Stories of California written by Ella M. Sexton
E >>
Ella M. Sexton >> Stories of California
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 [Illustration: NEVADA FALLS (height 617 feet). Yosemite Valley.]
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
BY
ELLA M. SEXTON
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1903
_All rights reserved_
1902,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up, electrotyped, and published September, 1902. Reprinted
October, 1903.
Normond Press J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass.,
U.S.A.
FOREWORD
To recount in simple, accurate narratives the early conditions and
subsequent development of California is the purpose of this book. In
attempting to picture the romantic events embodied in the wonderful
history of the state, and to make each sketch clear and concise as
well as interesting, the author has avoided many dry details and
dates.
Several of the stories endeavor to explain the remarkable physical
characteristics of California. The work to this end was rendered
lighter by the hope that the reader might find the book merely an
introduction to that larger knowledge of personal observation and
inquiry.
But the writer's chief aim has been to interest the children of
California in the beautiful land of their birth, to unfold to them the
life and occurrences of bygone days, and to lead them to note and to
enjoy their fortunate surroundings.
Among the many authorities consulted for the work, special
acknowledgment is due to the historians, Theodore H. Hittell and H.H.
Bancroft.
CONTENTS
CALIFORNIA'S NAME AND EARLY HISTORY
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS AND OF FATHER SERRA
BEFORE THE GRINGOS CAME
THE AMERICANS AND THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC
THE DAYS OF GOLD AND THE ARGONAUTS OF '49
MINING STORIES
HOW POLLY ELLIOTT CAME ACROSS THE PLAINS
THE BUILDING OF THE OVERLAND RAILROAD
STORY OF THE WHEAT FIELDS
ORCHARD, FARM, AND VINEYARD
THE STORY OF THE NAVEL ORANGE
THE LEMON
FLOWERS AND PLANTS
THE BIG TREES AND LUMBERING
OUR BIRDS
OUR WILD ANIMALS
IN SALT WATER AND FRESH
ABOUT CALIFORNIA'S INDIANS
THE STORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
MEN CALIFORNIA REMEMBERS
OUR GLORIOUS CLIMATE
SOME WONDERFUL SIGHTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
NEVADA FALLS (height 617 feet), YOSEMITE VALLEY
FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA
MISSION CHURCH, MONTEREY
OLD SAN DIEGO MISSION. Founded 1769
MISSION SAN LUIS REY. Founded 1798
MISSION DOLORES. Established 1776
SANTA BARBARA MISSION. Founded 1786
UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER
PLACER GOLD MINING. Washing with Cradle
AN ORANGE TREE WITH FRUIT AND BLOSSOMS
PALMS OVER 100 YEARS OLD AT LOS ANGELES
HOP VINES
AMONG THE HOP VINES
WHITE SANTA BARBARA POPPY
WILD CALIFORNIA POPPY
IN A MISSION GARDEN
A CHRISTMAS GARDEN
"WAWONA" (28 feet in diameter)
THE GRIZZLY GIANT (33 feet in diameter)
BIG TREES AT FELTON, SANTA CRUZ CO.
YOUNG TOWHEE
BABY YELLOW WARBLERS. From photographs by Elizabeth Grinnell
CALIFORNIA RED DEER. From a photograph by George V. Robinson
LEAPING TUNA
BLACK SEA BASS
HUMPBACK WHALE (57 feet long)
TROUT FROM LAKE TAHOE
INDIAN WOMAN WITH PAPPOOSE
INDIAN WOMAN WITH BASKETS
INDIAN BASKETS
SEAL ROCKS, SAN FRANCISCO
THE NEW CLIFF HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO
ENTRANCE TO JAPANESE TEA GARDEN, SAN FRANCISCO
FALLEN LEAF LAKE
MOUNT SHASTA FROM STRAWBERRY VALLEY
"EL CAPITAN" (3300 feet in height)
YOSEMITE FALLS
NATURAL BRIDGE, SANTA CRUZ
[Compiler's note 1: Four illustrations were omitted from the published
book, but were listed in the Illustrations pages.]
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
STORIES OF CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA'S NAME AND EARLY HISTORY
A Spanish story written four hundred years ago speaks of California as
an island rich in pearls and gold. Only black women lived there, the
story says, and they had golden spears, and collars and harness of
gold for the wild beasts which they had tamed to ride upon. This
island was said to be at a ten days' journey from Mexico, and was
supposed to lie near Asia and the East Indies.
Among those who believed such fairy tales about this wonderful island
of California was Cortes, a Spanish soldier and traveller. He had
conquered Mexico in 1521 and had made Montezuma, the Mexican emperor,
give him a fortune in gold and precious stones. Then Cortes wished
to find another rich country to capture, and California, he thought,
would be the very place. He wrote home to Spain promising to bring
back gold from the island, and also silks, spices, and diamonds from
Asia. For he was sure that the two countries were near together, and
that both might be found in the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, as he
called it, by sailing northwest.
So for years Cortes built ships in New Spain (or Mexico), and sent out
men to hunt for this golden island. They found the Gulf of California,
and at last Cortes himself sailed up and down its waters. He explored
the land on both sides, and saw only poor, naked Indians who had a few
pearls but no gold. Cortes never found the golden island. We should
remember, however, that his ships first sailed on the North Pacific
and explored Lower California, and that he first used the name
California for the peninsula.
It was left for a Portuguese ship-captain called Cabrillo to find the
port of San Diego in 1542. He was the first white man to land upon
the shores of California, as we know it. Afterwards he sailed north to
Monterey. Many Indians living along the coast came out to his ship
in canoes with fish and game for the white men. Then Cabrillo sailed
north past Monterey Bay, and almost in sight of the Golden Gate. But
the weather was rough and stormy, and without knowing of the fine
harbor so near him, he turned his ship round and sailed south again.
He reached the Santa Barbara Islands, intending to spend the winter
there, but he died soon after his arrival. The people of San Diego
now honor Cabrillo with a festival every year. He was the sea-king who
found their bay and first set foot on California ground.
About this time Magellan had discovered the Philippine Islands, and
Spain began to send ships from Mexico to those islands to buy silks,
spices, and other rich treasures. The Spanish galleons, or vessels,
loaded with their costly freight, used to come home by crossing
the Pacific to Cape Mendocino, and then sailing down the coast of
California to Mexico. Before long the English, who hated Spain and
were at war with her, sent out brave sea-captains to capture the
Spanish galleons and their cargoes. Sir Francis Drake, one of the
boldest Englishmen, knew this South Sea very well, and on a ship
called the _Golden Hind_ (which meant the Golden Deer), he came to the
New World and captured every Spanish vessel he sighted. He loaded
his ship with their treasures, gold and silver bars, chests of
silver money, velvets and silks, and wished to take his cargo back to
England. He tried to find a northern, or shorter way home, and at last
got so far north that his sailors suffered from cold, and his ship was
nearly lost. Obliged to sail south, he found a sheltered harbor near
Point Reyes, and landed there in 1579. Drake claimed the new country
for the English Queen, Elizabeth, and named it New Albion. A great
many friendly Indians in the neighborhood brought presents of feather
and bead work to the commander and his men. These Indians killed
small game and deer with bows and arrows, and had coats or mantles
of squirrel skins.
[Illustration: FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA.]
Drake and his sailors repaired and refitted their vessel during the
month they stayed at Drake's Bay. They made several trips inland also
and saw the pine and redwood forests with many deer feeding on the
hills; but they did not discover San Francisco Bay. On leaving New
Albion, Drake sailed the _Golden Hind_ across the Pacific to the East
Indies and the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope home to
England, with all the treasure he had taken. The queen received him
with great honors and his ship was kept a hundred years in memory of
the brave admiral, who had commanded it on this voyage.
During the next century several English commanders of vessels sailed
the South Sea while hunting Spanish galleons to capture, and these
ships often touched at Lower California for fresh water. Some of
the captains explored the coast and traded with the Indians, but no
settlements were made.
Then the Spanish tried to find and settle the country they had heard
so many reports of, thinking to provide stations where their trading
ships might anchor for supplies and protection. Viscaino, on his
second voyage for this purpose, landed at San Diego in 1602. Sailing
on to the island he named Santa Catalina, Viscaino found there a tribe
of fine-looking Indians who had large houses and canoes. They were
good hunters and fishermen and clothed themselves in sealskins.
Viscaino went on to Monterey and finally as far north as Oregon, but
owing to severe storms, and to sickness among his sailors, he was
obliged to return to Mexico.
For a long time after this failure to settle upon the coast, the
Spanish came to Lower California for the pearl-fisheries. Along the
Gulf of California were many oyster-beds where the Indians secured
the shells by diving for them. Large and valuable pearls were found
in many of the oysters, and the Spanish collected them in great
quantities from the Indians who did not know their real value.
In this peninsula of Lower California fifteen Missions, or
settlements, each having a church, were founded by Padres of the
Jesuits. But later the Jesuits were ordered out of the country, and
their Missions turned over to the Franciscan order of Mexico.
With the coming of the Franciscans a new period of California's
history began. Spain wished to settle Alta California, or that region
north of the peninsula, and Father Serra, the head and leader of these
Franciscans, was chosen to begin this work.
How he did this, and how he and his followers founded the California
Missions you will read in the story of that time.
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS AND OF FATHER SERRA
The old Missions of California are landmarks that remind us of Father
Serra and his band of faithful workers. There were twenty-one of their
beautiful churches, and though some are ruined and neglected, others
like the Mission Dolores of San Francisco and the Santa Barbara and
Monterey buildings are still in excellent condition. From San Diego to
San Francisco these Missions were located, about thirty miles apart,
and so well were the sites chosen that the finest cities of the state
have grown round the old churches.
Father Junipero Serra was the president and leader of the Franciscan
missionaries and the founder of the Missions. He had been brought up
in Spain, and had dreamed from his boyhood of going to the New
World, as the Spanish called America, to tell the savages how to be
Christians. He began his work as a missionary in Mexico and there
labored faithfully among the Indians for nearly twenty years. But as
his greatest wish was to preach to those in unknown places he was glad
to be chosen to explore Alta or Upper California.
Marching by land from Loreto, a Mission of Lower California, Father
Serra, with Governor Portola and his soldiers, reached San Diego in
1769. Here he planted the first Mission on California ground. The
church was a rude arbor of boughs, and the bells were hung in an oak
tree. Father Serra rang the bells himself, and called loudly to the
wondering Indians to come to the Holy Church and hear about Christ.
But the natives were suspicious and not ready to listen to the good
man's teachings, and several times they attacked the newcomers.
Finally, after six years, they burnt the church and killed one of the
missionaries. But later on there was peace, and the priests, or Padres
as they were called, taught the Indians to raise corn and wheat, and
to plant olive orchards and fig trees, and grapes for wine. They built
a new church and round it the huts, or cabins, of the Indians, the
storehouses, and the Padre's dwelling. In the early morning the bells
called every member of the Mission family to a church service. After a
breakfast of corn and beans they spent the morning in outdoor work or
in building. At noon either mutton or beef was served with corn and
beans, and at two o'clock work began again, to last till evening
service. A supper of corn-meal mush was the Indians' favorite
meal. They had many holidays, when their amusements were dancing,
bull-fighting, or cock-fighting.
San Diego, called the Mother Mission, because it is the oldest church,
is now also most in ruins. But its friends hope to put new foundations
under the old walls, and to recap firm ones with cement, and preserve
this monument of early California history.
After Father Serra had started the San Diego settlement he set sail
for Monterey. Landing at Monterey Bay, he built an altar under a large
oak tree, hung the Mission bells upon the boughs, and held the usual
services. The Spanish soldiers fired off their guns in honor of the
day and put up a great cross. The Indians had never heard the sound of
guns and were so frightened that they ran away to the mountains. The
second Mission was built on the Carmel River, a little distance from
the site of the first altar. This was called San Carlos of Monterey,
and the settlement was the capital of Alta California for many years.
It was also the Mission that Father Serra loved the best, and after
every trip to other and newer settlements he returned to San Carlos as
his home. This Monterey Mission is well preserved, and books, carved
church furniture, and embroidered robes used in the old services are
still shown.
At both San Diego and Monterey a presidio, or fort, was built for the
soldiers. These forts had one or two cannon brought from Spain, and
had around them high walls, or stockades, to protect, if it should be
necessary, the Mission people from the Indians. The cannon were fired
on holidays, or to frighten troublesome Indians.
All the Mission buildings were of brown clay made into large bricks
about a foot and a half long and broad, and three or four inches
thick. These bricks, dried in the sun, were called adobes, and were
plastered together and made smooth by a mortar of the same clay.
Then the walls were coated outside and inside with a lime stucco and
whitewashed. The roof timbers were covered with hollow red tiles, each
like the half of a sewer pipe, and these were laid to overlap each
other so that they kept the rain out. The floors were of earth beaten
hard, and the windows had bars or latticework, but no glass. The large
church was snowy white within and without and had pictures brought
from Spain and much carved furniture, such as chairs, benches, and
the pulpit made by the Indians. One or two round-topped towers and
five or six belfries, each holding a large bell, were on the church roof,
and a great iron cross at the very top.
[Illustration: MISSION CHURCH, MONTEREY.]
[Illustration: OLD SAN DIEGO MISSION. Founded 1769.]
Night and morning the Mission bells rang to call the Indians to mass
or service, and chimes or tunes were rung on holidays or for weddings.
These Mission bells were brought from Spain, and it was thought a
blessing rested on the ship which carried them, and that shipwreck
could not come to such a vessel. We read of one captain joyfully
receiving the Mission bells to take to San Diego. When nearing the
coast his vessel struck a rock, yet passed on in safety because, as
he said, no harm could happen with the bells on board. On his journeys
every missionary carried a bell with him for the new church he was to
build. Father Serra's first act on reaching a stopping-place was to
hang the bell in a tree and ring it to gather the Indians and people
for service.
San Antonio, a very successful Mission, was the third one established,
and it was in a beautiful little valley of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
Every kind of fruit grew in its orchards, and the Indians there were
very happy and contented, and in large workshops made cloth, saddles,
and other things. San Gabriel, not far from Los Angeles and sometimes
called the finest church of all, was the next to be built. This was
the richest of the Missions and had great stores of wool, wheat, and
fruit, which the hard-working Indians earned and gave to the church.
The Indians, indeed, were almost slaves, and worked all their
lives for the Padres without rest or pay. At San Gabriel the first
California flour-mill worked by a stream of water turning the wheel,
was put up. Some of the old palms and olive trees are still growing
there.
San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776, was one of the best-known
Missions, for it had a seaport of its own at San Juan. Vessels came to
its port for the hides and tallow of thousands of cattle herded round
the Mission. The first fine church of this Mission was destroyed by
an earthquake, and many people were killed by its falling roof. It was
rebuilt, however, and still shows its fine front, and long corridors
or porches round a hollow square where a garden and fountain used to
be.
Old records tell us that Father Serra felt that there should be a
church named in honor of Francis, who was the founder and patron saint
of the Franciscan brotherhood of monks to which these missionaries
belonged. When Father Serra spoke of this to Galvez, that priest
replied, "If our good Saint Francis wants a Mission, let him show us
that fine harbor up above Monterey and we will build him one there."
Several explorers had failed to find this port about which Indians had
spoken to the Spanish. At last Ortega discovered it, and Father Palou,
in 1776, consecrated the Mission of San Francisco. Near the spot was
a small lake called the "Laguna de los Dolores," and from this the
church was at last known as the Mission Dolores. But the great city
bears the Spanish name of Saint Francis, or San Francisco. A fort
was erected where the present Presidio stands, and later a battery
of cannon was placed at Black Point. It is told that the Indians were
very quarrelsome here and fought so among themselves that the Padres
could get no church built for a year. In that part of San Francisco
called the Mission, the old building with its odd roof and three of
the ancient bells is a very interesting place to visit. There are
pictures, and other relics of the past to see, and in the graveyard
many of San Francisco's early settlers were buried. This was the sixth
Mission of Alta California.
The Santa Barbara Mission, where Franciscan fathers still live, has
a fine church with double towers and a long row of two-story adobe
buildings enclosing a hollow square where a beautiful garden is kept.
One of the brotherhood, wearing a long brown robe just as Father Serra
did, takes visitors into the church, and also shows them the garden
and a large carved stone fountain. This church is built of sandstone
with two large towers and a chime of six bells, and was finished in
1820.
The Santa Ynez Mission was much damaged by the heavy earthquake that
in 1812 ruined other Missions. Here the Indians raised large crops
of wheat and herded many cattle. Over a thousand Indians, it is said,
attacked this church in 1822, but the priest in charge frightened them
away by firing guns. This warlike conduct so displeased the Padres,
who wished the natives ruled by kindness, that the poor priest was
sent away from the Mission.
One of the early Missions was San Luis Obispo, where services are
still held. It was specially noted for a fine blue cloth woven by
the Indians from the wool of the Mission flocks of sheep. The Indians
there also wove blankets, and cloth from cotton raised upon their own
lands.
San Juan Bautista, or St. John the Baptist, north of Monterey, had a
splendid chime of nine bells said to have been brought from Peru and
to have very rich, mellow tones. San Miguel had a bell hung up on a
platform in front of the church, and now at Santa Ysabel, sixty miles
from San Diego, where the Mission itself is only a heap of adobe
ruins, two bells hang on a rude framework of logs. The Indian
bell-ringer rings them by a rope fastened to each clapper. The bells
were cast in Spain and much silver jewellery and household plate were
melted with the bell-metal. Near them the Diegueno Indians worship in
a rude arbor of green boughs with their priest, Father Antonio, who
has worked for thirty years among the tribe. They live on a rancheria
near by and are making adobe bricks, hoping soon to build a church
like the old Mission long since crumbled away.
The last of the Missions was built in 1823 at Sonoma, and proved very
active in church work, some fifteen hundred Indians having been there
baptized.
Father Junipero Serra died at more than seventy years of age, at San
Carlos. During all his life in America he endured great hardships
and suffering to bring the gospel to the heathen as he had dreamed of
doing in his boyish days. A monument to his memory has been erected
at Monterey by Mrs. Stanford, but the Missions he founded are his best
and most lasting remembrances.
BEFORE THE GRINGOS CAME
This is the story Senora Sanchez told us children as we sat on the
sunny, rose-covered porch of her old adobe house at Monterey one
summer afternoon. And as she talked of those early times she worked
at her fine linen "drawn-work" with bright, dark eyes that needed no
glasses for all her eighty years and snow-white hair.
"When I was a girl, California was a Mexican republic," said the
Senora, "and Los Gringos, as we called the Americans, came in ships
from Boston. They brought us our shoes and dresses, our blankets and
groceries; all kinds of goods, indeed, to trade for hides and tallow,
which was all our people had to sell in those days. For no one raised
anything but cattle then, and all summer long the cows cropped the
rich clover and wild oats till they were fat and ready to kill. In
the fall the Indians and vaqueros, or cowboys as you children call
them, drove great herds of cattle to the Missions near the ocean where
the Gringos came with their ship-loads of fine things and waited for
trading-days.
[Illustration: MISSION SAN LUIS REY. Founded 1798.]
[Illustration: MISSION DOLORES. Established 1776.]
"For weeks every one worked hard, killing the cattle, stripping off
their skins and hanging the green or fresh hides over poles to dry in
the sun. When dried hard and stiff as a board the skins were folded
hair-side in, and were then worth about two dollars apiece. The
beef-suet, or fat, from these cattle was put into large iron kettles
and melted. While still hot it was dipped out with wooden dippers
into rawhide bags, each made from an animal's skin. When cold and hard
these bags of tallow were sewed up with leather strings, and thus they
were taken to Boston.
"So much beef was on hand at such times that not even the hungry
Indians could eat it all while it was fresh. The nicest pieces were
cut into long strips, dipped into a boiling salt brine full of hot
red peppers and hung up to dry where the sunshine soon turned the meat
into carne seca, or dried beef. We put it away in sacks, and very good
it was all the year for stews, and to eat with the frijoles, or red
beans, and tortillas, which were corn-cakes.
"All we bought from the Gringos was paid for with hides and tallow,
so it was well, you see, children, that my father owned ten thousand
cattle; for counting relatives and Indian servants, we always had more
than thirty people on our ranch to feed and clothe. We raised grain
and corn and beans enough for the family, but had to buy sugar,
coffee, and such things.
"Did we have many horses, you say? Yes, droves of them, and we almost
lived on horseback, for no one walked if he could help it, and there
were almost no carriages or roads. Neither were there any barns or
stables, for the mustangs, or tough little ponies, fed on the wild
grass and took care of themselves. Every morning a horse was caught,
saddled and bridled, and tied by the door ready to use. All the ladies
rode, too, and I often used to ride twenty miles to a dance with Juan,
my young husband, and back again in a day or so.
"Sometimes we went to the rodeo, where once a year the great herds of
cattle were driven into corrals, and each ranchero or farmer picked
out his own stock. Then those young calves or yearlings not already
marked were branded with their owner's stamp by a red-hot iron that
burnt the mark into the skin. After that the bellowing, frightened
animals were turned out to roam the grassy plains for another year. We
had plenty of feasting and merry-making at these rodeos, and a whole
ox was roasted every day for the hungry crowds, so no one went fasting
to bed.
"Those were gay times, my children," and Senora Sanchez sighed and
sewed quietly for a while till Harry asked her if they kept Christmas
before the Gringos came.
"Yes, indeed," she said, laughing, "we kept Christmas for a week,
and all our friends and relatives were welcome, so that our big
ranch-house was full of company. Indeed, some of the visitors slept in
hammocks or rolled up in blankets on the verandas. Our house was built
round the four sides of a square garden, with wide porches, where we
sat on pleasant days. There was a fountain in this garden, and orange
trees, which at Christmas-time hung full of golden fruit and sweet
white flowers. On 'the holy night,' as we called Christmas Eve, we
hung lanterns in the porches, and everybody crowded there or in the
garden for their gifts.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8