CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS IN CALIFORNIA.—THEIR ORIGIN, OBJECTS, LOCALITIES, LANDS, REVENUES, OVERTHROW.
The missions of California are the most prominent features in her history. They were established to propagate the Roman faith, and extend the domain of the Spanish crown. They contemplated the conversion of the untutored natives, and a permanent possession of the soil. They were an extension of the same system which, half a century previous, had achieved such signal triumphs on the peninsula and through the northern provinces of Mexico. The founders were men of unwearied zeal and heroic action; their enterprise, fortitude, and unshaken purpose might rouse all the slumbering strings of the religious minstrel.
In Alta California these missions formed a religious cordon the entire extent of the coast. They were reared at intervals of twelve or fourteen leagues in all the great fertile valleys opening on the sea. The first was founded in 1769; others followed fast, and before the close of the century the whole twenty were in effective operation. Each establishment contained within itself the elements of its strength, the sources of its aggrandizement. It embraced a massive church, garnished with costly plate; dwellings,storehouses, and workshops, suited to the wants of a growing colony; broad lands, encircling meadows, forests, streams, orchards, and cultured fields, with cattle, sheep, and horses, grazing on a “thousand hills,” and game in every glade; and above all, a faith that could scoop up whole tribes of savages, dazzling them with the symbols of religion, and impressing them with the conviction that submission to the padres was obedience to God.
These vast establishments absorbed the lands, capital, and business of the country; shut out emigration, suppressed enterprise, and moulded every interest into an implement of ecclesiastical sway. In 1833, the supreme government of Mexico issued a decree which converted them into civil institutions, subject to the control of the state. The consequence was, the padres lost their power, and with that departed the enterprise and wealth of their establishments. The civil administrators plundered them of their stock, the governors granted to favorites sections of their lands, till, with few exceptions, only the huge buildings remain. Their localities will serve as important guides to emigrants in quest of lands adapted to pasturage and agriculture, and their statistics will show, to some extent, the productive forces of the soil. These have been gathered, with some pains, from the archives of each mission, and are grouped for the first time in these pages. They are like the missions themselves—skeletons. California, though seemingly young, is piled with the wrecks of thepast; around the stately ruin flits the shade of the padre; his warm welcome to streaming guests still lingers in the hall; and the loud mirth of the festive crowds still echoes in the darkened arches. But all these good olden times are passed—their glorious realities are gone—like the sound and sunlit splendors of the wave dashed and broken on the remorseless rock.
This mission is situated on the south side of the bay of San Francisco, two miles from the town. Its lands were forty leagues in circumference. Its stock, in 1825, consisted of 76,000 head of cattle, 950 tame horses, 2000 breeding-mares, 84 stud of choice breed, 820 mules, 79,000 sheep, 2000 hogs, 456 yoke of working-oxen, 18,000 bushels of wheat and barley, $35,000 in merchandise, and $25,000 in specie. It was secularized in 1834 by order of Gen. Figueroa, and soon became a wreck. The walls of the huge church only remain. Little did the good padre who reared them dream of the great town that was to rise in their shadows!
This mission is situated in the bosom of the great valley that bears its name, six miles from the embarcadero which strands the upper bend of the great bay of San Francisco. Around it lie the richest lands in California—once its own domain. In 1823it branded, as the increase of one year, 22,400 calves. It owned 74,280 head of full-grown cattle, 407 yoke of working-oxen, 82,540 sheep, 1890 trained horses, 4235 mares, 725 mules, 1000 hogs, and $120,000 in goods. The church is a gigantic pile, and was once adorned with ornaments of massive silver. The property was secularized in 1834 by order of Gen. Figueroa, when the frolicking citizens of the Pueblo de San José began to revel on its ruins. It has still a fine vineyard, where the grape reels and the pear mellows.
This mission was founded in 1797, fifteen miles from the town which bears its name, and at the terminus of a valley unrivalled in fertility. It supplied the Russian Company with grain, who sent yearly several large ships for stores for their northern settlements. It is stated, in the archives of this mission, that the mayordomo gathered 8,600 bushels of wheat from 80 bushels sown; and the following year, from the grain which fell at the time of the first harvest, 5200 bushels! The priest told me that Julius Cæsar deposited in the temple of Ceres 362 kernels of wheat, as the largest yield of any one kernel in the Roman empire; and that he had gathered and counted, from one kernel sown at this mission, 365—beating Rom in three kernels! This mission had, in 1825, 3000 Indians, 62,000 head of cattle, 840 tame horses, 1500 mares, 420 mules, 310 yoke of oxen, and 62,000 sheepIt has still a vineyard, in which large quantities of luscious grapes and pears are raised. It was secularized in 1834; and the old church bell, as if indignant at the change, has plunged from its chiming tower.
This mission looms over a rich valley, ten leagues from Monterey—founded 1794. Its lands swept the broad interval and adjacent hills. In 1820 it owned 43,870 head of cattle, 1360 tame horses, 4870 mares, colts, and fillies. It had seven sheep-farms, containing 69,530 sheep; while the Indians attached to the mission drove 321 yoke of working-oxen. Its storehouse contained $75,000 in goods and $20,000 in specie. This mission was secularized in 1834; its cattle slaughtered for their hides and tallow, its sheep left to the wolves, its horses taken by the dandies, its Indians left to hunt acorns, while the wind sighs over the grave of its last padre.
This mission, founded 1770, stands in the Carmel valley, three miles from Monterey. Through its ample lands flows a beautiful stream of water, which every governor of the country, for the last thirty years, has purposed conducting to the metropolis. Its gardens supply the vegetable market of Monterey. Its pears are extremely rich in flavor. In its soil were raised, in 1826, the first potatoes cultivated in California. So little did the presiding padre think ofthis strange vegetable, he allowed the Indians to raise and sell them to the whalers that visited Monterey, without disturbing their profits. He was satisfied if the Indians would give him one salmon in ten out of the hundreds they speared in the stream which swept past his door. This mission, in 1825, branded 2300 calves; had 87,600 head of cattle, 1800 horses and mares, 365 yoke of oxen, nine sheep-farms, with an average of about 6,000 sheep on each, a large assortment of merchandise, and $40,000 in specie, which was buried on the report of a piratical cruiser on the coast. It was secularized in 1835. The church remains; but the only being I found in it was a large white owl, who seemed to mourn its fall.
This mission stands near the coast on the northern side of the bay of Monterey, in a tract of land remarkable for its agricultural capacities, which it developed in the richest harvests. In 1830 this mission owned all the lands now cultivated or claimed by the farmers of Santa Cruz. It had 42,800 head of cattle, 3200 horses and mares, 72,500 sheep, 200 mules, large herds of swine, a spacious church, garnished with $25,000 worth of silver plate. It was secularized in 1834 by order of Gen. Figueroa, and shared the fate of its Carmel sister. Only one padre lingers on the premises, and he seems the last of a perished race.
MISSION OF SOLEDAD.
This mission is situated fifteen leagues southwest of Monterey, in a fertile plain, known by the name of the “llano del rey.” The priest was an indefatigable agriculturist. To obviate the summer drought, he constructed, through the labor of his Indians, an aqueduct extending fifteen miles, by which he could water twenty thousand acres of land. In 1826 this mission owned about 36,000 head of cattle, and a greater number of horses and mares than any other mission in the country. So great was the reproduction of these animals, they were given away to preserve the pasturage for cattle and sheep. It had about 70,000 sheep, and 300 yoke of tame oxen. In 1819 the mayordomo of this mission gathered 3400 bushels of wheat from 38 bushels sown. It has still standing about a thousand fruit trees, which still bear their mellow harvests; but its secularization has been followed by decay and ruin.
This mission is situated twelve leagues south of Soledad, on the border of an inland stream, upon which it has conferred its name. The buildings were inclosed in a square, twelve hundred feet on each side, and walled with adobes. Its lands were forty-eight leagues in circumference, including seven farms, with a convenient house and chapel attached to each. The stream was conducted in pavedtrenches twenty miles for purposes of irrigation: large crops rewarded the husbandry of the padres. In 1822 this mission owned 52,800 head of cattle, 1800 tame horses, 3000 mares, 500 yoke of working-oxen, 600 mules, 48,000 sheep, and 1000 swine. The climate here is cold in winter, and intensely hot in summer. This mission, on its secularization, fell into the hands of an administrator, who neglected its farms, drove off its cattle, and left its poor Indians to starve.
This inland mission is situated sixteen leagues south of San Antonio, on a barren elevation; but the lands attached to it sweep a circuit of sixty leagues, and embrace some of the finest tracts for agriculture. Of the sethe Estella tract is one; its fertility is enough to make a New England plough jump out of its rocks; and a hundred emigrants will yet squat in its green bosom, and set the wild Indians and their war-whoop at defiance. In 1822 this mission owned 91,000 head of cattle, 1100 tame horses, 3000 mares, 2000 mules, 170 yoke of working-oxen, and 47,000 sheep. The mules were used in packing the products of the mission to Monterey, and bringing back drygoods, groceries, and the implements of husbandry. But now the Indian neophytes are gone, the padres have departed, and the old church only remains to interpret the past.
MISSION OF SAN LUIS OBISPO.
This mission stands fourteen leagues southeast of San Miguel, and within three of the coast. It has always been considered one of the richest missions in California. The presiding priest, Luis Martinez, was a man of comprehensive purpose and indomitable force. His mission grant covered an immense tract of the richest lands on the seaboard. Every mountain stream was made to subserve the purposes of irrigation. He planted the cotton-tree, the lime, and a grove of olives, which still shower their abundant harvests on the tables of the Californians. He built a launch that run to Santa Barbara, trained his Indians to kill the otter, and often received thirty and forty skins a week from his children of the bow. His storehouse at Santa Margarita, with its high adobe walls, was one hundred and ninety feet long, and well stowed with grain. His table was loaded with the choicest game and richest wines; his apartments for guests might have served the hospitable intentions of a prince. He had 87,000 head of grown cattle, 2000 tame horses, 3500 mares, 3700 mules, eight sheep-farms, averaging 9000 sheep to each farm, and the broad Tulare valley, in which his Indians could capture any number of wild horses. The mayordomo of this mission in 1827, scattered on the ground, without having first ploughed it, 120 bushels of wheat, and then scratched it in with things called harrows, and harvested from the same over 7000 bushels. Thiswas a lazy experiment, but shows what the land may yield when activity shall take the place of indolence. Father Martinez returned to Spain, taking with him $100,000 as the fruits of his mission enterprise. On the secularization of the mission in 1834, the property fell a prey to state exigency, and private rapacity A gloomy wreck of grandeur only remains.
This mission is located eighteen leagues south of San Luis, at the base of a mountain spur, in the coast range; its lands covered about thirteen hundred square miles, and were at one time so filled with wild cattle, the presiding priest granted permits to any person who desired to kill them for their hides and tallow, the meat being thrown away. Thousands in this shape fell under the lasso and knife, and still the mission numbered in 1830 over 40,000 head of cattle sufficiently domesticated to be corralled, 300 yoke of working-oxen, 2600 tame horses, 4000 mares, 30,000 sheep, and 5000 swine, which were raised for their lard—no one eating the meat. The horses on this mission were celebrated for their beauty and speed; they performed feats under the saddle worthy of the most brilliant page in the register of the turf. But now the steed and his rider are gone, and the willow sighs over the mouldering ruin.
This mission is seven leagues to the southward ofLa Purisima, and thirteen north of Santa Barbara. Its lands were more circumscribed than those of other missions; still it had vast herds of cattle and sheep, and its horses vied in beauty and strength with those of its sister missions. Its property, in 1823, was valued at $800,000. A portion of its lands remain unalienated, and must be held for the benefit of its Indian neophytes, or accrue to the public domain. The last government decree left the whole in the hands of an administrator, who thought more of his own revenues than the claims of the poor Indians whom law had betrayed.
This mission is twelve leagues south of Santa Inez. Between the two a steep mountain range shoulders its way to the sea. No wheeled vehicle has ever been driven over it, except that which transported the field-piece attached to Col. Fremont’s battalion. The mission being near the beautiful town of Santa Barbara, its profuse hospitality contributed largely to the social pleasures of the citizens. Its vintage never failed, and its friendly fires ever burnt bright; many a gay merrianda has kindled the eye of beauty in its soft shade. The main building is elaborately finished for California. The lands of the mission embraced many leagues. In 1828 it had 40,000 head of cattle, 1000 horses, 2000 mares, 80 yoke of oxen, 600 mules, and 20,000 sheep. It is now under a civil administrator, and a portion of its lands still remain vested in theiroriginal object. Around this mission emigrants will ere long settle in great numbers, and devote themselves to agriculture and the cultivation of grapes, olives, figs, for which the climate is peculiarly adapted.
This mission is situated about nine leagues south of Santa Barbara, near the seaboard. Its lands covered an area of fifteen hundred square miles, of which two hundred are arable land. In 1825 it owned 37,000 head of cattle, 600 riding horses, 1300 mares, 200 yoke of working-oxen, 500 mules, 30,000 sheep, 200 goats, 2000 swine, a thrifty orchard, two rich vineyards, $35,000 in foreign goods, $27,000 in specie, with church ornaments and clothing valued at $61,000. It was secularized in 1835, and has since been under a civil administrator, but all its wealth soon became a wreck. A small portion of its lands remain, and will tempt the horticultural emigrant to its fertile bosom.
This mission, founded 1797, is situated about sixteen leagues south of San Buenaventura, in the midst of a beautiful plain, and has always been celebrated for the superior quality of the brandy distilled from its grapes. In 1826 it owned 56,000 head of cattle, 1500 horses and mares, 200 mules, 400 yoke of working-oxen, 64,000 sheep, and 2000 swine. It had in its stores about $50,000 in merchandise, $90,000 inspecie; its vineyards yielded annually about 2000 gallons of brandy and as many of wine. Its secularization was followed by the dispersion of its Indians and ruin of its property. The hills, at the foot of which this mission stands, have, within the last ten years, produced considerable quantities of gold. One house exported about $30,000 of it. This was the first gold discovered in California, and the discovery was made three or four years previous to that on the American Fork. The marvel is the search for it did not extend further.
This mission, located a little below los Angeles, was founded in 1771, and for several years led the others in enterprise and wealth. Its lands cover one of the most charming intervals in California; the soil and climate are both well adapted to fruit. In its gardens bloomed oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates, figs, and grapes in great abundance. From the latter were made annually from four to six hundred barrels of wine, and two hundred of brandy, the sale of which produced an income of more than $12,000. In 1829 it had 70,000 head of cattle, 1200 horses, 3000 mares, 400 mules, 120 yoke of working-oxen, and 54,000 sheep. The charming rancho of Santa Anita belongs to this mission; it is situated on a gentle acclivity, where fruit trees and flowers scatter their perfume; while a clear lake lies calmly in front, to which the leaping rivuletsrush in glee. Here the emigrant will find more charms in the landscape than he has left behind, and a more balmy air than he ever yet inhaled.
This mission, situated eighteen leagues south of San Gabriel, was founded in 1776, and was for many years one of the most opulent in the country. Its lands extended fifteen leagues along the seaboard, and back to the mountains, where they swept over many ravines of fertile soil and sequestering shade. Through these roamed vast herds of cattle, sheep, and horses; while the sickle, pruning-knife, and shuttle gleamed in the dexterous hand of the domestic Indian. The earthquake of 1812 threw down the heavy stone church, as if in omen of the disasters which have since befallen the mission. The cattle have gone to the shambles, the Indians are in exile, the mass is over, and the shuttle at rest.
This mission, located near the sea, and twelve leagues south of San Juan, was founded in 1798 by padre Peyri, who had devoted himself for years to the improvement of the Indians. The buildings occupy a large square, in the centre of which a fountain still plays; along the front runs a corridor, supported by thirty-two arches, ornamented with latticed railings; while the interior is divided into apartments suited to the domestic economy of a largeestablishment. Here the wool of the sheep which grazed on the hills around, was woven into blankets, and coarse apparel for the Indians, while the furrowed field waved for miles under the golden grain. The reeling grape, the blushing peach, the yellow orange, the mellow pear, and luscious melon filled the garden, and, loaded the wings of the zephyr with perfume. In 1826 it had three thousand Indians, 70,000 head of cattle, 2000 horses, 140 yoke of tame oxen, 300 mules, 68,000 sheep, and a tract of land, around half of which you could not gallop between sun and sun. Its massive stone church still remains, and the remnants of its greatness are now in the hands of an administrator who little heeds the object which animated its founder.
This mission, situated fourteen leagues south of San Luis Rey, and near the town that bears its name, was founded in 1769 by padre Junipero Lerra, and was the first established in Alta California. Its possessions covered the whole tract of land which circles for leagues around the beautiful bay upon which its green hills look. Here the first cattle were corralled, the first sheep sheared, the first field furrowed, the first vineyard planted, and the first church bell rung. The Indian heard in this strange sound the invoking voice of his God, and knelt reverently to the earth. The success of this mission paved the way for the establishment of others, till the wholecoast was sprinkled with their churches, and every green glade filled with their wild converts and lowing herds. But the padres and their neophytes are gone, and all the memorials that remain are a cumbrous ruin. Gigantic skeletons of things that were!
The facilities of social and commercial intercourse between our Atlantic and Pacific borders, yet to be created, present a problem of great practical importance. The present route,viaChagres and Panama, may be regarded as a necessity to be superseded as soon as practicable, by a railroad directly across the continent, within our own jurisdiction. Besides the formidable political objections to being dependent on foreign powers for a connection between our remotest and most important commercial points, the distance,viaChagres and Panama, or by any railroad or canal across the Isthmus yet to be made, in connection with the effects of a hot climate on animal and vegetable products, as subjects of trade between our Atlantic and Pacific coasts, present most insuperable obstacles to a permanent reliance on that route. It is now ascertained, that instead of thirty days between New York and San Francisco, or forty days to the mouth of the Columbia river by steam, or three to six months by sailing craft, either of these points may be reached in seven to eight days by railroad direct, avoiding altogether the deleterious effects of climate on articles of trade, as well as on health and life. These two considerations, so potent and overruling in commercial intercourse, will undoubtedly prove paramount to all antagonistic interests, and therailroad, directly across, may be regarded as already decided by the demands of trade between these remote parts of our present extended domain.
But what shall be the plan, Mr. Whitney’s or a government enterprise? If the government undertake it, the chances are a thousand to one, that, like the Cumberland road, it will be broken down by party strifes. Neither of the two great parties of the country would, in any probability, risk the responsibility of taking it on its shoulders as a government work. Shall it, then, be done by a corporate company, with an adequate loan of public credit, as has been proposed? Besides other insuperable objections to a plan of this kind, of a party political character, it must be seen, that all transport on a road built on this plan, must pay a toll to satisfy the interest of the capital invested; whereas, on the Whitney plan, no toll will be exacted, except to keep the road and its machinery in repair. This difference, in its operation on trade and commerce, will be immense, sufficient, as any one may see, to decide the question at once and forever between the two plans. The company proposed will have toborrowits capital, the interest of which must be provided for by tolls. This tax on trade and intercourse will necessarily prevent that grand movement of commercial exchanges between the Atlantic and Pacific states, between the United States and Asia, and between Europe and Asia, which is the great object of the enterprise. But the Whitney plan does not borrow, butcreates, by its own progress, out of the increased value of the lands through which it passes, the capital required to build the road; and thus dispensing with all tolls to pay for the use of capital, it will invite and securethe passage on this line of the great bulk of commerce around the entire globe, and between the great masses of the industrial and producing portions of the human family, which, as will be seen, lie on one great belt of the earth, demanding precisely the direct and cheap channel of intercommunication here proposed, instead of the circuitous, long, and expensive routes of commerce heretofore used.
Moreover, on the company plan, the increased value of the lands on the route, will all go to the corporation; whereas, on the Whitney plan, it will go to the people of the United States, whose property it is, and to the benefit of that trade and commerce which it sets in motion.
The Whitney plan, once executed, will merge in one the interests of our population on the Pacific slope of this continent and those of our population on the Atlantic slope, and by that means they will remain one forever. But the failure of this enterprise, by the neglect of Congress to authorize it, would make the interests of these two vast regions forever independent of and opposed to each other. Such a dereliction of duty, so apparent, would ere long, as a natural if not necessary consequence, create an independent nation on the Pacific.
THE END.
THE END.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESP.206, changed “buck was not be captured” to “buck was not to be captured”.P.263, changed “flea is not be trifled with” to “flea is not to be trifled with”.Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.Portraits of Hon. Wm. M. Gwin and Jacob R. Snyder are not present.
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