# History of California (Bancroft)/Volume 3/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI.
OVERLAND SMITH AND PATTIE FOREIGNERS 1826-1830.
FOR forty years California had been visited with increasing frequency by foreigners, that is, by men whose blood was neither Indian nor Spanish. Eng land, the United States, Russia, and France were the nations chiefly represented among the visitors, some of whom came to stay, and to all of whom in the order of their coming I have devoted some atten tion in the annals of the respective" years. All had come from the south, or west, or north by the broad highway of the Pacific Ocean bounding the territory on the west and leading to within a few miles of the most inland Spanish establishments. The inland boun dary an arc whose extremities touch the coast at San Diego and at 4U, an arc for the most part of sierras nevadas so far as could be seen, with a zone of desert beyond as yet unknown had never yet been crossed by man of foreign race, nor trod, if we except the ​southern segment cut by a line from San Gabriel to Mojave, by other than aboriginal feet.
Meanwhile a grand advance movement from the Atlantic westward to the Mississippi, to the plains, to the Rocky Mountains, and into the Great Basin had been gradually made by the fur-hunting pioneers of the broad interior — struggling onward from year to year against obstacles incomparably greater than those presented by the gales and scurvy of the Pacific. If I were writing the history of California alone, it would be appropriate and probably necessary to present here, en résumé at least, the general movement to which I have alluded, embodying the annals of the various fur companies. But the centre of the fur trade was much farther north, and its annals cannot be profitably separated from the history of the North-west. For this reason – bearing in mind also those portions of my work relating locally to Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona – I feel justified in referring the reader for the general exploration westward to other chapters of other volumes, and in confining my record here to such expeditions as directly affect Californian territory.
These began in 1826, when the inland barrier of mountain and desert was first passed, and from that date the influx of foreigners by overland routes becomes a topic of ever growing importance. It is well, however, to understand at the outset, that respecting the movements of the trappers no record of even tolerable completeness exists, or could be expected to exist. After 1826 an army of hunters, increasing from hundreds to thousands, frequented the fur-producing ​streams of the interior, and even the valleys of California, flitting hither and thither, individuals and parties large or small according to the disposition of the natives, wandering without other motive than the hope of more abundant game, well acquainted with the country, as is the wont of trappers, but making no maps and keeping no diaries. Occasionally they came in contact with civilization east or west, and left a trace in the archives; sometimes a famous trapper and Indian-fighter was lucky enough to fall in with a writer to put his fame and life in print; some of them lived later among the border settlers, and their tales of wild adventure, passing not without modification through many hands, found their way into newspaper print. Some of them still live to relate their memories to me and others, sometimes truly and accurately, sometimes confusedly, and sometimes falsely, as is the custom of trappers like other men. I make no claim of ability to weave continuity from fragments, bring order from chaos, distinguish in every instance truth from falsehood, or build up a narrative without data; nevertheless, I proceed with confidence to write in this chapter and others of the men who came to California overland from the east.
Jedediah S. Smith was the first man who made the trip. From a post of the fur company established at or near Great Salt Lake a year or two earlier, Smith started in August 1826 for the south-west with fifteen men, intent rather on explorations for future work than on present trapping. Crossing Utah Lake, ​he seems to have passed in a general south-westerly course to the junction of the Virgin River and ​Colorado, down to the Mojave villages, and westward across the desert to San Gabriel.
The Amajabes on the Colorado treated the party well, furnishing fresh provisions, and horses stolen from the Spaniards, and two wandering neophytes guided the sixteen Americans over the desert to the mission, where they arrived in December. The trappers gave up their arms, and the leader was taken to San Diego, where he explained his object, and submitted to Governor Echeandía his papers, including passports from the U. S. government, and a diary. The coming of the strangers naturally excited suspicion at first; but this was removed by Smith's plea that he had been compelled to enter the territory for want of provisions and water, it being impossible to return by the same route; and his cause was still further strengthened by a certificate of Dana, Cunningham, and other Americans, that the trapper's papers were all en règle, and his motives doubtless pacific and honorable. He was therefore permitted to purchase supplies, and undertake his eastward march by a new route; but not, as ​he wished, to follow the coast up to the Columbia via Bodega.
The Californians supposed for a month that they were rid of their overland guests; but at the beginning of February 1827 some of them were seen at different places, particularly near San Bernardino, where Smith appeared on the 2d of February. There he left a sick man, and thence he seems to have sent a letter to Padre Sanchez by one of his men. The letter, as translated at the time, stated as the reason for return that the trappers in crossing a stream had been attacked by Indians, who killed eight of their number and stripped them of everything but their clothes — a statement that would seem to be false, though Smith bore the reputation of truthfulness. At any rate, the trappers had tried without success to cross the Sierra, and were reported to be in a destitute condition. The two men to whom I have referred were, I suppose, Isaac Galbraith and Joaquin Bowman, who were detained at the time for examination, and who remained in the territory. Orders were issued to detain the whole party, but Smith had left San Bernardino before the orders could be executed.
​When next heard of in May, Smith had moved northward and was encamped in the country of the Moquelumnes and Cosumnes. Padre Duran, of Mission San José, accused the Americans of having enticed his neophytes to desert, but Comandante Martinez pronounced the charge groundless. New communications and orders to investigate passed between the authorities; and a letter came to Padre Duran from Smith himself, bearing date of May 19th. It was a frank statement of his identity and situation, of his failures to cross the mountains, and of the necessity of waiting for the snow to melt. He was far from home, destitute of clothing and all the necessaries of life, save only game for food. He was particularly in need of horses; in fact, he was very disagreeably situated, but yet, "though a foreigner unknown to you, Reverend Father, your true friend and Christian brother, J. S. Smith."
The next day after writing this letter Smith started ​homeward with but two companions. This was the first crossing of the Sierra Nevada, and the traveller's narrative, though brief and meagre, must be presented in his own words. "On May 20, 1827," he writes, "with two men, seven horses, and two mules laden with hay and food, I started from the valley. In eight days we crossed Mount Joseph, losing on this passage two horses and one mule. At the summit of the mountain the snow was from four to eight feet deep, and so hard that the horses sank only a few inches. After a march of twenty days eastward from Mount Joseph, I reached the south-west corner of the Great Salt Lake. The country separating it from the mountains is arid and without game. Often we had no water for two days at a time; we saw but a plain without the slightest trace of vegetation. Farther on I found rocky hills with springs, then hordes of Indians, who seemed to us the most miserable beings imaginable. When we reached the Great Salt Lake we had left only one horse and one mule, so exhausted that they could hardly carry our slight luggage. We had been forced to eat the horses that had succumbed." There are no means of knowing anything about his route; but I think he is as likely to have crossed the mountains near the present railroad line as elsewhere.
Smith returned from Salt Lake to California with eight men, arriving probably in October 1827, but ​about the route followed or incidents of the trip nothing is known. The Californians apparently knew nothing of the leader's separation from his company, though the record of what occurred during his absence is meagre. On May 23d Echeandía issued instructions, by virtue of which the fur-hunter was to be informed that his actions had become suspicious, and that he must either start homeward at once, come to San José to enjoy the hospitality of California under surveillance until the supreme government could decide, or sail on the first vessel that could carry him beyond latitude 42°. According to fragmentary records in the archives, it was supposed early in August that the strangers had gone. In September it was known that they were still present, and in October several orders were issued that they be brought to San José. It is not clear that any were thus brought in, but it would seem that on Smith's return from the east late in October, he soon came, voluntarily or otherwise, to San José and Monterey with seventeen or eighteen companions.
The 12th of November Captain Cooper at Monterey signed a bond in favor of his countryman. As the agent of Steel, Park, and others, and in the name of the United States, Cooper became responsible with his person and property for the good behavior of ​Jedediah Smith in all that concerned his return to Salt Lake. In the document it was set forth that Smith and his men, as honorable citizens of the United States, were to be treated as friends, and furnished at fair prices with the aid in arms, horses, and provisions necessary for the return march by way of Mission San José, Strait of Carquines, and Bodega; but there was to be no unnecessary delay en route, and in future they must not visit the coast south of latitude 42°, nor extend their inland operations farther than specifically allowed by the latest treaties. To this bond Echeandía attached his written permission for Smith and his company to return, with one hundred mules, one hundred and fifty horses, a gun for each man, and divers bales of provisions and other effects which are named.
Echeandía issued orders for a guard of ten men to escort the trappers to a point a little beyond San Francisco Solano, starting from San José; but a slight change must have been made in the plan, for on the 18th the whole company arrived at San Francisco on the Franklin from Monterey. This is really the last that is known of Smith in California, where four and perhaps five men of his party remained, besides Turner who came back later. I have accredited these men to the year 1826, though some of them probably came in the second party of 1827. The party doubtless left San Francisco at the end of the year or early in 1828, and proceeded somewhat leisurely northward, probably by a coast route as intended, and not without some new misconduct, or what was vaguely alluded to as such by the ​authorities. While attempting to ford the Umpqua River he was attacked by Indians, who killed fifteen of the company and took all their property. Smith, Turner, and two others escaped to Fort Vancouver. McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company sent back a party with one of the survivors to recover the lost effects, in which they are said to have been successful. Jedediah Smith returned eastward by a northern route in 1829, and two years later he was killed by the Indians in New Mexico. I append part of a map of 1826 purporting to show 'all the recent geographical discoveries' to that date.
An important topic, perhaps connected indirectly with Jedediah Smith's visit, is the first operations of the Hudson's Bay Company's trappers in California. Respecting these operations before 1830, I have no original and definite information, except that contained in the statement of J. J. Warner, himself an old trapper, still living in 1884, and an excellent authority on all connected with the earliest American pioneers, although he did not himself reach California until the beginning of the next decade. Warner states ​that the party sent back from Fort Vancouver to avenge Smith's disasters was under the command of McLeod, and after recovering the stolen furs, traps, and horses, was guided by Turner down into the Sacramento Valley in 1828, where he made a successful hunt. Returning northward, however, he was overtaken by a snow-storm in the Pit River country, which he was the first to traverse. He lost his animals, and was compelled to leave his furs, which were spoiled by melting snow before they could be moved.
Map of 1826.
McLeod was discharged for his imprudence or for his bad luck. Meanwhile the company had hastened to despatch Ogden with another party of hunters up the Columbia and Snake, to proceed thence southward to Smith's trail, by which he was to enter ​California, and thus get the start of any American trappers that might be sent as a result of Smith's reports. Ogden was successful in this movement, and entered the great valley about the same time that McLeod left it. He also obtained a rich harvest of skins during his stay of eight months, and carried his furs to the north by McLeod's trail. These were the only visits of Hudson Bay trappers before 1832.
The visit of the Patties to California in 1828-30 is the topic next demanding attention. Sylvester Pattie, a Kentuckian, lieutenant of rangers against the Indians in 1812-13, and later a lumberman in Missouri, joined a trapping and trading expedition to New Mexico in 1824, with his son James Ohio Pattie. The father was about forty years of age, and the son a school-boy of perhaps fifteen. With their adventures in New Mexico and Arizona for the next three years I am not concerned here. More than once they visited the Gila, and in September 1827 the elder Pattie was made captain of a company of thirty trappers, organized at Santa Fé to operate on the Colorado. They reached the Colorado and Gila junction December 1st, or at least the Patties and six men did so, the rest having left the Gila, striking northward some two weeks earlier. The eight of Pattie's party were in a desperate strait. They understood from the Yumas that there were Christians down the river, and started to find them, floating on canoe rafts, trapping successfully as they went, and ​reaching tide-water the 18th of January, 1828. They soon started back up the river, making little progress, and February 16th, having buried their furs and traps, they started westward across the desert. After terrible suffering they reached Santa Catalina Mission in Lower California the 12th of March. Ten days later, by Echeandía's order, they started under a guard for San Diego, where they arrived the 27th. The company included, besides the Patties, Nathaniel Pryor, Richard Laughlin, William Pope, Isaac Slover, Jesse Ferguson, and James Puter, most of whom sooner or later became permanent residents of California.
The narrative of James O. Pattie was subsequently printed; from it I have drawn the preceding résumé, and I have now to present in substance that part of it relating to California, introducing occasional notes from other sources, and reserving comment until the end. On arrival at San Diego the strangers were ​brought before Echeandía and questioned, the younger Pattie, who had learned a little Spanish in New Mexico, serving as spokesman, and expressing his ideas with great freedom on this as on every other occasion when he came into contact with the Spaniards. The governor believed nothing of their story, accused them of being spies for Spain — worse than thieves and murderers — tore up their passport as a forgery, cut short their explanations, and remanded them to prison. On the way they resolved to redress their wrongs by force or die in the attempt; but their arms had been removed, and they were locked up in separate cells. The father was cruelly torn from the son, and died a month later without being permitted again to see him. The cells were eight or ten feet square, with iron doors, and walls and floor of stone. Young Pattie's experience alone is recorded, as no communication was allowed. Nauseating food and continued insults and taunts were added to the horrors of solitary confinement. From his grated door Pattie could see Echeandía at his house opposite. "Ah! that I had had but my trusty rifle well charged to my face! Could I but have had the pleasure of that single shot, ​I think I would have been willing to have purchased it with my life," writes the captive, and this before his father died alone. No attention was paid to pleas for justice or pity. Yet a sergeant showed much kindness, and his beautiful sister came often to the cell with sympathy and food, and even enabled the prisoner to get a glimpse of his father's coffin as it was hastily covered with earth.
Captain Bradshaw of the Franklin soon got Pattie out of jail for a day by the 'innocent stratagem' of pretending to need his services as an interpreter; and with an eye to business, he made an effort to get permission for the hunters to go to the Colorado and bring the buried furs, but in vain. In the proceedings against Bradshaw for smuggling, Pattie served as interpreter; and later, by reporting certain orders which he had overheard, he claims to have prevented Bradshaw's arrest, and thus to have contributed to the escape of the Franklin. Seth Rogers, A. W. Williams, and W. H. Cunningham are named as other American masters of vessels who befriended the young prisoner, and gave him money.
Echeandía himself also employed Pattie as an interpreter, and at times assumed a friendly tone. The captive took advantage of this to plead his cause anew, to discuss questions of international law, and to suggest that there was money to be made by sending after the buried furs. At the first he had known that every word of kindness pronounced by Echeandía "was a vile and deceitful lie," and after repeated interviews he perceived "that, like most arbitrary and cruel men, he was fickle and infirm of purpose," and ​thereupon proceeded to "tease him with importunities;" but under this treatment the general became surly. "How earnestly I wished that he and I had been together in the wild woods, and I armed with my rifle!" writes Pattie. This could not be, but he refused to translate any more letters, and the governor, striking him on the head with the flat of his sword, had him dragged again to prison to lie and rot.
The suggestion of profit from the furs had, however, taken root; and early in September the prisoners were released, allowed once more to see each other, and promised permission to go to the Colorado, greatly to their delight. "I was convinced that Mexico could not array force enough to bring us back alive. I foresaw that the general would send no more than ten or twelve soldiers with us. I knew that it would be no more than an amusement to rise upon them, take their horses for our own riding, flea some of them of their skins to show that we knew how to inflict torture, and send the rest back to the general on foot." Pattie was allowed to go to the mission to hire horses for the trip; but at the last moment Echeandía remarked that he could spare no soldiers to go with them. It did not matter, they said, though it spoiled their plan of vengeance. But the governor added that one must remain as a hostage for the return of the rest, and Pattie was the man selected. "At this horrible sentence, breaking upon us in the sanguine rapture of confidence, we all gazed at each other in the consternation of despair;" but Pattie urged them to go and follow their inclinations about coming back. They came back at the end of September. The furs had all been spoiled by the overflow of the river, and the traps were sold to pay the mule-hire. Two of the six, however, failed to return, having left their companions on the Colorado and started for New Mexico.
​In the absence of his companions, Pattie, by advice of Bradshaw and Perkins, had written a letter to Jones, consul of the United States at the Sandwich Islands, imploring intervention in his own behalf, and then he lay in his cell, harassed by continual threats of being shot at as a target, hanged, or burned alive. Soon came news from the north that the small-pox was raging in the missions. Fortunately Pattie had a small quantity of vaccine matter, and he resolved to make the best possible use of his advantage. Negotiations followed, which gave the young trapper many opportunities to show what could be done by the tongue of a free American citizen. In return for the liberty of himself and companions, he offered to vaccinate everybody in the territory; refusing his own liberty, refusing to vaccinate the governor himself, though trembling in fear of death, refusing even to operate on the arm of his beautiful guardian angel, the Señorita Pico, unless his proposition were accepted. There were many stormy scenes, and Pattie was often remanded to prison with a curse from Echeandía, who told him he might die for his obstinacy. But at last the governor had to yield. Certain old black papers in possession of the trappers, as interpreted by Pattie, were accepted as certificates of American citizenship, and in December all were freed for a week as an experiment.
​It was deemed best to take no risks. By a false promise to their friend, the capitan de armas, they got their rifles and pistols on pretence of cleaning them, and refused to return the weapons, which were concealed in the thicket. Charles Lang, the smuggler, now made his appearance secretly, and the trappers determined to join him. Pattie with one companion left San Diego Christmas night, and went down to Todos Santos; but learning that Lang had been arrested, they returned. Their comrades were still at liberty; no trouble was made by Echeandía about their absence or the recovery of their arms; and in January and February 1829, Pattie vaccinated everybody at the presidio and mission. On February 28th a paper was issued to each, granting liberty for a year on parole; and Pattie obtained also a letter to the padres, who were instructed to furnish supplies and horses for the journey, and "indemnify me for my services as far as they thought proper."
Pattie started immediately on his trip northward, called at mission, presidio, and pueblo, and arrived at San Francisco the 20th of June. He had vaccinated ​in all 22,000 persons, receiving from the padres certificates by which the value of his services was to be finally estimated by a 'high dignitary' in the north. After a week's visit to Ross, where everything pleased the American, and where he received $100 for his medical services, he returned and presented his certificates to the padre at San Francisco. On July 8th John Cabortes, presumably Padre Juan Cabot, presented the amateur physician a paper, by which he gave him 500 cattle and 500 mules, with land on which to pasture the same—to be delivered when he had become a Catholic and a Mexican citizen. "When I had read this," says Pattie, "I was struck dumb. My anger choked me." But he soon recovered his speech sufficiently to give the padre his opinion in the matter, to say that he came from a country where the laws compelled a man to pay another what he justly owed him without condition of submission to "any of his whimsical desires;" that as a protestant he would not change his opinions for all the money the mission was worth, and that as an American, "rather than consent to be adopted into the society and companionship of such a band of murderers and robbers," he would suffer death. For this "honest and plain utterance" of his feelings, he was ordered to leave the house; and, keeping his rifle ready for any one the priest might send after him, he bought a horse for three dollars, and started for Monte El Rey!
At the capital Pattie shipped on an American vessel, and for several months ploughed the Pacific, touching at various ports. He does not name the vessel, and he gives no particulars of his voyage, save ​of the first week's terrible sea-sickness. Back at Monterey, he took a more or less active part, on both sides, in the Solis revolt, to which event considerable space is devoted in his narrative. At first the trapper had contributed in a small way to the rebellion fund, and had with difficulty been dissuaded from joining the army of Solis in the hope of getting a shot at Echeandía; but in the end he had become an ally of his old foe, who on his coming to Monterey received Pattie affably, and even listened with some patience to a repetition of his long-winded arguments and complaints. Yet notwithstanding the portentous aspect of a document which Pattie had prepared by the advice of the Hawaiian consul, Jones, for presentation to the American minister at Mexico, Echeandía ventured to doubt that his wrongs would be redressed, though he granted a passport that he might go to Mexico and try. Spending three days de fiesta at San Cárlos in company with Captain William Hinckley, hunting otter profitably for ten days on the coast, presenting his rifle to Captain Cooper, and writing a letter of farewell to his former companions in the south, Pattie sailed on the Volunteer May 9th, in company with Solis and his fellow-prisoners, for San Blas. At Mexico in June, at the office of Butler, American chargé d'affaires, he saw a communication of President Andrew Jackson in his behalf. He was honored by an interview with President Guerrero, and had the pleasure of learning that Echeandía had been recalled. I have his original letter of June 14, 1830, to friends in California, naming Lothlin ( ​Laughlin), Pryor, and Cooper, in which he explains that 'Kernal' Butler had been able to give no satisfaction, but had advised him to seek redress from the President of the United States. The adventurer reached New Orleans in August, and proceeding up the Mississippi, was soon introduced to Rev. Timothy Flint, who was to make his name and fame more or less immortal.
I have thus presented, with fairness I think, the substance and spirit of Pattie's narrative, though obliged to omit many details, making no pretension to point out minor errors, and perhaps failing to give a full idea of the writer's bitter feelings toward his oppressors. The subject is entitled to the space I have given it, on account of the extraordinary nature of the adventures recounted, the early date of the visit to California, the extent of the author's travels in the territory, the fame of his book, and the accuracy of many of his statements. Yet from the spirit of the narrative, from the numerous erroneous statements, and from my knowledge of Echeandía's character, I have no hesitation in pronouncing Pattie's complaints of ill treatment grossly exaggerated. This opinion is confirmed by those of the company who remained in the country. Entering the territory without passports, the hunters were, according to the unwise policy of Mexican laws, liable to arrest. Presidio fare, and especially prison fare, in California at that time, was even less congenial to American hunters than was the narrow spirit of Spanish policy. Naturally they were disappointed at their reception, and disgusted with their situation, but they were not probably made the victims of any special oppression. James O. Pattie was, however, a self-conceited and quick-tempered boy, with a freedom of ​speech often amounting to insolence, and unlimited ability to make himself disagreeable. How far these peculiarities, and the young man's connection with the smuggling operations of Bradshaw and Lang, may have provoked Echeandía to the infliction of special penalties, I cannot say.
Thomas L. Smith, commonly called 'Peg-leg' Smith — a well known character in many parts of California, but chiefly in later times, who died in a San Francisco hospital in 1866 — was one of the famous trappers and Indian-fighters of this early epoch. He was at times a companion of Jedediah Smith, and was the hero of many will adventures in various parts of the great interior; but very few of his early exploits have ever been recorded with even approximate accuracy of time or place. He owes his position on this page to a report that he came to California in 1829, a report that I have not been able to trace to any reliable source. Engaged in trapping in the Utah regions, he came to California to dispose of his furs. He was ordered out of the country, and departed, he and his companion taking with them, however, a band of three or four hundred horses, in spite of efforts of the Californians to prevent the act. Some accounts say that be visited the country repeatedly in those early years, and we shall find archive evidence of his presence a little later, acting with the horse-thieves of the Tulares, and known as 'El Cojo Smit.'
In the spring of 1828 the Mexican government granted to Richard Exter and Julian Wilson a ​provisional license to hunt and trap in New Mexico and California, as well as on the coasts for sea-otter. They had asked for an exclusive privilege, which proposition was reserved for consideration by congress. The object in view was to derive a revenue from the territorial wealth of furs, and by a contract with these foreigners to prevent the constantly increasing clandestine operations of other foreigners, whom no revenue laws could control. The idea was a good one. Such a contract with a responsible and powerful company was perhaps the only means by which Mexico could partially protect her interests in this direction; but there may be some doubt whether Exter and Wilson possessed the requisite qualifications, since little is known about them. It does not appear that the exclusive privilege was ever conceded, and nothing was ever done under the provisional permit. Vallejo and Alvarado say that there was a strong feeling in California against the scheme, and that when the two men came to the country in 1829, strutting up and down as if they owned it, Echeandía refused to recognize their authority, and they went away in disgust.
In January 1830 a small party — of Mexicans apparently — came from New Mexico to Los Angeles under the leadership of José Antonio Vaca; but of their purposes and adventures we know nothing from the fragmentary records. A somewhat better known
48 April 28, 1828, provisional license granted. Hunting parties must be made up of at least two thirds Mexican citizens. Mexico, Mem. Rel., 1829, p. 22. Aug. 7th, the comisario communicates the concession to Herrera. Exact accounts must be kept of number, size, and quality of skins. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Com. and Treas., MS., i. 106. Dec. 23, 1928, gov. announces the license in Cal., and says that the parties will be allowed to catch otter. Dept. Rec., MS, vị. 162. ​expedition is that of Ewing Young, the Tennesseean, or Joaquin Jóven as he was often called, who entered the territory later in the same year from New Mexico with a company of beaver-hunters of various nationalities. Warner says this party came by Jedediah Smith's old trail, and found Ogden's Hudson Bay trappers on the Sacramento. After trapping for a short time in the Tulares, Young moved north and met the Indian alcalde of San José mission out on a hunt for runaway neophytes by order of the padre. The fugitives allied with the gentiles showed fight, but eleven of the trappers aided the alcalde to defeat the foe. Taking advantage of this service rendered, Young, with three of his men, came to the mission July 11th, showed his passports, explained his need of horses, and departed after promising to return in a week with furs to sell or to exchange for supplies.
There is no record that the hunters returned to San José, though they may have done so; but at the end of July three Frenchmen came to Monterey, announcing their intention to return to New Mexico, having left the company. In October the hunters were in the vicinity of Los Angeles, where the leader had great difficulty in controlling them, and where one man was killed. It had been the intention to return from the Colorado in December to sell furs and buy ​mules; but Young had lost confidence in his men, and thought he would be fortunate to get safely home with his company by the aid of the Americans. He intended, however, to come back the following year. There are several men named as being in California from New Mexico this year, some of whom may have belonged to this party; but Young and Higgins are the only ones known here later, unless Kit Carson may have made his first visit at this time.
Of the foreign residents who came to California before 1826, about fifty are mentioned in the records of 1826-30, a dozen or more having died or left the country. Some of the more prominent, like Hartnell, Spence, Cooper, and Gale, have been noticed in connection with commercial and maritime topics in the preceding chapter. All, including new-comers, were in this period as a class law-abiding citizens of considerable influence in their new home. Many were baptized, married, and naturalized. Space does not permit the introduction of personal experiences and achievements here, but the reader is referred to the biographic sketches presented elsewhere in this work.
In respect of general policy toward foreigners, there was little or no tendency in California to exclusiveness or oppression in 1826, as has been seen from the commercial record, and especially from the privileges allowed to Captain Beechey, in contrast with the treatment of Vancouver at an earlier date and under another régime. Yet the Mexican laws were strict in requiring foreigners to show passports, and submit to surveillance; hence the precautions taken in the case of Jedediah Smith and his company; hence certain orders for the arrest of deserting sailors. ​Of new-comers for 1826, about sixty are named. It is not easy to decide exactly which of these are entitled to the name of pioneers, nor is it necessary, because I shall mention them all elsewhere. Here I name only such as remained in the country several years at least, traders who came often during a series of years and became well known to the people, men who though visitors now became permanent residents later, and men who died in California. Such for this year number twenty-five. The most prominent names are those of Dana, Fitch, and Wilson; but ten or twelve lived long in the country and were well known.
In 1827 the general orders from Mexico promulgated by Echeandía, and more or less fully enforced, were to insist on passports, to keep a strict watch, render a monthly account of new arrivals, grant no lands to foreigners, and by no means to allow them to form settlements on coast or islands. On the intercession of the English chargé d'affaires in Mexico, the local authorities were empowered to extend the passports of English residents for one year, while the papers of other foreigners might be extended so as to allow them time to make a regular application for renewal. My list of newly arrived pioneers for the year contains twelve names, the total number, including visitors, being about thirty. John Temple and ​Robert J. Elwell became most prominent in California; though Bradshaw, Holmes, and Leandry were also well known men. It was during this year that the Californians were excited at the presence and actions of Jedediah Smith's trappers, their first American visitors by the overland route. As Smith arrived in December 1826, the names of his companions who settled in the country have been included in the list of that year, though they left the company of hunters, and some of them arrived, in 1827.
Orders of the Californian officials in 1828 respecting foreigners were of the same tenor as before; applications for naturalization were frequent; many strangers wished to marry Californian wives. Bands of trappers on the frontiers round about excited some apprehensions. A few immigrants of Mexican blood seem to have come in from Sonora, and all was faithfully reported to the minister of relations in Mexico. In accordance with the decree of March 12, 1828, which declared that no foreigner could remain in Mexican territory without a passport, and regulated the holding of property by naturalized citizens, a reglamento was issued by the president on May 1st prescribing in detail the methods to be observed in obtaining, granting, and using passports of various kinds. This document was doubtless forwarded to California later in the year. I find about sixty new ​names of foreigners in this year's records, several belonging to men whose presence is noted in consequence of the regulations just mentioned, but about whom no more is known than that they were here in 1828-9. Pioneers proper number eighteen, as per appended list. Several of these became in later times locally prominent; and one of the number, Henry A. Peirce, is still living in 1884, being in a sense the oldest living pioneer within my knowledge, though he has by no means resided continuously in California. Two or three detected attempts at smuggling, together with the presence of Pattie and his trappers from New Mexico, were the leading topics of interest for 1828, as far as foreigners were concerned.
In 1829 Echeandía continued to circulate the passport regulations for the benefit of foreigners and of local officials. He still received numerous applications for permits to remain, to travel, to marry, or to become naturalized, and called for full reports of resident foreigners. It is from these reports, and the various certificates connected with the applications above referred to, that I have obtained much of the information presented elsewhere respecting individuals; still the lists are incomplete, and have to be perfected from numerous scattered documents. ​Echeandía heard this year and forwarded to the supreme government a rumor that the Americans were plotting to seize the port of San Francisco; while on the other side of the continent we find a rumor from Mexico, by way of England, that California with Texas was to be made over to the United States for a term of years, as security for a large sum of money to be spent in resisting Spanish invasion. The new arrivals of the year, as named in an appended list, were seventeen, or about thirty-five including visitors, or men about whom nothing more is known than their mention in lists of the year. Prominent names are those of Captain Hinckley, Alfred Robinson, and Abel Stearns. Robinson still lives in 1884, with none to dispute his title as the oldest pioneer, unless it be Peirce of 1828, as already mentioned, or Michael White, perhaps still alive, but about whose arrival in 1829 there is some doubt. The great excitement of the year was the Solis revolt, in which, as we have seen, the foreigners, though at first somewhat inclined to sympathize with the movement as promising them certain commercial advantages, later took a decided stand in favor of the regular authorities, and contributed largely to the restoration of the capital.
In February 1830 the Mexican government, in reply to reports respecting Abel Stearns and others in California who were seeking lands, directed Echeandía to distribute the public lands in accordance with the laws to such foreigners as could comply with all the requirements, taking care, however, that the Russians and ​Americans should be the least numerous, and be located in the central parts. A little later, however, foreigners of adjacent countries were prohibited from colonization on the frontier. It is not certain that any resident foreigner had yet obtained his final and complete papers of naturalization; though a few may have done so, and many had made application and complied with all the preliminary requirements, receiving certificates which served all practical purposes. Newcomers of this final year of the decade were fifty, of whom twenty-four named in a note may be regarded as pioneers proper. The arrival of Kit Carson this year is doubtful. Bee, Jones, Nye, Snook, and Young were the names best known in the annals of later years. Some details about all the men named in this chapter and many visitors not here named may be found in the Pioneer Register appended to these volumes. That register will also serve as an index through which may be found all that is recorded of any early Californian in this work.
* ↑ A few English and American deserters, leaving their vessels at Todos Santos or thereabouts, had on two or three occasions been sent across the frontier to S. Diego, forming an exception of little importance to my general statement. Another exception of somewhat greater weight rests in the possibility that trappers may have crossed the northern frontier before 1826. It is not improbable that Hudson's Bay Company men may have done so from the Willamette Valley on one or more occasions, though there is no more definite record than the rumor of 1820-1, that foreign hunters were present in the north, and the newspaper report of McKay's presence in Siskiyou in 1825.
* ↑ Smith was associated with Jackson and Sublette, and the post had been established by W. H. Ashley.
* ↑ Smith, Excursion à l'ouest des Monts Rocky. Extrait d'une lettre de M. Jedidiah Smith, employé de la Compagnie des Pelleteries, in Nouv. Ann. des Voy., xxxvii. 208-12. Taken from an American paper. The news — perhaps the paper, but certainly not Smith's letter as might seem from the translation — was dated St. Louis Oct. 11, 1827. This brief letter, in which very likely wild work is made with names in the printing and translation, is in connection with the correspondence preserved in the archives, the best authority on the subject. The general accounts extant are full of errors, though each purports to correct errors previously made. Warner, Reminiscences, MS., 21-9, errs chiefly in dates and order of events. He makes Smith start in 1824 and lead a party of hunters through the Green River country, south of Salt Lake, over the Sierra Nevada near Walker Pass, into the Tulare Valley. In June 1825, leaving his men on the American Fork — whence the name — he re-crossed the sierra with two men. Starting back for California in the autumn of 1825 by a more southern route, he was attacked by the Mojaves while crossing the Colorado, and lost all his men but 2 or 3, with whom he reached S. Gabriel late in 1826. The author of Cronise's Natural Wealth of Cal., after being at much trouble to unravel the various stories, 'gathered the following particulars from those who knew Smith personally, and from documents in the state archives:' 'In the spring of 1825, Smith, with a party of 40 trappers and Indians, left their rendezvous on Green River near the South Pass, and pushed their way westward, crossing the Sierra Nevada into the Tulare Valley, which they reached in July 1825. The party trapped from the Tulare to the American fork of the Sacramento, where there was already a camp of American trappers (?). Smith camped near the site of the present town of Folsom, about 22 miles north-east of the other party. From this camp Smith sent out parties, which were so successful that in October, leaving all the others in California, in company with 2 of the party, he returned to his rendezvous on Green River with several bales of skins. In May 1826 Smith was sent back with a reënforcement. On this trip he led his party farther south than on the former one, which brought them into the Mojaves settlements on the Colorado, where all the party except Smith, Galbraith, and Turner were killed by the Indians. These three made their way to S. Gabriel on Dec. 26, 1826, where they were arrested,' etc. Cronise also publishes a translation of 2 documents from the archives, of which more later. Thomas Sprague, in a letter of Sept. 18, 1860, to Edmund Randolph, published in Hutchings' Mag., v. 351-2, and also in the S. F. Bulletin, states that Smith, starting from Green River in 1825, reached and went down the Humbold River, which he named Mary River from his Indian wife, crossed the mountains probably near the head of the Truckee, and passed on down the valley to S. José and S. Diego. Recruiting his men and buying many horses, he re-crossed the mountains near Walker Pass, skirted the eastern base to near Mono Lake, and on a straight north-east course for Salt Lake found placer gold in large quantities. He was ordered to return and prospect the gold fields on his way back from California, but near the gold mines he was killed with most of his party. Robert Lyon furnished to Angel, author of the Nevada Hist., 29 et seq., a version somewhat similar to that of Sprague, including the discovery of coarse placer gold near Mono Lake. His account seems to rest on the testimony, in 1860, of Rocky Mountain Jack and Bill Reed, who claimed to have been companions of Smith. An 'associate of the daring pioneer' corrected prevailing errors as follows in the S. F. Times, June 14, 1867: 'He came into California in 1827, with a trapping party from the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. on the Yellowstone River. He left his party on the American fork of the Sacramento in the summer of that year, and with two men returned to the rendezvous, where he fitted out a new party and returned in 1828 to the American, where the two parties were combined, and moving northwardly, he reached the Umpqua River,' etc. It will be noticed that all these versions have the double trip and some other points in common, and that the confusion is largely removed by the original authorities, on which I found my text. Randolph, Oration, 313-14, translating Smith's letter to P. Duran, and Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 124-5, as well as Frignet, La Californie, 58-60, mention Smith's arrival in 1826 in so general a manner as to avoid serious error. The same may be said of Douglas, Private Papers, MS., 2d series, p. 1, Victor, River of the West, 34, and Hines, Voyage, 110, though these writers speak with reference to later events in Oregon, and derived their information from distinct sources. The Yolo Co. Hist., S. Joaq. Co. Hist., and other like works describe Smith's adventures, in some cases as accurately as was possibly from accessible data, still with various combinations of the errors already noted.
* ↑ The details of the route are worth preservation briefly, though not clear in all respects. Started Aug. 22d from Salt Lake, crossed the little Utá Lake, went up the Ashley, which flows into that lake through the country of the Sumpatch Indians, crossed a range of mountains extending S. E. to N. W., crossed a river which he named Adams for the president, and which flowed S. W. Ten days' march to the Adams again, which had turned S. E. (This is not clear; the text says, 'à dix journées de marche l'Adams River tourne au S. E., il y a là une caverne,' etc. Query — Did Smith pass from the Sevier to the Virgin, and suppose them to be one stream?) Two days down the Adams to its junction with the Seeds-Keeder, a river with many shallows and rapids, and having a sterile country on the south; farther to a fertile wooded valley inhabited by the Ammucheebès (Amajabes, or Mojaves), where he remained 15 days. This was 80 miles above where the Seeds-Keeder, under the name of Rio Colorado, flowed into the gulf of California. Re-crossing the Seeds-Keeder, he went 15 days west into a desert country, and across a salt plain 8 by 20 miles. Here the details cease abruptly, and he next speaks of his arrival in Upper California.
* ↑ Dated at S. Diego Dec. 20, 1826, and signed by Wm G. Dana, Wm H. Cunningham, Wm Henderson, Diego Scott, Thomas M. Robbins, and Thomas Shaw, in Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 19-20. An English translation has been published in several works.
* ↑ Dec. 30, 1826. Echcandía reports Smith's arrival with 14 companions, 40 beaver skins, and many trips; also his visit to S. Diego and his apparent good faith. St. Pap., Sac., MS., xix. 37-8. He enclosed Smith's diary to the minister of war, and it may come to light some day. Smith himself, Excursion, 210, says: 'Mon arrivée dans la Haute-Californie excita les soupçons du gouverneur, qui demeurait à San Diego. Il me fit conduire devant lui; mais plusieurs citoyens des Etats-Unis, notamment M. Cunningham, capitaine du Courrier de Boston, ayant répondu de moi, j'obtins la permission de retourner avec ma suite, et d'acheter des provisions; mais le gouverneur refusa de me laisser côtoyer la mer en allant vers la Bodega.'
* ↑ The letter is not extant, and its purport only is given in one of Argüello's letters to the governor. It is possible that there is an error somewhere, and that Smith in the original letter spoke of a ſight in which he killed 8 Indians, especially as 2 women are also said to have been killed. Smith himself, Excursion, p. 211, gives no details nor even mention of having come in contact with the Spaniards at this time. He says, in continuation of quotation of note 6, 'I marched therefore E. and then N. E. (from S. Gabriel or S. Diego), keeping at a distance of 150 to 200 miles from the coast. I went nearly 30 miles in that direction,' through some fertile regions peopled by many naked Indians, and 'having reached a river which I named Kimmel-ché from the tribe living on its banks. I found beavers, etc. Here I remained some days; I intended to return to Salt Lake by crossing Mount Joseph; but the snow was so deep on the heights that my horses, 5 of which had died of hunger, could not advance. I was therefore obliged to re-descend into the valley.'
* ↑ Letters of Santiago Argüello to comandante of S. Diego and to gov., with references to replies and other communications, in Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 33-7. Mention of Galbraith (Gil Brest) and the 'sick man' in Dept. Rec., MS., v. 89, 115, also of Galbraith in Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. 16-17. Bowman is mentioned as one of Smith's men in Los Angeles, Hist., 19, by Mr Warner, and there may be some mistake. The sick man may possibly have been John Wilson, who was in custody in May as one of Smith's men. Dept. Rec., MS., v. 45; Arch. Arzob., MS., v. pt i. 29, 33. Cronise calls Galbraith's companion Turner.
* ↑ May 16, 1827, Duran to com. of S. Francisco. 400 neophytes have been induced to run away. Arch. Arzob., MS., v. pt i. 27. May 18th, gov. orders Martinez not to rely wholly on reports of the Indians, but to send out scouts to learn who are the strangers and what their business; also to demand their passports and detain them until further orders. Dept. Rec., MS., v. 45. On same date Rocha is ordered to institute proceedings against John Wilson, and take deposition of Daniel Ferguson, with a view to find out the aims of the strangers. Id. May 21st, Martinez from S. José to gov. The Americans had nothing to do with the flight of the neophytes. Sergt Soto has been ordered to investigate, find out what gente it is, not allow them to approach the missions, treat them courteously, etc. A letter has been received from Smith to Duran, which the latter would not receive, but which Martinez had had translated and sent to Monterey for Hartnell to retranslate. The Indians say that there are 12 of the strangers, the same who were at S. Gabriel, and they had killed 5 Moquelumnes in a fight. John Wilson, a prisoner at Monterey, has apparently not been missed, and he says something of the party having come from Boston in 18 months to make surveys and buy lands of the natives (?). Arch. Arzob., MS., v. pt i. 28-33.
* ↑ May 19, 1827, Spanish translation of Smith's letter, in Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 18-19. English version, in Randolph's Oration, 313-14; and other works. French version, in Frignet, La Cal., 58-60.
* ↑ Smith, Excursion, 211-12. With the quotation given, the letter ends abruptly.
* ↑ Still it is not impossible or unlikely that in this trip or on the return Smith went through Walker Pass, as Warner and others say, or followed the Humboldt or Mary, as Sprague tells us; but the gold discovery on the way as related by Sprague merits no consideration, in the absence of other evidence and the presence of evident absurdities. It is to be noticed that Warner describes this crossing of the sierra by Smith and two men accurately enough, except in date; and I think it probable that he has reversed the order of the two entries to California, the first being by Mojave in 1826, and the second by Walker Pass in 1827. On Wilkes' map of 1841, reproduced in vol. iv. of this work, Smith's route is indicated, on what authority is not stated, by a line extending S. W. from Salt Lake, and approaching the sierra on the 39th parallel, with a lake on the line in long. 119°, and three streams running N. between the lake and mountains. A peak in the sierra just N. of 39° is called Mt Smith; and Mt Joseph is at the northern end of the range in lat. 41°. This may all rest on accurate reports.
* ↑ May 23, 1827, Echeandía to Martinez. Dept. Rec., MS., v. 48.
* ↑ Gov.'s orders of Aug. 3d, Sept. 14th, Oct. 1st, 16th, in Dept. Rec., MS., v. 73, 88, 94, 102. Bojorges, Recuerdos, MS., 12-14, the only one of my Californian writers who mentions this affair at all, says that Soto was sent out with 40 men to the Rio Estanislao, and brought in all the trappers to S. Francisco. As such orders had been issued, this is likely enough to be true, though perhaps it took place after Smith's return. Oct. 8th, Isaac Galbraith asks for an interview with Echeandía, wishing a license either to remain in the country or to rejoin his leader. He also corrects an impression that Smith is a captain of troops, stating that he is but a hunter of the company of Smith, Jackson, and Sublette. Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 36-7.
* ↑ The Spanish records make the number 17, which is probably accurate, though records of a later event in Oregon speak of 18. Morineau, Notice, MS., 153-4, says that in October 1827 a caravan of 17 voyageurs arrived at S. Francisco from New Orleans. They sold some furs to a Russian vessel, bought horses, and returned by the same way they came. Carrillo, Exposicion, MS., 9, says that in 1827 one of the hunters passed through the country with 60 men, reached the house of the comandante general, made plans, etc., and went away unmolested!
* ↑ I have, in Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxix. 171, the original of this interesting document kept by Cooper. Three copies were made, one sent to Mexico, one kept in the archives, and one given to Smith. It is written on paper provisionally 'habilitated' by the autographs of Herrera and Echeandía, bears a certificate of José Estrada, is signed John Bᵃ R. Cooper. Then follows the autograph of the hunter. 'I acknowledge this bond, Jedediah S. Smith,' and closes with Echeandía's pass.
* ↑ Nov. 15th, E. to com. of S. Francisco. Dept. Rec., MS. v. 107. Louis Pombert, a French Canadian, left Smith's party about this time and remained in the country. Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. 25-8.
* ↑ Argüello to gov. Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 45.
* ↑ Bojorges, Recuerdos, MS., 14, says he left S. Francisco by water on an American vessel. It is possible, but not I think probable, that such was the case, one of the vessels being chartered to take him up the coast to or beyond Bodega. Warner says Smith started up the interior valley, but on account of difficulties in the way, turned to the coast 200 miles above Ross. The men who remained, besides Galbraith and Bowman, were Bolbeda, Pombert, and probably Wilson.
* ↑ Feb. 1, 1828, gov. to Martinez. Alludes to the abuses committed by Smith. Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 178. Probably he had stopped on the way to hunt and trap. June 26th, Cooper was thanked by J. Lennox Kennedy, U. S. consul at Mazatlan, for his services in Smith's behalf; will send documents to U. S. min. at Mexico. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxix. 250. But May 6, 1820, he was ordered as bondsman by gov. to pay $176 due from Smith. Dept. Rec., MS., vii. 148. June 25, 1829. E. reports to the min. of rel. a rumor that the Americans intend to take S. Francisco, a plan which he ascribes to the advent of Smith. Id., vii. 25.
* ↑ There is a discrepancy of one man in totals, but there is also a compensating uncertainty about one of the men who remained in Cal. Cronise, Nat. Wealth of Cal., 42, erroneously names two of the three survivors Laughlin and Prior. Victor, River of the West, 35-6, names Turner and Black. The particulars of the Umpqua fight belong to other parts of this series. See Hist. Or. and Hist. Northwest Coast. The map given herewith is copied from one in Warren's Mem. In Pac. R. R. Repts, xi. pl. iii., being a reduction from A. Finley's map of N. America published at Philadelphia in 1826.
* ↑ Warner's Reminiscences of Early California, MS., 27-33. The author represents the manager of the company as having driven a shrewd bargain with Smith, and derived much profit from his disaster.
* ↑ The McLeod River, generally written McCloud, was named by or in honor of this hunter.
* ↑ That is one of Smith's trails, probably the most northerly, though. Warner makes it the earliest.
* ↑ It seems rather unlikely that this could have been accomplished so soon as the autumn of 1828. Either it was in 1829, or Smith had reached Fort Vancouver early in 1828, instead of in the autumn as has been supposed.
* ↑ Similar versions of McLeod's and Ogden's expeditions, originating probably indirectly from Warner, but perhaps also from the recollections of other old trappers, are given in the county histories, newspaper articles, and other recent publications. See also Hist. N. W. Coast, i., this series. Cronise, Nat. Wealth, 41, says that French Camp, near Stockton, was located by a party of these trappers who encamped here from 1829 to 1838. In Humphreys' Letter to Gwin, 1858, p. 5, is is stated that Richard Campbell of Sta Fé came with pack-mules from N. Orleans to S. Diego in 1827. I find nothing more on the subject.
* ↑ Pattie, Narr., 133, translates the passport given them.
* ↑ March 22, 1828, E. to com. of S. Diego. Eight armed men hare appeared at a frontier post with a guia of the N. Mex. custom-house as a passport. Arrest them and seize their arms. Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 194; Pattie's Narr., 170.
* ↑ All the names appear in the archives, in one place or another, though Ferguson is not clearly stated to have belonged to this company. Joseph Yorgens is named, perhaps a corruption of Ferguson's name, since Warner speaks of Ferguson, whom he must have known. Puter is mentioned only once, and there may be some error about his name. Pattie himself strangely names only Slover in his narrative, speaking also of a Dutchman; and on the other hand, Pattie's own name appears only once in the archives.
* ↑ Pattie, The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, during an expedition from St Louis through the vast regions between that place and the Pacific Ocean, and thence back through the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz, during journeyings of six years; in which he and his father, who accompanied him, suffered unheard-of hardships and dangers, had various conflicts with the Indians, and were made captives, in which captivity his father died; together with a description of the country, and the various nations through which they passed. Edited by Timothy Flint. Cincinnati, 1833. 8vo. 300 pp. The editor, a somewhat voluminous writer of works largely fictitious, claims not to have drawn on his imagination, but to have changed the author's statement — apparently written — only in orthography and by an occasional abridgment. The Hunters of Kentucky; or the trials and toils of traders and trappers, during an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, New Mexico, and California, by B. Bilson, New York, 1847, 8vo, 100 pp., is called by T. W. Field, see Sabin's Dictionary, viii. 569-70, 'a reproduction of Pattie's narrative, which the penury of the thieving writer's imagination has not empowered him to clothe with new language, or interleave with new incidents;' yet this reprint is much less rare than the original, and has been much more widely read. From it at the time of publication many people formed their ideas about the Spanish Californians. In Harper's Magazine, xxi. 80-94, J. T. Headley tells the story of Pattie's sufferings, taken from one of the preceding works, and erroneously called the first overland expedition to California. Cronise, Nat. Wealth of Cal., 45, says, 'the particulars of Pattie's journey were published with President Jackson's message to congress in 1830.' The subject is vaguely and incorrectly mentioned in Greenhow's Hist. Ogn, 366; and Capron's Hist. Cal., 37. Warner, who knew personally most of Pattie's companions, gives a valuable account in his Reminiscences, MS., 33-7. The archive records are much less satisfactory than in the case of Jedediah Smith; but I shall have occasion to refer to them on special points.
* ↑ Dr Marsh, Letter to Com. Jones, MS., 1842, p. 3, says they came to S. Diego on a friendly visit, 'were well receive at first, and shown into comfortable lodgings, where they deposited their arms and baggage. They were shortly after invited into another apartment to partake of some refreshment, and when they returned found that their arms had been removed, and that they were prisoners. I mention this incident, trivial as it is, because I consider it as a characteristic trait of the whole Mexican people. Gen. Echeandía in his own capital, with all his troops, could not take live American hunters without resorting to an artifice which would have been disdained by the most barbarous tribe of Indians on the whole continent. These poor men were kept in close confinement a long time. ... Two or three of the number are still in the country.' Where Marsh got this version, which leaves even Pattie in the shade, does not appear.
* ↑ He calls the young lady Miss Peaks, and the couple may have been Sergt Pico and his sister. A certain capitan de armas is also mentioned as of a friendly disposition, though he did not dare to brave the tyrant's rage. The reference may be to Portilla or Ruiz. It is remarkable that Pattie came so often into contact with the governor, and not at all with the comandante.
* ↑ See preceding chapter for affair of the Franklin. Pattie's statements that Bradshaw's trial was concluded July 28th, that the Franklin ran out of the harbor in Sept., and that she fired a broadside at the fort, are so positive, so erroneous, and yet so closely connected with details of his own affairs, as to leave a doubt as to the accuracy of those details.
* ↑ These two were probably Slover and Pope, since these are the only ones not recorded as being in California in 1829. Warner says Slover and Pope (with Geo. C. Yount, whom nobody else connects with this expedition at all) started from New Mexico with the company, but returned from the Colorado without coming to Cal. There must be an error in Pattie's version of the departure of these two men; for I find that on Nov. 11, 1828, Echeandía informed the com. at Altar that he has issued passports to Pope and Slover, who started from N. Mexico for Sonora, but lost their way and entered Cal. Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 13. Pope came back some years later, and has left his name to Pope Valley, Napa county, where he lived and died. May 1, 1828, E. had written to the com. of Altar about the 8 Americans detained at S. Diego, whom he thought it expedient to send back to the Colorado under a guard, that they might go to Sonora according to their custom-house permit. Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 9. July 5th, the gov. of Sonora writes to the alcalde of Altar on the subject, and presumes that the com. gen. has already issued the proper instructions. The captives are alluded to as suspicious characters. Pinart, Col. Doc., Son., MS., 43.
* ↑ Bradshaw had really been gone over a month at the time when these interviews are said to have taken place.
* ↑ It is implied by the writer that vaccination was a great mystery to the Californians, and even to the Russians, which is absurdly inaccurate, and forms a weak point in the narrative. It is not certain, however, that they had any vaccine matter in their possession in 1828, nor is it evident that Pattie could have kept that which he had from being taken. I suppose that all is exaggerated for effect, but that Pattie may have been really employed to vaccinate. Early in 1829 a Russian vessel brought vaccine matter, and W. A. Richardson was employced that year to vaccinate at the missions; and in 1821 the Russians had vaccinated 54 persons at Monterey.
* ↑ See p. 139, this volume, for Lang's adventures.
* ↑ Pattie's carta de seguridad of Feb. 28th is preserved in Dept. Rec., MS., vii. 89. It is as follows: 'Whereas, Santiago Ohio Pattie, who came into this territory hunting beaver in company with other foreigners, without any license whatever, in March of the past year, appears to be a North American according to a custom-house permit given in New Mexico; and whereas, the comandante of this place reports him not to be vicious but of regular conduct, in the petition presented by Pattie on the 27th of this month for permission to travel and remain in the country, there being no consul nor mercantile agent of his nation, nor any Mexican bondsman, therefore I have determined to grant him provisionally this letter of security, that he may remain and travel in this territory for one year,' in accordance, so far as possible, with the laws of May 1 and Mar. 12, 1828. I have not found the papers of the other men under this date, but in a list of Feb. 14th, Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. 44, Pryor, Puter, and Yorgens are named, Pryor being already at S. Luis Rey. He received a carta de seguridad April 52th. Id., xix. 18-19. It is doubtful if any of them were kept in prison after their return from the Colorado.
* ↑ Strangely enough there is no record in the archives respecting the ravages of small-pox or Pattie's professional tour; yet his statement is confirmed by the fact that the statistical tables show an extraordinary number of deaths this year among the Indians of all the northern missions. (See note 36.) Sta Cruz, S. José, and Sta Clara do not appear to have been visited at all. Here in the extreme north only the few who had not had the small-pox were vaccinated.
* ↑ He had seen Don Sereldo, as he calls the Russian manager, at S. Diego, and had been implored to come to Bodega and administer his remedy.
* ↑ He says it was Jan. 6, 1830; but if there is any foundation of truth in that part of the narrative which follows, it must have been about 2 months earlier.
* ↑ See chapter iii., this volume, on the Solis revolt, and especially Pattie's version of that affair. His dates are all wrong; there are many absurd inaccuracies built on a substratum of truth; and there is apparently deliberate falsehood respecting his personal exploits in the capture of Solis.
* ↑ Pattie says that this consul, John W. Jones, to whom he had written from S. Diego, arrived at Monterey April 29th in his own brig from the Islands. The reference is to John C. Jones, Jr., owner of the Volunteer, which arrived at about this time.
* ↑ Letter in Vallejo, Doc., xxx. 85. In 1883 a man whose name I cannot recall, apparently trustworthy, while visiting my Library, stated that his wife was a niece of Pattie, and that the latter had spent some time at her residence in San Diego in late years, or at least since 1850. The man promised to obtain from his wife a more definite statement on the subject, but I have not received it.
* ↑ The story is told in many newspaper biographical sketches published at the time of Smith's death. I have before me the S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 26, 1866; Nevada Daily Gazette, Oct. 25, 1866; and others in Hayes' Scraps, Cal. Notes, ii. 309-12.
* ↑ As an item which I am unable to connect with any of the expeditions particularly accredited to this period, I may notice a record of Nov. 6, 1829, that five deserters from Upper California were captured on the frontier of the peninsula, one of whom, an Englishman, stabbed a neophyte, and was shot by another. St. Pap., Sac., MS.. xiv. 10-11.
* ↑ Exter, of Exter, Graves, & Co., Mexico, was connected with the General Pearl and Coral Fishing Association of London, and there are several letters from him to Hartnell, dated 1827, and not referring to the fur business, in Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxix. 153-4, 163.
* ↑ Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 124-5; Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 128-9. Fernandez, Cosas de Cal., MS., 58-9, mentions their failure to get an exclusive privilege, but says nothing of their having come to Cal.
* ↑ Dept. Rec., MS., viii. 14, 18, 69; Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Pref. y Juzg., MS., i. 31.
* ↑ Warner's Reminis., MS., 37-9. In Dept. St. Pap., ii. 84, 113, is Young's passport of 1829 signed by Henry Clay.
* ↑ July 15, 1830, report of José Berreyesa. Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 135-9. One of Young's passports was viséd at Washington, March 20, 1828, by the Mex. minister. It permitted the bearer to go into the interior.
* ↑ These men were François Turcote, Jean Vaillant, and Anastase Curier. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Cust.-H., MS., ii. 4-5. In a letter to Capt. Cooper of Oct. 10th, Young says that the Frenchmen, who owed him money, had mutinied, and determined to stay in the country; but they had been forced to return with the party. He also speaks of the fight with Indians, but indicates that it was to recover stolen horses rather than to aid the neophytes. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxx. 135. Dec. 23d, Echcandía to alcalde of S. José. Speaks of 4 Americans who had come to the rancho of S. Pablo and must depart at once. There may be an error in this date. Dept. Rec., MS., viii. 134.
* ↑ Warner says that James Higgins killed an Irishman known as Big Jim. José Antonio Pico reports the killing on Oct. 7th. He had orders to detain Young, but his force was too small. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Pref. y Juzg., MS., i. 97. Juan Higgins, probably the same, remained in Cal. for 5 or 6 years at least. Dept. St. Pap., MS., iv. 156, 159.
* ↑ Young to Cooper. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxx. 135.
* ↑ See alphabetical register of pioneers at end of vol. ii.-v. Also a list of pioneers who came before 1830, at the end of vol. ii. of this work.
* ↑ Aug., Dec. 1826, orders of sup. govt against admission of foreigners without passports circulated by gov. and comandantes. S. José, Arch., MS., vi. 25; Dept. Rec., MS., iv. 25.
* ↑ For complete lists see Pioneer Register at end of these volumes. The pioneers of 1826 were the following: Louis Bolbeda, Joaquin Bowman, Michael Charles, Wm H. Cunningham, Wm G. Dana, Henry D. Fitch, Guy F. Fling, Benj. Foxen, Isaac Galbraith, Cornelius A. Johnson, John Littleton, Wm Logan, Thomas B. Park, Joaquin Pereira, Louis Pombert, John Read (?), Geo. J. Rice, James Scott, Joseph Steele, Wm Trevethan, John S. Turner, Geo. W. Vincent, John Wilson, John Wilson (trapper), and John H. Wilson the negro.
* ↑ Sup. Govt St. Pap., MS., iv. 1; Dept. Rec., MS., v. 19, 53, 95; Dept. St. Pap., S. José, MS., v. 12.
* ↑ St. Pap., Sac., MS., xvi. 1-3; Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 175. Barron and Forbes at Tepic were at this time pumping Bandini and Hartnell for information about California, and projecting a visit. Oct. 17, 1827, Eustacio Barron to Bandini. Bandini, Doc., MS., 7.
* ↑ See Pioneer Register at end of these volumes. Pioneers of 1827: Miguel Allen (born in Cal.), John Bradshaw, Geo. Coleman, Nicolas Dodero, Robt J. Elwell, John A. C. Holmes, Giovanni Glande, Joseph Jackson, John B. Leandry, Jean B. Mutrel, William Smith, and John Temple.
* ↑ Dept. Rec., MS., vi. 21, 27, 177, 192, 194; vii. 25; St. Pap., Sac., MS., x. 98; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxix. passim. The Americans celebrated July 4th by burning much powder on the vessels at S. Diego.
* ↑ Mexico, Decreto sobre Pasaportes y modo de adquirir propiedades los Estrangeros, 12 de Marzo de 1828. 12 articles. In Schmidt's Civil Law of Spain and Mexico, 346-51, in Spanish and English; Hayes' Mex. Laws, 81-2
* ↑ Mexico, Reglamento para el ramo de Pasaportes — decretado por el Presidente en 1 de Mayo 1828. Printed copy in Pinto, Doc., i. 3. 25 articles, numbered as 22. Also in Dept. St. Pap., Angeles, MS., ix. 30-6; and part of it in Vallejo, Doc., MS. Omitting minor details, this regulation was in substance as follows: The master of a ship, on arrival, must furnish a report of his foreign passengers, and each passenger a report of his name, business, etc., to the customs officer, who will grant a boleto de disembarco to such as are not Spaniards, and have a passport from the general government, or from duly accredited Mexican agents abroad, or a bond from the consul or agent of their nation at the port of landing, or of a Mexican citizen. The boleto, without which no foreigner could leave the vessel, must be presented within 24 hours to the civil authority of the port, who will visé the passport. To travel in the interior a carta de seguridad for a year must be obtained. Whatever passports a foreigner might have, he must present himself to the civil authorities of any place where he intended to remain over 8 days, and on each change of residence. Due provision was made for renewal of licenses, penalties for failure to comply with the law, and for full reports to be sent to the government.
* ↑ Pioneers of 1828: Stephen Anderson, Louis Bouchet, John Brown (?), John Davis, Jesse Ferguson, Richard Laughlin, Timothy Murphy, Sylvester Pattie, Henry A. Peirce, Wm Pope, Nathaniel Pryor, Isaac Slover, Wm Taylor, James Thompson, Wm Warren (?) the negro, Edward Watson, Wm Willis, and Julian Wilson. For biographical sketches, see Pioneer Register at the end of vol. ii.-v., this work.
* ↑ Dept. Rec., MS., vii. 59, 86, 105, 176; Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. 20-2; St. Pap., Sac., MS., xi. 4; Vallejo. Doc., MS., xxix. 310.
* ↑ Naturalization records in Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. passim. List of 48 names dated Feb. 14th, in Id., xix. 44. List of 44 names in Monterey district Feb. 16th, in Id., ii. 115. List of 7 names in S. José, Feb. 5th. Id., xix. 3. List of 7 at Los Angeles Feb. 14th, in Monterey, Arch., MS., vii. 24-5. Apparently 2 foreigners at S. F. Dept. St. Pap., MS., ii. 97-8. There are no lists for Sta Bárbara or S. Diego.
* ↑ June 25th, E. to min. of rel., in Dept. Rec., MS., vii. 25. Niles' Reg., xxxvii. 87. The John Bull says: 'The proposition of America must not be quietly listened to or tamely permitted; while we are earnest in our endeavors to put a stop to the power of Russia, we must not forget the necessity of checking the aggrandizement of America.'
* ↑ Pioneers of 1829 — the '(?)' indicates uncertainty about the exact date of arrival: James D. Arther, Jas Breck, Walter Duckworth (?), James Flemming, Wm S. Hinckley (?), Geo. Kinlock (?), Lawrence (born in Cal.), John Meck, Manuel D. Olivera, Jordan Pacheco, John Rainsford, Alfred Robinson, Thos L. (Peg-leg) Smith (?), Abel Stearns, Chas A. Swain (?), Michael White (?), and Geo. Williams. See biog. sketches of them and also of the years' visitors in Pioneer Register at the end of these volumes.
* ↑ Feb. 2, 1830, Alaman to E. Sup. Govt St. Pap., MS., vi. 4.
* ↑ Law of April 6, 1830, in Halleck's Report, 121-2. Article 7 of the law of Aug. 18, 1824, was thereby repealed.
* ↑ The naturalization regulations, probably of 1828, are given in Schmidt's Civil Law of Spain and Mexico, 353-9, in Spanish and English. The general purport had been circulated by Echeandía on June 4, 1829. Dept. St. Pap., MS., xix. 20-1. These rules prescribed in substance that any foreigner of two years' residence might, one year after having announced his intention, obtain a carta de naturaleza from the gov. by renouncing all allegiance to any foreign power, swearing to support the constitution and laws of Mexico, and presenting proof in due form of Catholic faith, means of support, and good conduct. See also the Mex. passport regulations of Oct. 12, 1830, in Arrillaga, Recop., 1830, p. 474-99.
* ↑ Pioneers of 1839; Henry J. Bee, John Burns, Kit Carson (?), James Cook, Phil. H. Devoll, Juan Domingo, *William Duckworth, John Ebbetts, James Harris, John Higgins, John C. Jones, *Geo. D. Kinlock, Laure, Allen Lewis, Gorham H. Nye, *Juan Pombert, Sam. Prentice, John Rice, John Roach, Ed Robinson (?), Jos F. Snook, Sam. Thompson, *Francis Watson, and Ewing Young. Those whose names are marked with a * were born in Cal., their fathers being foreigners.