EXPLORATION OF THE FAR WEST—LONG, NICOLLET, FRÉMONT—SANTA FÉ TRADE—FIRST ADVENTURERS—CARAVANS—NEW MEXICO ERECTED BY CONGRESS INTO A TERRITORY—GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF NEW MEXICO—THE RIO GRANDE—ITS VALUE—SOIL—PRODUCTS—IRRIGATION—CATTLE—INDIANS—MINES—GOLD—SILVER—COPPER—IRON—GYPSUM—SALT—- CLIMATE—PUEBLO INDIANS—WILD INDIANS ENUMERATED—NUMBER OF PUEBLO INDIANS—CENSUS—PROXIMATE PRESENT POPULATION—CHARACTER OF PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT—SANTA FÉ—ALBURQUERQUE—VALLEY OF TOAS—STATISTICS OF SANTA FÉ TRADE, ETC.—ITINERARY FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH TO SANTA FÉ AND EL PASO.
EXPLORATION OF THE FAR WEST—LONG, NICOLLET, FRÉMONT—SANTA FÉ TRADE—FIRST ADVENTURERS—CARAVANS—NEW MEXICO ERECTED BY CONGRESS INTO A TERRITORY—GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF NEW MEXICO—THE RIO GRANDE—ITS VALUE—SOIL—PRODUCTS—IRRIGATION—CATTLE—INDIANS—MINES—GOLD—SILVER—COPPER—IRON—GYPSUM—SALT—- CLIMATE—PUEBLO INDIANS—WILD INDIANS ENUMERATED—NUMBER OF PUEBLO INDIANS—CENSUS—PROXIMATE PRESENT POPULATION—CHARACTER OF PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT—SANTA FÉ—ALBURQUERQUE—VALLEY OF TOAS—STATISTICS OF SANTA FÉ TRADE, ETC.—ITINERARY FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH TO SANTA FÉ AND EL PASO.
ITwas not until a few years ago that the people of the United States generally began to turn their attention to the development of those vast regions lying in the far west and along the shores of the Pacific Ocean. An occasional adventurer or foreign traveller returned from the Rocky Mountains after a pleasant but wild sojourn among the trappers and Indians, and told his romantic stories to eager listeners. At length, Major Long penetrated their recesses,—Nicollet sought the sources of the Mississippi,—and Frémont not only pushed his way beyond them, but traversed the majestic snow-buried summits of the Sierra Nevada and explored the genial lands lying at their feet in California.
Meanwhile a trade had grown up, midway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between our western cities and the northern States of Mexico. But this, too, was an intercourse of mingled adventure, romance and commerce. Its objects and results were not generally known or recounted in the gazettes. Its hardy pursuers who wereequally ready for a bargain or a battle, did not commonly amuse themselves either with correspondence or authorship, and accordingly, "The Santa Fé Trade" remained as much a matter of mystery to the mass of Americans as the marches of those great caravans which in the east annually traverse the desert towards the tomb of the Prophet.
The origin of this trade is not definitely known. A certain James Pursely, who wandered in the lonely regions west of the Mississippi about the year 1805, and learned something respecting the settlements in New Mexico from Indians near the sources of the Platte river, is supposed to have been the firstAmericanwho visited Santa Fé in this direction; though, in the previous year, aFrench Creolenamed La Lande, had been despatched by Mr. Morrison, a merchant of Kaskaskia, with orders if possible to reach Santa Fé. It is known that this person arrived at his destination, but was so delighted with the country and so well entertained, that he never returned, and probably established himself in successful trade upon the capital of his confiding employer.
From this period, and after the Southern Expedition of Captain Pike, very little is heard of this distant region until a caravan was fitted out under the auspices of Messrs. Knight, Beard, Chambers, and about eight other persons, in the year 1812. They reached Santa Fé in an unlucky hour. The revolutionary movements which had been disturbing Mexico were just then checked by the successes of the royalists, and the traders were siezed as spies, their goods confiscated, and themselves confined in the prisons of Chihuahua for nine years, when McKnight and his comrades were finally released. As soon as these luckless adventurers reached the United States, their return, their narratives and the probable settlement of the Mexican revolution by the successes of Iturbidé, induced others to fit out expeditions at once. A merchant of Ohio, named Glenn, and Captain Becknell, of Missouri, set out forthwith; and in 1824, about eighty traders, accompanied by several intelligent and cultivated Missourians, departed not only with pack-mules, which had hitherto served for the transportation of goods, but with twenty-five wheeled vehicles of which one or two were stout roadwagons, the whole conveying a freight of near thirty thousand dollars in merchandise. The caravan crossed the desert-plains after an eventful journey; and some years after—as the early adventurers had experienced no serious molestations from the Indians,—a wealthier class of traders, availed themselves of theopened commerce of the Prairies and finally established the annual caravans which within recent years have departed from the neighborhood of Independence, laden with most valuable freights for the markets of Santa Fé, Chihuahua, and even the distant Fair of San Juan de los Lagos.
In time, however, the caravans, the period of their passage, and their value, became known to the savages through whose lonely territory they passed, and so many cruel attacks were made, that the United States resolved to protect them and established military convoys for the most dangerous part of the route. But these were not always of sufficient size, nor did they cover the road adequately; for the escort which accompanied the caravan of 1829, and another composed of sixty dragoons under Captain Wharton in 1834, constituted the only government protection until the year 1843, when large escorts under Captain Cook attended two different caravans as far as the Arkansas river. Since that period, the war has slightly interfered with the trade; but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, having given New Mexico to the United States, and a territorial government having been formed for it during the first session of the thirty-first Congress, a new and progressive era is about to dawn upon the whole of the hitherto lonely waste between the western settlements of Texas and the shores of the Pacific.
By an act approved on the 9th of September, 1850, it is provided: "That all that portion of the territory of the United States bounded as follows: beginning at a point in the Colorado river, where the boundary line with the Republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third degree of longitude west of Greenwich; thence north with said degree of longitude to the parallel of the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to its intersection with the boundary line of the State of California; thence with said boundary line to the place of beginning,—be and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government, by the name of theTerritory of New Mexico:Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shalldeem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion thereof to any other Territory or State:And provided, further, That, when admitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."
Under the old Spanish and Mexican governments, the boundaries of New Mexico were exceedingly indefinite; but this act forever fixes the territorial limits, and also settles the long vexed question of the boundary of Texas.
"New Mexico," says Dr. Wislizenius, in his excellent memoir on the northern part of the Republic; "is a very mountainous country, with a large valley in the middle, running from north to south, and formed by the Rio del Norte or Rio Grande. The valley is generally about twenty miles wide, and bordered on the east and west by mountain chains, continuations of the Rocky Mountains, which have received different names, such as La Sierra Blanca; Los Organos, and Oscura, on the eastern side of the stream; and the Sierra de las Grullas, De Acha, and De los Mimbres, towards the west. The height of these mountains south of Santa Fé, may be averaged between six and eight thousand feet, while near Santa Fé and the more northern regions, some snow covered peaks are seen rising probably ten or twelve thousand feet above the sea. The mountains are principally composed of igneous rocks, as granite, sienite, diorite, and basalt. On the higher mountains excellent pine timber grows; on the lower, cedars and sometimes oak, and in the valley of the Rio Grande, principally mezquite.
The main artery of New Mexico is the Rio del Norte or Rio Grande, the longest and largest river ever possessed by Mexico. Its head waters were explored in 1807 by Captain Pike, between 37° and 38° north latitude; but its highest sources are supposed to be about two degrees further north in the Rocky Mountains, near the head waters of the Arkansas and the Rio Grande or Colorado of the west. Following a general southern direction, it runs through New Mexico—where its principal affluent is the Rio Chamas from the west—and then winds its way in a south-eastern direction, through the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico in 25° 56´ north latitude. Its tributaries in the latter States are the Pecos, from the north; the Conchos, Salado, Alamo, and San Juan, from the south. The whole course of the river, in a straight line, would be near twelve hundred miles; but from the meandering of its lower half, it runs at least about two thousand miles from the region of eternal snow to the almost tropicalclimate of the Gulf. The elevation of the stream above the sea at Alburquerque, in New Mexico, is about forty-eight hundred feet; at El Paso del Norte, about thirty-eight hundred; and at Reynosa,—between three and four hundred miles from its mouth—about one hundred and seventy feet. The fall of its water between Alburquerque and El Paso, appears to be from two to three feet in a mile, and below Reynosa, one foot in two miles. This fall of the river is seldom used as motive power, except for some flour mills, which are oftener worked by mules than water. The principal advantage at present derived from it is for agriculture, by a well conducted system of irrigation. As to its navigation, it is very doubtful if even canoes could be usedin New Mexico, except, perhaps, during May and June, when the stream, from the melting of the snow in the mountains, is at its highest stage. It is entirely too shallow and interrupted by too many sand bars, to promise any thing for transportation; yet, on the southern portion, the recent exploration by Captain Sterling, in the United States steamer Major Brown, has proved that steamboats may ascend for a distance of seven hundred miles between the Gulf and Laredo. This steamer, however, did not draw over two feet of water, but the explorers are of opinion that by spending one hundred thousand dollars in a proper improvement of the Rio Grande above the town of Mier, boats drawing four feet could readily ply between the mouth of the river and Laredo.
The soil in the valley of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, is generally sandy and appears to be poor; yet, by irrigation, it is made to produce abundant crops. Though agriculture has been hitherto carried on in a very primitive way, either with the hoe alone, or with a very rough plough made entirely of wood, nevertheless the inhabitants raise large quantities of the staple productions—such as Indian corn, wheat, beans, onions, red peppers, and some fruits. The most fertile part of the valley, begins below Santa Fé along the river, and is called the 'Rio abajo,' or Country down the Stream. In that region it is not uncommon to gather two annual harvests. The general dryness of the climate and aridity of the soil will always confine agriculture to the valleys of water courses, which rarely contain running water during the whole year. But on several occasions it was remarked, in the high table land from Santa Fé south, that at a certain depth layers of clay are found, that may form reservoirs for the sunken water courses from the eastern and western mountain chain, and consequently, by the improved method of boring, or by Artesian wells, they might easily be made to yield their water to the surface. If experiments to that effectshould prove successful, the progress of agriculture in New Mexico would be more rapid, and, even many of the dreaded 'Jornadas' might be changed from waterless deserts into cultivated plains.
The present system of irrigation is effected by daming the streams, and throwing the water into larger and smaller ditches oracequiassurrounding and intersecting the whole cultivated land. The inhabitants of towns and villages locate their farms together, and allot to each the use of a part of the water at certain definite periods. These common fields are generally left without fences, for the grazing cattle are always guarded byvaquerosor herdsmen. The finest cultivated fields are generally seen on thehaciendas, or large estates belonging to the rich proprietors. Thesehaciendasare a remnant of the old Spanish system by which large tracts, with the appurtenances of Indian inhabitants or serfs were granted by the crown to its vassals. The great number of human beings attached to such estates, are, in fact, nothing more than slaves; they receive from their masters only food, lodging, and raiment, or, perhaps a mere nominal pay, and are kept constantly in debt and dependance on their landlords; so that if ancient custom and natural indolence did not compel them to remain permanently with their hereditary masters, the enforcement of Mexican laws against debtors would be sufficient to prolong their servitude from generation to generation.
Besides agriculture, the New Mexicans pay a great deal of attention to the raising of cattle. Their stock is all of a small size, raised from unimproved or exhausted breeds; but it increases rapidly, and as no stable feeding is needed in winter, it exacts but little care from its owners. There are large tracts of land in New Mexico, either too mountainous or too distant from water to be cultivated, which, nevertheless, afford excellent pasturage for innumerable herds during the whole year; but, unfortunately, here as well as in the State of Chihuahua, cattle raising has been crippled by the incursions of hostile Indians, who consider themselves 'secret partners' in the business, and annually carry off their share from the unprotectedvaqueros.
A third much neglected branch of industry in New Mexico, is that of mining. Numerous deserted mining places in this region prove that it was pursued with much greater zeal in Spanish times than at present. This may be accounted for by the actual want of capital and knowledge of mining, but, especially, by the unsettled state of the country and the arbitrary conduct of its rulers. The mountainous parts of New Mexico are considered extremely rich in gold, copper, iron, and some silver. Gold seems to be found to alarge extent in all the mountains near Santa Fé; south of it, at a distance of about one hundred miles as far as "Gran Quivara," and north for about one hundred and twenty miles up to the river Sangre de Christo. Throughout the whole of this region gold dust has been abundantly found by the poorer classes of Mexicans, who occupy themselves with washing it from the mountain streams. At present the Old and NewPlaceres, or places where gold is obtained near Santa Fé, have attracted most attention, and not onlygold washesbutgold mines, also, are worked there. Yet they are probably theonlygold mines at present wrought in the territory. Thewash goldwhen examined was found to contain:
while the total annual production of bothplaceresseems to have varied considerably;—in some years it was estimated at from thirty to forty thousand dollars, in others from sixty to eighty thousand, and in latter years, it is reputed to have ascended to even two hundred and fifty thousand.
Several rich silver mines were, in Spanish times, worked at Avo, at Cerillos, and in the Nambe mountains, but none are in operation at present. Copper is found inabundancethroughout the country, but principally at Las Tijeras, Jemas, Abiquia, and Gudalupita de Mora, but until a recent period only one copper mine was wrought south of theplaceres. Iron, though also existing in very large quantities, has been entirely overlooked. Coal is found in different localities—as in the Raton mountains; in the vicinity of the village of Jimez, south-west of Santa Fé; and in spots south of theplaceres. Gypsum, common and selenite, are discovered abundantly, and it is said that most extensive layers exist in the mountains near Algodon, on the Rio Grande, and in the neighborhood of the celebratedSalinas. It is used as common lime for white-washing, while the crystalline or selenite is employed instead of window glass. About one hundred miles, south south-east of Santa Fé, on the high table land between the Rio Grande and Pecos, are some extensivesalinasor salt lakes, from which all the salt used in New Mexico is procured. Large caravans from Santa Fé visit this place every year during the dry season, and return heavily laden with the precious deposits. They either sell it for one and sometimes two dollars per bushel, or exchange a bushel of salt for a bushel of Indian corn.
The climate of New Mexico differs of course in the higher mountainous parts from the lower valley of the Rio Grande; but, generally, it is temperate, constant and healthy. The summer heat in the valley of the river sometimes rises to near 100° Farenheit; yet the nights are always cool, pleasant, and refreshing. The winters are longer and severer than in Chihuahua, for the higher mountains are always covered with snow, while ice and snow are common in Santa Fé, though the Rio Grande is never sufficiently frozen to admit the passage of horses and vehicles. The sky is generally clear and the atmosphere dry. Between July and October rain falls; but the wet season is not so constant or regular as in the Southern States of the Mexican Republic. Disease seems to be very little known except in the form of inflammations and typhoidal fevers during the winter.
INDIAN PUEBLO, OR VILLAGE.INDIAN PUEBLO, OR VILLAGE.
Between the Indians and the whites,—except perhaps on the haciendas—there still continues the same old rancorous feeling which generated the general insurrection narrated in the historical part of this work. The PUEBLO Indians live always isolated in their villages, cultivate the soil, raise some stock, and are generally poor, frugal, and sober. These various tribes, of which a large number still exist, are reduced to probably about seven thousand souls.They speak different dialects and sometimes broken Spanish. For the government of their communities they select aCaciqueand a council, and in war are led by a Capitan. In religious rites they mingle Catholicism and Paganism. Their villages are very regularly built; though sometimes, there is but one large house of several stories, with a vast number of small rooms, in which all the inhabitants of thepuebloare quartered! Instead of doors in front, traps are made on the roofs of their dwellings to which they ascend by a ladder that is withdrawn during the night so as to secure them, from surprise or attack. Their dress consists of moccasins, short breeches and a woollen jacket or blanket; their black hair is usually worn long, while bows and arrows together with a lance and sometimes a gun compose their weapons.[72]
The late Governor, Charles Bent, in a report to the United States Government from Santa Fé in 1846, presents the following statement of the tribes and numbers of theWild Indians, who reside or roam in the regions which were then supposed to be comprised in New Mexico. Bent's perfect familiarity with a district in which he had so long dwelt or traded, renders his enumeration of these savages an important historical fact in the history of the newly acquired Territory.
According to a report made in October, 1849, by Mr. James S. Calhoun, Indian Agent at Santa Fé, the following summary of thePueblos, andPueblo Indiansof New Mexico, is based on a censusordered by the legislature of New Mexico, convened in December, 1847; but it includes only individuals five years of age and upwards.
PUEBLOS AND PUEBLO INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO.
These calculations will serve to aid in the estimates of present population, for no accurate census has been prepared officially for many years.
In 1793, according to an enumeration then made, thewholepopulation amounted to 30,953:—in 1833 it is estimated, in the statistics of Galvan's Calendar, at 52,300 individuals, who were divided by Mühlenpfordt and Dr. Wislizenius into1/20pure Spanish blood,4/20Creoles,5/20Mestizos, and10/20Pueblo Indians. These calculations, according to the above census ofPueblo Indians, would make the whole present population not more than thirteen or fourteen thousand, which is obviously incorrect unless the census of 1847 was most inaccurately made.
In a letter from the Hon. Hugh N. Smith, delegate from New Mexico, addressed to the National Intelligencer, Washington, and published on the 25th of June, 1850, he desires to correct the mistakes which have been made in regard to the number and character of the inhabitants of New Mexico. The number, he says, has been variously stated in the Congressional debates at from ten to seventy thousand; and generallyone half, and sometimesallof them, are said to beIndians. "This is a great error," continues the delegate, "we have a population of at least ninety thousand, of whom from ten to twelve thousand only are Pueblo Indians, and we do not estimate in our population any other kind of Indians except Pueblos. They are a quiet, inoffensive, honest, and industrious people; they own the best farming lands in the Territory, andare engaged entirely in agricultural pursuits, and, as tax-paying Indians, would be entitled to the privileges of citizens, and of the elective franchise in Texas.
"The census taken in New Mexico the year before the entrance of General Kearney into that Territory, showed the population to be one hundred thousand and two or three hundred over. This may not have been taken with great accuracy, but the best informed persons, and those who have lived there longest agree with me that we have not less than ninety thousand. Dr. Wislizenius, who is generally correct in his accounts of travel, and who is relied upon as good authority, in his statistics of that country, is certainly mistaken in saying that ten-twentieths, or one-half of the population, are Pueblo Indians. I have travelled through the settled parts of that country two or three times a year for the last three years, and I know that not a fifth, or even one-sixth are Indians.
"There are in New Mexico from twelve to fifteen hundred residentAmerican voters, emigrants from the different States, principally from the State of Missouri; the rest of the population is Mexican and Spanish."
Upon these estimates and calculations it would perhaps be fair, in arriving at a proximate enumeration of inhabitants, to give the following ratios:—
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 mingledmore 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 ofadobesor 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 rudeportalesor corridors. They stand around the public square, and comprise thePalacioor Governor'shouse, 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.
PARROQUIA DE SANTA FÉ.PARROQUIA DE SANTA FÉ.
Alburquerqueis 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 individualranchosandhaciendasserve as thenucleiiof 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, isEl 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 theuplands 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:
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.
SANTA FE.SANTA FE.
Note.—The boundary line between the United States andMexico, leaves the Del Norte a few miles above the town of El Paso,running west towards the Gila.
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.
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.
THETreaty 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 Indiansmight 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:
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—
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,—
In addition to these there were vast numbers, roaming at large, which were not marked orbranded, 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 Pacificwhich 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 thatthey 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 securedin advanceof 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; butthe peopleasserted 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-eightthousand 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, ouroriginalterritory 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 whichhave no outlet to theOceans 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 themountains 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.