Chronicles of California

The Myth of California as an Island

2012-02-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

One of the great myths in the history of cartography is that California was an island. One of the great ironies of that myth is that it continued long after the world knew that was wrong. Here’s a brief look at how it all happened.

The first reference to California as an island took place in 1510, when novelist Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo wrote, “…on the right hand of the Indies is an island called California…” in an adventure novel about Amazon women titled Las sergas de Explandián.Then, in 1533, a Spaniard by the name of Fortún Ximénez, who had mutinied from an exploring expedition, discovered the southern part of Baja, which Cortez briefly colonized then abandoned, giving rise to the island myth again. Finally, in 1539, navigator Francisco de Ulloa explored the Sea of Cortez to the mouth of the Colorado River, proving, he thought, Baja was a peninsula not an island. And in 1604-1605 Juan de Oñate led a party down the Colorado River and reported sight of the Gulf of California – further proof.

So that should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t. No one told the European map makers. Antonio de la Ascención, a Carmelite friar who had sailed with Sebastián Vizcaíno along the California coast in 1602-1603, and should have known better, wrote in his journal that California was an island. That led to the drawing of new maps. So starting in1622 maps, like the one above, drawn in 1636, showed California floating placidly on the Pacific.

The map makers of Europe continued to make this mistake well into the 17^th and early 18^th centuries. The people in Mexico or Baja California knew better, but it took more overland expeditions to finally rid the world of this myth. From 1698 to 1706, Eusebio Francisco Kino, A Jesuit priest and cartographer, cross Sonora many times looking for an overland route from Mexico to Alta California. He assured map makers California was firmly attached to the mainland. The map at left, drawn in 1773 is among the first to correctly, if inaccurately, depict Baja California as a peninsula.

But like most things, rectifying the misconception took a royal decree to make California’s status official. In 1747, when that status was no longer in doubt, King Ferdinand VII of Spain issued a royal edict declaring California a part of the mainland. Obviously, Fray Junipero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá knew the truth in 1769 when they led the first expedition from Baja to Monterey, and founded Mission San Diego de Alcala.

Kino Never Set Foot in California, but was an Important Explorer

In the pantheon of great western explorers, the name of Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino ranks among the highest. He traveled extensively throughout the Sonoran desert from what is now Arizona to Baja California. He spent his life trying to bring Catholic Christianity to the Indians of the area, learning their languages so he could preach to them.

Kino was born in Italy in 1644 in the village of Segno in the Italian Alps. He graduated from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1665 and entered the Jesuit order. The order sent him to the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria where he studied theology, philosophy, mathematics and geography.

He did not cross the Atlantic to Mexico until 1681, where he was posted to Mexico City. In 1687, at the age of 43, the Viceroy sent him to northern Mexico, and for the next 24 years he made over 40 journeys throughout the northern desert, writing about them in his diaries, Favores celestials, and other works that were published after his death.

Father Kino’s death was shrouded in mystery. His gravesite was lost to history for two hundred and fifty years. It was discovered in Magadalena, a Sonoran village in 1966. Following his death in 1711, Jesuit influence in the area declined, primarily because there was no one of his stature to take Kino’s place.

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You won’t want to miss my new short biography: John and Jessie Frémont, the Couple Who Won the West and Lost Everything Else. It’s available at Amazon Kindle and at www.rinconpublishing.com.

Chronicles of California© Newsletter is published by Rincon Publishing

Bloody Island was a Shameful Event

2012-01-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

The men and women who came to California from the United States following the Mexican War seemed to feel they were entitled to the wealth the new state had to offer. The Americans had little tolerance for the people already here – the Californios and Indians and they became fair game for settlers who wanted their land, or just wanted them gone.

Clear Lake

In the spring of 1850, an event took place at Clear Lake, in what was then Napa County, that wiped out an entire village of Pomo Indians. They were massacred by soldiers of the United States Army in reprisal for the killing of two white men: Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone.

The Kelsey family – Andrew, Sam, Ben and his wife Nancy with their young daughter, Martha Ann – were a tough Kentucky family that came to California in the Bidwell-Bartleson Party of 1841. Andrew, along with Charles Stone bought property near Clear Lake in 1847 and began ranching there, using local Pomo Indians as laborers, more realistically slaves since they were never paid or fed. They history books record their harsh treatment of the Pomo men, including hanging and shooting them, and raping their women. Unable to survive with Kelsey and Stone as neighbors, the Pomo finally retaliated by killing them both.

Bloody Island Marker

There was never a justification for Indians killing Whites in 1850. When news of their act reached the military early in the year, a detachment of troops was sent to punish the Pomo. The Indians outsmarted the soldiers by retreating to an island in Clear Lake, but when the roads were dry by May, another party of dragoons under the command of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lyons came back, bringing two longboats with them. When the Pomo retreated to Bo-no-po-ti, later called Bloody Island again, the soldiers first used a howitzer to shell the island then embarked in their longboats, shooting or bayoneting every Pomo man, woman and child seeking refuge there when they landed. Somewhere between 75 and 200 Indians were killed (an official count wasn’t deemed necessary). Lt. Lyons was praised for his work and later, as General Nathaniel Lyons, fought in the Civil War on the Union side, dying in the battle of Willow Springs on the southern Missouri border in 1861.

The depredations against the Native Americans in California continued. In 1851, Governor Peter Burnett said in s speech, “…a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct.” In fairness, he went on to say that might be regrettable, but nevertheless “is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert.” He was right – approximately 80% of California Indians were wiped out before the turn of the 20^th century.

The Kelsey Family was a Wandering Group

In some ways the Kelsey family was representative of most Americans, always on the move, always looking for something better. Ben Kelsey and his brothers were born in Kentucky. They moved westward over the years and joined the Bidwell-Bartleson party for California in Missouri. Ben’s wife Nancy was the first White woman known to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She had daughter Martha in her arms. But Nancy’s name would become famous for another reason.

Ben Kelsey

Ben and Nancy soon left California for Oregon, but returned in time to settle in Napa County and participate in the Bear Flag Revolt. Nancy is credited with making the original Bear Flag. When gold was discovered, Ben staked claims on the American River that became known as Kelsey’s Diggings. Assisted by brother Sam, Ben forced 50 or more Pomo Indians to do the digging for him without pay or food.

Nancy Kelsey

Ben had a store in Sacramento for a while, but lost it to bad debts, He and Nancy, with brother Sam, moved to Humboldt County were they had property but lost it when Ben defaulted on his mortgage. They came back to Sonoma County for awhile and then moved to Oregon. In 1859, they moved to Mexico and then Texas in 1861, where one of their daughters was scalped in a Comanche attack. In 1865 Ben was in Fresno and then in Inyo County in 1872 and finally he and Nancy moved to Los Angeles where he died in 1889. Nancy moved to the Cuyama Valley of Santa Barbara County, where the Native Daughters of the Golden West placed a monument on her grave calling her “The Betsy Ross of California.”

If you like these glimpses into California’s Golden Past, you’ll also enjoy the Chronicles of Western Pioneers. You can find these brief bios of Westerners at www.rinconpublishing.com or download them from Kindle or Nook for less than the price of a cup of Starbucks. Read a fascinating new biography of John and Jessie Frémont, just published, or other stories of western heroes, saints and sinners. You won’t be disappointed!

Overland Travel to California

2011-12-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Last month I wrote about the Bidwell-Bartleson party coming overland to California. They did; when they abandoned their wagons in the Nevada desert they became the first emigrant party to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But they were not the first Americans to do so. That honor for first overland travel to California must go to mountain man Jedediah Strong Smith (right) a bible-totting, teetotaler, In fact, he did the trip twice.

Jedediah Strong Smith

Smith was one of the first men to enter the Rocky Mountain fur trade. He joined William Ashley and Andrew Henry’s company in 1822 when he was 23. He is credited with discovering South Pass, the gentle slope across the crest of the Rockies wagon trains would follow in later years. By 1826 he was a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. That year, he set out from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to seek fur-trapping steams farther west. With 17 men, he left the Salt Lake area in August that year and headed south and west.

He and his men followed Utah Lake to the Sevier River, then to the Virgin River that led the party to the Colorado River encampments of Mojave Indians. Here he made friends, rested his horses and followed two native guides over the Cajon Pass, arriving at Mission San Gabriel in November. The Franciscans greeted him warmly, but not so the Mexican officials. Finally, with help from Yankee ship captains in port, he persuaded Governor Echeandía to give him a passport. The party left San Gabriel in January 1827 but instead of recrossing the Colorado, it turned north over the Tejón Pass and attempted to cross the Sierras in the depth of winter. Turned back, Smith waited in the Central Valley until May. He left most of his men to trap beaver on the foothill streams and crossed over to Nevada in May with two other men – the first known crossing of the Sierra.

They were in desperate straits by the time they crossed Nevada and western Utah. There was little water to be found and they subsisted on the meat of their dead horses, but Smith was back at the 1827 Rendezvous by July 3. Ten days later he started for California again. This time the Mojaves weren’t so friendly, killing ten of Smith’s men on the Colorado River.

The Mexicans weren’t any friendlier either, so after getting supplies, Smith left two men at San Gabriel and hurried to find the men he had left in the Central Valley the year before. The group traveled north, this time, into Oregon, where a band of Umpqua Indians fell upon them, killing everyone save Smith and two other men. They made their way to Fort Vancouver and ultimately recrossed the mountains into the Great Basin again. Eventually, Smith left the Rockies and the fur trade. His life came to an end in 1831 on the Cimarron River when he was ambushed by Comanche who shot him in the back with their arrows.

Other Men Who Blazed Trails to California

Other mountain men and traders quickly followed on the heels of Jedediah Smith to California. While Smith came from the Rocky Mountains, James Ohio Pattie started west from Santa Fe and Taos. In 1827, after successfully collecting furs along the Gila River, his party cached them along the Colorado River and journeyed overland to Baja California. Thinking to put a stop to foreign incursions, Governor Echeandía jailed Pattie’s party; Pattie’s father died in a Mexican prison. Release came when a smallpox epidemic broke out and Pattie told the officials he had vaccine to treat it. Pattie remained in California for some years but returned to Tennessee in 1841.

Taos Pueblo

Next to come overland to the Golden State was Ewing Young. In 1829, with a party of 40 men, Young set out from Taos. They trapped the Salt River and traveled south of Grand Canyon, and crossed the Cajón Pass. They went north through the Tejón Pass into the Central Valley where they trapped beaver and met up with a Hudson Bay company led by Peter Skeene Ogden. Young hunted sea otter along the coast before heading into Oregon where he made his home.

Walker Pass

Joseph Reddeford Walker, another Rocky Mountain fur trapper, came across the Nevada desert in 1833, probably close to the route traveled later by the Bidwell-Bartleson party. He followed the Humboldt River, then crossed 40 miles of desert to a lake later named for him. He crested the Sierra Nevada range (Walker Pass) to arrive in the San Joaquin Valley. It is likely his group were the first Europeans to look down into the Yosemite Valley.

The Holidays are almost here. You can buy autographed gift copies of Dream Helper and Delfina’s Gold at our website www.rinconpublishing.com at discount prices. Share these exciting adventure romance, historically accurate, novels with your family and friends. Dream Helper is the Gold Medalist as Best Fiction in the Western/Pacific Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Delfina’s Gold is entered in the 2011 competition.

2011-11-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Bidwell-Bartleson Party Pioneered the Overland Route to California

When the Bidwell-Bartleson party of 32 men, women and children and nine wagons turned left at Soda Springs, Idaho Territory in 1841, and headed southwest, they became the first emigrant group to carve a trail to California over Northern Nevada desert and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Just where they crossed is uncertain – Ebbetts Pass (below) usually claims the honor – and whether their final destination was Sutter’s Fort or “Doctor” John Marsh’s home at the base of Mount Diablo, near the present day city of Brentwood is debatable. What is indisputable is that they were the first group of Midwestern settlers to arrive in the Golden State.

And you can call the exhausted group of travelers who found their way into California the Bidwell-Bartleson party or the Bartleson-Bidwell party – historians do both. John Bidwell was the organizer of a part of the group, but John Bartleson refused to join the party with his followers unless he was made captain. For the journey from their starting point at Sapling Springs, Missouri, (Bancroft says Sapling Grove, Kansas) to Soda Springs, they were led by Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick, a noted guide and mountain man.

The impetus for this emigrant group came, in part, from letters John Marsh wrote from California to friends in Missouri extolling the virtues of Alta California that were published in local broadsheets. Also contributing to the western excitement was a French-Canadian mountain man, Antoine Robidoux, who spoke at several meetings about what he had seen in California. Many signed a pledge in late 1840 to make the journey, but few showed up at the starting point the following May. The party leaving Missouri (or was it Kansas?) on May 18 consisted of 70.

As Soda Springs the party broke up. Fitzpatrick took a group of Jesuit priests on to Montana Territory as previously agreed, leaving the Bidwell-Bartleson contingent leaderless. Then many in the original group for California changed their minds and opted to go to Oregon instead. The California group headed down Bear River toward Cache Valley, Utah, in August. With no guide, they went right passed it and had to retrace their trail. John Bidwell had a book on celestial navigation with him. It may have helped.

They had been told to hunt for the Marys River (now Humboldt) in Nevada and follow it to its sink. Crossing the desert in search of it they were forced to abandon their wagons. With help from local Indians, they found and followed the Walker River. From there they climbed into the Sierra on foot and didn’t reach its crest until November. One account (highly improbable) says as they topped the last ridge they were met by an Indian shouting “Marsh, Marsh” who led them to the Doc’s home in the San Joaquin Valley. More likely, they found and followed the Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River in their descent to the valley below.

John Bidwell Became a U.S. Congressman from California

Members of the Bidwell-Bartleson party went on to be famous and infamous in California history over the next half century. None more so than John Bidwell. Born in New York State in 1819, Bidwell was a clear example of America on the march. He move to Pennsylvania and Ohio with his parents, then struck out on his own when he was 20, moving on to Missouri. It was there that he came under the influence of Antoine Robidoux and John Marsh and organized a party for overland travel to California.

As soon as he reached California, Bidwell went to work at John Sutter’s fort (present day Sacramento). He was a participant in the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 and subsequently attained the rank of major in the war with Mexico. When it ended, he was elected to the fledgling State senate in 1849. That year he bought the 22,000 acre Rancho Chico in what is now Butte County. It stretched 4 miles along the Sacramento River and from there back into the Sierra foothills. In 1850 and again in 1860 he was California supervisor of the U.S. Census.

In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and in 1864 a delegate to the Republican National Convention. That year he was elected a Republican representative to the 39^th U.S. Congress, where he chaired the Agricultural Committee. A year earlier he had been made a brigadier general in the California Militia. Twice he ran unsuccessfully for Governor and once for President of the United States as the candidate of the Prohibition Party.

In 1868, At the age of 49, Bidwell married Annie Kennedy. Together they built Rancho Chico into a model agricultural project with 115,000 fruit and nut trees and 200 acres of vineyards. Today, the town of Chico, California, stands on the site of his rancho (left). Bidwell died there in April 1900.

The Holidays are almost upon us. You can buy autographed gift copies of Dream Helper and Delfina’s Gold at our website www.rinconpublishing.com at discount prices. Share these exciting adventure romance, historically accurate novels with your family and friends. Dream Helper is the Gold Medalist as Best Fiction in the Western/Pacific Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Delfina’s Gold is entered in the 2011 competition.

Chronicles of Western Pioneers

Read Exciting short biographies of the men and women who won the West

2011-09-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Hide and Tallow Trade Brought New Englanders to California

Each October the Spirit of Dana Point, representing an 1830s Tall Ship, sails majestically into the Santa Barbara harbor. For the next four weeks the city’s 4^th graders are treated to an educational program sponsored by the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and the Dana Point Ocean Institute, based on Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s thrilling book, Two Years Before the Mast. The kids role-play what it was like to be a sailor engaged in the hide and tallow trade during the nineteenth century, including spending a night “before the mast.”

While the hide and tallow trade reached its high point in the

“Brig Pilgram loading hides in San
Diego in 1835” by John Stobard

1830s-40s, its origins go back to Spanish times when only ships flying the Spanish flag were allowed to land in Alta California. New Englanders, often called Bostonmen by the Californios, frequently defied the ban, smuggling manufactured goods onto unguarded beaches to trade with mission priests for hides. The Yankees, had come to the Pacific to hunt Northwest Coast sea otter furs for the China trade.

California cow hides were not the most highly valued hides available. That accolade went to the Argentine cattle industry. California hides were a longer sail from Boston, but their lower price made the voyage profitable. The value per hide in California ranged from $1 to $2, according to historians. Cash money never changed hands, however, because the Californios usually had none.

In New England, the hides were made into shoes, saddles and other leather products, and were also used as belts to run the machinery in the flourishing factories and mills of the growing industrial age. Bryant & Sturgis Company led the way in the California hide trade, but was followed by other merchant companies. Alfred Robinson was a highly respected B & S trader.

Hide ships planned to spend at least two years on the California coast collecting hides. They sailed to the presidial ports of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Diego, but also made stops in San Francisco Bay and along the coast at San Luis Obispo, Rancho Refugio, San Pedro and San Juan Capistrano. They might make this circuit several times before securing enough hides to justify a return voyage to Boston. Sailing north to start the circuit meant sailing far offshore to find favorable winds and sometimes the vessels went as far west as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). A full load might be as many as 40,000 hides with accompanying tallow.

It was the Californios on their vast ranchos, as well as the missionaries, who supplied the hides and tallow during the Mexican period. Cattle herds were slaughtered once or twice a year, the meat left to rot, while the hides were cured and stored on the beach, awaiting the visit of the next hide ship.

Tallow was important to the candle-making industry in both Chile and New England. The prime layer of fat from the slaughtered steers was rendered into liquid form, then allowed to solidify to insure the stability of the vessels returning home.

Alfred Robinson Wrote of California During the Hide and Tallow Trade

Alfred Robinson (1806-1895) came to Alta California from Boston in 1829 aboard the brig Brookline to take the post of hide and tallow trader for Bryant & Sturgis Company. He traveled up and down the coast arranging trades between the rancheros, who offered the hides and tallow for manufactured goods the vessels brought from New England.

He established his headquarters in Santa Barbara, where he became acquainted with the leading families of the presidio village. Among them he met Jose de la Guerra y Norriega, presidio commandante and large landowner. In 1836, Robinson married 15-year-old Ana Maria (Anita) de la Guerra in a glorious three-day wedding celebrated in Richard Henry Dana Jr’s Two Years Before the Mast.

In 1837, Alfred and Anita returned to New York, where she died the following year. During the Gold Rush, Robinson moved back to San Francisco as the first agent for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. His book, Life in California is a wonderful account of the hide and tallow trade and his advertures as a young man in Alta California. It is still in print.

In many ways, Alfred Robinson is the prototype character for Will Thornton, the protagonist in Delfina’s Gold, the second novel of my Chronicles of California trilogy, although in no way a biography of him. Read Delfina’s Gold to enjoy a thrilling adventure/love story set in the California of the 1830s and 40s. It’s available at bookstores, Amazon.com, Kindle, Nook, Ipad and at www.rinconpublishing.com.

Chronicles of California© Newsletter is published by Rincon Publishing

2011-08-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

What was San Francisco Like on September 9, 1850?

On September 9, 1850, after almost a year of debate, argument, horse trading and sectional politics, the U.S. House of Representatives, after three readings, passed by a vote of 150-56, a bill admitting California to the Union. That same day, President Millard Fillmore signed the bill into law, making California the 31^st state.

The news didn’t reach the fledgling state for five weeks. It was on October 18 that the Pacific Mail Steamship SS Oregon entered the Golden Gate flying two banners announcing the good news. The city began to celebrate. At sunrise on October 29, a 13-gun salute was fired, followed by a grand parade through the city. A contingent of Chinese wore their finest silks, horsemen dressed in Mexican riding garb, and a float carried a handsome young girl robed in classical attire. The parade was followed by a gathering in Portsmouth Square for an oration by Judge Nathaniel Bennett. A special ode, written for the occasion by Mrs. Wills, was sung by a big choir. What followed was the official raising of a new 31-star U.S. flag and a 31-gun salute at sunset. That night there were bonfires and fireworks blazing not only on the plaza, but on Telegraph Hill, Rincon Point and the islands of the bay.

When California achieved statehood, San Francisco was a scattering of houses, made mostly of wood and canvass, between El Rincon and Telegraph Hill. In those early days there was no telegraph on the hill; a semaphore signal sufficed to alert merchants in the business district when a ship was approaching and what cargo it carried. Montgomery Street was the waterfront, but Yerba Buena Cove was already beginning to be filled in. Ships like the Niantic, once a whaling vessel that had brought Gold Rushers to the city from Panama, was now a store ship beached at the foot of Clay Street, and the ship Euphemia, once the trading vessel of William Heath Davis, was the jail. The Spanish presidio was in ruins near Fort Point and Mission Dolores was a long ride up Market Street, but a pleasant place to picnic on Sunday.

Portsmouth Square was the real center of the city. Named for the U.S. Navy ship that brought Commodore Montgomery to San Francisco in 1846, the square was the financial and social center of town; business activity buzzed on the waterfront. One side of the square was occupied by hotels and gambling houses, where other entertainment was also available. The three-story Parker House might have been the town’s finest accommodation – it also housed the Jenny Lind Theater. The Union, Crescent City and Empire hotels were nearby.

Across the square was the Post Office and a collection of small cafes, a bookseller and fruit seller. City Hall, built in 1846, was on the south side of the square alongside more hotels and shops. To the north stood a number of banking and trade establishments. Many, perhaps most, of the buildings around Portsmouth Square had been rebuilt since the great fire in May of that year and the fire of Christmas Eve 1849.

Montgomery Street was the business district. North of Portsmouth Square was “little Chile” filled with Latin Americans from several nations. Sydney Town, a less than desirable place was between Kearny, Sansome, Broadway and Green Streets. Happy Valley was just south of Market Street; further on was Pleasant Valley, both were places where tents were pitched by men coming back from the diggings.

Twelve new wharfs where built by 1850, with Central Wharf extending 2000 feet into the bay to allow deep water ships to unload cargoes.

May 4, 1850 saw the second of San Francisco’s great fires erupt on the Plaza, bounded by Kearny, Clay Montgomery and Washington Streets. (The first fire, On December 24, 1849, saw former New York City fireman David C. Broderick leading the way for the establishment of a volunteer fire department. Much more on Broderick in future Chronicles.) In all, 300 buildings were destroyed with a toll of $4 million. Many of the ruined buildings were gambling houses. Rebuilding got underway immediately. A third great fire broke out On June 14^th 1850 and a fourth on September 17^th, just eight days after statehood. After that, most rebuilding was with stone and brick.

1850 also saw nine new newspapers come into existence. The most famous was the Alta California, the offspring of the Californian and the California Star.

Meanwhile, in southern California word of statehood was slow to arrive. Los Angeles was struggling to become an America city. Alpheus P. Hodges was elected Los Angeles’ first American mayor and the city got its first post office. The first hotel, the Bella Union, was built. Los Angeles was touted as the nation’s premier wine-producing county.

Dream Helper, A Novel of Early California, my gold medal winner for Best Fiction in the Western/Pacific Region continues strong sales in print and E-book formats. Delfina’s Gold is the second novel in the Chronicles of California trilogy. Don’t miss either one They available at bookstores, Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and at www.rinconpublishing.com.

2011-08-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

What Was Frémont’s Role in the Bear Flag Revolt?

For over 160 years historians have wrestled with this question. Unfortunately, there are no written records of the instructions Col. John Charles Frémont may or may not have received from the U.S. Government as he made his way to California in 1845, but a review of interviews with the Col. and his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, and others soon after the Bear Flag Revolt, points a finger of responsibility in his direction.

There is no question that President James K. Polk wanted California and intended to take it any way he could in 1846, but Frémont’s activities, and the actions of American settlers who took part in the revolt, destroyed any chance that American Consul Thomas O. Larkin could successful achieve a peaceful transition of ownership from Mexico to the U.S. Ultimately, war broke out between the two nations. The Bear Flag Revolt was not the cause, but it soured relations between American and Californios for several generations.

The events of the winter and spring of 1846 began when Frémont brought his exploring party, made up of U.S. soldiers and a cannon over the Sierra to winter near Monterey. The Mexican government, at first a forbearing host, was finally alarmed to see foreign soldiers on its soil and grew angry when the Col. raised an American flag over his camp. After ignoring requests to leave for several days, Frémont did finally move on toward the Oregon border.

U.S. Marine officer, Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, arrived in Monterey with secret verbal instructions for Frémont which he delivered to him short of the Oregon border, causing Frémont to turn back toward the Sutter Buttes area of the Sacramento Valley. Gillespie also had a letter from Secretary of State, Buchanan for Consul Larkin and letters from Frémont’s father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton. There has always been speculation Gillespie carried a message from President Polk.

In a sense, whether or not there was official correspondence is not particularly significant because Frémont and Benton had been privy, indeed strong participants, in discussions in D.C. about the ultimate fate of California. Without admitting his role directly, in later years Frémont said: “The letter of Senator Benton…was a trumpet giving no uncertain note.” He went on to write that the discussions in Washington had given him a clear understanding of what was expected of him.

The revolt actually started on June 10, 1846, when a group of American settlers captured a herd of horses belonging to the Mexican army under the command of Captain Arce. A participant later wrote for historian Herbert H. Bancroft: “There was no excitement, no danger, till Frémont began the war by sending the party which attacked Arce… I say that Frémont and he alone is to be credited with the first act of war.” In 1885, preparing to write his book, Harvard philosophy professor Josiah Royce interviewed John and Jessie Frémont about the events and essentially proved they had covered up the facts surrounding the Bear Flag Revolt.

John Charles Frémont lived a Life of Controversy

Born to an unmarried French father and southern mother, John C. Frémont grew up in Charleston, S.C. under a cloud of illegitimacy and the need to prove himself to others. He established a name in scientific expeditions in the northwest, married the 15-year-old daughter of one of the most prominent Senators in U.S. history and achieved national notoriety when he and his wife published the journal of his first exploration into the Wind River Mountains and South Pass, with Kit Carson as his guide.

His activities in California during and after the Mexican War brought him an army court marshal, but he became one of California’s first U.S. Senators and a Gold Rush multi-millionaire. He ran unsuccessfully for President in 1856 as the first candidate of the Republican Party and was commanding general of the Department of Missouri during the Civil War. He issued an emancipation proclamation which angered Lincoln. He died alone in New York in poverty.

There is much more to tell. Shortly, I will publish electronically a short bio of John and Jessie Frémont because I find them such a fascinating couple, each in their own right. There is no question that their efforts opened the West for immigration and settlement, but in many other respects they failed in all the other important aspects of their lives. I’ll let you know when the biography is published on Kindle and Nook and RinconPublishing.com

2011-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Prelude to Civil War

The Great Seal of the state of California carries an image of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. According to mythology, she was born, full grown, from the head of her father, Jupiter. Her appearance on the state seal represents the fact that California became an American state without going through the typical adolescence of being a territory. And therein lay a dilemma that ultimately led to the Civil War.

Like an unruly child, California, flush from the discovery of gold, and without invitation from the federal government, held a constitutional convention in 1849. Subsequently an election for U.S. Senators who were to proceed to Washington and lobby for statehood was conducted. John Charles Frémont and William M. Gwin were elected, with Frémont getting the short two year term and Gwin the full six years. Frémont was an ardent Free-Soiler while Gwinn was a southerner who supported slavery.

California’s petition for statehood upset the Congressional applecart. In 1850 the Senate was equally divided between free and slave states. Southern senators were adamantly against admitting California as a free state; they saw all the territory ceded by Mexico, which included what would become the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, as ultimately becoming slave states in accordance with the line drawn as part of the Misouri Compromise of 1820. That line divided the U.S. into northern territory which could become free states in the future and southern area where slavery would be allowed In fact, pro-slavery factions were willing to see California divided into northern and southern states at the 1820 compromise line. It was up to Gwin to convince southern Senators to allow California to join the union.

Frémont and Gwin arrived in Washington in January 1850 and were greeted by a full-blown debate that raged for most of the year. It was a contentious battle with giants of the Senate – Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen Douglas, John C. Calhoun, and Thomas Hart Benton – locked in debate. Failure to find a solution could easily have led to a dissolution of the Union. Gwin conducted behind-the-scene negotiations with President Zachary Taylor, a Virginia slaveholder. Taylor died in July and New Yorker Millard Fillmore removed the threat of a veto when he became President.

In the end, Senator Douglas introduced a bill to admit California without any other conditions. That forced the Senate to agree to the Compromise of 1850. It was not to anyone’s liking. Yes, California got its statehood – on September 9, 1850 – but the North had to agree to accept a tougher Fugitive Slave Law. New Mexico and Utah became territories without mention of slavery and slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia. The admission of California ultimately destabilized the North-South balance and California itself would be torn into two camps leading up to the Civil War.

William Gwin was a California Politician

Tennessee-born William Gwin was a U.S. Congressman from Mississippi in the early 1840s. Financial problems drove him to California where he became a leader of pro-slavery Democrats throughout the 1850s. Established as California’s primary Senator when Frémont failed to be reelected, Gwin pushed through the bill that established a Land Commission to review all land titles in the state even thought the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had promised those grants would not be questioned. He bought land in Paloma, near the Mokelumne Hill gold strike and became a rich man. A good politician, he organized a wing of the Democratic Party called the Chivalry, which opposed the Whig wing led by New York Bowery ex-patriot David Broderick

Gwin gained control of the federal patronage for California during his time in the Senate. He brought a U.S. mint to the state and secured a government survey for a navy yard and base. In 1860 he advocated purchase of Alaska from Russia and engaged in secret talks with Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward searching for a compromise to avoid war.

Much more on William Gwin coming in future Chronicles of California issues.

Attention California history aficionados: Don’t miss Dream Helper, A Novel of Early California by Willard Thompson, the Gold Medal winner as Best Fiction in the Western/Pacific Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. It’s available at bookstores, on Kindle and Nook and www.rinconpublishing.com.

2011-05-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Paddle Wheelers From Panama

In many ways it was a fortunate accident of history that created the great steamship lines that took as many as 600,000 people to and from California during the Gold Rush days of the 1850s and 1860s. Large paddle wheel steamships plied both U.S. coasts, taking would-be miners from East Coast ports to Charges on the coast of what would become Panama, with other ships taking them from Panama’s Pacific Coast to San Francisco. But that was never the intention of the U.S. government when it authorized two mail subsidies for the steamship lines.

The United States had two foreign foes to deal with in the late 1840s. Mexico was resentful over U.S. support of Texas independence and ultimate annexation. But equally strong was England’s claim to the Pacific Northwest, the border dispute being neatly summarized as “The Oregon Question.” President James K. Polk had no taste for fighting two wars to secure the western lands described by expansionists as “Our Manifest Destiny.” So while he left affairs in Mexico to simmer awhile, Polk and the Congress moved to strengthen our hold on Oregon by authorizing mail steamship subsidies to tie the East more firmly to the American settlers there, thus strengthening our claim to the territory.

Contracts for the two steamship lines were offered in 1847. The contract for mail delivery from Panama City to Astoria, Washington, with stops in Mexico, San Diego, Monterey and San Francisco, wound up in the hand of William Henry Aspinwall, a highly successful merchant trader in New York City. Aspinwall didn’t particularly want that contract, he favored the East Coast route but failed to win it, so he had to settle for the Pacific leg. Not expecting much traffic, he ordered three 1,000 ton steamships built. Two of them, SS California (above) and SS Panama were built in the William H. Webb shipyard on Manhattan’s East River.

After the California sailed to take up station in Panama in October 1848, the nation woke up to the magnitude of the gold strike in California. When she got to Panama she was greeted by a howling mob of would-be gold miners, at least 1,500 strong, clambering for passage to San Francisco. She took aboard as many as she could, about 365 passengers. It would be more than a year before California, Panama and Oregon, the third ship built could ease the logjam.

By 1851 Aspinwall had a fleet of 14 paddle wheelers plying the Pacific. Astoria had become an after thought, with separate, smaller steamers carrying the mail there and ultimately to smaller cities in California. San Francisco became the primary destination.

Polk did fight a war with Mexico in 1846-1848 and in 1846 negotiated a treaty with England to establish an acceptable border between Washington and British Columbia. So by the time of the Gold Rush and the establishment of steamship routes, the territory of the United States was almost complete. Even then, the steamships play a key role in binding the western settlers to the nation by carrying the letters, packages and, of course, their gold back east.

William Webb Was the Leading
Shipbuilder of His Time

Born in 1816, William Henry Webb was a shipbuilder from birth by heritage and inclination. His father owned the Isaac Webb & Co. shipyard in New York where William apprenticed at the age of 15. Even before that, when he was 12, Webb built his first boat, a small skiff. He was exceptionally gifted in mathematics, and was renowned for his attention to detail. People called him the first marine architect.

Webb’s impact on California was profound if not obvious. Along with Donald McKay in Massachusetts, Webb built some of the finest clipper ships afloat, among them Comet and Challenge; the Comet in 1851 made it around the Horn from New York to San Francisco in 103 days on her maiden voyage and the Challenge took a load of tea from Whampoa (Canton) China to London in 105 days where the British Admiralty copied her lines while she lay at anchor.

But his steamships took thousands of passengers from the East Coast to San Francisco. His paddle wheel wooden ship California took the first Argonauts from Panama to San Francisco in 1849. In 1851 his SS Tennessee took the largest passenger load at that time through the Golden Gate, 551 men and women headed for the diggings. In 1851 he built the SS Golden Gate, a 2,067 ton, 800-passenger steamer that sailed from New York to San Francisco in 64 days.

Attention California history aficionados: Don’t miss Delfina’s Gold by Willard Thompson, a story of romance and adventure set in Mexican California It’s available at bookstores, Amazon.com, Kindle Nook and at www.rinconpublishing.com

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The One Shot California Revolution

2011-05-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

Did Alta California ever gain its independence from Mexico? The answer is: it depends. There’s no question the Californios tried to revolt from the control of Mexico in 1836, a decade before the U.S. took California during the Mexican War, but whether independence followed is unclear.

The people of Alta California were dissatisfied with Mexican rule for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the indifference with which they felt the government in Mexico City treated them. That feeling may have begun during Mexico’s fight for independence from 1810 – 1821, when the supply ships Spain had been sending annually ceased to arrive. It grew as the new Mexican government imposed revenue laws on ships arriving from foreign countries. In general, the citizens of Alta California had begun to feel separate and superior to the Mexico of which they were only a distant province.

Californios disliked and expelled governors sent from Mexico City, including Manuel Victoria in 1830 and Mariano Chico in 1835. Prior to fleeing, Governor Chico appointed Nicolás Gutierrez to take his place. Gutierrez, was described as an inoffensive, easy going man, but the Californios thought him immoral, in part because of his interest in young girls.

There were no serious charges to be brought against Gutierrez, but a host of small issues began to emerge. One was a conflict with the legislature, whose president was Juan Bautista Alvarado. Alvarado was also a clerk at the Monterey Customs House. When Governor Gutierrez got into a dispute over the policies of the Customs House he threatened to arrest Alvarado.

Alvarado fled from Monterey to San Juan Bautista, raising a small band of loyal followers to fight for him along the way. He was joined by Isaac Graham, an American mountain man and other Yankee sharpshooters. A rump session of the assembly told the governor if he did not give up the civil command of Alta California (keeping the military command) he would be exiled. When he refused, Alvarado’s rag-tag army of about 100 men marched on Monterey where they put the presidio, (pictured above) where Gutierrez had gone for protection, under siege on the night of Nov. 3. A demand for his surrender was sent to the governor, but no reply was forthcoming. So Alvarado called for a small cannon and fired a shot into the presidio that crashed through the ceiling near Gutierrez. Almost immediately, he informed Alvarado he and his staff would return to Mexico.

That left Alvarado in control of the government. It seems clear he intended to declare independence from Mexico, but first he faced the task of pacifying the citizens in the south who were against him. The government in Mexico refused to accept an independent California. Instead, it simply confirmed Alvarado as the new governor of the Mexican state of Alta California. Alvarado continued in that role until 1842, with a brief interruption in 1837 when Carlos Carrillo was governor. So even though there was a revolution in Alta California, it never was able to break away from Mexico.

Juan Bautista Alvarado Was a Californio Political Leader

Born Feb. 14, 1809, Juan Alvarado was the son of a Spanish military officer who died only months after Juan’s birth. He grew up in the household of the Vallejo family, and he and his cousin, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, were tutored by the Englishman William Hartnell. At age 18 he was hired as Secretary to the territorial legislature and came under the special tutelage of Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola.

From that point on his life was devoted to government affairs and especially to the people of Alta California. When he was 24 he was appointed a collector of customs at the Monterey Customs House. By 1836, at age 27, he was president of the legislature which declared its independence from Mexico. Soon after he became governor. He was a strong advocate for the secularization of the Franciscan missions.

There were tensions at that time between northern and southern California and the southerners did not accept Alvarado as governor. Much negotiating avoided a civil war and eventually the government in Mexico confirmed his as governor. He was elected to the Mexican Congress in 1846 and was on his way to Mexico City when the Mexican War with the U.S. broke out. He was a supporter of the American take-over of California but declined any position in the government offered him by the Americans. He retired to a family estate in San Pablo where he wrote a history of California before dying in 1882.

Attention California history fans

Read more about Juan Alvarado, His beautiful mistress, Raymunda, and the single cannon shot that gained independence for the Californios in Willard Thompson’s exciting romantic historical novel, Delfina’s Gold. It’s available at bookstores, Amazon.com, AmazonKindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and at www.rinconpublishing.com.

SIGN UP! To receive a free copy of the Chronicles of California newsletter each month in your email box send an email request to rincon@rinconpublishing.com

Another Look At the Franciscan Missions

2011-04-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Across America and around the world, people have looked with a romantic eye at the old Franciscan missions of California. Perhaps it started in the 1880s when real estate developers portrayed all things California as romantic, and Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson, told of a fabled life here.

Today we know life at a California mission in the early 19th Century was anything but idyllic for the Native Americans confined there. Both men and women were harshly treated, sometimes physically punished, and made to do demanding work in fields and kitchens, at looms and tanneries, to support mission life. They were not allowed to leave without permission.

For the Franciscan missionaries who came to staff the missions, some who were truly dedicated to their Indian converts and some who were not, the goal was baptism in the Catholic faith. Without baptism, in the eyes of the padres the Native Americans were doomed to live in limbo. The padres believed any means to achieve baptism and piety among their neophytes were acceptable.

The Iindians were promised food and shelter at the missions, and told they would be taught the Spanish language and farming techniques. After 10 years they would be given land of their own to farm. That never happened at any mission.

A Frenchman, Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse, visited Monterey in 1786 and wrote in his journal, “corporal punishment is inflicted on the Indians of both sexes who neglect the exercises of piety…” British explorer George Vancouver came to California in 1794 and visited three missions. He described miserable and apathetic people living in abject squalor, going about their tasks with a “mechanical, lifeless, careless indifference.” And Russian visitor Otto Von Kotzebue, visiting in 1815, wrote “A deep melancholy always clouds their faces, and their eyes are constantly fixed upon the ground.”

So why did the Indians go to the missions in the first place? They came for at least three reasons: To escape the European diseases sweeping through their villages. They believe the padres would protect them. They were beginning to starve. The missions grazed their animals on Indian seed- and berry-collecting land. Spaniards refused to let the Indians burn off their fields to insure regrowth of their food supply. Perhaps most important of all, the Indians saw the power of the newcomers and wanted to learn it. They saw horses and muskets for the first time, and gray-robbed priests who spoke directly to their God. They wanted to learn about this new power source in the universe.

They came to the missions and sickened. Most died there. None ever received any land; most were turned out to fend for themselves when the missions were secularized under Mexican rule. Today, we celebrate the missions, but fail to appreciate the disaster they brought upon our California Indians.

Jean-François de La Pérouse, Had a Difficult Mission

LaPérouse was a Roman Catholic, a French Count and a naval hero chosen by the King of France to represent his nation as an invited guest of the King of Spain to visit Alta California. So we can imagine how much it must have pained him to criticize the Franciscan missions.

Lapérouse was appointed in 1785 by Louis XVI and his Minister of the Marine, the Marquis de Castries, to lead an expedition around the world. Its aims were to complete the Pacific discoveries of Captain James Cook (whom Lapérouse greatly admired), by correcting and completing his maps, establish trade contacts, open new maritime routes and enriching French science and scientific collections.

During his voyage, he visited many nations in the Pacific, including Chile, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Alaska, Alta California, East Asia, Japan and Russia, South Pacific islands and Australia.

He sailed to Alta California and reportedly observed the eruption of Mount Shasta on September 7, 1786. He arrived in Monterey Bay and visited the Presidio on September 14th. He also visited the pueblo and surrounding ranchos.

In Australia, he took advantage of a British ship returning to Europe to send his journals, charts and letters back to France, writing he expected to sail home in June 1789. Then, he stocked up with water and wood and set sail for New Caldonia and the Santa Cruz Islands on March 10, 1789. Lapérouse and his ships were never seen again.

It was not until 1826 that an Irish sea captain found enough evidence to piece together the events of the tragedy. In Tikopia (one of the Santa Cruz islands), he bought some swords that he had reason to believe had belonged to Lapérouse or his officers. He made inquiries, and found that they came from nearby Vanikoro Island, where two big ships had broken up years earlier.

Dream Helper, Willard Thompson’s award-winning, historically accurate novel tells of the romance and sadness of a young Chumash Indian woman’s life at a California mission in the early 1800s. Order it at Amazon.com, at local book sellers or at rinconpublishing.com. Dream Helper is also available as an ebook at AmazonKindle. If you’ve already read Dream Helper please pass this information along to a friend.

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2011-02-25T12:20:00.000-08:00

Chinese Flocked to Gold Mountain But Never Got Respect

There were just 791 Chinese in California in 1849, but by the following year, 4,025 had come to Gum Shan – Gold Mountain. They came because there was gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills. They intended to claim their share and then return to their homeland to live rich lives. Many came from Kwangtung Province in a China, beset by civil war, droughts and floods and fierce typhoons. Before long, 20 percent of the California gold miners were Chinese.

By 1852, 25,000 Chinese were in California living hard lives. Some found gold, but most didn’t because they faced discrimination, racism and hostility that included physical abuse and a government in the mining camps – the state at first, but soon the federal – that was determined to force them to return home. In 1851, California enacted a Foreign Miners Tax that was especially hard on the Celestials, as they were called. Intended to protect California’s gold for white miners from all foreigners, it was only strongly enforced against Chinese.

Sixty Chinese miners brought to the diggings in Tuolumne County by a British company were driven off by white miners. Chinese women were barred from immigrating to California in the hope Chinese men would return home – in 1852 in Sacramento there were 804 Chinese males and 10 females. Chinese miners at Mokelumne Hill in Calaveras County were “taxed” $70,000 for the right to mine safely in 1856. In Nevada City a Chinese man was hung for stealing a mule that was proven to be his own.

Those Chinese who left the diggings found other opportunities. Some became farmers who supplied the mining camps. Others became cooks, restaurant or laundry owners, merchants and herbalists. As unskilled laborers, the Celestials often took on jobs that the white settlers of California didn’t want to do. Some American settlers were frightened by the growing number of Chinese in California. (Sounds strangely familiar today, doesn’t it?)

When work began on the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869, The Chinese famously took on the challenge of laying tracks over the Sierra. At first they were thought to be too weak or fragile to do this type of work, but after the first few days the decision was made to hire as many Chinese as could be found in California and import more from China.

How were the Celestials rewarded for their hard work? In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring any further immigration from China. The act was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. In fact, it stayed in force until 1943, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Magnuson Act on Dec. 17.

Yee Fung Chung Cured the Governor’s Wife

A Chinese immigrant named Yee Fung Chung, the son of a famous Chinese herbalist, came to California at the age of 25 from Toisan, China, in search of gold. He settled in Fiddletown, a gold rush camp in Amador County that had the largest Chinese population outside of San Francisco.

Soon enough, he gave up the hard work of mining and began treating Chinese miners for their ailments. He was so successful that over the next decade, as his practice grew, he opened herbal stores in Sacramento and Virginia City, Nevada.

In 1862, Jane Stanford, wife of Governor Leland Stanford, lay apparently dying of a pulmonary disorder. Her doctors had been unable to cure her, but her Chinese cook raced into Sacramento to find Yee playing Mahjongg in the Wha Hing grocery store. Yee rushed to his shop and prepared a treatment using majaung, an herb that is a natural source of ephedrine. Shortly, Mrs. Stanford recovered.

In 1904 Yee Fung Cheung retired from the herbal medicine profession and returned to China where he died in 1907. His descendents have remained in Sacramento, and in 1988 his grandson, Dr. Herbert Yee, along with the Fiddletown Preservation Society and the State, preserved the original adobe building where Yee Fung Cheung practiced (photo). It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and open to visitors who can see artifacts of Yee’s practice.

Attention California history aficionados:
Here’s a great way to enjoy California history without being bogged down with thick tomes heavy with footnotes. A library of short historical articles by Willard Thompson is available on AmazonKindle. Called Chronicles of Western Pioneers, articles currently available are: The Last Cattle Drive; Empire Builder, the Story of Walter Vail; The Day Jack Powers Turned Outlaw; and The Wreck of the Gold Rush Steamship Winfield Scott. Coming soon are: Going for the Gold, Travel by Sea to the Gold Rush and Jessie Frèmont, the Woman Who Won the West. More are coming. Don’t miss any of them!

Visit our Website: www.rinconpublishing.com

Chronicles of California© Newsletter is published by Rincon Publishing

2010-09-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

A Young Woman’s Life in Early California

Likely you’ve never heard of Brigida Briones, but she adds a great deal to our understanding of life in early California. She was sixteen years old in 1827.

Being a young woman she was interested in the fashions of the day. She wrote: “For home wear and for company we had many expensive dresses, some of silk, or of velvet, others of lace, often of our own making, which were very much liked. The rivalry between beauties of high rank was as great as it could be in any country and much of it turned on attire, so that those who had small means often underwent many privations in order to equal the splendor of the rich.”

Women’s dress was more subdued when they went to mass, something they did every morning. “The dresses worn in the mornings at church were not very becoming,” Brigida said, the rebozo and the petticoat being black, always of cheap stuff and made up in much the same way. One mass was celebrated before sunrise, for those whose duties compelled them to be at work early; later masses took place every hour of the morning. Every woman in Monterey went daily to church, but the men were content to go once a week.”

She adds, “The ladies of Monterey were rarely seen on the street, except very early in the morning on their way to church. We used to go there attended by our servants, who carried small mats for us to kneel upon as there were no seats. A tasteful little rug was considered an indispensable part of our belongings, and every young lady embroidered her own.”

In 1829, at the age of 18, Brigida attended her first ball. Traveling to Monterey, “We met numbers of the persons going to the party, all on horseback and full of gaiety and youthfulness. Everyone could ride perfectly, and could pick up a leaf or a flower from the ground as he galloped past. On this occasion they all had red, black and green paint and cascarones filled with finely cut gold and silver paper. It was the great sport to ride against each other, endeavoring to stain his opponent’s face while himself escaping.”

Brigida concludes by saying, “Some of my playmates could speak English well, and quite a number knew something of French. The ladies of the province were born and educated here, here they lived and died, in complete ignorance of the world outside. We were, in many ways, like grown-up children.”

Dancing in Mexican California

We have another first hand account of how the Californios amused themselves in early California, this one from Antonio Coronel. He came with his family from Mexico in 1834 as part of the Padrés-Híjar party of settlers. Here are a few of the amusement Antonio wrote about:

“There were dances, or fandangos held on all possible occasions… A great pavilion shaded with green branches was set up in front of the house where the dancing was to take place. The inside was covered with white cloth and adorned with ribbons, artificial flowers, etc. It had three sides enclosed and the fourth open for the men on horseback to congregate… The ladies were inside.

The music consisted of a violin and guitar, and two or three singers… The master of ceremonies was called the tecolero and he of course stood in the center to direct the dancing. He got the ladies to stand up when it was a ‘ladies only’ dance. If the piece was to be danced by couples, the men dismounted and hung their spurs on the saddle horn and entered the pavilion hat in hand.”

Here are a few of the dances Antonio described:

La Jota – a favorite. Men and women formed two lines to dance in place and during the chorus they formed circles, one of men, one of women and circled in opposite directions.

La Bamba – danced only by women because it had intricate steps.

La Contradanza – only danced in the best society, Antonio says. The couples formed two lines and danced in ¾ waltz time.

El Fandango – the dance started with a snapping of fingers or castanets while the couple danced in place. When the music started the couple executed some complicated steps and when it stopped the man had to compliment his partner extemporaneously. The next time the music stopped it was the woman’s turn.

La Zorrita – Like the Jota but during the first verse the man had to pantomime the lyrics. During the refrain two couples joined hands. On the second refrain the men jumped up, clapped their hands and acted out the verses,

Read about romantic young women of California like Brigida Briones who danced with Will Thornton from Boston in Delfina’s Gold, second in the Chronicles of California, available October.

And don’t miss Willard Thompson’s Gold Medal winner, Dream Helper. It’s available at bookstores, Amazon.com, Kindle and www.rinconpublishing.com.

In Spanish California Sea Otter Pelts Were An Important Trade Item

2010-08-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Two sources of treasure – gold and furs– were the driving forces in European colonization in the New World. The Spaniards came in search of gold, but after the easy pickings of Mexico and Peru, young Spaniards had to search in other directions or turn to mining. What Mexico lacked to make gold and silver mining more productive was quicksilver, another term for mercury, which separates gold and silver from crushed ore. Quicksilver was plentiful in China and what the Chinese craved but lacked were furs, especially sea otter furs.

Thus began the California sea otter trade between Nueva España and Canton, China, in 1784, a trade sanctioned by the Spanish government in a monopoly given to Vicente Vasadre y Vega. Vasadre gave government officials several compelling reasons to get involved in the sea otter trade. First, Mexican miners needed what China had in abundance and china coveted sea otter furs. Second, Russian and English fur hunters were encroaching on the northern California coast, taking what rightfully belong to Spain; and third, supply vessels sent to Alta California each year returned empty and could become more efficient and profitable if they returned to San Blas with furs.

In 1785, King Charles III ordered that Vasadre’s plan be given careful consideration. In August, 1786, Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez ordered the plan into operation, allowing Vasadre a salary and ample expense money to buy the furs. The Spaniards did not intend to hunt the furs themselves, they wanted coastal Indians to do it. The plan was so popular that Governor Pedro Fages and Padre Presidente Fermín Lasuén both heartily endorsed it, (a rare occurrence) with Lasuén agreeing to use mission neophytes in the hunt because the missions would receive compensation for their efforts.

In 1786, 1,060 pelts were sent to San Blas. Missions San Carlos, San Antonio, San Luis Obispo, San Buenaventura and San Diego contributed the most furs. (Mission Santa Barbara was still several months in the future.) In the spring of 1787, Vasadre set sail with the furs for Canton.

From the start problems arose, not the least of which was that California coastal Indians had no experience in sea otter hunting and not much incentive to learn. But also, Philippine merchants were unhappy they had been cut out of the trade. By 1790 a branch of the Spanish government had taken over financial aspects of the sea otter trade from Vasadre with the Philippine Company put in charge of trading at Canton.

Starting in 1790, more foreign flag ships began appearing in California waters hoping to join the fur trade. The desire to drive the English out of the trade led Esteban José Martínez to introduce a new plan in which a Mexican company with ships and sea hunters would become more active along the Baja and Alta California coasts. By 1793, several competing plans were discussed in Mexico, none of which were actually adopted. A 1790 treaty with England outlawed English sea otter hunting in California waters thus protecting a natural resource and diminishing any ardor for locals to hunt. In the final analysis it was the stranglehold that the Philippine Company had on trade with China, including the exclusive right to sell Oriental goods in California, that made the sea otter trade unattractive to Spaniards along the coast. The trade ultimately fell into the hands of the Russians and English, this latter nation soon being replaced by Boston men who plied the trade illicitly.

How Aleuts Caught Sea Otters

In the world of desirable fur sea otters are very special animals. They have fine, soft undercoats of fur and longer, slightly coarser overcoats. Their fur is the densest of all fur-bearing mammals and was in great demand in China and parts of Europe. Black fur was the most desirable but brown pelts were more available and white ones were true treasures. For both warmth and beauty nothing exceeded sea otter fur.

No matter which nation was hunting sea otter pelts, they relied on the Aleut Indians of Alaska to do the killing. In small kayaks called baidarkas by the Russians, they scoured the coasts in search of pelts. Their kayaks were fragile craft, constructed of whalebone or thin strips of wood and covered with sealskin. Each seam was hand sewn and the entire surface of the kayak was made waterproof with a generous coating of whale oil. There was an opening for each man, just large enough for him to sit with legs extended or on his knees. Once inside he fastened the lower edge of his jacket to the opening.

Lashed to the side of the baidarka was a supply of bone barbed arrows. They fitted into a shaft that made a throwing sling and were attached to a long line. With great accuracy, an Aleut seated in the kayak could aim and hit his sea otter. If the barb stuck, the animal, attached to the line, usually dove, reappearing when it needed to breath. Hunting in groups, the Aleuts would surround the place the sea otter was expected to surface and when it did force it to dive again immediately. Doing this repeatedly, the animal became exhausted and eventually was killed if it didn’t escape. Later guns were used.

There is an exciting sea otter hunting scene at Fort Ross in Delfina’s Gold, the soon to be published second novel in Willard Thompson’s Chronicles of California saga. You can reserve an autographed copy by emailing Willard@rinconpublishing.com. In the meantime don’t miss Dream Helper, the gold medal-winning first novel in the trilogy. It’s available at local bookstores, Amazon.com and at www.rinconpublishing.com, and as an ebook at Amazon Kindle.

Chronicles of California© Newsletter is published by Rincon Publishing