheep.
Afterwards we danced till morning came, or sang to the sweet tinkle
of the guitars. Well do I remember, children, when the good Padres,
or priests, at the Mission forbade us to waltz, that new dance the
Gringos had taught us to like. I recall, also, that the governor only
laughed and said that the young folks could waltz if they wished.
So at my wedding, soon after, when we danced from Tuesday noon till
Thursday morning, you may be sure we had many a waltz.
"Pretty dresses, Edith? Yes, gay, bright silk or satin ones, with many
ruffles on the skirts and wide collars and sleeves of lace, or yellow
satin slippers and always a high comb of silver or tortoise-shell and
a spangled fan. And we had long gold and coral earrings and strings of
pearls from the Gulf, and, see!" as she pulled aside her neck-scarf,
"here is the necklace of gold beads that was my wedding gift. We
had no hats or bonnets, but wore black lace shawls, or mantillas, to
church, or twisted long silk scarfs over our heads to go riding.
"You will think the gentlemen were fine dandies in those Mexican days,
when I tell you that they often wore crimson velvet knee trousers
trimmed with gold lace, embroidered white shirts, bright green cloth
or velvet jackets with rows and rows of silver buttons, and red sashes
with long, streaming ends. Their wide-brimmed sombrero hats were
trimmed with silver or gold braid and tassels. They dressed up their
horses with beautiful saddles and bridles of carved leather worked
all over with gold or silver thread and gay with silver rosettes or
buttons. Each gentleman wore a large Spanish cloak of rich velvet or
embroidered cloth, and if it rained, he threw over his fine clothes
a serape, or square woollen blanket with a slit cut in the middle for
the head.
"Los Gringos used to laugh at the Mexican and his cloak, and not long
after they came the 'Greasers,' as the Americans called the young men
born here in California, began to wear the ugly clothes the Gringos
brought out from Boston. And so the times changed, children, and our
people learned to do everything as the Americans did it and to work
hard and save money instead of dancing and idling away the time.
"And the bull-fights, Harry? Oh, yes, there was a bull-fight every
Sunday afternoon, and everybody went, as you do to the football games.
The ladies clapped their hands if the sport was good, or if the bull
was killed by the brave swordsman. And if the men got hurt or the
horses,--well, we only thought that was part of the game, you see. El
toro, as we called the bull, always tried to save himself; and if he
was savage and cruel, that was his nature, to try to kill his enemies.
The gay dresses and the music was what I cared for, and then all my
friends were there, also.
[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION. Founded 1786.]
"But you must be tired of my old stories; is it not so, my children?
No, you want to hear about the dances, you say? Well, every party was
a dance; a fandango or ball, if it was given in a hall where everybody
could come, but at houses where just the people came who were invited
we called it only a dance. Every old grandfather or little girl, even,
danced all night long, and the rooms were hung with flags and wreaths.
All the Spanish dances were pretty, and the ladies with their gay
dresses and mantillas, and the gentlemen in velvet suits trimmed
with gold, made a fine picture. At the cascarone, or egg-shell
dance, baskets of egg-shells filled with cologne or finely cut tinsel
or colored papers were brought into the room, and the game was to
crush these shells over the dancers' heads. If your hair got wet with
cologne or full of gilt paper, everybody laughed, and you laughed too,
for that was the game, you know. Ah, there was plenty of merry-making
and feasting in those days, children," and Señora Sanchez sighed again
and went on with her "drawn-work," while the bell in the old Mission
church near by rang five o'clock, and we children ran home talking of
those old times before the Gringos came to California.
THE AMERICANS AND THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC
While Spain owned Mexico and the two Californias, the Missions were at
their best and grew rich in stores of grain and in cattle and horses.
Almost all the people were Spanish or Indians, and they lived at the
Missions or in ranches near by. But when Mexico in 1822 refused to be
ruled by Spain, Alta or Upper California became a Mexican territory,
and, later on, a republic with governors sent from Mexico. The Mission
Padres did not like the change, and thought that Spain should still
own the New World. Before long it was ordered that the Missions should
be turned into pueblos, or towns, and that the Padres were no longer
to make slaves of the Indians. The missionaries were to stay as
priests, and to teach the Indians in schools, but the Mission lands
were to be divided so that each Indian family might have a small farm
to cultivate. From that time the Missions began to decay and were
finally given up to ruin.
Then Americans began to come in, the first party of hunters and
trappers travelling from Salt Lake City to the San Gabriel Mission.
All kept talking of the rich country where farming was so easy, and
they wished to have land. But the Mexicans and the native Californians
did not believe in allowing the Americans, as they called all the
people from the Eastern states, to take up their farming lands and
hunt and trap the wild animals. So there was much quarrelling. But the
Americans still poured in, got land grants, and built houses.
In 1836, though Alta California declared itself a free state, and no
longer looked to Mexico for support, Mexican rule still continued. The
United States had wanted California for a long time, and had tried to
buy it from Mexico. The fine bay and harbor of San Francisco, known
to be the best along the coast, was especially needed by the United
States as a place to shelter or repair ships on their way to the
Oregon settlements. England also wanted this bay, but the Californians
tried to keep every one out of their country.
Among the Americans who came overland and across the Rocky Mountains
about this time was John C. Fremont, a surveyor and engineer, who was
called the "Pathfinder." On his third trip to the Pacific Coast in '46
he wished to spend the winter near Monterey, with his sixty hunters
and mountaineers. Castro, the Mexican general, ordered him to leave
the country at once, but Fremont answered by raising the American flag
over his camp. As Castro had more men, Fremont did not think it wise
to fight, but marched away, intending to go north to Oregon. He turned
back in the Klamath country on account of snow and Indians, as he
said, and camped where the Feather River joins the Sacramento. It
is almost certain that Fremont wished to provoke Castro and the
Californians into war, and so to capture the country for the United
States.
A party of Fremont's men rode down to Sonoma, where there was a
Mission, and also a presidio with a few cannon in charge of General
Vallejo. These men captured the place and sent Vallejo and three
other prisoners back to Fremont's camp. Then the independent Americans
concluded to have a new republic of their own, and a flag also. So
they made the famous "Bear-flag" of white cloth, with a strip of red
flannel sewed on the lower edge, and on the white they painted in
red a large star and a grizzly bear, and also the words "California
Republic." They then raised the flag over the Bear-flag Republic. Many
Americans joined their party, but when the American flag went up at
Monterey, the stars and stripes replaced the bear-flag.
At this time the United States and Mexico were at war on account
of Texas, and Commodore Sloat was in charge of the warships on the
Pacific Coast. The commodore had been told to take Alta California,
if possible; so, sailing to Monterey, he raised the stars and stripes
there in July, 1846, and ended Mexican power forever. The American
flag flew at the San Francisco Presidio two days later, and also at
Sonoma, Sutter's Fort, or wherever there were Americans. The flag was
greeted with cheers and delight. Then Commodore Sloat turned the naval
force over to Stockton and returned home, leaving all quiet north of
Santa Barbara.
Commodore Stockton sent Fremont and his men to San Diego and, taking
four hundred soldiers, went himself to Los Angeles, where the native
Californians and Mexicans were determined to fight against the rule of
the United States. General Castro and his men and Governor Pico,
the last of the Mexican governors, were driven out of the country.
Stockton then declared that Upper and Lower California were to be
known as the "Territory of California."
In less than a month, however, the Californians in the south gathered
their forces again and took Los Angeles. General Kearny was sent out
with what was called the "army of the west," to assist Fremont and
Stockton in settling the trouble. Peace was declared after several
battles, and Kearny acted as governor of the new territory, displacing
Fremont. At last, by the treaty which closed the Mexican war in 1848
Alta California became the property of the United States, and Lower
California was left to Mexico.
From that time there was peace and quiet, and before long the
discovery of gold brought the new territory into great importance. The
rush to the gold mines brought thousands of men, and as no government
had been provided for the territory, Governor Riley in '49 called a
convention to form a plan of government.
This Constitutional Convention of delegates from each of California's
towns met in Monterey. The constitution there drawn up lasted for
thirty years, and under it our great state was built up. It declared
that no slavery should ever be allowed here, and settled the present
eastern boundary line.
The first Thanksgiving Day for the territory was set by Governor
Riley, in '49. The first governor elected by California voters was
Burnett, and in the first legislature Fremont and Gwin were chosen
as senators. Congress at last admitted California into the Union by
passing the California bill. On September 9, 1850, President Fillmore
signed the bill.
Every year on the 9th of September, or "Admission Day," we therefore
keep our state's birthday. At San Jose, in '99, a Jubilee Day was
held in remembrance of the beginning of state government fifty years
before.
[Illustration: UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER.]
[Illustration: PLACER GOLD MINING. (Washing with Cradle.)]
THE DAYS OF GOLD AND THE ARGONAUTS OF 1849
California has well earned her name of "Golden State," for from her
rich mines gold to the value of thirteen hundred millions has been
taken. Yet every year she adds seventeen millions more to the world's
stock of gold. No country has produced more of this precious yellow
metal that men work and fight and die for. The "gold belt" of the
state still holds great wealth for miners to find in years to come.
Long, long ago people knew that gold was here, for in 1510 a Spanish
novel speaks of "that island of California where a great abundance
of gold and precious stones is found." In 1841 the Indians near San
Fernando Mission washed out gold from the river-sands, and other mines
were found not far from Los Angeles.
But James W. Marshall was the man who started the great excitement
of '48 and '49 by finding small pieces of gold at a place now called
Coloma, on the American River. Marshall, who was born in New Jersey,
came to this state in 1847, and being a builder wished to put up
houses, sawmills, and flour-mills. Finding that lumber was very
dear, he decided to build a sawmill to exit up the great trees on the
river-bank. He had no money, but John A. Sutter, knowing a mill was
needed there, gave Marshall enough to start with.
So the mill was built, and when it was ready to run Marshall found
that the mill-race, or ditch for carrying the water to his mill-wheel,
was not deep enough. He turned a strong current of water into it,
and this ran all night. Then it was shut off, and next day the ditch
showed where the stream had washed it deeper and had left a heap
of sand and gravel at the end of it. Here Marshall saw some shining
little stones, and picking them up he laid one on a rock and hammered
it with another till he saw how quickly it changed its shape. He was
sure that these bright, heavy, easily hammered pebbles were gold, but
the men working about the mill would not believe it. So he went to
Sutter, who lived near at a place called Sutter's Fort, because his
stores, house, and other buildings were built around a hollow square
with high walls outside to keep off the Indians. Sutter weighed the
little yellow lumps and said they certainly were gold.
The flood-gates between the mill-race and the river were opened again,
and water ran through the ditch, washing more gold in sight. Sutter
picked up enough of this to make a ring and had these words marked on
it:--
"The first gold found in California, January, 1848."
Both Sutter and Marshall tried to keep what they had found a secret,
but that was impossible, and soon people were flocking to the
gold-fields. Then began a wild excitement known as the "gold-fever,"
and men left their stores and houses, gave up business, and left crops
ungathered in a wild chase after nuggets of gold.
By December of 1848, thousands of miners were washing for gold
all along the foot-hills from the Tuolumne River to the Feather,
a distance of 150 miles. A hundred thousand men came to California
during 1849, these Argonauts, or gold-hunters, taking ship or steamer
for the long trip from New York by the Isthmus of Panama. Some went
round Cape Horn, or else made a weary journey overland across the
plains. "To the land of gold" was their motto, and these pioneers
endured every hardship to reach this "Golden State."
Then the miners, with pick, shovel, and pan for washing out gold from
the gravel it was found in, started out "prospecting" for "pay-dirt."
The gold-diggings were usually along the rivers, and this surface, or
"placer," mining was done by shovelling the "pay-dirt" into a pan or a
wooden box called a cradle, and rocking or shaking this box from side
to side while pouring water over the earth. The heavy gold, either
in fine scales or dust, or in lumps called nuggets, dropped to the
bottom, while the loose earth ran out in a muddy stream. The rich sand
left in pan or cradle was carefully washed again and again till only
precious, shining gold remained.
So rich were some of the sand bars along the American and Feather
rivers that the first miners made a thousand dollars a day even by
this careless way of washing gold where much of it was lost. Then
again for days or weeks the miner found nothing at all. He would
wander up and down the cañons and gulches, prospecting for another
claim, and dreaming day and night of finding a stream with golden
sands, or of picking up rich nuggets. If he found good "diggings" he
would build a rough shanty under the pines, and dig and wash till the
gold-bearing sand or gravel gave out again. Sometimes he had a partner
and a donkey, or burro, to carry tools and pack supplies. More often
the Argonaut cooked his own bacon and slapjacks and simmered his beans
over a lonely camp-fire, and slept wrapped in a blanket under the
trees. If he had much gold, he would go to the nearest town, buy food
enough for another prospecting tramp, and often spend all the rest of
his money in foolish waste.
Sometimes a company of miners would build a dam across a river or
stream, and turn it from its course, so they could dig out and wash
the rich gravel in the river-bed. A flume, or ditch, would often carry
all the water to a lower part of the river, leaving the bed of the
upper stream dry for miles. In this kind of mining the "pay-dirt" was
shovelled into long wooden boxes called sluices, and a constant stream
of water kept the gravel and earth moving on out to a dumping-place.
The gold dropped down or settled into riffles, or spaces between bars
placed across the bottom of the sluices, and once a week the water was
turned off and a "clean-up" made of the gold.
It was not long before the rivers, creeks, and gulches had all been
worked over and most of the gold taken out. The miners knew that this
loose gold had been washed out of the hills by the rains and storms of
countless years. So some one thought of using a heavy stream of water
to break down the foot-hills themselves and to carry the gold-bearing
gravel to sluice boxes. This is called hydraulic mining and is the
cheapest way of handling earth, as water does all the work and
very little shovelling is needed. But since a strong water-power is
necessary, a large reservoir and miles of ditches or wooden flumes
must be built, so the first expense is large. The water usually comes
from higher up in the mountains, and is forced under great pressure
through iron pipes, the nozzle or "giant" being directed at the
hillside, which has already been shattered by heavy blasts of powder.
The water tears thousands of tons of earth and gravel apart, and the
muddy stream flows through sluices, where the gold is left. In this
kind of mining a great quantity of débris, or "tailings," must be
disposed of.
For years this débris was washed into the rivers or on farming lands,
filling up and ruining both, and leading to endless quarrels between
farmers and miners. But at last the courts stopped hydraulic mining
except in northern counties, where débris went into the Klamath River,
upon which no boats could run and near which was little farming. But
all the mines in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river-basins were idle
till, in 1893, Congress appointed a Débris Commission. These mining
engineers issue licenses to work the mines when satisfied that the
débris will be kept out of the rivers. There are in the state many
hundred thousand acres of gold-bearing gravel lands yet untouched,
that could be worked by hydraulic mining.
In drift-mining the rich gravel is covered by hard lava rock thrown
up by some old volcanic outburst. Tunnels are driven by blasting with
dynamite, or by drilling under the rock to reach the gravel which
usually lies in the buried channel of an old river. The long drifts,
or tunnels, needed are very expensive and only mine owners with
capital can work these claims.
Richest of all are the quartz mines, where beautiful white rock, rich
with sparkling gold, is found in veins, or "lodes," cropping out of
hillsides or dipping down under the earth. The great "Mother-lode"
of our state runs like an underground wall across Amador, Calaveras,
Tuolumne, and Mariposa counties and has been traced for eighty miles.
Some poor miner usually finds a ledge of quartz-rock and digs down the
way the ledge goes. He puts up a windlass, worked by hand, over the
well-like hole he has dug out, and hoists the ore out in buckets. But
he soon finds, as the hole or shaft goes deeper, that he must timber
the sides to keep them from caving in, that he must have an engine to
raise the ore and a mill to crush the hard rock. So he sells out to a
company of men, who put in costly machinery, deepen the shaft, and by
heavy expenditure get large returns.
The quartz ledges dip and turn, so tunnels and cross-cuts are run to
follow the golden vein, and all these are timbered with heavy wooden
supports to keep the earth and rock from falling in on the men. The
miners work in day and night gangs, using dynamite to break up the
hard rock, and sending ore up in great iron buckets, or in cars if the
tunnel ends in daylight, on the hillside. Sometimes the miners
strike water, and that must be pumped out to keep the mine from being
flooded.
The ore is crushed by heavy stamps, or hammers, and then mixed with
water and quicksilver. This curious metal, quicksilver, or mercury,
is fond of gold and hunts out every little bit, the two metals mixing
together and making what is called an amalgam. This is heated in an
iron vessel, and the quicksilver goes off in steam or vapor, leaving
the gold free. The quicksilver, being valuable, is saved and used
again, while the gold, now called bullion, is sent to the mint to be
coined into bright twenties, or tens, or five-dollar pieces.
Some of the gold in the crushed ore will not mix with the quicksilver,
and this is treated to a bath of cyanide, a peculiar acid that melts
the gold as water does a lump of sugar. So all of value is saved, and
the worthless "tailings" go to the dump. Even the black sands on the
ocean beach have gold in them. In the desert also there is gold, which
is "dry-washed" by putting the sand into a machine and with a strong
blast of air blowing away all but the heavy scales of gold.
Though the Argonauts of '49 found much wealth in yellow gold, our
"Golden State," on hillsides, in river-beds, or deep down in hidden
quartz ledges, still holds great fortunes waiting to be found.
MINING STORIES
A large book might be filled with the stories told by the men
who found gold in the early days. Their "lucky strikes" in the
"dry-diggings" sound like fairy tales. Imagine turning over a big rock
and then picking up pieces of gold enough to half fill a man's hat
from the little nest that rock had been lying in for years and years!
And think of finding forty-three thousand dollars in a yellow lump
over a foot long, six inches wide and four inches thick! This was
the biggest nugget on record and actually weighed one hundred and
ninety-five pounds. The next one, too, you might have been glad to
pick up, as it held a hundred and thirty-three pounds of solid gold.
Little seventy-five and fifty-pound treasures were common, and a
soldier stopping to drink at a roadside stream found a nugget weighing
over twenty pounds lying close to his hand.
It paid to get up early those days, also for a man in Sonora, while
taking his morning walk, struck his foot against a large stone, and
forgot the pain when he saw the stone was nearly all gold. Another
man, with good eyes, got a fifty-pound nugget on a trail many people
used all the time. One day, after a heavy rain, a man who was leading
a mule and cart through a street in Sonora, noticed that the wheel
struck a big stone; he stooped to lift it out of the way, and found
the stone to be a lump of gold weighing thirty-five pounds. In less
than an hour all that part of the town and the street was staked off
into mining-claims, but no more was found. One of the largest of these
nuggets was found by three or four men, who took it to San Francisco
and the Eastern states, and exhibited it for money. They guarded the
precious thing day and night, but at last quarrelled so that it had to
be broken up and divided between them.