Santa Barbara County History

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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.

Source:
A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara,
San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California
by Yda Addis Storke
Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co.


THE LOST WOMAN. 

The purpose of a historical sketch like the present would fall short without an account 
of " the Lost Woman of San Nicolas," appertaining as it does to the history of both Santa 
Barbara and Ventura counties. 

This story has often been told, too frequently with embellishments and exaggerations 
which only serve to diminish the force of the simple facts, which certainly are sufficiently 
romantic, dramatic, and even tragic. The Alaskan Indians were in the habit of making to 
the channel islands periodical visits, to secure otter and other pelts, making fierce war 
upon other hunters who should seek to follow the same field. Supplied as they were with 
fire-arms, they were savage and powerful, dangerous even to the whites, and far more 
so to the natives, armed only with stone weapons. 

Of the island of San Nicolas a party of these Indians took possession, and slew every 
male of the thick population upon it, keeping possession of the women. When the otter- 
hunting season was over, the Alaskans departed, leaving these women to what fate 
might befall them. About the middle of the year 1835 the padres made arrangements for 
the succor and removal of the surviving women, by Isaac J. Sparks and Lewis T. Burton, 
American otter hunters, settled at Santa Barbara, who had chartered the schooner 
Peor es Nada ("Worse is Nothing") for the purposes of their calling. With a crew com- 
posed mainly of Kanakas, they sailed to San Nicolas, and assembled the Indians upon the 
beach, ready for embarking. One of the women then signified by signs that her child 
had been left behind, and she was allowed to go to fetch it. She delayed some time, and 
meanwhile a strong wind sprang up. The water about the island is quite shoal, and be- 
comes very rough in a storm, and there is no sheltering harbor, so that the schooner dared 
not tarry, but ran before the wind, leaving the woman behind. The vessel arrived safely 
at San Pedro, where the Indians were landed, some being taken to Los Angeles and some 
to the Mission of San Gabriel. The captain of the vessel designed to return to the island 
as soon as possible to fetch away the woman. But, being ordered to San Francisco, she 
capsized there, and, there being now no craft large enough to attempt the passage of the 
channel, no attempt was made to rescue the woman, and after some years it was generally 
believed that she must have perished. 

In 1851 John Nidever, with a man named Tom Jeffries and a crew of Indians, had occasion 
to visit San Nicolas. Landing on the lower end of the island they shortly found on the bank 
near the beach the footprints of a human being, probably made during the preceding rainy 
season, as they were deeply impressed in the ground, now very hard and dry. The size of 
the tracks indicated they were made by a woman. After walking some distance, the men 
discovered on rising ground about 200 yards back from the beach three structures of human 
creation. Standing about a mile apart, these enclosures were circular in shape, six or seven 
feet in diameter, with brush-built walls, five or six feet from the ground, on stakes of drift-
wood stuck into the earth, pieces of dried blubber, apparently placed there a month or two 
before, and in good condition. Other than the meat there was no sign of recent occupation 
of the enclosures. A wind came on, which increased to a gale shortly after the men had 
regained their vessel, and as soon as practicable, which was not for eight days, they left the 
vicinity of the island. 

In the winter of 1852, Nidever, accompanied by Charles Brown and a crew of Indians, made 
a second visit to the island, in quest of otter, of which he had seen great numbers on his 
former visit. Landing at the old place, they walked toward the head of the island, where the 
woman, if still alive, was likely to be found, as fish and seal are more plentiful, and water 
better and more abundant in that quarter. The huts were seen as before, the old blubber 
seeming to have been replaced by fresher. About half a mile from the head of the island and 
extending across it, was a flat, low and sandy; and here, thought the men, the woman must 
be living, as the ground to the north and eastward was high and windswept. After searching 
for some time, without finding a trace of the woman, the men decided that she must have 
been devoured by wild dogs' of which they had seen a number, resembling the coyotes, but 
black and white in color. When just about to return, Nidever noticed in the crotch of a small 
tree a basket, covered over with sealskin, which, on being examined, proved to contain a care- 
fully-folded dress made of the skins of shags, cut in square pieces and sewn together; a rope 
made of sinews, and divers small articles such as needles made of bone, abelone, fish-hooks, 
etc. Brown compassionately proposed to replace the basket where they had found it, but 
Nidever shrewdly preferred to scatter the articles about the spot, as their replacement on a 
future visit would prove the woman's existence and presence there. Accordingly this was done, 
and the men returned to their schooner. For some days they were busy hunting, and then a 
gale forced them to make off without renewing the search. 

In July, 1853, Nidever once more returned to San Nicolas with Brown and four Mission Indians, 
this time with the intention of making a thorough search for the missing woman. After selecting 
a camp, they followed the shore to the head of the island, which Brown rounded; and some 
distance down the other side he found fresh tracks of the woman, which he followed up from 
the beach and over the bank, losing them on the ridge where the ground was covered with moss. 
The following day, going to the sandy flat before mentioned, they organized a regular search, for 
some time without results. Brown followed the track he had found the previous evening, until he 
found a piece of driftwood, apparently dropped by the woman ; and farther along the ridge he 
discovered three huts, made of brush, disposed over the ribs of a whale, set in the earth. These 
tenements were, however, open on all sides, and tall grass grew within them, proving the long 
time that had elapsed since their occupation. Ascending to one of the highest parts of the ridge 
he gazed about on all sides. Most of the searchers were in sight, and far away he could see moving 
a small black object which he at first took to be a crow. On walking toward it, he discovered that 
this was the Indian woman, whose head and shoulders just appeared above the rim of an enclosure 
like those already described. Close to her were two or three dogs like those the men had seen 
already. They growled at Brown's approach, whereupon the woman uttered a sort of yell, and 
they slunk out of sight. The woman was sitting cross-legged on some grass within the enclosure, 
which doubtless served her for a bed. She wore a sort of gown, made of shagskins cut in squares 
and sewed together, with the feathers pointing downward. The garment left her neck and shoulders 
bare, reaching to her ankles. Her hair was thickly matted upon her head, being yellowish-brown in 
color, probably from exposure to the weather, the ends seemed to have rotted off. She was 
engaged in stripping the blubber from a piece of sealskin held across her knee, using a knife rudely 
fashioned from a piece of iron hoop. A fire was smouldering within the enclosure, and close by 
was a large heap of bones, which would denote that for a long time this had been her domicile. 

The woman appeared much interested in the movements of the men who were scouring the flat 
below; every now and then she would shade her eyes with her hand and direct a long and steady 
gaze upon them. And all the while, from the time Brown first came within hearing distance, she 
kept up a continual talking to herself. 

As the men drew near, Brown motioned to them to spread out in such shape as to surround her 
and intercept her, should she attempt to escape; then, just before the others reached her little 
camp. Brown, whom she had not yet seen, stepped around in front and in sight of her. To his 
great surprise, instead of exhibiting signs of fear or distrust, she received him with an air of 
welcome, bowing and smiling with mingled cordial politeness and dignity. Her self-possession 
and ease was considered by her discoverers remarkable. As each man came up he was greeted 
in the same manner, and she continued to talk unceasingly. But although the Indians of the 
schooner's crew could muster several native dialects, not a word of her speech understood they. 

"When the men were all seated upon the ground around her, she took from a grasswoven bag 
some of the bulbous roots called by the Californians cacomites, and another species of root, and 
having first roasted them upon the fire, she offered them to the men, who found them very palatable. 

Wishing to convey her on board the schooner, the men tried to inform her by signs of their 
intentions; but while she seemed pleased with their company, and gave no reason to apprehend 
that she would try to escape, she seemed to not comprehend their intentions until they signified 
that she must gather up all her food stores. Then, indeed, she obeyed with the greatest alacrity, 
and seemed anxious to preserve everything capable of sustaining life, thus pathetically 
demonstrating the sharp experiences she had undoubtedly undergone during her eighteen years 
of solitude. Carefully she collected and placed in a large cora, or basket, such as was generally 
used by the Indians of this coast, the considerable quantity she possessed of the dried blubber 
of the seal and sea elephant. She even insisted upon carrying away a seal's head so decayed that 
the brains were oozing from it; and when all else was ready she took a burning stick from the 
camp-fire. The men distributed her effects for carriage, and all set forth toward the vessel. She 
trotted along at a good pace, and presently led them to a spring of good water which issued from 
beneath a shelving rock near the beach. Here were more pieces of dried blubber, hung on stakes 
beyond reach of the dogs and foxes; and here, too, further pathetic evidence of the privations she 
had suffered, in the shape of bones stored away in the crevices of the rocks. It was clear that when 
food was scarce, her resource was to come hither and suck the scanty nutriment remaining in 
these bones! All these matters were respected and preserved by the men, who thus gained the 
poor, deserted creature's confidence. Near the landing was another spring which the woman would 
seem to have used for bathing, as she stopped to wash her face and hands in it 

She readily obeyed the signaled instruction to step into the boat, in whose bow she kneeled, holding 
to the sides; and on reaching the vessel she hovered in the vicinity of the stove, another indication 
of the hardships she had suffered on the island. From the first she preferred to her own the food 
given her by her rescuers. 

Brown immediately contrived for her a petticoat of bed-ticking, which, with a man's shirt and 
necktie, composed a new wardrobe, of which she was very proud, continually calling to it the 
attention of her companions. While Brown was engaged upon her skirt, she made signs that 
she wished to sew also; and being given a needle and thread, she could not understand, until 
she was taught, how the needle was threaded; but she used the needle deftly, mending with 
infinite patience the many rents in an old cape, very torn and tattered, which one of the men 
bestowed upon her, and which she repaired into a garment quite serviceable in cold, rough 
weather. In sewing, she thrust the needle into the cloth with her right hand, pulling it through, 
and drawing the thread tight with her left hand. 

The men on the next day moved ashore, where they remained for about a month, 
otter-hunting. They constructed for the woman, at a short distance from their camp, a 
shelter similar to their own; and here, she remained very well contented, evincing no 
disposition to leave them, but assisting in the work of the camp, bringing wood and 
water at need, and wandering about the island, talking and singing. 

When the woman was found, she had in construction several vessels for carrying water, 
they being really unique. They were woven of grass, in shape somewhat like a demijohn, 
although wider in the mouth, and lined with a thin coating of asphaltum, which she ap- 
plied with some ingenuity. Putting into the basket several pieces of the asphaltum, which 
was found along the beach in great quantities, she threw upon them some heated peb- 
bles, and when these had melted the asphaltum, she would distribute it evenly over the 
inside by giving the basket a rotary motion, throwing out the surplus and the pebbles. 
These baskets were water-tight, and very enduring. She worked upon them fitfully, a 
few minutes at a time, patting one aside to take up another. 

One rather touching trait of her character is illustrated by the following occurrence. 
The men one day killed a large female otter which was with young, and when they were 
about to throw it into the sea, as they usually did the bodies after skinning, the woman, in 
her mute way, protested. She took out the young otter, which was nearly to be born and 
covered with fur, and when it had been stuffed it looked quite natural. Of this little 
creature the woman made a sort of doll, suspending it from the roof of her shelter, where 
for hours she would swing it, all the while talking to it in a kind of sing-song. 

After about a month's successful hunt, Nidever's party embarked for Santa Barbara. 
Not long after they sailed there arose a furious gale, which threatened to engulf the 
little vessel Then the woman made signs that she could calm the wind, and, kneeling 
down with her face toward the quarter whence it blew, she commenced to make prayers or 
incantations, which continued a long time, and were renewed at intervals during the 
storm. When the wind abated and patches of clear sky appeared, she pointed in triumph 
to these tokens of good weather, as who should say, "See what I accomplished!" 

The shore was neared early one morning, and it was evident that the woman had never 
seen this nor any of the ordinary appearances and sights of a settlement. It was hard to 
tell whether pleasure or wonder predominated in her when there passed on the sands a 
Spanish cart, drawn by an ox team. Every feature of it was delightful to her, and she 
imitated with curious gestures the rotary motion of the clumsy wheels, talking, laugh- 
ing and gesticulating, all at the same time. When landing had been made, she was much 
taken up with a horseman who came to the beach, and her courage was shown by her 
readiness to touch this great unknown, and to her doubtless fearful, creature. After 
touching both horse and man, she turned to her captors, and proved that she grasped the 
situation by straddling over her left thumb the first two fingers of her right hand, while 
she moved her hand to imitate the galloping of a horse, shouting the while with delight. 

The woman was taken to Nidever's house, where his wife cared for her; and soon the 
news spread that the lost woman of San Nicolas Island was found. Her case had ex- 
cited great interest among the warm-hearted people of the region, who had discussed in 
the safety of their homes for many a year the possibilities of her still surviving on that 
desert sea-girt isle, with wild beasts for her only companions. And as the years went 
by, it was generally believed that she must surely be dead, devoured, in all likelihood, 
by the wild dogs. The padres of the mission had interested themselves for her, and had 
offered a reward of $200 for information that should lead to her recovery. 

And now the lost was found, and was here within the limits of civilization. Hundreds 
flocked to Nidever's house to see her. Among others came the Fathers, Sanchez, Jimeno 
and Gonzalez, the latter of which in particular had earnestly insisted upon the probabilities of 
her survival. But none could communicate with her, save by the imperfect sign language, 
although the padres knew all the dialects of the coast. From Santa Ynes, from Los 
Angeles, and from other places Indians were brought to see her, but they too found not 
one word in common with her. Every one showed her the greatest kindness. Nearly 
every one would give her a present of money, of clothing, or of trinkets, all of which she 
would at once give to her friends, or to the children who visited her. The Panama 
steamers were touching at Santa Barbara in those days, and the passengers were always 
eager to see this poor savage heroine. She would often put on her best dress of feathers, 
and for their gratification perform movements which might be called dancing. She 
soon became very expert in conversing by signs, and thus related the history of her 
adventures, relating that when she went back after the child, she wandered a long time 
without finding it; that when she concluded that the dogs had eaten the child, she lay 
down and cried for so long a time that she sickened, could not eat, and became too weak 
to walk; then, recovering somewhat, she began to walk about and to eat. Often she 
had seen vessels upon the sea, but none ever came near to take her away, so that in time 
she became reconciled to her fate, and her monotonous life of hunger, cold and the fear 
of wild animals. She was supposed to have been about fifty years old at the time of her 
rescue. Her face was smooth, although the skin on her body and limbs was badly 
wrinkled. It was gathered from her signs that at the time when she was left on the 
island she had two children, one a nursing babe, the other some years older. 

The woman was much attached to the family of Mr. Nidever, who in turn were 
fond of her. Mr. Nidever repeatedly refused large sums which were offered him as an 
inducement to her public exhibition in San Francisco. It was only a short time before 
her death that her protectors succeeded in making her understand their wish to learn 
some words of her language, and the following comprise about all the terms they 
gathered from her: a hide, "tocah;" man, "nache;" the sky, " toy gwah;" the body, 
" puoo-chay." 

With regard to practical matters, she was like a child, and childish was her want of 
control over her appetite. Being excessively fond of fruit, she would eat it at all hazards, 
and this self indulgence produced a dysentery which terminated fatally, in spite of careful 
attendance and nursing. During her illness, it was thought that she might be relieved by 
a diet of seal's flesh, to which she had been so long accustomed; and accordingly some 
was procured and roasted for her. But she laughed and shook her head over it, passing 
her finger over her worn-out teeth, to indicate that they were too old and spent for such 
use. It was about four months after her rescue that she died. She was buried by the 
padres. Most of her trinkets, including the finer of her feather dresses, were sent to Rome. 

It may be wondered that the woman should have been left so long for want of a boat to 
fetch her from the island; but it must be remembered that when the Boston ship 
Monsoon visited Santa Barbara in 1839, the captain of the port had no boat in which to 
make his official visit. Chagrined by the situation, he petitioned for a boat, which the 
government accordingly provided for him.