Sketches from the History of California - Missions.

had practically carried out principles of holy truth and of social order and exalting virtues, upon the unpruned territories of degraded human nature. They had not bewailed the woes of men upon paper only, and from a complaining heart shut up in an indolent body, sent forth in a bundle, theories, which the world must adopt before a freezing hand can be warmed or a hungry mouth filled. But they had bared their hearts to the arrow of the savage and gone out to the field of personal labor; driving before them domestic animals; Learing seed-grain, the plough, the axe, the spinning-wheel, and the loom; gathing the stupid and wandering Indians into communities; rearing edifices for missions and for families on the shore of that great ocean which is girded with heathenism and wretchedness; opening unploughed plains, and training them to yield their increase for nourishing the body - and from the garner of heaven drawing manna for the soul. They did not teach religion only, and at all times, and rely on that as a nutriment for the rearing and comfort for the whole man. But like knowing and reasoning, as well as pious men, they cared for the bodies as well as the soul of those, whom they went to convert to Christianity. And in bringing the Californian savages into that industry, which must always accompany true virtue and piety, the labor of the converts produced in that climate (where so little is required to sustain them during unproductive seasons) a vast amount of surplus wealth. This the Padres alone were capable of throwing into market; and consequently, at the period just spoken of, the business of California had its origin, and received its character and impulses from them. Society from them took its form and its tone; and the Government of the country was as mild, wise and just, as these unpretending men, who directed its action. This was the golden age of California. The Indians in the whole of that part of Upper California which lies between the first range of mountains and the sea, and extends from San Diego to the north till it embraces the shores of the Bay of San Francisco, were gathered into missions; not less than seventy-five thousand of them were living, laboring and worshipping God with the Padres on those immense plantations! Their granaries were filled with grain; their orchards were laden with oranges, plums, pears, citrons, lemons, apples and figs. Their vineyards covered the hill-sides, and their flocks and herds the plains! If a stranger arrived in the California, and approached a mission, the Indians and Padres went out to meet him, he received the welcome of their sincere hearts. The wine from the vineyards - the bread and beef and frijoles, (a preparation of small black beans,) are placed before him, and the Padre's best bed given him. He is pressed to remain, not a cold hour of freezing ceremony and suspicion, but months during life if he will in their hospitable abode. But if he will travel on, he is furnished with horses and attendants to the next mission, where he is again welcomed and treated in a similar manner, and thus he journeys through the entire country if he desires, and leaves it with regret. But the history of this delightful realm shows a change in the features of this scene."

To name over all the missions, one by one, and to repeat the little incidents that were recorded from year to year in the statements of the Padres, as exhibiting the increase of Christian knowledge and worldly prosperity in their several establishments, deserves rather a place in some catholic magazine than in these pages. Once, indeed, in the fall of 1775, the fickle and treacherous natives set upon the mission of San Diego, and after killing the priest, for a time broke up the establishment; and the same thing was often times attempted at the various other missions, but not

Sketches from the History of California

Empresarios.

with equal success. But these exceptions to the account of their continued and gradually increasing prosperity from year to year, were so rare, that they do not furnish items for a history that history which is the record of the calamities, crimes and misfortunes of men; and it seems sufficient to close this note by giving the names of the principal missions and the date of their foundation; the out-stations and those missions that were early abandoned are not herein enumerated :

San Diego was founded in 1769; San Carlos de Monterey, 1770; San Gabriel, 1771; San Antonio de Padua, 1771; San Luis Obsipo, 1772; San Juan Capistrano, 1776; Santa Clara, 1777; Sen Francisco, 1779; Santa Buenaventura, 1782; Santa Barbara, 1786; La Purissima Concepcion, 1787; Na Sa de la Soledad, 1791; Santa Cruz, 1794; San Miguel, 1797; San Jose, 1797; San Juan Bantista, 1797; San Fernando, 1797; San Luis Ray de Francia, 1798; San Rafael, 1817; San Francisco Solano, 1822; Santa Ines, 1823.

EMPRESARIOS.

This class of persons occupied a two-fold position in the settlement of California a position quite common in Spanish American States- they were on the one hand, Government agents to procure the founding of new Pueblos; but their pay for this service depended upon the profits, that they might derive from the share they had in the undertaking. They could have, (as the items are generally added up,) eleven square leagues on which to locate their settlement, but no private right of property accrued to them until after they had located, at least twelve families, and made proof of this fact before the proper magistrate, and had the same duly recorded. But as the contract with the Empresario could not be definitely entered into without the concurrence of the Supreme Government, it is probable that General Vallajo is the only man who ever held that office in California. The colonization law of 1824, obscurily authorized the system, but leaves the details of the arrangement to the presidential regulations that were to follow. The only sections of that law that seem to apply to the case of these persons, are the following:

7th. Previous to the year 1840, the general Congress cannot prohibit the entry of foreigners to colonize, except compelled to do so, with respect to the individuals of some nation, by powerful reasons.

14th. This law guaranties the contracts which the Empresarios may make with the families which they may bring out at their expense; provided they be not contrary to the laws."

The Presidential regulations provided for in the decree of 1824, were not promulgated until 1828, and contain the following sections applicable to the colonization of the public lands of the Republic by means of Empresarios :

"7th. The grants made to Empresarios for them to colonize with many families shall not be held to be definitely valid until the approval of the supreme government be obtained; to which the necessary documents must be forwarded, along with the report of territorial deputation.

"10th. No capitulization shall be admitted for a new town, except the capitulizator, (empresario,) bind himself to present, as colonists, twelve families at least.

"11th. The governor shall designate to the new colonizers a proportionate time within which he shall be bound to cultivate or occupy the land on the terms and with the number of persons or families which he may have capitulized for, it being understood that if he does not comply, the grant of the land shall remain void; nevertheless, the governor may revalidate it in proportion to the part which the party may have fulfilled.

12th. Every new colonist, after having cultivated or occupied the land agreeable

Sketches from the History of California - Ranchos and Rancheros.

to his capitulization, will take care to prove the same before the municipal authority, in order that, the necessary record being made, he may consolidate and secure his right of ownership, so that he may dispose freely thereof.

"13th. The reunion of many families into one town shall follow, in its formation, interior goverment and policy, the rules established by the existing laws for the other towns of the republic; special care being taken that the new ones are built with all possible regularity.

"14th. The minimum of irrigable land to be given to one person for colonization shall be 200 varas square, the minimum of land called de temporal shall be 800 varas square, and the minimum for breeding cattle (de obseradeso) shall be 1,200 varas square."

The rules and modes for applying for lands for colonization were the same as those required on application for lands for Ranchos, so far at least as the same were applicable.

It is well known that Captain JNo. A. SUTTER, claims to have been an Empresario, by virtue of a paper given him by Alverado, and by virtue of such an appointment he claims to be entitled to the whole of the eleven square leagues of land, as though he had fully discharged the duties of that high office; and not only entitled to the eleven leagues, but to more than seventy square miles of partially flowable land, out of which, he is at liberty to select his eleven leagues. It is unnecessary to repeat here, after what has already been said, that such a claim is too absurd to require a formal refutation in this note. The law too clearly points out the mode of appointment of an Empresario, to leave any doubt on this head. By nomination of the legal governor, and approval of the departmental Deputation (Assembly,) the Empresario receives his preliminary appointment, which, however is without any force or effect until confirmed by the Supreme Government of Mexico. But after all this, he has no color of title to any of the lands embraced in his grant until he has settled twelve families, at least, upon the tract; but after he has fully discharged the duties of this office, and made record proof of the fact, he is entitled to the surpluses of the eleven leagues, not assigned to the settlers. As Captain Sutter's claim is wanting in every one of these conditions, it is unnecessary to say that he is not only a naked squatter, but that he claims immense tracts on which he has not even squatted. It is also claimed that Captain Sutter has a grant from Micheltoreno of the same premises absolutely. This of course is a distinct question, and one with which we have nothing to do. It is for the land commissioners to adjudicate upon.

RANCHOS AND RAECHEROS.

The Ranchos of California do not exactly correspond to our ideas of a farm, but are rather cattle-ranges-establishments for the rearing of cattle on an extensive scale before the American conquest. The only thing fixed or determined about them was the hacienda or the casa granda, as the proprietor's house is improperly called, the huts of the cattle-herders, (vaqueros,) and other laborers - the remnants of the mixed and Indian population of the missions; the cattle-yard, (corral) and small patches of cultivated land for the support of the Rancheros, or people upon the Ranch. Beyond this primitive establishment, which had a village look, all was wild enough. Immense droves of wild cattle wandered, as their instincts led them, over an indefinite space, for miles around, little less wild than the herds of elk, antelope or deer, that were interspersed amongst them. There were some vague and indefinite notions of boundaries which embraced a reasonable number of square miles, but the

3

Sketches from the History of California - Ranchos and Rancheros.

cattle paid little heed to these imaginary restraints, as the frequent rodeos, or divisions of cattle among neighboring proprietors indicated. Civilization was in its first development the patriarchal state.

These Ranchos were a departure from the plan adopted by Spain for the colonization of California, and cannot be said to have fairly come into operation, until the conquest by Mexico, and the disturbance of the missions. The land laws of Mexico were extended over California, after the Mexican conquest, but to obtain and transmit definite land titles, required a higher state of civilization, and a more artificial state of society, than California had reached under the Mexicans. All proprietors had some sort of claims, which were respected among their neighbors, but the procurement of a definite grant required the presence of a surveyor, the possession of stamped paper for the petition, a legal magistrate, (for the doctrine of de facto officers would hardly apply in such a case) to report upon the petition, a lawful governor to grant preliminarily and to order a juridicial possession, and the legal magistrate again to assemble the vicinage to shew cause why the juridical possession should not be given, and finally correct local and departmental records to be kept - hardly any of which conditions could then be complied with, and if they could the trifling value attached to the land was not inducement enough to warrant the expense and trouble.

But the great point, in the land controversy, now raging in California, is in relation to these Ranchos. For the land over which the cattte have ranged having become immensely valuable for farming purposes, their proprietors, or American speculators, who have got control of very many of the ranchos, insist, that they should be confirmed in alodial title to the present possessors. While on the other hand the agricultural emigrants from the United States insist, that these immense tracts of land should be regarded as part and parcel of the public domain, and that the Rancheros should be considered, as the temporary oecupants of the public lands for a specific purpose, that they should be protected in the possession of their permanent improvements, and a reasonable amount of the lands adjoining, which should in no case exceed the largest grants in Oregon, viz., 640 acres. But the new settlers utterly repudiate the idea that the wanderings of cattle can confer upon their owners a title to the lands on which they may have chanced to graze, and this brings us again to the subject of titles which is discussed in another note, and renders unnecessary any further remarks under this head. And in conclusion it is our duty to add, that the Rancheros were an entirely different population from the villagers; their habits of thrift and daily exercise made them valuable citizens, while their constant practice on horse-back fitted them for cavalry service, and when they volunteered to oppose the American invasion they showed that they only wanted discipline and experience to make them a dangerous enemy.

THE MEXICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA.

It was the wealth and the prosperity of the missions that proved their ruin, and the ruin of Alta California. The spiritual weapons, which the Padres wielded, had proved all powerful in subduing the native savages; and now that 75,000 Indians had ranged themselves under the banner of the cross, and become humble followers of the missionaries; there was no longer need of carnal weapons to defend them, and the King's necessities being great in other quarters of the world, the soldiers had been gradually withdrawn; leaving the missions a rich, defenceless prey, for the first unscrupulous robber that chanced to assail them; although they were far beyond the reach of ordinary dangers. The idlers, who hung about the villages, stood in too much awe of the priests' spiritual authority, to follow the bent of their inclination, to rob the sacred treasury, and the English and American traders that visited their coasts, though professing a different religion, had too much regard to the principles of honest traffic to rob their wealthy customers; there was more to be gained by honest dealing, than by robbery, and quietly they pursued from year to year, a traffic that was so advantageous to both the parties. But the great enemy of missions, it would seem, raised up an adversary among their own kinsmen in Mexico; nor were the brethren of their own order altogether guiltless of the acts, which in their ultimate results brought ruin upon these missions.

The Cortez of Cadiz having, with an unsparing hand, cut off, one after another, the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, throughout the Spanish dominions, a spirit of distrust and insubordination was raised up among the clergy of Mexico, which led to frequent attempts to over-turn the Vice-Regal Government. Against one of these insurrections, at the city of Iguala, a Spanish colonel by the name of Itubide, was sent in 1821 with a select body of troops, He could easily have subdued the insurgents, but being tampered with by the clergy there assembled, he betrayed the cause of the King, his master, to gratify his personal ambition, and entered into a compact with the rebels, which was called "the plan of Iguala," and he was placed at the head of the Mexican revolution. Success every where attended his efforts. For those caballeros, who had won for the Spanish arms the title of invincible, had long since passed away, and though they had been succeeded by men worthy the name they bore-men who had added a continent to the Spanish dominions, and had planted the standard of Castile in the furthermost east, yet they too had long since passed from the stage, and each generation that followed was feebler than the last, until Spain came to its dotage under a dotard king. The luxuries of India, the silver and the gold of America, the emigration that had peopled a continent, the long wars which gold had enabled their foolish kings to carry on, the employing of mercenary troops at home, all combined to ruin a kingdom that had been the bulwark of christendom. Its celebrated manufactories had long since sunk into insignificance, its famous