PUEBLO INDIANS, according to enumeration, 6,524
WHITE CREOLES, according to Dr. Gregg, 1,000
MESTIZOS, " " " 59,000
AMERICANS, according to Hon. Hugh N. Smith, 1,500
-------
104,974
_Deduct_ from this for _Wild Indians_, 36,950
------
68,024
_Deduct_ from this for _Pueblo Indians_, 6,524
------
PROXIMATE TOTAL OF PURE WHITES AND MIXED RACES,[73] 61,500
The more civilized inhabitants of New Mexico resemble their parent stock
in character and manners, save that they are somewhat tinctured with the
habits of the Indian race, whose blood is mingled more or less in the
veins of all classes. The men are homely, the women pretty, and while
the former are generally condemned for their indolence, insincerity and
treacherousness, the latter are praised by all travellers for their
frank, affectionate and gentle demeanor. Very little was ever done for
education in this remote Territory, which was almost cut-off from the
civilizing influences of the rest of the world. Its governors,--either
sent by the central authorities of the Mexican Republic, or chosen by
the people themselves,--were often overthrown by bloody revolutions;
but, while in power, they used their offices as a prolific means of
enriching themselves. Their intercourse with strangers from the north,
and their facilities in fraudulently collecting or compromising duties
upon the trade of the caravans, were constantly taken advantage of by
the rapacious chiefs; nor could the national authorities attempt to
control them, for the distance of Santa Fé from the capital always made
the loyalty of New Mexico loose and insecure.[74] The governors,
judiciary, and clergy of the Territory, naturally fostered this feeling
among the people, and in many instances it was beneficial to the north
of the Republic, especially in opposing the establishment of the tobacco
monopoly and in resisting the introduction of the copper currency which
elsewhere caused so much distress and ruin.
* * * * *
The principal town in New Mexico is Santa Fé, or, as it is often written
by Spaniards and Mexicans, Santa Fé de San Francisco. It is one of the
oldest Spanish settlements in the north, and lies at an elevation of
7047 feet above the sea, in 35° 41´ 6´´, north latitude, and 106° 2´
30´´, longitude west from Greenwich, according to the observations of
Lieutenant Colonel Emory of the United States Topographical Engineers,
and of Doctors Gregg and Wislizenius. The town is situated in a wide
plain surrounded by mountains, about fifteen miles east of the Rio
Grande del Norte. Immediately west of the town a snow-capped mountain
rises up to a lofty height, and a beautiful stream of small mill power
size, ripples down its sides and joins the river about twenty miles to
the south-westward.
Santa Fé is an irregular, scattered town, built of _adobes_ or sun dried
bricks, while most of its streets are common highways traversing
settlements interspersed with extensive cornfields. The only attempt at
any thing like architectural compactness and precision, says Dr. Gregg,
consists in four tiers of buildings, whose fronts are shaded with a
fringe of rude _portales_ or corridors. They stand around the public
square, and comprise the _Palacio_ or Governor's house, the custom
house, barracks, calabozo, casa consistorial, the military chapel,
besides several private residences, as well as most of the shops of the
American traders.
[Illustration: PARROQUIA DE SANTA FÉ.]
ALBURQUERQUE is a town as large as Santa Fé, stretched for several miles
along the left bank of the Rio Grande, and if not a handsomer, is at
least not a worse looking place than the capital.
The population of New Mexico, owing to the insecure tenure of life on a
frontier which is constantly liable to the ravages of wild Indians, has
always clustered together in towns and villages. These are scattered
along the valley of the rivers, and are commonly known as the "rio
arriva" and "rio abajo" or "up stream" and "down stream" settlements.
Even individual _ranchos_ and _haciendas_ serve as the _nucleii_ of
large neighborhoods, and finally become important villages. All the
principal locations of this character lie in the valley between one
hundred miles north and one hundred and forty south of the capital. The
most important of these next to the capital, is EL VALLE DE TAOS, whose
name is derived from the Taosa tribe, a remnant of which still forms a
Pueblo in the north of the district. No part of New Mexico equals this
spot in productiveness; and although the bottom lands of the valleys
where irrigation may be easily obtained have often produced over a
hundred fold, yet the uplands throughout all these elevated plains
about the Rocky Mountains, must, in all probability, remain sterile in
consequence of the extraordinary dryness of the atmosphere. Indeed, New
Mexico possesses but few of those natural advantages which are necessary
to a rapid progress of civilization. It is a region without a single
communication by water with any other part of the world, and is
imprisoned by chains of mountains extending for more than five hundred
miles, except in the direction of Chihuahua from which, however, its
settlements are separated by a dreary desert of nearly two hundred
miles.[75]
"Some general statistics of the Santa Fé trade," says Dr. Gregg, "may
prove not wholly without interest to the mercantile reader. With this
view I have prepared the following table of the probable amount of
merchandise invested in the Santa Fé trade, from 1822 to 1843 inclusive,
and about the portion of the same transferred to the Southern markets
(chiefly Chihuahua) during the same period; together with the
approximate number of wagons, men and proprietors engaged each year:
+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+----------+-------------------------------------+
| Years.| Amount|Wagons.| Men. | Prop' | Train to | Remarks. |
| | Mdse.| | | ietors| Chihuahua| |
+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+----------+-------------------------------------+
| 1822 | 15,000| | 70 | 60| | Pack-animals only used. |
| 1823 | 12,000| | 50 | 30| | do. do. |
| 1824 | 35,000| 26 | 100 | 80| 3,000 | do. and wagons. |
| 1825 | 65,000| 37 | 130 | 90| 5,000 | do. do. |
| 1826 | 90,000| 60 | 100 | 70| 7,000 | Wagons only henceforth. |
| 1827 | 85,000| 55 | 90 | 50| 8,000 | |
| 1828 | 150,000| 100 | 200 | 80| 20,000 | Three men killed, being the first. |
| 1829 | 60,000| 30 | 50 | 20| 5,000 | 1st U. S. Escort--one trader killed.|
| 1830 | 120,000| 70 | 140 | 60| 20,000 | First oxen used by traders. |
| 1831 | 250,000| 130 | 320 | 80| 80,000 | Two men killed. |
| 1832 | 140,000| 70 | 150 | 40| 50,000 | {Party defeated on Canadian |
| 1833 | 180,000| 105 | 185 | 60| 80,000 | {2 men killed, 3 perished. |
| 1834 | 150,000| 80 | 160 | 50| 70,000 | 2d U. S. Escort |
| 1835 | 140,000| 75 | 140 | 40| 70,000 | |
| 1836 | 130,000| 70 | 135 | 35| 60,000 | |
| 1837 | 150,000| 80 | 160 | 35| 80,000 | |
| 1838 | 90,000| 50 | 100 | 20| 40,000 | |
| 1839 | 250,000| 130 | 250 | 40| 100,000 | Arkansas Expedition. |
| 1840 | 50,000| 30 | 60 | 5| 10,000 | Chihuahua Expedition. |
| 1841 | 150,000| 60 | 100 | 12| 80,000 | Texan Santa Fé Expedition. |
| 1842 | 160,000| 70 | 120 | 15| 90,000 | |
| 1843 | 450,000| 230 | 350 | 30| 300,000 | 3d U. S. Escort--Ports closed."[76] |
+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+----------+-------------------------------------+
The following valuable geographical information is derived from a
statement published by Major James Henry Carleton, United States Army,
in the National Intelligencer, and is founded on the measurements made
by Captain Alexander H. Dyer, with a viameter, during the march of
General Kearney against New Mexico.
[Illustration: SANTA FE.]
FORT LEAVENWORTH TO EL PASO, VIA SANTA FE.
Points. Distance from Distance from
place to place. Fort Leavenworth.
Fort Leavenworth to-- _Miles._ _Miles._
Upper Ferry, Kansas river, 35 35
Willow Spring, 17 52
110 Creek, 24 76
Beaver Creek, 12 88
Dragoon Creek, 8 96
Bluff Creek, 13 109
Council Grove, 12 121
Diamond Spring, 15 136
Lost Spring, 14 150
Cotton Wood, 15 165
Main Turkey Creek, 18 183
Little Arkansas, 26 209
Big Cow Creek, 21 230
Walnut Creek, 25 255
Pawnee Fork, 25 280
Cow Creek, 12 292
Fort Mann, 55 347
Crossing of Arkansas, 26 373
Sand Creek, 50 423
Lower Spring on Cimerone, 8 431
Middle Spring, 34 465
Crossing of Cimerone, 27 492
Cold Spring, 18 510
Cedar Spring, 14 524
McNee's Creek, 10 534
Cotton Wood, 10 544
Rabbit-ear Spring, 14 558
Whetstone, 24 582
Point-of-Rocks, 15 597
Red River, 21 618
Ocate, 5 623
Wagon Mound, 20 643
Rock Creek, 16 659
Mora River, 8 667
Las Vegas, 19 686
St Miguel, 23 709
Old Peco Church, 24 733
Points. Distance from Distance from
place to place. Fort Leavenworth.
Old Pecos Church to-- _Miles._ _Miles._
Santa Fé, 24 757
Alburquerque, 65 822
Peralto (The Oteros), 45 887
La Joya,
Socorro, 18 905
Ford of Del Norte, above the ruins of
Valverde,[77] 25 930
Fra Christoval, entrance of Jornada
de los Muertos, 16 946
Doña Anna (Mexican town), 95 1,041
Grove on river, 15 1,056
Brazito, 16 1,072
El Paso, 32 1,104
NOTE.--The boundary line between the United States and Mexico, leaves
the Del Norte a few miles above the town of El Paso, running west
towards the Gila.
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
TITLE TO THE REGION--MISSIONARY SETTLEMENT, ITS PURPOSES--CHARACTER
OF CALIFORNIA--SECULARIZATION OF MISSIONS--POPULATION IN
MISSIONS--AGRICULTURAL
STATISTICS--CATTLE--HIDES--TALLOW--HERDSMEN--TRADE--THE
WAR--CONDITION OF CALIFORNIA AT ITS CLOSE--PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT
AND LAW--CONSTITUTION ADOPTED--ADMISSION AS A STATE--FORMER
BOUNDARIES--THE GREAT BASIN--UTAH--GREAT SALT LAKE--PYRAMID
LAKE--RIVERS--PRESENT STATE
BOUNDARIES--AREA--GEOGRAPHY--SACRAMENTO--SAN JOAQUIN--SHASTL PEAK.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo confirmed the title to Upper California
which the United States had gained by war. Although the geographical
position of that region, the security of its harbors, and the supposed
value of its soil, had attracted the attention of our people at an early
day, it was not imagined, at the period of the cession, that the new
territory would so soon become the nucleus of the first Anglo-Saxon
empire on the shores of the Pacific. Its rapid development was owing
rather to circumstances of an extraordinary character, than to the
commercial and progressive spirit of our citizens; but the national
energy which is always alive to individual interests, was never more
completely illustrated than by the alacrity with which all classes
rushed to the new scenes of labor, and turned to gold the soils that
Indians and Mexicans had trodden for centuries as worthless sand.
Lower California was discovered, visited, and partly settled by the
Spanish adventurers soon after the Mexican conquest, and although the
coasts of Upper California had been explored in 1542, it was not until
the eighteenth century that the "spiritual conquest" of that distant
region was undertaken by the Roman clergy, under whose directions the
missions were founded upon a "pious fund," created by the zealous
Catholics of Mexico. At that time it was supposed that the civilizing
influences of religion would not only win thousands of savages to the
worship of God, but that by blending agriculture and trade under the
tutelage of the church, the Indians might be rendered valuable subjects
of the Spanish crown. The government well knew that the Spaniards were
neither sufficiently numerous nor adventurous in Mexico to throw large
bodies of hardy men into so remote a province on the shores of the
Pacific, and it was, therefore, imagined that the actual native
population of the district might be tamed by religion to supply the
place of Christian immigration.
All the explorers who visited Upper California reported favorably on the
character of the country. It was known to possess inducements to a
profitable trade. The golden east opened its gates in front of it; and
the country was supposed to contain valuable metallic deposits which
might be slowly and surely developed. But the labors of the clergy did
not respond to the expectations of the government. The priests were
contented with present comfort rather than anxious for future success.
The mass of the Indians were brought into a state of comparative
vassalage, as we have seen in the chapter on the church of Mexico, and
all the most valuable or accessible lands were rapidly absorbed, to the
exclusion of hardy, persevering, and thrifty white men.[78]
Although the clergy were the virtual proprietors of the agricultural and
cattle raising districts, the viceroyal government contrived to retain a
loose and limited control over this district, until the period of the
revolution. In 1824, on the adoption of the federal constitution, as the
Californias did not possess sufficient population to become States of
the federation, they were erected into Territories, with a right to send
a member to the general congress, who, though suffered to participate in
debate, was not allowed to vote in its decisions. As Territories they
were under the government of an agent styled the Commandant-General,
whose powers were very extensive.
After the revolution the first progressive step was made by the
secularization of the missions. In 1833, under the vigorous lead of
Gomez Farias, the salaries of the monks were suspended, the Indians were
released from servitude, the pious fund was confiscated, the division of
property among natives and settlers decreed, and an extensive plan
proposed to fill the country by immigration. These blows fell heavily
upon the monastic farmers and herdsmen of those trading churches. The
missions were speedily deserted, their edifices and establishments
decayed, and, near the period of their close, the whole result of this
abortive ecclesiastical civilization, was summed up in the paltry
numbers exhibited in the following statement:
MISSIONS AND THEIR POPULATION IN UPPER CALIFORNIA IN 1831.
Names of the Jurisdictions, PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES AND AGES.
Missions, and Towns. Men. Women. Boys. Girls. Total.
JURISDICTION OF S. FRANCISCO
PRESIDIO OF S. FRANCISCO 124 85 89 73 371
Town of San José de Guadalupe 166 145 103 110 524
Mission of S. Francisco Solano 285 242 88 90 705
id. of S. Rafael 406 410 105 106 1027
id. of S. Francisco 146 65 13 13 237
id. of Santa Clara 752 491 68 60 1371
id. of S. José 823 659 100 145 1727
id. of Santa Cruz 222 94 30 20 366
JURISDICTION OF MONTEREY
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY 311 190 110 97 708
Village of Branciforte 52 34 27 17 130
Mission of S. Juan Bautista 480 351 85 71 987
id. of S. Carlos 102 79 34 21 236
id. of Na. sa. de la Soledad 210 81 23 20 334
id. of S. Antonio 394 209 51 17 671
id. of S. Miguel 349 292 46 61 748
id. of S. Luis Obispo 211 103 8 7 329
JURISDICTION ON STA. BARBARA
PRESIDIO OF STA. BARBARA 167 120 162 164 613
Mission of La Purissima 151 218 47 34 450
id. of Sta. Ines 142 136 82 96 456
id. of Sta. Barbara 374 267 51 70 762
id. of Buenaventura 383 283 66 59 791
id. of S. Fernando 249 226 177 181 833
Town of la Reyna de los Angelos 552 421 213 202 1388
JURISDICTION OF S. DIEGO
PRESIDIO OF S. DIEGO 295}
Mission of S. Gabriel 574}
id. of S. Juan Capistrano 464} 1911 683 621 5686
id. of S. Luis Rey 1138}
id. of S. Diego 750 520 162 146 1575
------ ---- ---- ---- ------
[79]Totals 10,272 7632 2623 2498 23,025
Agriculture had always been most carelessly conducted. The implements
used in the fields were nearly the same as those introduced by the
earliest settlers. The mills were few and primitive; and although the
same extent of ground yielded nearly three times as much wheat as in
England, and returned corn at the rate of one hundred and fifty fold,
yet nothing was cultivated that was not absolutely needed for the
maintenance of the missions and their immediate neighborhoods. There was
no commerce to carry off the excess of production, and no enterprise to
create a surplus for the purposes of trade.
At this epoch the whole cereal production of Upper California did not
exceed--
63,000 bushels of wheat.
28,000 " of corn.
4,200 " of frijoles or brown beans.
2,800 " of garabanzos or peas.
18,500 " barley.
The Californians, of that period, seem however, to have particularly
delighted in the care of cattle. The idle, roving life of herdsmen, who
might wander over the plains and mountains in search of their flocks,
was peculiarly suited to a population emerging from the nomadic state;
and accordingly we find that the region was well stocked, whilst the
missions and their dependencies flourished. In 1831, Mr. Forbes tells
us, that there were in this province,--
216,727 Horned Cattle,
32,100 Horses,
2,844 Mules,
177 Asses,
153,455 Sheep,
1,873 Goats,
839 Swine.
In addition to these there were vast numbers, roaming at large, which
were not marked or _branded_, according to California laws, as belonging
to any of the jurisdictions, missions, haciendas or towns. These were
hunted and slain to prevent their interference with the pasturage of the
more useful and appropriated cattle; yet from all this multitude but
little profit was gained except for hides and tallow. Beef was not
salted and prepared for foreign markets, the dairy was altogether
neglected, and butter and cheese almost unknown. In the earlier days of
the settlement, many thousand cattle were annually driven either to the
city of Mexico or to the interior provinces from the large estates on
the Pacific; but that traffic was gradually abandoned under the habitual
sloth of the people, nor was it until many years after the trade of the
ports was opened by the war of independence, that a comparatively brisk
intercourse opened with the Sandwich Islands and our own people, who
were willing to exchange their manufactures for the hides and tallow of
the Californians.
* * * * *
Such was the condition of affairs in this primitive pastoral region when
the war between Mexico and the United States broke out. For a long time
the natives and settlers had been discontented with their national
government that usurped the milder sway of the clergy; yet it is
probable that most of the revolutionary movements were founded on
personal ambition and avarice rather than patriotic impulses, nor is it
likely that the territory would have secured its independence without
the aid of a foreign power. British interests had undoubtedly counselled
the acquisition of California; but the fate of war suddenly threw it
into our hands, and probably at the very moment when English subjects
and the Mexican government were combining to exclude us from the
positions on the Pacific which were so necessary for our mercantile
progress as well as political and maritime convenience.
As soon as the country was quieted by the arrangement which Colonel
Frémont made with the Californian leaders at Couenga, the people who had
been engaged in the brief local war returned to their peaceful
avocations. Our forces were stationed in small detachments, from
Sutter's fort to San Diego, while our national vessels were anchored in
the different harbors throughout the whole coast. In the maritime towns
the supreme authorities collected a revenue from imports under the
Contribution tariff. Order was promptly restored every where; but the
only recognized control was that of the military government, which had
devolved upon Colonel Mason at the departure of General Kearney.
Meanwhile the emigration from the United States, which, amounted to
about five hundred individuals during the summer and fall of 1845, had
been considerably augmented by recruits and adventurers during the
continuance of the war. These men, as soon as hostilities ceased,
naturally turned their attention to the two most important subjects that
engage an American's attention wherever fortune may cast his lot. Their
future prospects of wealth, and the character of their government,
demanded immediate care; yet while they relied upon Congress for the
security of their political rights, they found, in spite of California's
renown for agricultural riches, that they could only establish
themselves successfully on the Pacific, or return with fortunes from its
shores, by a steady and thrifty devotion to labor.
Such was the condition of California in the spring of 1848, when the
accidental discovery of gold which might be rapidly and easily gathered
in apparently inexhaustible quantities, changed not only the condition
of the inhabitants, but affected the whole commerce of the world. "The
towns were forthwith deserted by their male population, and a complete
cessation of the whole industrial pursuits of the country was the
consequence. Commerce, agriculture, mechanical pursuits,
professions,--all were abandoned for the purpose of gathering the
glittering treasures which lay buried in the ravines, gorges and rivers
of the Sierra Nevada. The productive industry of the country was
annihilated in a day. In some instances the moral perceptions were
blunted, and men left their families unprovided, and soldiers deserted
their posts."[80]
But the greediness of the adventurers soon taught them that they could
not subsist on gold, and that after the first deposits were gathered in
the most accessible regions, it was necessary for them to wander farther
and farther from the coast settlements, until they were lost in the
lonely and barren glens of the mountains. There, at the approach of
winter, they found themselves without the means of comfort or support.
In the meanwhile, however, the news of the discovered El Dorado crossed
the continent, and although its marvels were regarded by many as
fabulous, there were others who resolved at once either to abandon their
homes for the wilderness or to despatch valuable cargoes whose enormous
profits would absorb the miner's wealth.
Under these mingled temptations of trade and discovery, an immense
immigration, chiefly of males, poured into California, not only from the
United States but from Oregon, Mexico, Chili, Peru, China and the
Sandwich Islands, all of whom soon saw the necessity of once more
subdividing human labors into their ordinary channels as well as
proportions; and thus, while commerce took the lead in the ports and
warehouses, mechanical and professional pursuits equally assumed their
relative importance, and partly restored the endangered balance of
society.
* * * * *
Within a year after this wonderful discovery, the Californians felt that
they were no longer outlying colonists of the American Union, requiring
pecuniary support from the mother State and military protection against
savages. Their lot was strangely reversed in the history of distant
settlements, for wealth had been secured _in advance_ of inhabitants and
trade. Gold, a large population, and reconstructed social relations,
brought with them the necessity for firm, fixed constitutional
government. The fermenting elements of a motly society were
effervescing, and the substratum of order and civilization was rapidly
chrystallizing. The dollar dulled the bowie knife. Immense fleets,
arriving from all parts of the world, poured large revenues into the
national coffers. Intelligent and industrious men thronged the towns
that sprang up, as if by enchantment, at every advantageous point. All
the great mercantile interests were rapidly developed. Property in land
and moveables become suddenly valuable beyond the hopes or dreams of the
early settlers. Discussions arose as to titles and rights. Spanish laws,
uncertain in their character or sanction, and American laws of doubtful
application, were hastily enforced by judges whom the wants of time
summoned to the bench from uncongenial pursuits to administer justice in
courts which were quite us incongruously constructed.
In such a state of society, men were naturally anxious to know their
relations to the Federal Government whose Congress adjourned two
sessions after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo without legislating for
the ceded territories. It might almost have been pardoned, had
California, feeling her power, position and self-reliant resources,
asserted her independence after so much neglect. Yet, in the midst of
all these temptations, and in spite of our people's abhorrence of a
military government, there never was a more beautiful demonstration of
national loyalty and affinity than in the regular assemblage, in that
remote quarter of the world, of citizens from all our States, and of all
classes, characters, tempers, professions and avocations, to form a
republican constitution which would ensure admission into our Union.
Their military governor, it is true, had set the example of submission
to the civil power, by directing the election of delegates; but _the
people_ asserted their inherent right, independently of the military
authority; and, although they acted in harmony with their estimable
ruler, the constitution was emphatically the result of popular impulse
and judgment alone. The convention, thus assembled, met at Monterey on
the 1st of September, 1849, and closed its work on the 13th of October
by submitting an excellent constitution to the people for their
adoption. The document was forthwith disseminated in Spanish and
English, and no attempt was made to mislead or control public opinion in
relation to it. The people gave it their sanction by an overwhelming
majority, and the legislature which was elected under it, assembled at
San José, the capital of the State, on the 15th of December, 1849. Peter
H. Burnett, who had been chosen first governor of the Pacific Empire
State, was duly inaugurated, and on the 20th of the same month, the
military governor, General Riley, resigned his power into the hands of
the civil agents of the organized State. After a warm and embittered
discussion in Congress at Washington, California, with all her sovereign
rights, was finally admitted into the North American Union, on the 9th
day of September, 1850.
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by the transfer of Upper California as
it existed and was bounded in May 1848, conferred a magnificent domain
upon the United States. This, however, has been subdivided by the action
of Congress and the California Convention, and the new Territory or Utah
formed out of a portion of it. The original grant comprises the region
between the parallels of 32° 50´ and 40° of north latitude, and 106° and
124° west longitude, containing an area of four hundred and forty-eight
thousand six hundred and ninety one square miles, or, two hundred and
eighty seven million, one hundred and sixty two thousand two hundred and
forty acres of land. "In other words, our _original_ territory of Upper
California, embraced twelve hundred and two square miles more than the
States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Iowa and Wisconsin, combined!"[81]
The California Convention, in shaping their new State, thought it
advisable to diminish this unwieldy empire, a large portion of which
was, in truth, divided by the evident decree of nature from the Pacific
region. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, at an
elevation of between four thousand and five thousand feet above the sea
lies that singular geographical formation which was first explored by
Colonel Frémont, and is known as the Great Basin. This is now
comprehended in the Territory of Utah. It is about five-hundred miles in
diameter, counting either from north to south or east to west; and,
imprisoned on all sides by mountains, it has its own complete system of
rivers and lakes, all of which _have no outlet to the_ Oceans on either
side of the continent. Its steep interior hills and mountains are
covered with forests, and rise abruptly from a base of ten or twenty
miles to a height of seven or ten thousand feet above the level of the
sea. Many large bodies of water are confined in its capacious bosom, and
among them are the Utah and Great Salt Lakes. The shores of the latter,
extending in length about seventy miles, have been seized and occupied
by the Mormons as the seat and centre of their future State. Immense
quantities of salt are gathered from its banks when the waters of this
inland sea recede during the dry seasons of these lofty plains and table
lands. The waters of the Utah, however, are perfectly fresh; and, near
the western edge of the Basin, is found the picturesque Pyramid Lake
which is also shut in by mountains, and is remarkable for its depth and
transparent purity.
To the southward of this, bordering the base of the Sierra Nevada,
within the Basin, is a long range of lakes; while many copious rivers
disperse their water throughout its ungenial expanse. The chief of these
streams is Humboldt River, which rises in the mountains west of the
Great Salt Lake, and runs westwardly along the northern side of the
Basin towards the Sierra Nevada of California. It courses onward for
three hundred miles, without affluents, through a sterile plain, though
the valley of its own creation is richly covered with grasses and
bordered with willows and cotton wood. This remarkable stream will
become of vast importance in the travel towards California, for, rising
towards the Salt Lake, it pursues nearly the direct route towards the
Pass of the Salmon Trout river through the gorges of the Sierra Nevada,
where at an elevation of less than three thousand six hundred feet above
the level of the Basin, the pathway descends into the Valley of the
Sacramento, and penetrates the State of California only forty miles
north of Sutler's original settlement.
The other known rivers of this strange and partially explored region,
are the Carson, Bear, Utah, Nicollet and Salmon Trout, most of whose
streams, furnished by the snowy peaks of the Sierra, are absorbed in
marshes and lakes, or return by evaporation to the icy sources whence
they sprang.
[Illustration: PYRAMID LAKE.]
Such are the prominent features of this vast Basin or Table-land, in the
interior of our continent, but as it is now separated by legislation
from its former territorial adjunct, we shall pass at once to the
consideration of the present boundary of California. This, according to
the XIIth article of the State Constitution, sanctioned by the act of
Congress, commences at the point of intersection of the 42nd degree of
north latitude with the 120th degree of longitude west from Greenwich,
and runs south, on the line of the 120th degree of longitude until it
intersects the 39th degree of north latitude; thence a straight line
pursues a south-easterly direction to the River Colorado, at a point
where it intersects the 35th degree of north latitude; thence, the
boundary runs down the middle of the channel of that river, to the
boundary line between the United States and Mexico, as established by
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, west and along said boundary
line to the Pacific Ocean and extending therein three miles; thence,
north-westwardly, following the direction of the Pacific coast, to the
42nd degree of north latitude; thence, on the line of the 42nd degree to
the place of begining,--including all the islands, harbors, and bays
along and adjacent to the Pacific coast.
The superficial area of the State is reduced, according to these
boundaries, from the former enormous size, to one hundred and fifty-five
thousand five hundred and fifty square miles, or ninety-nine millions
five hundred and fifty-two thousand square acres, exclusive of the
islands adjacent to the coast.
The noble Empire State thus constructed lies west of the Sierra Nevada,
and was wisely fashioned to avoid jurisdiction beyond the mountains. It
is strongly contrasted in appearance with the sterility of the Great
Basin. Crossing the SIERRA NEVADA at the PASS traversed by Frémont in
February 1844, the traveller finds himself about four degrees south of
the northern boundary of the State, and, as he looks westward down the
slope of the mountains, the whole of California lies at his feet. The
declivities of the Sierra, with a breadth of from forty to seventy
miles, and a length from north to south of about five hundred, are
heavily wooded with oak, pine, cypress and cedar, while innumerable
small streams, rising in the melted snows of the lofty peaks, traverse
their rugged sides. These rivulets descend through glens and
gorges,--sometimes barren, sometimes luxuriant,--until they disgorge
themselves into the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The first of
these,--rising in the north at the base of the gigantic Shastl which
lifts its snowy diadem fourteen thousand feet above the sea,--sweeps
southward towards the thirty-eighth degree of latitude; while the
second, oozing from the fens and marshes of lake Tulares, runs northward
until it mingles with the Sacramento,--when both, swollen by their
tributaries from
[Illustration: SIERRA NEVADA PASS.]
the Sierra Nevada, are finally discharged into the Pacific by the bay of
San Francisco which bursts through a gap in a lower chain of mountains
bordering the coast. This western Coast Range, averaging about two
thousand feet in height, forms, with the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the
intermediate sloping plain or valley which is completely drained by the
Sacramento and San Joaquin.
[Illustration: SHASTL PEAK.]
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
CONTINUED.
CONFIGURATION OF THE STATE--BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CITY--RIVERS
OF CALIFORNIA--CHARACTER OF SOIL, ETC.--RELATIVE STERILITY AND
PRODUCTIVENESS--CLIMATE--DRY AND WET SEASONS--CAUSES OF
CHANGE--CLIMATE IN SAN FRANCISCO, COAST RANGE VALLEYS AND INTERIOR
VALLEY--AREA OF ARABLE AND GRAZING LAND--PRODUCTIONS--DISCOVERY OF
GOLD--ITS POSITION--THE PLACERES--WASHING--DIGGING--THE
MINES--CALCULATIONS AS TO THE YIELD OF THE MINES--GOLD YIELDED BY
CALIFORNIA--ITS QUALITY--QUICKSILVER
MINES--COMMERCE--POPULATION--GROWTH OF CITIES--OLD
PRESIDIOS--TOWNS--LAND TITLES--MISSION LANDS--CONCLUSION.
The State of California, as at present formed by its constitution, lies
chiefly between the Sierra Nevada and the sea. North and south, it
embraces about ten degrees of latitude, from 32°, where it touches the
peninsula of Lower California, to 42°, where it bounds on Oregon. East
and west, from the Sierra Nevada to the sea, it will average, in the
central parts, one hundred and fifty miles, and in the northern, two
hundred. The whole State is thus, in truth, a single geographical
formation or great valley, though commonly divided into the valleys of
San Joaquin and Sacramento--the two great streams which flow from the
north and south until they meet near the centre of the State and wend
their way to the ocean through the bay of San Francisco.
This beautiful arm of the ocean, which is pronounced by all geographers
to be one of the most wonderful harbors in the world, was discovered
about 1768 by a party of Franciscan friars, who bestowed upon it the
name of their patron Saint. Completely land-locked, it is capable of
sheltering the most extended commerce. Approached from the sea, a bold
outline of coast scenery is presented to the observer. On the south, the
bordering mountains descend in narrow ranges, lashed by the surf of the
Pacific. On the north, a bluff promontory rises full three thousand feet
above the sea, while, betwixt these points, walled in by lofty cliffs
on either side, a narrow strait, about a mile in width and five in
length, with a depth in mid channel of forty and forty-five fathoms,
forms the Chrysopolæ or Golden Gate. Beyond this, the wonderful bay of
San Francisco opens like an inland sea to the right and left, extending
in each direction about thirty-four miles, with a length of more than
seventy and a coast of two hundred and seventy-five. The interior view
of this lake-like estuary is broken in parts by islands, some of which
are mere rocky masses, while others, green with vegetation, protrude
from the water for three hundred or four hundred feet. The bay is
divided by promontories and straits into three portions. At its northern
extremity is Whaler's harbor, which communicates by a strait two miles
long with San Pablo bay, a circular basin ten miles in diameter; at the
northern extremity of this a strait of greater length, called Carquinez,
connects with Suissun bay, which is nearly equal in size and shape to
San Pablo, and into this bay the confluent waters of the Sacramento and
San Joaquin are emptied. A _delta_ of twenty-five miles in length,
divided into islands by deep channels, connects the Suissun bay with the
valley of these rivers, into whose mouths the tide flows regularly.
On the bay of San Francisco is situated the marvellous city of the same
name, which sprang up, almost "in a night," and was constructed of
materials quite as frail as those of "the gourd." The town lies about
four miles from the narrows or straits by which the bay is entered, on
its west side, and on the northern point of the peninsula between the
southern portion of the estuary and the Pacific. Its site is in a cove,
faced and protected at the distance of two miles by the large island of
Yerba Buena. The land rises gradually for more than half a mile from the
water's edge, towards the west and south-west, until it terminates in a
range of hills five hundred feet above the sea. North of the town is a
large bluff, plunging precipitously into the bay, in front of which is
the best anchorage.
The most important rivers of California are, of course, the San Joaquin
and Sacramento. The San Joaquin, running from south to north, is
represented to be navigable in some seasons for a greater part of its
length, during eight months of the year. Its chief affluents, lying
altogether on its eastern side, and pouring down from the Sierra Nevada,
are the Lake Fork, Acumnes, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mukelumne,
Mariposa and Cosumnes. The Rio Colorado of the West forms part of the
eastern State boundary, from the 35th degree of north latitude to the
Mexican line, but it flows through a region at present very little
known or valued, yet future explorations may show it to be valuable. Its
deep colored waters, similar to those of the Missouri and Red rivers
east of the mountains, indicate that it probably has not passed through
an entirely ungenerous soil. The valley of the Gila, whose waters are
clear, is known to be barren.
[Illustration: SCENERY ON THE GILA.]
The Sacramento runs from north to south through an inclined alluvial
prairie, and is described as a deep, broad and beautiful stream. It
flows through a fine region, and is navigable for vessels of
considerable draught as high as the settlements in the neighborhood of
Sutter's original location. The principal tributaries of this river,
also, originate in the melting snows of the Eastern Sierra, and are
known as the Antelope, Deer, Mill and Chico creeks, and the Butte,
Dorado, Plumas or Feather, Yuba, Bear and American rivers. Cottonwood
creek and some other smaller streams are disgorged into it from the
slopes of the Western or Coast Range. The Trinity and a few at the
north, run into the Pacific.
In order to comprehend the agricultural and mineral value of California,
it is necessary to glance at the structure of the region. Upon the
forty-first parallel of latitude, in a fork of the Sierra
[Illustration: BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO.]
Nevada, is a tract of high table land, about one hundred miles in
length, surrounded on all sides by mountains, and called by Frémont the
UPPER VALLEY of the Sacramento. Here the growth of timber is vigorous
and immense, for the climate and productions are modified by altitude as
well as latitude. The Sacramento river, rising in the mountains at its
northern extremity, reaches the Lower Valley through a gorge or cañon on
the line of Shastl Peak, falling two thousand feet in twenty miles.
The LOWER VALLEY is subdivided, as we have stated, into the valleys of
the two great rivers, both of which are, at most, only a few hundred
feet above the level of the sea, and gradually slope towards the bay.
The _foot hills_ of the Sierra Nevada limiting the valleys, make a
woodland country diversified with undulating grounds and pretty vales or
glens watered by numerous small streams. These afford many advantageous
spots for farms, occasionally forming large bottoms of rich, moist land.
Below 39° of latitude, and _west_ of the _foot hills_, the forests are
limited to scattering groves of _oak_ in the valleys and on the borders
of streams; or, of _red wood_ on the ridges and in the gorges. With
these exceptions, the whole region presents a surface without shrubbery
or trees, though a few hills are shaded by dwarfed and stunted groves
which may be used as fuel. California is covered, however, with various
kinds of grasses and with wild oats, which grow luxuriantly in the
valleys for many miles from the coast, but, ripening early in the
season, they soon cease to protect the soil from the sun's scorching
rays. As summer advances, the moisture in the atmosphere, and to a
considerable depth in the earth, is completely exhausted, and the
radiation of heat from the parched plains and naked hill sides becomes
insufferable. North of the Bay of San Francisco, between the Sacramento
and Joaquin valley and the coast, the country is cut up by mountain
ridges and rolling hills, with many fertile, watered valleys.
Immediately along the coast, lie open prairies, belted or broken by
occasional forests, and interspersed with extensive fields of wild
grain. Around the southern arm of the bay, a low, alluvial bottom land,
sometimes overgrown by oaks, borders the western foot of the Coast
Range, terminating, on a breadth of thirty miles, in the valley of San
José. In this neighborhood, too, is the lovely valley of San Juan, which
is probably the garden of the new State. These two valleys form a
continuous plain of fifty-five miles in length, and from one to twenty
miles in breadth, opening with smaller valleys among the hills. The
balmy region, enclosed between the coast range and the lower hills upon
the ocean, is blessed with a soil of singular fertility, a fine, dry
atmosphere, and a soft, delicious climate. It is wooded with majestic
trees, covered with rich grasses, brilliant with an endless variety of
flowers, and produces profusely the fruits of the temperate and tropical
zones.
South of Point Concepcion the climate and general appearance of the
country are changed. From that point the coast bends almost directly
east; the face of the country obtains a more southern exposure, and is
sheltered by ranges of low mountains or hills from the bleak violence of
north-west storms. The climate accordingly is more genial, and fosters a
richer variety of productions than is found on the northern coasts.
The valleys parallel with the coast range, as well as those which extend
eastwardly in all directions among the hills towards the great plain of
the Sacramento, are of unsurpassed fertility. Their soil is a deep,
black alluvian, and so porous that it remains perfectly unbroken by
gullies, notwithstanding the great quantity of water which falls into it
during the wet season. The productiveness of "California," says Frémont
in his Memoir on that region, published in 1848, "is greatly modified by
the structure of the country, and under this aspect may be considered in
three divisions--the _southern_, below Point Concepcion and the Santa
Barbara mountain, about latitude 35°; the _northern_, from Cape
Mendocino, latitude 41°, to the Oregon boundary; and the _middle_,
including the bay and basin of San Francisco and the coast between Point
Concepcion and Cape Mendocino. Of these three divisions the rainy season
is longest and heaviest in the north, and lightest in the south.
Vegetation is governed accordingly--coming with the rains--decaying
where they fail. Summer and winter, in our sense of the terms, are not
applicable to this part of the country. It is not heat and cold, but wet
and dry, which mark the seasons, and the winter months, instead of
killing vegetation, revive it. The dry season makes a period of
consecutive drought, the only winter in the vegetation of this country,
which can hardly be said at any time to cease. In forests, where the
soil is sheltered, in low lands of streams and hilly country, where the
ground remains moist, grass continues constantly green and flowers bloom
in all months of the year.
"In the southern half of the country the long summer drought has
rendered irrigation necessary, and the experience of the missions, in
their prosperous day, has shown that, in California, as elsewhere, the
dryest plains are made productive, and the heaviest crops yielded by
that mode of cultivation. With irrigation a succession of crops may be
produced throughout the year."
* * * * *
The peculiarities of the climate of California are so well explained in
a letter from the Honorable T. Butler King, that we extract his
observations thereon as the most valuable portion of the report made by
him to the United States Government in March, 1850.[82]
"The north-east winds, in their progress across the continent, towards
the Pacific ocean, pass over the snow-capped ridges of the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, and are of course deprived of all the
moisture which can be extracted from them by the low temperature of that
region of eternal snow; consequently no moisture can be precipitated
from them, in the form of dew or rain, in a higher temperature than that
to which they have been subjected. They pass therefore over the hills
and plains of California, where the temperature is very high in summer,
in a very dry state; and so far from being charged with moisture, they
absorb, like a sponge, all that the atmosphere and surface of the earth
can yield, until both become, apparently, perfectly dry.
"This process commences when the line of the sun's greatest attraction
comes north in summer, bringing with it vast atmospheric movements.
Their approach produces the dry season in California, which, governed by
these laws, continues until some time after the sun repasses the equator
in September, when, about the middle of November, the climate being
relieved from these north-east currents of air, the south-west winds set
in from the ocean, charged with moisture--the rains commence, and
continue to fall, not constantly, as some persons have represented, but
with sufficient frequency to designate the period of their continuance,
as the _wet season_, from about the middle of November until the middle
of May, in the latitude of San Francisco.
* * * * *
"It follows, as a matter of course, that the _dry season_ commences
first, and continues longest in the southern portions of the Territory,
and that the climate of the northern part is influenced in a much less
degree by the causes which I have mentioned than any other section of
the country. Consequently, we find that as low down as latitude 39°
rains are sufficiently frequent in summer to render irrigation quite
unnecessary to the perfect maturity of any crop which is suited to the
soil and climate.
"There is an extensive ocean current of cold water, which coming from
the northern regions of the Pacific, or, perhaps, from the Arctic, flows
along the coast of California. It arrives charged with, and in its
progress, emits air, which appears in the form of fog when it comes in
contact with a higher temperature of the American coast, as the
Gulf-stream of the Atlantic exhales vapor when it meets, in any part of
its progress, a lower temperature. This current has not been surveyed,
and, therefore, its source, temperature, velocity, width, and course,
have not been accurately ascertained.
"It is believed by Lieut. Maury, on what he considers sufficient
evidence--and no higher authority can be cited--that this current comes
from the coasts of China and Japan, flows northwardly to the peninsula
of Kamptschatka, and, making a circuit to the eastward, strikes the
American coast in about latitude 41° or 42°. It passes thence,
southwardly, and finally loses itself in the tropics. * *
"As the summer advances in California, the moisture in the atmosphere
and the earth, to a considerable depth, soon becomes exhausted; and the
radiation of heat, from the extensive naked plains and hill-sides, is
very great.
"The cold, dry currents of air from the north-east, after passing the
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, descend to the Pacific and absorb
the moisture of the atmosphere to a great distance from the land. The
cold air from the mountains, and that which accompanies the great ocean
current from the north-west, thus become united, and vast banks of fog
are generated, which, when driven by the wind, has a penetrating or
_cutting_ effect on the human skin, much more uncomfortable than would
be felt in the humid atmosphere of the Atlantic at a much lower
temperature.
"As the sun rises from day to day, week after week, and month after
month, in unclouded brightness during the dry season, and pours down his
unbroken rays on the dry, unprotected surface of the country, the heat
becomes so much greater inland than it is on the ocean, that an
under-current of cold air, bringing the fog with it, rushes over the
coast-range of hills, and through their numerous passes, towards the
interior.
"Every day as the heat, inland, attains a sufficient temperature, the
cold, dry wind from the ocean commences to blow. This is usually from
eleven to one o'clock; and as the day advances the wind increases and
continues to blow till late at night. When the vacuum is filled, or the
equilibrium of the atmosphere restored, the wind ceases: a perfect calm
prevails until about the same hour the following day, when the process
re-commences and progresses as before, and these phenomena are of daily
occurrence, with few exceptions, throughout the dry season.
"The cold winds and fogs render the climate at San Francisco, and all
along the coast of California, except the extreme southern portion of
it, probably more uncomfortable, to those not accustomed to it, in
summer than in winter.
"A few miles inland, where the heat of the sun modifies and softens the
wind from the ocean, the climate is moderate and delightful. The heat in
the middle of the day is not so great as to retard labor, or to render
exercise in the open air uncomfortable. The nights are cool and
pleasant. This description of climate prevails in all the valleys along
the coast-range, and extends throughout the country, north and south, as
far eastward as the valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. In this
vast plain the sea breeze loses its influence, and the degree of heat in
the middle of the day, during the summer months, is much greater than is
known on the Atlantic coast in the same latitudes. It is dry, however,
and probably not more oppressive. On the foot-hills of the Sierra
Nevada, and especially in the deep ravines of the streams, the
thermometer frequently ranges from 110° to 115° in the shade, during
three or four hours of the day, from eleven until three o'clock. In the
evening, as the sun declines, the radiation of heat ceases. The cool,
dry atmosphere from the mountains spreads over the whole country, and
renders the nights fresh and invigorating. * * * * * * * * * * *
"These variations in the climate of California account for the different
conflicting opinions and statements respecting it. A stranger arriving
at San Francisco in summer, is annoyed by the cold winds and fogs, and
pronounces the climate intolerable. A few months will modify if not
banish his dislike, and he will not fail to appreciate the beneficial
effects of a cool, bracing atmosphere. Those who approach California
overland, through the passes of the mountains, find the heat of summer,
in the middle of the day, greater than they have been accustomed to, and
therefore many complain of it.
"Those who take up their residence in the valleys which are situated
between the great plain of the Sacramento and San Joaquin and the coast
range of hills, find the climate, especially in the dry season, as
healthful and pleasant as it is possible for any climate to be which
possesses sufficient heat to mature the cereal grains and edible roots
of the temperate zone."[83]
We have thus obtained from reliable sources, a fair account of the soil,
situation and climate of California, with the exception of that portion
of the new State lying to the southward and eastward of the Sierra
Nevada and the Coast Range, and between those mountains and the
Colorado. This district is believed by experienced Californians to be
mostly desert; at least, so much of it as lies upon the usual emigrant
trail from the Colorado to San Diego, and that which is further north,
in the neighborhood of Frémont's explorations, is known to be of such a
character. Elsewhere, however, in the large valley between the two great
ranges of the coast and the Sierra Nevada, and in the small lateral
valleys that pierce their rugged sides in every direction, are the
_arable_ lands of California. In a previous part of this notice we have
shown that the present boundaries of the State give to her 155,550
square miles of superficial area, or 99,552,000 square acres, exclusive
of islands adjacent to the coast. If it be granted that one half of
California is covered with mountains and that one fourth is a desert
waste, we have still one fourth, or 24,888,000 square acres of arable
land left for productive purposes. Messieurs Gwin, Frémont, Wright and
Gilbert, in their Memorial already cited, do not hesitate to assert,
that, after all due allowances, _three-fifths_ of the whole territory,
embraced in the State of California, will never be susceptible of
cultivation or useful to man. This would leave, as the remaining
two-fifths, 62,220 square miles, or 39,820,000 square acres,
constituting the total valuable _agricultural and grazing_ district, and
distributed at intervals over the whole surface within the actual
boundaries.[84]
* * * * *
Such are some of the substantial elements of self-reliance and
independence possessed by the new State, exclusive of her precious
metallic deposits. The genial soil is well adapted for the growth of
those grains which are suitable for European or North American
emigrants. Wheat, barley, rye and oats grow abundantly, as well as
potatoes, turnips, onions, and all the roots known to our gardeners and
farmers. Oats, of the species cultivated in the Atlantic States, are
annually _self-sown_ on all the plains and hills along the coast, and as
far inland as the sea-breeze has a marked influence on the climate. This
fact indicates that similar grains may be raised in the same region
without resorting to _irrigation_. Apples, pears and peaches may be
brought to great perfection under skilful culture. The grape, too,
received much attention in former days at the missions and among the
villagers, who produced an excellent fruit, the wine of which was
abundant and delicious. The fine natural grasses and oats of California,
aided greatly in satisfying and perpetuating the nomadic _vaquero_ or
herdsman, who was the type of the region before the cession to the
United States; and it is calculated that the _grazing_ grounds in the
State are extensive enough to produce many thousand more cattle than
will be required annually, for the vast increase of population.
* * * * *
Notwithstanding the union of California with her sister States, and her
favorable position for commercial purposes, it is scarcely probable that
she would so soon have assumed almost a national rank, had not a
mechanic, named James W. Marshall, who was employed during the latter
part of February, 1848, in building a saw mill for Captain John A.
Sutter on the south branch of the American Fork or Rio de los
Americanos, discovered certain pieces of gold glistening at the bottom
of the sluice. In a few days fragments to the amount of one hundred and
fifty dollars were removed from the water; and as the news spread among
the settlers all over the region, farms, workshops, professions and
homes were deserted to explore the promised Dorado.
The results of this accidental discovery are already known all over the
world. California has become a centre of attraction for population,
wealth and trade. The grand auriferous region which has thus far been
examined and partially drained of its deposits, is between four and five
hundred miles long, and from forty to fifty broad, following the
windings of the Sierra Nevada. New discoveries will doubtless enlarge
this area, but the present recognized limits are the hills and lesser
ranges rising from the eastern border of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
plain, and extending fifty or sixty miles eastward, until they reach an
elevation of nearly four thousand feet, where they mingle with the main
ridge of the Sierra Nevada. The numerous springs, originating in the
snows and rains of the mountain summits, pour down their rugged sides,
cutting deep channels or _barrancas_ through the _talcose slate_, and
even down to the _quartz_ of which the _foot hills_ are formed. The
streams, in creating these gorge-like channels, have come in contact
with the quartz containing gold, and, by constant attrition, have cut or
ground the metal into fine flakes, scales and dust. The precious deposit
is, accordingly, found among the sand and gravel of the river beds at
those places where the swiftness of the current reduces it in the dry
season to narrow limits, or when the streams may be damed and turned. In
other places auriferous quartz has cropped out on the surface of the
hills, mountains or gorges, and been worn and smoothed by the action of
water. In these positions the gold still remains entire in pieces of all
shapes and sizes, from a single grain to lumps weighing several pounds.
_Placeres_, or gold locations of this latter character, are styled "the
dry diggings," in contradistinction to the "washings" of the streams,
and are spread over large valleys which appear to have been subjected to
the violent action of water. In the dry diggings the operation of
extracting metal is performed by the hand alone or with a pick-axe,
hammer and knife; but the fine dust or scale-gold of the river bottoms
is rescued from the earth by washing the whole mass in common tin pans,
or vessels of every kind that can be substituted. The gyratory motion
given to these primitive implements, removes the finest portions of
soil; gravel is taken out by the hand, and the gold is left in the
vessel united with a black ferruginous sand not unlike that used at the
writing desk. This residuum is left on a board or cloth to dry, when the
sand is blown off either by the mouth or a common bellows, leaving the
gold whose gravity retains it on the board. Much of the very finest gold
is, however, lost with the sand in this rude process. Vast numbers of
rough machines resembling cradles, are also used in the business. The
rocking of the cradle answers to the gyration of the pan, and as the
mud, water and sand escape from one end of the machine through a series
of small cross-bars, the coarser particles of gold are retained in the
instrument. On the head of the cradle is a common sieve, upon which the
auriferous earth is placed; water is then poured on it, and as soon as
the machine is set in motion, the gold, sand and dust are carried into
the body of the cradle, while the gravel is rejected.
But many experienced Californians do not look to the _placeres_ or
common gold diggings and washings for the continuation of that
prosperity to which they gave birth. For its permanence they rely on the
_mines_, whose development has but just commenced. This species of
mineral riches lies in that region where the _auriferous quartz_ has
been discovered of nearly uniform richness, from the 40th to the 35th
degree of latitude, upon the waters of the Feather river, and on the
American, the Mokelumne, the Mariposa, and the desert upon the
south-eastern borders of California, _east_ of the Sierra Nevada. In all
these localities, within a range of three hundred and fifty miles, it is
already known to exist, and the strongest analogy would carry it through
the remaining distance. An assay of the _ore_ of the Mariposa _mines_,
now worked with a Chilian mill, afforded an average yield from washing,
of forty cents per pound avoirdupois; and afterwards, by the fine
process, produced eighty cents to the pound additional; making one
dollar and twenty cents per pound as the average. Other assays exhibit
results from _ores_ in various sections of California, ranging from
twenty-five cents to five dollars per pound, and that, too, in specimens
where no gold is visible to the naked eye. Rocks examined even within
two miles of San Francisco, have yielded gold to the amount of ten cents
per pound. The result at the Mariposa mine has been at the rate of two
thousand five hundred dollars for every ton!
These facts, stated upon grave authority, may be regarded as positive
information applicable to the whole extent of the _gold producing
quartz_. If we apply the results of the working of a British mining
company,--The San Juan del Rey,--in Brazil, to these assays and
conclusions, we may estimate the consequences upon the destiny of
California and of the world. The work of this British company has
increased annually for twenty years, and its last report dates on the
1st of March, 1850. In this it is stated that 69,000 tons of _ore_ were
_crushed_ and the gold extracted therefrom;--applying this to the
average yield of the _mines_ in California, the result would be _over
one hundred and seventy millions of dollars_![85]
* * * * *
Various speculations have been made as to the gross numerical summary of
all these discoveries and labors in a broiling sun, in icy streams and
under all kinds of privations; yet no definite accuracy can be attained.
During the earlier enterprises, California was a country without law or
restraint, for, all men, bent upon the single selfish task of greedily
gathering gold, resolved society completely into its original elements.
Out of the municipalities and villages there were no associations except
in small bodies for mutual labor and protection. Severe and certain
punishment secured the latter; but it may be reasonably supposed that
the collection of statistics was not a duty willingly undertaken by such
absorbed individuals. Accordingly, we are not enabled to present more
than proximate calculations of the wealth given and promised by
California to the human race.
Mr. King supposes, in his report, that during the first season there
were not more than 5,000 employed in collecting gold, and that their
average gain was one thousand dollars each, or an aggregate of five
millions. But, in the season of 1849, the number of explorers increased
by the vast influx from every quarter of the world. In July, it was
judged that 15,000 foreigners were in the _placeres_; and, by the labors
of all classes united, the report calculates that the round sum of forty
millions was realized during 1848 and 1849, of which _one-half was
probably taken from the country by foreign adventurers_. Of the forty
millions, twenty are estimated to have been gathered from the northern
rivers principally, or from those emptying into the Sacramento. The
southern rivers, or those voided into the San Joaquin, were, up to that
period, comparatively unvisited, and continued so until towards the
season's close. There is one river which, from reported discoveries,
though not flowing into the great valley west of the Sierra Nevada, is
as rich in gold as any other. This is the Trinity, which rises west of
the Sacramento's sources, and discharges into the Pacific not far from
the fortieth degree of latitude.
As commerce began to reassert her orderly sway in the ports of
California, and as gold became again subservient to the true wants of
man, more attention was paid to the collection of statistics relative to
production and export. The mint of the United States has also enabled us
to reach accurate partial results within a more recent period. By a
table furnished to Mr. Hunt for publication in his Merchants' Magazine,
of November, 1850, it appears that the gold dust shipped on the Pacific
Mail Steamers, from 11th April, 1849, to June 1st, 1850, was
$13,329,388; while the following were the receipts at our mints:
RECEIPTS OF CALIFORNIA GOLD AT THE N. ORLEANS AND PHILADELPHIA MINTS.
Year, &c. At N. Orleans. At Philadelphia. Total.
In 1848 $44,177 $44,177
Jan. 1st to Aug. 31st 1849 175,918 1,740,620 1,916,538
Aug. 31st to Jan. 1st 1850 489,162 3,740,810 4,229,972
Jan. 1st to Feb. 28th " 938,050 2,974,393 3,912,443
To March 31st " 365,869 1,296,321 1,662,190
March 31st to May 1st " 298,130 1,813,002 2,111,132
May 1st to July 31st " 317,181 6,740,677 7,157,858
----------- ----------- -----------
Total, $2,584,310 $18,350,000 $20,934,310
Of this vast total receipt at the two great mints of the country
$17,000,000 were delivered in ten months, being at the rate of more than
$20,000,000 yearly. Since January last, the receipts have been at the
rate of $26,000,000, per annum, and for the last quarter, at the rate of
$32,000,000 per annum, showing a constantly augmenting ratio. Mr.
Edelman, accountant of the Philadelphia mint, has prepared an essay to
answer the repeated enquiries respecting the general character of
California gold and its value by the ounce troy. It appears from his
calculations that seven-eighths of all the deposits made at his mint
from the commencement of the business until April 1850, exhibit a
variation in quality of only fifty-cents per ounce troy, the fineness
averaging between 873-1/2 thousandths and 898-1/2 thousandths. The
general fineness of nearly all the gold brought to the mint is 886
thousandths; the flat spangles of the rivers, which bear a small
proportion to the mass, averaging 895 thousandths. The alloy detected in
this gold is wholly silver tinged with a small quantity of iron, and the
removal of the iron, dirt or sand in melting occasions usually a loss in
weight of about 3-1/4 per cent. If the grains have been cleansed by the
magnet the loss is reduced to about 2-1/2 per cent., but if they are wet
or dampened the loss may raise to even higher than 4 per cent.
California gold is regarded as consisting of 995 parts gold and silver
in every 1000 parts by weight, which renders it necessary to separate
these metals before converting them into coin, for, according to law,
the standard national gold is so constituted, that, in 1000 parts by
weight, 900 shall be pure gold, and 100 an alloy, compounded of copper
and silver.
* * * * *
If the confident representations of travellers, miners, laborers and
scientific men are to be heeded, the California _placeres_ and mines
will continue to yield an increasing ratio of precious metal; but time
alone can disclose the degree in which their products will be
multiplied. Should they reach $100,000,000 annually--and they may
surpass that amount--the yearly addition to the gold of Europe and
America, will be 6-2/3 per cent. on $1,800,000,000, which is the
estimated amount of that metal in those two quarters of the globe. This
vast sum more than doubles the past contributions of American mines
during the period of their greatest productiveness.[86]
Gold, however, is not the only important mineral element of California's
wealth. Her _quicksilver_ mines are believed to be numerous, extensive
and valuable. The _cinnabar ore_ which produces the quicksilver, lies
near the surface, is easily procured and is represented to be remarkably
productive. The mine of New Almaden is a few miles from the coast,
midway between San Francisco and Monterey, and in one of the ridges of
the Sierra Azul. The mouth of this mine is a few yards from the summit
of the highest hill that has been found to contain quicksilver, and is
about 1,200 feet above the neighboring plain and not much more above the
ocean. Its ore-bed seems to be embraced in a greenish talcose rock. By a
very rude apparatus the yield on the spot was found to be over fifty
per cent. Mr. Charles M. Wetherill of Philadelphia, an accomplished
chemist, found the percentage of mercury to be 60, in 123 grains which
were submitted to him; and 45 in another parcel containing 61-1/2
grains. Cinnabar ore has been found in about twenty other places within
a few miles of this valuable location.
It is asserted that there are extensive veins of silver, iron and copper
in California; but there is no information sufficiently accurate to
justify a statement of their existence or value.
* * * * *
The commerce of California has of course flourished in proportion to her
population and wealth. The aggregate of duties paid on foreign
merchandize at San Francisco from the 12th of November 1849 to the 31st
of May 1850, was $755,974. At the date of the information there were in
the harbor 623 sailing vessels, 12 steamers; and 140 sail vessels and 8
steamers at Sacramento City, Stockton and other places up the rivers. Of
this total of 783 vessels, 120 were foreign and 663 American. The amount
of tonnage at San Francisco, was 1,020,476, and 100,000 in towns and
cities on the Sacramento and San Joaquin; but of this large sum 800,000
tons at least were unemployed.
The singular history of the unprecedented rise in the value of
merchandize or the necessaries of life in California after the discovery
of gold, is a chapter full of surprising and fantastical incidents, but
our narrowing space denies us the tempting privilege of recounting it in
this volume.
In all these calculations and estimates we must occasionally approach
the dangerous domain of speculation, and in this category must we also
place most of our information respecting the population and towns of
California. Population is of course constantly augmenting under these
great temptations for the rapid accumulation of fortune; yet with
society in such a transition state, the true ratios or numbers of actual
increase cannot be accurately obtained.
According to Baron Humboldt the population of Upper California consisted
in 1802, of 7,945 males and 7,617 females, or, 15,562 individuals
attached to the eighteen missions. All other classes whether whites,
mestizos, or mixed castes, either in the Presidios or in the service of
the Monks, were estimated at 1,300. This calculation would make the
whole population, at that time, exclusive of wild Indians, 16,862. In
1831, the number of missions had increased to twenty-one, and their
Indian neophytes were 18,683; all other classes in the garrisons and
among the free settlers amounted to 4,342, making a total of 23,045;
nor is it probable that this number was much augmented until after the
cession and subsequent discoveries. At present it is quite impossible to
calculate closely the wild Indians of miserable, debased tribes found in
the mountains, whose numbers are variously stated by travellers and
writers at 100,000, and 300,000. In the memorial of the California
Representatives, already cited, the population on the 1st of January,
1849 is stated at 13,000 Californians, (which is probably too low a
number,) 8,000 Americans, and 5,000 foreigners, or 26,000, in all. From
that date to the 11th April, the arrivals from sea and by land were
judged to be 8,000, while, according to the Harbor Masters' Record at
San Francisco, 22,069 Americans and 7,000 foreigners arrived there from
sea, between the 12th of April and the 31st of December 1849. Of these
28,269 were males, and only 800 _women_! In addition to the immigration
by sea at this single port, it may be presumed that not less than 1,000
individuals landed elsewhere in California during the same period. By
Santa Fé and the Gila nearly 8,000 entered the country. From Mexico
6,000 or 8,000 were supposed to have come, though only about 2,000
remained in the territory. Adding to these amounts 3,000 deserting
sailors, and computing the overland immigration at 25,000, we have
107,000 inhabitants in California on the 1st of January 1850. It would
probably not be unsafe to add fifty thousand for the immigration of the
current year, so as to give the new State at least 150,000 citizens in
January 1851.
* * * * *
As gold and people increased so miraculously, the tents and encampments
of the adventurers gave place to houses and towns whose materials and
construction were almost as frail. When the precious metal became
abundant, _land_ of course quickly grew into speculative importance and
value. Men who disliked the toil of draining gold from the rivers or
digging it among rocks, resorted to the _easier mines_ of their own
ingenuity, and, obtaining titles to advantageous locations near the
great rivers, or, on important bays and straits, laid out magnificent
plans for the gorgeous cities of the Pacific Empire. The list of some of
these "Cities," given in a note at the bottom of the page, comprises the
leading locations north of San Francisco and on the routes to the
principal _placeres_.[87] Some of these towns, and probably many more,
will prosper permanently because they are admirably situated to aid in
the development of the interior of the great valley of the Sacramento
and San Joaquin. If this valley is to be annually deluged and converted
into a lake, as it was last year during the rainy season, the
_agricultural_ prosperity of California must be seriously affected, and
the rising cities will probably suffer with it, unless the _placeres_
and the _mines_ shall continue to pour their bountiful supplies into the
hands of all who seek them.
The old Spanish and Mexican towns and villages, will in all likelihood
continue to assert their importance. The chief of these are the ancient
Presidences or Presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and
San Diego. In all of these, Europeans and Americans are already
establishing themselves as residents who desire to make California their
permanent home. The old _pueblos_ of Los Angeles, situated about eight
miles from the mission site of San Gabriel;--of San José about fifteen
or twenty leagues from the bay of San Francisco, near Santa Clara;--and
of Branciforte about a mile from the mission of Santa Cruz, and a mile
and a half from the bay of Monterey,--are still in existence, and having
been built on well selected sites, may flourish long after the fragile
castles erected in the golden region have passed away like the scenery
of a drama. The Monks, every where, possessed an instinctive sagacity
for nestling in the best locations, and time will doubtless do justice
to their discretion in California.
* * * * *
The increased value of land of course indicated to our government the
necessity of promptly examining the titles of property in California;
and accordingly, Mr. W. Carey Jones, a lawyer accomplished in the Civil
and Spanish laws, was despatched thither by the authorities in
Washington, to examine the grants from the Spanish and Mexican
governments. His full, learned, and satisfactory report has been
published by congress, and declares that these grants are mostly
perfect titles, or have unquestionably the same _equity_ as those that
are perfect.[88]
All the grants of land in California, except _pueblo_ or village lots
and some grants north of the bay of San Francisco, subsequent to the
independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that government
in California, were made by the different political governors. These
personages possessed the exclusive faculty of making grants of eleven
leagues or _sitios_ to _individuals_, which were valid when sanctioned
by the Territorial Deputation; but colonization grants to _Empresarios_
or contractors, required the sanction of the Supreme National
Authorities.
The supposition, usually entertained, that the mission lands were grants
held as the actual fee-simple property of the church, or of the mission
establishments as corporations, is entirely erroneous. All the missions
in Upper California, established under the direction of the Spanish
Viceroyal Government and partly at its expense, never had any other
right than that of occupation and use, the whole property being either
resumable or otherwise disposable, at the will of the crown or its
representatives. The right of the Supreme Powers to remodel these
establishments at pleasure, and convert them into towns and villages,
subject to the known policy and law which governed settlements of that
kind, was a fundamental principle controling them from the beginning.
After the secularization of the missions the principal part of the
church lands were cut off by private grants. Some of them still retain a
portion of their original territory, but others have been converted
either into villages and subsequently granted in the usual form in lots
to individuals and heads of families, or have become private property. A
few are either absolutely at our government's disposal now, or, being
rented at present for a term of years, will become so when the tenant's
contracts expire.
* * * * *
The gold of California is a modern disclosure, though, probably, it is
not altogether a modern discovery. There are documents in existence
which show that it was known to the Mexican government; and, as far back
as 1790, a certain Captain Shelvocke obtained in one of the ports, a
black mould which appeared to be mingled with golden dust. Specimens of
California gold were exhibited privately by the authorities in the city
of Mexico not long before the late war; and a memoir prepared by the
congressional representative, imparts the fact that it had been taken in
considerable quantities from _placeres_ in the neighborhood of Los
Angeles. It is very likely that the rulers of the Mexican Republic were
not anxious to add to the allurements which were already enticing our
people to her distant province, and silence was therefore preserved in
relation to its mineral wealth.
California has, at least, illustrated one great moral truth which the
avaricious world required to be taught. When men were starving though
weighed down with gold,--when all the necessaries of life rose to twice,
thrice, tenfold, and even fifty or a hundred times their value in the
Atlantic States,--that distant province demonstrated the intrinsic
worthlessness of the coveted ore, and the permanent value of every thing
produced by genuine industry and labor. It is to be hoped, therefore,
that the new State will not degenerate into a mere mining country, or be
forever a prey to that feverish excitement in the pursuit of sudden
wealth which is fed or frustrated by the contemptible accidents of luck.
The rapid development of the country is almost unparalleled in national
history; and now that a substantial government and union with our
confederacy are secured, it remains to be seen how the social problem of
California will be solved, and whether it possesses any other elements
than those of gold and men for the creation of a great maritime State on
the shores of the Pacific. Wonderful order has been preserved in spite
of the anomalous condition of the immigrants; yet refined woman must be
content to cast her lot in that remote but romantic region, and, by her
benign influence, soften, enlighten, and regulate a society which is
formed almost exclusively of men. In the course of time steam will open
rapid communications with the east, and travellers will not be compelled
to pass either the desert or those more southern regions where the
mouldering ruins of Casas Grandes denote the ancient seat of Indian
civilization. The iron bands of railways, the metallic wires of the
telegraph, and the gold of California will then bind the whole grand
empire of the west in a union, which social sympathies, commercial
interests, national policy, and a glorious history will make
everlasting.
THE END.
[Illustration: RUINS OF A CASA GRANDE.]
APPENDIX.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN CALIFORNIA
Mr. T. Butler King was furnished by Surgeon General Lawson, United
States Army, with the following thermometrical observations:
At San Francisco, by Assistant Surgeon W. C. Parker, for six months,
embracing the last quarter of 1847, and the first quarter of 1848. The
monthly mean temperature was as follows: October, 57°; November, 49°;
December, 50°; January, 49°; February, 50°; March, 51°.
At Monterey, in latitude 36° 38´ north, and longitude 121° west, on the
coast, about one degree and a half south of San Francisco, by Assistant
Surgeon W. S. King, for seven months, from May to November inclusive.
The monthly mean temperature was: May, 56°; June, 59°; July, 62°;
August, 59°; September, 58°; October, 60°; November, 56°.
At Los Angeles, latitude 34° 7´, longitude west 118° 7´, by Assistant
Surgeon John S. Griffin, for ten months, from June, 1847, to March,
1848, inclusive. The monthly mean temperature was: June, 73°; July, 74°;
August, 75°; September, 75°; October, 69°; November, 59°; December 60°;
January, 58°; February, 55°; March, 58°. This place is about forty miles
from the coast.
At San Diego, latitude 32° 45´, longitude west 117° 11´, by Assistant
Surgeon J. D. Summers, for the following three months of 1849, viz:
July, monthly mean temperature, 71°; August, 75°; September, 70°.
At Suttersville, on the Sacramento river, latitude 38° 32´ north,
longitude west 121° 34´, by Assistant Surgeon R. Murray, for the
following months of 1849. July, monthly mean temperature 73°; August,
70°; September, 65°; October, 65°.
These observations show a remarkably high temperature at San Francisco
during the six months from October to March, inclusive; a variation of
only eight degrees in the monthly mean, and a mean temperature for the
six months of fifty-one degrees.
At Monterey we find the mean monthly temperature from May to November,
inclusive, varying only six degrees, and the mean temperature of the
seven months to have been 58°. If we take the three summer months the
mean heat was 60°. The mean of the three winter months was a little over
49°; showing a mean difference, on that part of the coast, of only 11°
between summer and winter.
The mean temperature of San Francisco, for the three winter months, was
precisely the same as at Monterey--a little over 49°.
As these cities are only about one degree and a half distant from each
other, and both situated near the ocean, the temperature at both, in
summer, may very reasonably be supposed to be as nearly similar as the
thermometer shows it to be in winter.
The mean temperature of July, August, and September, at San Diego, only
3° 53´ south of Monterey, was 72°. The mean temperature of the same
months at Monterey was a little over 59°; showing a mean difference of
13°.
At Los Angeles, 40 miles distant from the coast, mean temperature for
the three summer months was 74°; of the three autumn months, 67°; and
three winter months, 57°. At Suttersville, 130 miles from the sea, and
4° north of Los Angeles, mean temperature of August, September and
October, was 67°. Mean temperature of same months at Monterey, 59°;
making a difference of 8° between the coast and the interior, on nearly
the same parallel of latitude.
APPENDIX No. 2.
The following statement of the amount of California gold deposited at
all the United States Mints, comprising those of Philadelphia, New
Orleans, Charlotte, and Dahlonega, from the opening of the mines, or
discovery of the metal, until the 30th of the month of September, 1851,
is taken from the memoranda of Robt. Patterson, Esq., of Philadelphia,
son of the late Director of the Mint.
+------------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------+-----------+
| |Philadelphia.|New Orleans.|Charlotte.|Dahlonega.| Total|
+------------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------+-----------+
|For the year 1848 | 44,177| 1,124| | | 45,301|
| " " " 1849 | 5,481,439| 669,921| | | 6,151,360|
| " " " 1850 | 31,667,505| 4,575,567| | 30,025| 36,273,097|
| 9 months of 1851 | 31,300,105| 6,310,462| 12,805| 70,925| 37,694,297|
| +-------------+------------+----------+----------+-----------+
| Totals| $68,493,226| $11,557,074| $12,805| $100,950|$80,164,055|
+------------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------+-----------+
The total production of California gold since its discovery is doubtless
over one hundred millions of dollars in value, which, according to
official data in my possession, is equal to nearly one half the total
coinage of this country in gold, silver, and copper, since its
separation from Great Britain. To the $80,164,055 received at the U. S.
Mints, as shown above, must be added large amounts received here, and
consumed by jewellers, dentists, &c.; considerable amounts shipped from
San Francisco directly to other countries; the gold coinage and
circulation in California itself, including the $50 pieces stamped by
the U. S. Assayer; the shipments received here since the 1st of October,
amounting, in New York alone, to about $5,000,000, and all the gold dust
now in the hands of miners and merchants on the Pacific side. It will be
a fair estimate, therefore, to set down the entire production, up to the
close of 1851, at $120,000,000, at least.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mühlenpfordt--Die Republik Mexico: Hanover, 1844, 2 vols.
[2] Ward, vol. 1, p. 7.
[3] Folsom's Mexico in 1842, p. 29.
[4] See maps and tables of areas of the several states of our Union
accompanying the President's message of December, 1848.
[5] The high table land of Mexico which we have described, is said
to owe its present form to the circumstance that an ancient system
of valleys in a chain of granitic mountains, has been filled up to
the height of many thousand feet with various volcanic products.
Five active volcanos traverse Mexico from _west_ to _east_,--Tuxtla,
Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Jorullo, and Colima. Jorulla which is in the
centre of the great platform is no less than one hundred and twenty
miles from the nearest ocean, which is an important circumstance,
showing that proximity to the sea is not a necessary condition
although certainly a very general characteristic of the position of
active volcanos. If the line which connects these five volcanic vents
in Mexico be prolonged westerly, it cuts the volcanic group in the
Pacific called the group of Revilla-Gigedo.--Lyell's Geology, American
edition, vol. I, p. 294.
[6] See Tschudi's Peru--American Edition, p. 80, and Mühlenpfordt--Die
Republik Mejico, vol. 1;--Indians.
[7] It is just to Mexico to state that Cortina, in the article
previously referred to, estimates the number of persons able to read
and write, to be much larger; but his calculations are doubtless
made with the partiality of a native, and are based on a limited
observation of city life, the army and municipal prisons.
[8] The cholera ravaged Mexico this year, and consequently it would be
unfair to use the deaths as a basis of calculation at that period.
[9] See Boletin No. 1, del Instituto Nacional de Geografia y
Estadistica, Mejico, 1839.
[10] Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. 1, p. 55.
[11] "_La propriété c'est le vol._" Prudhon.
[12] Humboldt, Essai Politique, Book iv., chap. ii.--Paris, 1811.
[13] See Humboldt's essay on the production of gold and silver in the
Journal des Economistes for March, April and May, 1838.
[14] See Humboldt's Essay on Precious Metals, _ut antea_--in note--in
the American translation, given in vol. iii., of the Banker's
Magazine, p. 509.
[15] See Ranke: Fursten and Volker, vol. i., pp. 347, 355.
[16] Pet. Mart. Epist. lib. xxix., No. 556, 23d January, 1516.
[17] See M. Ternaux-Compans' Original Memoirs of the discovery of
America--(Conquest of Mexico, p. 451)--Compans publishes in this, for
the first time, an official list sent between 1522 and 1587 by the
viceroys of New Spain to the mother country. The PESOS
_of gold_, must be multiplied by a mean of eleven dollars and
sixty-five cents in order to give their value in dollars. See Banker's
Magazine, ut antea, p. 594, in note. See Prescott's History of the
Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., 320. Raminez, in his notes on the Spanish
translation of Prescott's History of the Conquest rates the _peso de
oro_ at two dollars and ninety-three cents. This result is reached by
a long financial calculation and course of reasoning. See La Conquista
de Mejico, vol. ii., at p. 89 _of the notes_ at the end of the volume.
[18] This is Humboldt's estimate in the essay cited in this section.
We think it rather too large, yet give it upon such high authority.
See our general table of Mexican coinage.
[19] Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. ii, p. 151.
[20] Ward, ut antea.
[21] See report of the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations for 1846,
at page 139, of _Documentos Justificativos_.
[22] These calculations are made in dollars, _reales_, or pieces of
the value of 12-1/2 cents, and _medios_, or pieces of the value of
6-1/4 cents.
[23] The actual coinage of all the mints in the republic in 1844
amounted, in fact, to the sum of $13,732,861; but we assume
$14,000,000 as a fair annual average for a period of several years.
[24] Zavala's Historia de las Revoluciones de Mejico. Tomo 1.
[25] The cultivation of cotton is a branch of agriculture of almost
marvellous increase. Mr. Burke, a member of our congress, from South
Carolina, in 1789, when speaking of southern agriculture, remarked
that "cotton was likewise in _contemplation_." During the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, when 7012 bags of the article were imported
into Liverpool a perfect panic was produced by so unusual a supply, at
present 150,000 bags may reach a single port without greatly affecting
the price. In 1791 the whole United States produced only two millions
of pounds, whilst in 1848, the Commissioner of Patents calculated the
whole crop at 1,066,000,000 lbs.
[26] Whilst these pages are passing through the press information
has been received from the Mexican gazettes that in 1846 there were
sixty-two cotton factories for spinning and weaving, and five for
manufacturing woollens;--that the first mentioned have been greatly
improved by the introduction of the best kinds of machinery, and
that two _new_ factories for woollens have been set in operation in
the state of Mexico, which produce cloths and cassimeres that are
eagerly purchased by the best classes. The cost of these fabrics is
not mentioned, but it is probably fifty per cent. higher than if
manufactured in the United States.
[27] Mejico in 1842 by del Rivero. Madrid, 1844.
[28] See Otero Cuestion Social y Politica de Mejico, pp. 38, 39, 43.
[29] Mexico as it Was and Is, p. 329.
[30] Rivero, Mejico in 1842, p. 130.
[31] Norman's Rambles in Yucatan, p. 32.
[32] ib. p. 91.
[33] Stephens' Travels in Yucatan, vol. 2, page 115.
[34] Forbes's California, p. 215.
[35] Zavala, Rev. de Mejico, vol. 1, pp. 14, 25.
[36] See Mayer's Mexico as it Was and as it Is, 1844; and the review
of it by the Rev. Mr. Verot, in the United States Catholic Magazine
for March, 1844: See also the reply entitled Romanism in Mexico,
published in Baltimore in the same year.
[37] We trust that it will not be regarded as levity if we relate an
anecdote which shows that the church _has_ contributed to the money if
not to the wealth of the country, in years past, in a most unexampled
manner. It will be recollected that in the historical part of this
work there is an account of the mode in which a large revenue was
derived by the government from the sale of Bulls issued by the church
permitting the people a variety of indulgences and acts which, without
the possession of such a document, were not allowed by the spiritual
laws of Rome, or the temporal laws of Spain. Immense packages of
these Bulls were found in the treasury after the revolution, and,
when it became necessary for the government to issue a temporary
_paper money_, the financiers of the nation thought it a wise stroke
to make these Bulls at once a license of indulgence to the holder,
and a security against counterfeiters. Accordingly they printed the
government notes on the blank back of the Bulls, which had been sent
from Spain to supply her revenue. One of these treasury notes, now
before us, measures twelve inches in length by nine in breadth, and
promises to pay two dollars. The Bull upon which it is printed is
an indulgence, valued at "two coined silver reals," or, twenty-five
cents, allowing the possessor to eat "wholesome meat, eggs and milk,"
during lent and on fast days.
[38] Mexico as it was and as it is, p. 269.
[39] See vol. 1, pages
[40] Lerdo, Consideraciones, &c., &c., p. 42.
[41] Lerdo, Consideraciones, p. 46, 47.
[42] Lerdo 43.--Cuevas's memoir of 1849, as Mexican Minister of
Foreign and Domestic relations, p. 29 of American translation.
[43] It will scarcely be credited, but such is nevertheless the fact,
that it was once seriously contemplated in Mexico to deny the right
of sepulture to all strangers who were not Catholics, and that the
point was only overruled by an ingenious liberalist, who contended
that it was certainly healthier for the living Catholics that the dead
_heretic_ should rot beneath the ground, than taint the atmosphere by
decaying above it! The priests have constantly and violently opposed
marriages between Mexicans and foreigners, unless they were Catholics.
[44] Bacalar, Campeché, Ichmul or Izamal, Isla de Carmen,
Jequetchacan, Junoma, Lerma, Mama, Merida, Oxhuscab, Seyba, Playa,
Sotula, Tizizimin, and Valladolid. These are the names of the
Departments given by Mühlenpfordt: the first table is taken from
Stephens.
[45] Our table of population on page 43 of this volume, adds about 10
per cent to this number to give the population estimated in 1850.
[46] See Senator Cass' speech, on the proposed occupation of Yucatan,
in the Senate, May 10th, 1848, p. 7.
[47] See Stephens's Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas
and Yucatan, vol. 2, chapter xxvi; and his Incidents of Travel in
Yucatan, vol. 2, page 444.
[48] Transactions American Ethnological Society, vol. 1, page 104, and
Stephens's Yucatan, vol. 1, page 434.
[49] This year was remarkable for its dryness and the loss of cattle
on the coasts in consequence.
[50] In this year the observations include only ten months.
[51] It will be seen hereafter that expeditions subsequent to
Humboldt's calculation give Popocatepetl a height of 17,884 feet.
[52] See Mosaico Mejicano.
[53] See Museo Mejicano, vol. 2, p. 465, for a plate of this temple.
[54] See Museo Mejicano, vol. 3d, p. 329, for lithographic sketches
of the palace and temple, and their monuments. See also vol. 1st of
the same work, p. 401; and vol. 3d id., p. 135, for descriptions of
Zapotec remains; and vol. 1st id., p. 246, for an imperfect account
of military remains, fortifications, &c. &c., near Guiengola, near
Tehuantepec.
[55] This peak which is visible from Mexico, has been thus denominated
in honor of Mr. William Glennie, who was the chief promoter of the
expedition.
[56] See page 179, vol. I
[57] See chapter on the agriculture of Mexico for more extended
notices of the character of the valley of Cuernavaca.
[58] Muhlenpfordt, vol. 2, p. 294.
[59] See also, "Mexico as it was and as it is"--p. 63, for a full
account of the ceremonies of the Collegiate church, and of Archbishop
Lorenzano's sermon, preached in 1760, confirming the miraculous
history.
[60] The Indian not being able to point out the precise spot, a
fountain gushed from the ground and indicated it.
[61] This armor and patent of nobility, were offered to the author of
this work in 1842, before they were purchased by the government, for
one hundred and forty dollars, and, at his recommendation, they were
tendered, as a first choice, to the national authorities who bought
them.
[62] The waters of the lake, it will be recollected, have fallen
greatly since the conquest.
[63] The reader will find an interesting account in Spanish, of
the residence of Nezahualcoyotl at Tescocingo, extracted from
Ixtlilxochitl's history of the Chichimecas, in the third volume of
Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, page 430. The hill or
mountain described in this section, is doubtless the same one referred
to by the Indian historian; and it is to the Vandalism of Fray
Zumarraga, the archbishop, that we are indebted for the destruction of
one of the most graceful and elegant monuments of Indian civilization.
[64] See Scrope on Volcanoes, p. 267.
[65] Leonhard and Brown's Neues Jarbuch, 1835, p. 36. See Lyell's
Geol., Am. Ed., 1 vol., p. 345.
[66] Mühlenpfordt.
[67] The writings of Clavigero, Solis, Bernal Dias, and others
describe this mode of disposing of the bodies of those whose hearts
had been torn out and offered to the idol.
[68] Ward assigns Catorcé an elevation of _over_ 7,760 feet. The
statement given in the present work is on the more recent authority of
Muhlenpfordt.
[69] Dr. Wislizenius's Memoir, &c., &c., 1848, p. 41.
[70] See Humboldt's Views of Nature, London edition, 1850, p. 208, and
Dr. Wislizenius's Profiles of the country in his Memoir on New Mexico,
&c., &c.
[71] See Dr. Wislizenius's Memoir, &c., &c. p. 141.
[72] We have used the full account given by Dr. Wislizenius, with
but slight alterations of his language, because it is the most
complete, consistent and satisfactory that we have encountered in
our researches. We could neither improve its method or condense its
matter. He is a close observer; an accurate thinker; an industrious
traveller, and relates always from his personal observation.
[73] There are no negroes in New Mexico, and consequently neither
_mulattos_ nor _zambos_. The fatal epidemic fever of a typhoid
character that ravaged the whole province from 1837 to 1839, and the
small pox in 1840, carried off nearly ten per cent. of the population.
[74] See Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, vol. i., p. 113.
[75] See Gregg, vol. i., chapter vii.
[76] Gregg, vol. ii., p. 160.
[77] The roads by Gen. Kearney's and by Brevet Lieut. Col. Cooke's
routes leave the Rio Grande for California some fifteen or twenty
miles below the ford at Valverde; the former just opposite, and the
latter below a point on the left bank of the river known as San Diego.
[78] See vol. ii., page 137.
[79] Forbes's California, p. 202.
[80] Gwin, Frémont, Wright and Gilbert: Memorial to Congress
accompanying the Constitution of California, 12 March, 1850.
[81] See the admirable "Paper upon California" read by that
accomplished scholar J. Morrison Harris, before the Maryland
Historical Society in March 1849. It has been published and forms,
in the estimation of competant judges, the best resumé and most
philosophical disquisition upon California that has been hitherto
issued from the press.
[82] See T. B. King's Report on California, Ex. Doc. No. 59, 31 Cong.
1st sess.
[83] See appendix at end of vol. for Meteorological Observations in
California.
[84] See Debates on the California Convention: Appendix p. xx.
[85] See Senator Frémont's speech. Debates in Senate of U. States on
Friday, 20th September, 1850.
[86] Article by the Hon. Professor Tucker, Hunt's Magazine, July,
1850, p. 25:--See Appendix No. 2.
[87] Fremont, a town laid out by Jonas Spect, on the west bank of the
Sacramento river, opposite the mouth of Feather river; Vernon, east
bank of the Feather river, at its confluence with the Sacramento;
Boston, on the north bank of the Rio Americano, a few miles above
its confluence with the Sacramento; Sacramento City, on the site of
the celebrated Sutter's Fort; Sutter City, on the east bank of the
Sacramento, a few miles below Sacramento City; Webster, on the east
bank of Sacramento river, nine miles below Sacramento City; Suisun,
on the west bank of the Rio Sacramento, 80 miles from San Francisco;
Tuolumne City, at the head of navigation of the Tuolumne river;
Stanislaus, on the north bank of the Stanislaus river; Stockton,
situated on a slough, or sloughs, which contain the back waters formed
by the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin; New York upon the
Pacific, located at the mouth of the San Joaquin; Benecia, on the
Straits of Carquinez, 35 miles from the ocean; Martinez, opposite
Benecia; Napa, on the banks of the Napa creek, 40 miles north of San
Francisco; Sonoma, in the valley of the same name, three miles from
the Sonoma creek; St. Louis, on the Sonoma creek; San Rafael, on the
north side of the Bay of San Francisco; Saucelito, on the Bay of San
Francisco, at the entrance of the harbor.
[88] Report upon the land titles of California by W. Carey
Jones--Washington 1850.