Plumas County, CA History

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta Jul 2009

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format 
for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or 
organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial 
purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, 
OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating 
to this site retain the rights to their own work.


Illustrated History of PLUMAS, LASSEN & SIERRA Counties
with CALIFORNIA from 1513 to 1850, Farriss & Smith , 1882, San Francisco.


CHAPTER III
 
Conquest of Upper California by the Franciscans.
 
  
          Dominicans Succeed the Franciscans in Lower California - Why the Latter were Willing 
to Give Way - The Original Plan of the Jesuits - The King of Spain Orders the Colonization of 
Upper California - The Expedition and its Objects - It Goes by Land and Sea - Loss of the Vessel 
St. Joseph - Mortality on Board the Other Ships - The Party by Land Divides - A Description of 
the Pioneer of California - A Mule-driver Turns Doctor - The Overland Expedition Arrives Safely 
at San Diego - An Epoch in the History of the World - The San Antonio Returns to San Blas - 
The Country Taken Possession Of - How a Mission is Formed - Governor Portola sets out in 
Search of Monterey, and Discovers Instead the Bay of San Francisco - First Mission Founded - 
First Battle in California - An Almost-Baptized Papoose - Abandonment of the Country Decided 
Upon - Timely Arrival of the San Antonio Prevents Abandonment - Two New Expeditions Start in 
Search of Monterey - Monterey Found - What Junipero Thought of the Port - They Take 
Possession - Mission of San Carlos Established - They Proceed to Scare the Little Devils Away - 
Mission of San Antonio Established - First Irrigation in California and the Results - Mission 
Established near Los Angeles, called San Gabriel - Another Miracle - Governor Portola Returns to 
Mexico, the Bearer of Welcome News - Father Junipero also Visits Mexico - The Pioneer 
Overland Expedition from Mexico by Captain Anza - He Returns to Mexico - Attempt to Destroy 
the Mission at San Diego by the Indians - The First Vessel Known to Have Been in the Harbor 
of San Francisco - Death of Father Junipero Serro - Why a Full History of the Missions is not 
Given - The General Plan of their Location, and Reason for it - Russians Interfere with the Plan - 
Population as given by Humboldt.
 
 
 
            The Franciscan order of the Catholic Church had no sooner become possessed of the 
missions established on the peninsula by the Jesuits, than another order of that church, called 
the Dominican, laid claim to a portion of them. The Franciscans deemed it a work and class of 
property that should not be segregated, and expressed a preference of yielding the whole rather 
than a part, and eventually turned it all over to the Dominicans. This unwillingness to abandon 
the field to their rivals was not, what it might at first seem to be, a spirit of self-abnegation. It 
was rather the wisdom of the serpent that lay concealed under an exterior of apparent 
harmlessness like that of the dove.
         As before stated in this work, the process of occupying the peninsula of Lower California 
had been a school wherein the Catholic Church had educated the world in the proper means to 
be employed in making a conquest of the coast Indians and their country. It had been a part of 
the original plan of the Jesuits to extend the missions on up the country, along the coast, until 
a chain of connection had been formed from La Paz in the south to those straits in the north 
that the nautical world supposed separated Asia from America, and called at the time the 
"Straits of Anian." But they were not permitted to perfect the plan, being banished before their 
conquests had reached beyond the limits of the peninsula.
        The Franciscans gave up the possession of the territory of their rivals to the Dominicans 
with the purpose of entering further north and taking possession of the country that heretofore 
had only been seen "as through a glass darkly," and thus perfect the original plan. In this way 
they hoped to become possessors of a better land, where legend had located the gold and rich 
silver mines, from whence the Aztecs had drawn their treasure.
        In pursuance of this plan there was issued by the Spanish crown an order calling for the 
rediscovery of the bays in the upper coast, and an occupation of the country. In response to 
the order, an expedition started in 1769, under the management of Junipero Serro, a Franciscan 
monk. His immediate intention was to found three missions in Upper California - one at San Diego, 
one at Monterey, and the third between those places. The general object of the expe-dition is 
laid down by Joseph De Galvez as being "To establish the Catholic religion among a numerous 
heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness of paganism, to extend the Dominion of the 
King, our Lord, and to protect the peninsula from the ambitious views of foreign nations."
         He also sets forth that this had been the object of the Spanish crown since the report 
of the discoveries by Viscaino in 1603. It was deemed expedient to divide the expedition, and 
send a portion of it by sea in their three vessels, leaving the remainder to go from Mexico 
overland by way of the most northerly of the old missions. Accordingly, on the ninth of January, 
1769, the ship San Carlos sailed from La Paz, followed on the fifteenth of February by the San 
Antonio.The last to sail was the San Joseph, on the sixteenth of June, and she was never 
afterwards heard from.The ocean swallowed her up, with the crew that had thus been summoned 
to join the ranks of the army that in the past centuries had sought by sea the rock-bound coast 
of California, to find instead the boundless shore of an unexplored eternity. The vessels were all 
loaded with provisions, numerous seeds, grain to sow, farming utensils, church ornaments, 
furniture, and passengers, their destination being the port of San Diego. The first to reach that 
place was the San Antonio. She arrived on the eleventh of April, having lost eight of her crew 
with scurvy. Twenty days later the San Carlos made her laborious way into port, with only the 
captain, the cook and one seaman left alive of her crew, the balance having fallen victims of that 
terrible scourge of the early navigators.
           The party was to go overland was also divided into two companies: one, under the 
command of Fernando Revera Moncada, was to assemble at the northern limit of the peninsula, 
where was located the most northerly mission, and take two hundred head of black cattle over 
the country to San Diego, the point where all were to meet in the new land to be subdued. Revera 
set out on the twenty-fourth of March, and was the first European to cross the southern deserts 
of our state. He reached the point of general rendezvous on the fourteenth of May, after having 
spent fifty-one days in the journey,
           The governor of Lower California, Gaspar de Portala, took command of the remaining part 
of the land expedition, and started, May fifteenth, from the same place that, on the frontier, had 
been the point of departure for Revera. With Portala was the president; under whose charge the 
whole enterprise was placed; and of this man, Father Frances Junipero Serro, the pioneer of 
California, a more than passing notice would seem in place. He was born on an island in the 
Mediterranean Sea, and from infancy was educated with a view of becoming a priest of the Romish 
Church. He was a man of eloquence and enthusiasm, of strong personal magnetism and power, 
possessing to a remarkable degree those peculiarities of character found in martyrs and dervishes. 
He had gained a wide reputation as a missionary among the Indians in Mexico, and was the great 
rivalist in his church. He frequently aroused his congregation almost to frenzy by his wild, 
enthusiastic demonstrations of religious fervor. He would beat himself with chains and stones, and 
apply the burning torch to his naked flesh, to show the apathetics the need of crucifying the flesh 
in penance for their sins. On one occasion his self-inflicted punishment with the cruel chain was so 
great that one who beheld it rushed up to the altar, seized the links from his hands, exclaiming,"Let 
a sinner suffer penance, father, not one like you," and commenced beating himself with them, not 
ceasing until he fell to the floor in a swoon. Such was the man and his power over others, to whom 
was committed the task of a "spiritual conquest" of Upper or New California.
           Edmond Randolph, in his vivid and excellent Outline of the History of California, in speaking 
of this man and his journey over the country to enter upon his new field of duty, says: ---
           "It was May before he joined Portala at the same encampment from which Revera set out. 
The reverend Father President came up in very bad condition. He was traveling with an escort of 
two soldiers, and hardly able to get on or off his mule. His foot and leg were greatly inflamed, and 
the more that he always wore sandals, and never used boots, shoes or stockings. His priests and 
the governor tried to dissuade him from the undertaking, but said he would rather die on the road, 
yet he had faith that the Lord would carry him safely through.  *   *    *    On the second day out 
his pain was so great that he could neither sit, nor stand, nor sleep, and Portala, being still unable 
to induce him to return, gave orders for a litter to be made. Hearing this, Father Junipero was greatly 
distressed on the score of the Indians, who would have to carry him. He prayed fervently, and then 
a happy thought occurred to him. He called one of the muleteers, and addressed him, so runs the 
story, in these words: 'Son, don't you know some remedy for the sore on my foot and leg?' But the 
muleteer answered, 'Father, what remedy can I know? Am I a surgeon? I am a muleteer and have 
only cured the sore back of beasts.' 'Then consider me a beast,' said the Father, 'and this sore, that 
has produced this swelling of my legs and the grievous pain I am suffering, and that neither let me 
stand nor sleep, to be a sore back, and give me the same treatment you would apply to a beast.' 
The muleteer, smiling, as did all the rest who heard him, answered, 'I will, Father, to please you;' 
and taking a small piece of tallow mashed it between two stones, mixing it with herbs, which he 
found growing close by; and having heated it over the fire, anointed the foot and leg, leaving a 
plaster of it on the sore. God wrought in such a manner, for so wrote Father Junipero himself from 
San Diego, that he slept all that night until daybreak, and awoke so much relieved from his pains 
that he got up and said matins and prime, and afterwards mass, as if he had never suffered such 
an accident, and to the astonishment of the Governor and the troops at seeing the Father in such 
health and spirits for the journey, which was not delayed a moment on his account. Such a man 
was Junipero Serro, and so he journeyed when he went to conquer California. On July 1, 1769, 
they reached San Diego, all well, in forty-six days after leaving the frontier."
           They were the last of several divisions to arrive at that point, and were received with 
heartfelt demonstrations by their companions, some of whom had been anxiously awaiting their 
coming for nearly three months.
           This was one hundred and twelve years ago, and was the era from which dates the 
commencement of a history of the European race in our state. Then, for the first time, the 
Visigoth came here to make a home where he expected to live and die. It was an epoch in time 
of great moment to the civilized world, a year freighted with events that in their bearing upon 
the family of men was second to none since that birth at Nazareth. Within it were ushered upon 
the stage of life the two great men, military commanders, Wellington and Bonaparte, whose acts 
were to shape the destinies of Europe; yes, of the world. That year not only saw our beautiful 
state in swaddling-clothes, an infant born to be nursed eventfully into the family of civilized 
nations, but it saw the seed of liberty planted among the granite hills of New England, and Father 
Time wrote upon one of the mile-posts of eternity, "1769, the commencement of a brighter day 
for the children of men."
          The members of the several divisions were all, excepting those who died at sea, on the 
ground at San Diego, and Father Junipero was not a man to waste time. In looking over his 
resources for accomplishing the work before him, he found that there were in all, including 
converted Indians that had accompanied him, about two hundred and fifty souls. That he had 
everything necessary for the founding of the three missions, the cultivation of the soil, grazing 
the land and exploring the coast, except sailors and provisions. So many of the former having 
died on the voyage, it was deemed advisable to have what remained sail on the San Antonio for 
San Blas, to procure more seamen and supplies. They accordingly put to sea for that purpose on 
the ninth of July, and nine of the crew died before that port was reached.
         Formal possession was immediately taken of the country for Spain, and the next thing in 
order was to found a mission at San Diego. Possibly it will be interesting to the reader to know 
what the ceremony was that constituted the founding of the mission. Father Francis Palou, 
whose writings were published in 1787, thus describes it: ---
         "They immediately set about taking possession of the soil in the name of our Catholic 
monarch, and thus laid the foundation of the mission.The sailors, muleteers, and servants set 
about clearing away a place which was to serve as temporary church, hanging the bells (on the 
limb of a tree possibly) and forming a grand cross. *  *  *  The venerable Father President 
blessed the holy water, and with this the rite of the church and then the holy cross; which, 
being adorned as usual, was planted in front of the church. Then its patron saint was named, 
and having chanted the first mass, the venerable president pronounced a most fervent discourse 
on the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the mission. The sacrifice of the mass 
being concluded, the Veni Creator was then sung; the want of an organ and other musical 
instruments being supplied by the continued discharge of firearms during the ceremony, and the 
want of incense, of which they had none, by the smoke of the muskets."
         After the establishments of a mission the next thing in order was the gaining of converts, 
and the practice being the same in Upper as in Lower California, will consequently require no further 
description. 
         Everything being in fine working order, the vessel San Antonio having sailed for seamen 
and supplies, and formal possession having been taken of the country, there remained only the 
necessity of entering upon the remaining object that had attracted these pioneer to California. 
Consequently, an expedition was fitted out under Governor Portala's command, to go overland in 
search of the harbor of Monterey, that had been for one hundred and sixty-six years lost to the 
world. He started on the fourteenth of July, with all but six of the available force, except converts 
that had come with them from Lower California. These were left with Father Junipero and deemed 
by him sufficient for his protection and that of the mission to be founded on the sixteenth, showing a 
confidence in the natives that came near adding this to the already long list of disasters.
         Portala, with sixty-five persons in all, moved on up the coast, and reaching Monterey, 
planted a cross there, without knowing that he had found the place he was seeking. He passed on 
in his slow, tortoise way, up the country, until three and a half months had passed since his 
departure, when, October 30, he came upon a bay that Father Crespi, who accompanied the 
expedition and kept a journal, says, "they at once recognized." What caused him to recognize it? 
Had they ever heard of it before? This is the first unquestioned record of the discovery of the 
San Francisco harbor. In all the annals of history there is no evidence of its ever having been 
seen before, except that sailing chart, dated 1740, and captured in 1742, with the galleon 
belonging to the Jesuit Manila merchants. Yet the exception is evidence strong as holy writ that 
in 1740 the bay had been found, but the name of the first discoverer is lost to the world.
        Portola and his followers believed that a miracle had been performed, that the discovery 
was due to the hand of Providence, that St. Francis had led them to the place; and when they 
saw it in all its land-locked, slumbering grandeur, they remembered that before they left Mexico 
Father Junipero had been grieved because the visitor, General Galvez, had not placed in the list 
their patron saint, in selecting names for the missions to be founded in the new country, and 
when reminded of the omission by the sorrowing priest, he had replied solemnly, as from matured 
reflection: "If St. Francis wants a mission, let him show you a good port and we will put one 
there."   "A good port" had been found - one where could ride in safety the fleets of the world, 
and they said "St. Francis has led us to his harbor," and they called it "San Francisco Bay." Thus 
for the first time in history the name and locality were united.
       The expedition that was under California's first governor then returned, starting Nov. 11, 
1769, and arrived at San Diego January 24, 1770, where he first learned of the perils through 
which, during his absence, had passed those he had left behind. It will be remembered that 
Portala started north on the fourteenth of July, two days before the first mission in Upper 
California was founded at San Diego. This day was chosen as the one on which to commence 
the work of christianizing California, because on the sixteenth of July, five hundred and 
forty-seven years before, the  Spanish armies had caused the triumph of the cross over the 
crescent in the old world, and the father deemed this the beginning of a victory of the cross 
over barbarism in the unexplored wilds of the great northwest.
        The first efforts at conversion were of course unsuccessful. The slow process of getting 
the Indians' confidence, and then learning their ways and language, had first to be gone through 
with. It would be but repetition to detail the manner by which this was done, as it was identical 
with that practiced by the Jesuits on the peninsula. There was this difference, however, that 
the Indians here cared nothing for the food given them by the padres, and would not eat it; but 
they were quite willing to take anything else, cloth being their weakness. They went out into the 
bay on balsas, in the night, and cut a piece out of the sail of the vessel. They soon became 
tired of getting things by piece-meal, and undertook the same operation that had been 
attempted by the Indians with Father Tierra at La Paz, ninety years before, and with similar 
results. They watched their opportunities, designing to take the little garrison unawares, and 
after having killed all, divide the property among themselves, and end the performance with a 
grand jubilee. Matters culminated just a month after the founding of the mission. Taking 
advantage of the absence of one of the priests and two soldiers, who had gone temporarily 
aboard the ship, they suddenly fell upon the remaining force of four soldiers, two padres, a 
carpenter and a blacksmith. The latter was a brave and fearless man, and led the defense 
by rushing upon the enemy with the war-cry of "Long live the faith of Jesus Christ, and die 
the dogs, his enemies!" The result was a defeat to the Indians, with severe loss in dead and 
wounded. The missionaries found, after the enemy had retreated, that they, too, had not come 
through unscathed. One of their converted Indians had been killed, one wounded, and a soldier, 
a priest, and the brave blacksmith, were also among the injured.
           This first battle in California occurred on the fifteenth of August, 1879. That day, on 
the other side of the world, was born, on an island in the Mediterranean sea, that genius of war, 
that child of destiny, who in after years made toys of crowns and changed the map of Europe; 
a child who lived to see his scheme of universal empire fade away, and his victorious star go 
down in blood, as the Old Guard faltered, then recoiled, and finally melted away in that terrible 
charge at Waterloo.
           Another incident occurred soon after this, that shows how earnest and unyielding was 
the determination of those pioneer priests to subdue the Indians by kindness, except where 
absolute war was not declared. Their first friend among the tribes of Upper California was a boy, 
who finally ventured to come among the Spaniards, and was, by presents and affectionate 
treatment, eventually so far won over as to become the means of communicating with his tribe. 
As soon as this had been accomplished, Father Junipero explained to him by some means that 
if the parents of some child would bring it to him to baptize, by putting a little water on its head, 
it would become by so doing a son of God and of Father Junipero, as well as a kindred of the 
soldiers, that they would give the child clothes and take care of it and see that it always had 
plenty to eat, etc. The boy went among his people, and explained what the father had told him, 
and they finally made up a little plan to play a practical joke upon the good priest. They sent 
back the boy to  tell the Spaniards that they would bring a child to be baptized, and the father's 
heart was made glad to think that he was soon to begin the harvest of souls. He called the 
garrison together, assembled at the church the Christian Indians who had come from Mexico with 
him, and requested one of the soldiers to act as godfather in the coming ceremony of papoose 
baptism into the Catholic Church. He awaited for a time with a glowing face and overflowing 
heart for the approach of the parents with the infant. They soon came, followed by a large 
concourse of their friends, and handed the little candidate, with big, black, twinkling eyes spread 
wide with wonder, to the father, signifying their desire to proceed with the baptism. He took the 
little fellow, put clothes upon him, and was proceeding with the ceremony, having gone so far in 
it as to be in the act of raising the water to finish the operation by pouring it upon the child's 
head, when the almost Catholic baby was suddenly snatched from his arms, leaving the 
astonished father with the water suspended, while the laughing Indians rushed away with the 
infant. The soldiers were infuriated at this insult to religion and to their beloved priest, and would 
have taken summary vengeance on the scoffers, but were prevented from molesting them. In 
after years, whenever this incident was mentioned in his presence, tears of sorrow would come 
to the eyes of this zealous missionary, as he thought of the sad end of that early hope.
         The whole scheme of occupying northern or Upper California came near proving a failure, 
because of the want of ability to sustain themselves until crops could be grown in the country 
sufficient to make the enterprise self-sustaining. Governor Portala, after his return from the 
discovery of the San Francisco bay, took an inventory of the supplies. He found that there 
remained only enough to last the expedition until March, and decided that if supplies did not 
arrive by sea before the twentieth of that month, to abandon the enterprise and return to 
Mexico. The day came, and with it, in the offing, in plain view of all, a vessel. Preparations had 
been completed for the abandonment, but it was postponed because of the appearance of the 
outlying ship.The next day it was gone, and the colony believed then that a miracle had been 
performed, and their patron saint had permitted the scene of the vessel that they might know 
that help was coming. In a few days the San Antonio sailed into the harbor with abundant 
supplies, and they learned that the vision they had been permitted to see was that vessel 
herself; she had been forced by adverse winds to put out to sea again after coming in sight 
of the harbor.
         Upon the arrival of the San Antonio two other expeditions set out, one by sea and one 
by land, in search of Monterey harbor, the land force in charge of Governor Portala. The party 
by sea was accompanied by Father President Junipero, who writes of that voyage and its 
results as follows: --
         "MY DEAREST FRIEND AND SIR -- On the thirty-first day of May, by the favor of God, 
after a rather painful voyage of a month and a half, this packet, San Antonio, arrived and 
anchored in this horrible port of Monterey, which is unaltered in any degree from what it was 
when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscaino, in the year 1603."
         He goes on to state that he found the governor awaiting him, having reached the place 
eight days earlier. He then describes the manner of taking possession of the land for the crown 
on the third day of August. This ceremony was attended by salutes from the battery on board 
ship and discharges of musketry by the soldiers, until the Indians in the vicinity were so 
thoroughly frightened at the noise as to cause a stampede among them for the interior, from 
whence they were afterward enticed with difficulty. The interesting account closes with the 
following, to us, strange words: "We proceed to-morrow to celebrate the feast and make the 
procession of 'Corpus Christi' (though in a very poor way) in order to scare away whatever 
little devils there possibly may be in this land."
        What a lamentable failure in the good father's pious design, possibly due to the poor 
way in which it was done. The nineteenth century has demonstrated that those little fellows 
have grown amazingly, and multiplied beyond belief in California since that time.
        After the establishment of this second mission, called San Carlos, which soon afterward 
was moved to the river Carmelo, the San Antonio de Padua, was contemplated and finally 
located July 14, 1771, about thirty-five miles south of Soledad, on the Antonio river, and 
about twenty-five miles from the coast. At this mission occurred the first instance of irrigation 
in California. In 1780, when the wheat was in full bloom, there came so severe a frost that it 
"became as dry and withered as if it had been stubble left in the field in the month of August." 
This was a great misfortune, for the padres as well as the converts depended upon this crop 
for food. The priests caused a ditch to be at once constructed and water thus turned upon the 
field. This gave new life to the roots, young shoots sprang up and a bountiful harvest, the 
largest ever known to them, was gathered. The priest called it a miracle, the Indians believed 
it to be one, and the consequence was a second harvest for the church, one of converts this 
time, as the result of the first irrigation attempted in our state. Possibly it is irrigation that the 
Christian churches stand in need of among us now.
         The mission of San Gabriel was founded soon after that of San Antonio, the ceremony 
of establishment being performed on the following eighth of September. The point selected was 
about eight miles north of Los Angeles. Another miracle was supposed to have been worked at 
the founding of this mission. In fact, those old padres, pious souls, seemed to believe that 
everything out of the ordinary everyday occurrences was necessarily of super-natural origin, 
either from God or the devil. When they unfurled their banner at San Gabriel before an assembled 
host of yelling Indians, whom they were afraid were about to attack them, the astonished 
natives beheld the picture of the Virgin Mary that was painted upon it, mistook it for a pretty 
woman, and, probably thinking it was time to put on some style, ceased their undignified howling, 
and running up before the vision of loveliness, threw down their beads at the base of the banner, 
as an offering of their respect. They then, like sensible Indians, brought something for the pretty 
woman to eat. We see nothing miraculous in this. The average Californian in our time will give up 
a row, put on his good behavior, and cast offerings at the feet of female loveliness, if it happens 
around when he is on the warpath.
           In the meantime, Governor Portala had returned to Mexico, bearer of the welcome 
intelligence that Monterey had been rediscovered, that a much finer bay had also been found 
farther north, that they had named it after St. Francis, and that three missions had been 
established in the new land. Upon the receipt of the news the excitement in Mexico was intense. 
Guns were fired, bells were rung, congratulatory speeches were made, and all New Spain was 
happy, because of the final success of the long struggle of their country to get a footing north 
of the peninsula. After the establishment of the San Gabriel mission the events that transpired 
for a time were those incidental to the retention of what had already been acquired, and the 
preparation for possessing more.
          In September, 1772, the mission San Luis Obispo was established between Los Angeles 
and Monterey, and the father president returned to Mexico. He procured over twelve thousand 
dollars worth of supplies, and returned by sea, accompanied by several new missionaries and 
some soldiers, and arrived at San Diego March 13, 1773, to find his people on the verge of 
starvation, living upon milk, roots and herbs. Before leaving Mexico he had divided his party, 
sending the soldiers under command of Capt. Juan Bautista Anza. They were to go by way of 
Sonora and the Gila and Colorado rivers, to open a route by land, that communication with 
the home government might not in future depend wholly upon the hitherto treacherous sea. 
Upon the success in establishing this overland route to Monterey depended the founding of 
the missions of San Francisco and Santa Clara, that Father Junipero so much desired. The 
company arrived safely about the same time as did the division by sea, being the first, the 
pioneer overland journey from Mexico to California, and the descendants of the captain of the 
expedition are still to be found as residents of this state.
           During the same month of March, a party under guidance of Father Crespi, going 
overland from Monterey, passed through where Santa Clara now stands, up along the east 
side of the bay, finally arriving on the thirtieth of the month, where Antioch now is. Thus 
they became the first of civilized men to look upon the stream that forty-six years after was 
named San Joaquin.
          In 1774, Captain Anza returned to Mexico, to report the successful establishment of 
the route to Monterey, intending to come back as soon as possible with the necessary means 
to establish the northern missions.
          There was, in 1774, another occurrence that it will not do to pass silently by, as it 
brings into strong relief the contrast between first intentions and the final acts of the Catholic 
clergy in their spiritual conquest of the natives. The mission of San Diego was attacked, on 
the night of the fourth of November, 1774, by a large and well organized body of Indians, 
numbering about one thousand. They had been incited to hostilities by the representation of 
two apostate converts from one of the tribes, who, fleeing to the interior, gave their people 
far and wide to understand that the missionaries contemplated using force in their efforts to 
subject the Indians to an adoption of the white man's religion. The battle was stubbornly 
contested by the tribes; but they were beaten off with severe loss, after having killed three 
of the whites, one of whom was a priest, and wounded the balance of the defenders. This 
was the last attempt to destroy the missions. Palou, in his account of this affair, says that 
the Indians were incited to the act by the devil, who used the two apostate converts as the 
means, causing them to tell falsehoods to their people in representing "that the fathers 
intended to put an end to the gentiles by making them become Christians by force."
           Although the proposition of force in conversion seems to have been (according to 
Father Palou, who was the priest that afterwards had charge of the San Francisco mission) 
the devil's suggestion, it was afterwards practiced by the fathers.
           A notable instance of this kind occurred in 1826, when a party was sent up into the 
country along the San Joaquin river to capture some subjects for conversion. They met with 
defeat at the hands of a tribe under the leadership of a chief called Estanislao, whose 
rancheria was where Knight's Ferry now is. The Spanish lost three soldiers killed and several 
wounded in this battle; and returning, a new expedition was fitted out, including all the 
available force of the garrison (presidio) of San Francisco, the San Francisco, San Jose and 
Santa Clara missions.The Estanislao country was again invaded, and the result was a defeat 
and severe chastisement of the Indians, with a loss of one soldier killed by the explosion of 
his musket. They succeeded in carrying off, for the good of their souls, some forty-four captives, 
most of whom were women and children.
           The two battles gave the Spaniards a wholesome fear of the up-country tribes, and 
they named the river where these battles were fought the Stanislaus, after the chief Estanislao, 
whose tribe lived upon its banks. The Indian name for that stream was La-kish-um-na. The 
prisoners were taken to the missions and summarily transformed into Christians in the following 
way. We quote from Captain Beechey, who says --
           "I happened to visit the mission about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under 
tuition. They were clothed in blankets and arraigned in a row before a blind Indian, who 
understood their dialect, and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by 
desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the 
persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated. 
The neophytes being thus arranged, the speaker began: 'Santissimo, Trinidado, Dios, Jesu, 
Christo, Espiritu, Santo,' pausing between each name to listen if the simple Indians, who had 
never spoken a Spanish word before, pronounced it correctly or anything near the mark. After 
they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a pause, added 'Santos,' 
and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's tuition. If, 
as not unfrequently happens, any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to conversion, 
it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then to allow them to breathe a little 
fresh air in a walk around the mission, to observe the happy mode of life of their converted 
countrymen; after which they are again shut up and thus continue incarcerated until they 
declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers."
           In 1769, those zealous, truly Christian fathers came among those people to bring 
heathen by love and kindness to the foot of the cross, erected as an emblem of God's love 
for humanity. In 1826, only fifty-seven years later, the successors of those missionaries 
marched that same people as captives to the foot of the cross, and forced them to do homage 
to the emblem of their slavery.
          Father Junipero, as a precautionary measure, in anticipation of the early return of 
Captain Anza, dispatched the packet San Carlos to see if the bay of San Francisco could be 
entered from the ocean; a feat that the little craft accomplished in June, 1775. She was a 
small vessel, not to exceed two hundred tons burden, this pioneer of the fleets that have 
since anchored in that harbor. In that memorable June, while the waters of our great bay 
of the Pacific were being first awakened to their future destiny, away to the east where 
the sun rises, where the Atlantic waves kiss the shores of America, a Washington was t
aking command of the Continental army, and a people were calling through the battle of 
smoke of Bunker Hill for liberty.
          The San Carlos returned to Monterey with the report of her entrance into the harbor 
and succeeding discoveries, including that of the bay of San Pablo, "into which emptied the 
great river of our Father St. Francis, which was fed by five other rivers, all of them copious 
streams, flowing through a plain so wide that it was bounded only by the horizon." Rather a 
luminous description pf the Sacramento river and valley. 
         The time had come so much desired by Father Junipero, when the mission could be 
extended to the great bay in the north. Captain Anza had returned from Mexico with all that 
was required for the purpose. The prepatory expeditions by land and sea had returned with 
the necessary information as to the country, its character, and geography, so that plans 
could be informed with assurance of precision in execution. Consequently, on the seventh 
of June, 1776, the father president started from Monterey with necessaries for the enterprise. 
On the twenty-seventh of June the land party arrived at what is now known as 
Washerwoman's bay, on the north beach of San Francisco. On the eighteenth of August the 
packet arrived, and on the seventeenth of September the presidio was located. An expedition 
to spy out the land was at once dispatched. It was as usual divided into two divisions, one 
to go by water and the other by land. The rendezvous was to have been Point San Pablo, 
but the land party entered the mountains east of the bay and soon found themselves on 
the banks of the San Joaquin river, and failed to connect. On the tenth of October the 
mission was founded at San Francisco. After this came the San Juan Capistrano, and then 
Santa Clara. With the founding of the latter ended the establishing of missions by that 
faithful Christian missionary, Father Junipero Serro.* He died near Monterey in 1782, after 
having planted in the garden of the west for future generations the seeds of civilization 
that should, like the little seeds mentioned in holy writ, grow to become "a great tree," under
whose shadowy branches should gather in future time the unborn millions that
_______________________________________________________________

*   The justly-praised indefatigable missionary-priest, who founded the first nine missions in 
Alta, California, died in that of San Carlos del Carmela, at the age of 69 years. His baptismal 
name, "Junipero," is identical with the Latin word Juniperus, the definition of which is "Arbor 
est crescens in desertis, cujus umbrum serpentis fuguint, et ideo in umbra ajus homines 
secure dormiunt." (Juniper is a tree that grows in the desert, the shade of which is shunned 
by sepents, but under which men sleep in safety.
 
 
 
would forget the zealous old pioneer of the cross, whose life had been a sacrifice, forgotten 
in time to be remembered in eternity.
            It is not our intention to give a history in full of the California missions, for that 
in itself would fill a volume; and having placed before the reader the first and most important 
events, the balance will be passed with brief mention. Within the forty-six years that 
succeeded the first settlement at San Francisco, there were established in California twelve 
other missions, making twenty-one in all, which, in accordance with the plan of Spain, were 
located along the coast, making a chain of occupied territory that would serve to keep off 
foreign settlement. The situations selected were of course made with reference to the soil, 
as upon its productions maintenance must eventually depend. Where the boundary limits of 
one ended another began, so that the coast was all owned by the missions from La Paz on 
the peninsula to San Francisco. The interior was the great storehouse from which to gather, 
in the beginning, proselytes to the Catholic faith - in the end, slaves to work their plantations.
           North of the bay the Russians interfered with the general plan, by establishing a 
settlement in 1812, in what is now Sonoma county. This was followed by an attempt, on the 
part of the padres, to surround the invaders by a cordon of missions, and, in pursuance of 
the plan, San Rafael, in 1817, and San Francisco de Solano, in 1823, were established; but 
further efforts in this line were cut short by the "march of human events." The time had come 
when the system, instead of being an aid, was an impediment to the elevation of the human 
race, and it was forced to give way. Then commenced its decline, followed soon by its passage 
from the stage of action.
          The number of converted Indians, in 1802, given by Humboldt, was 7,617 females and 
7,945 males, making a total of 15,562. The other inhabitants, being estimated at 1,300, not 
including wild Indians, making the total population of California at that time 16,862. The term 
"wild Indians" was applied to such as were not reduced to control by the padres.