The Opelousas courier., 1891-10-03
TEE FIRST ViGlLANTEs.
THE ORIGIN OF A FAMOUS CALI
FoRNIA OEGANIzATJoN.
Thieves With Impunity Piundered a
Pioneer Cattle Queen-The Wight
~ lon,u,ittaa Tn Her Rescue

Thieves With %Ianpunity Piundered a
Pioneer Cattle Queen-The Vigil
ance Committee to Her Rescue.
In the month of November, 1850,
there were eight primitive houses situated
on the extreme point OF a little peninsula
far projecting into the Bay of San Fran
cisco. 1t was separated from the sur
rounding country by a rocky mountain
range. The eight houses were occupied
by an American hunter and seven French
fishetsen, deserters from a French man
of-war. On the opposite side was an
other French settlement of five fisher-
men. All of the cattle owned by the
two settlements was a single goat, the
loss of which would have proved a pub
lie calamity. Its master had brought it
from France, around Cape Horn. Besides
the hunting and fishing people, there vas,
beyond these settlements also, a regular
farmer called the Irish Captain, although
he was neither Irish nor a Captain. He
was a Dane by birth, and a farmer all his
life by occupation. He possessed a valua-
BILE stock of imported cattle-a rare thing
at that time. Farther into the interior,
on the other side of the mountain range,
was the Cornelia Rancho, a California
manor-house constructed of rough beams,
and surrounded By mud and cattle in
stead of gardens, parks, green grass, and
flowers. Cornelia was d native grandee,
and claimed the right to four hundred
square miles of territory. Although the
invasion of her country by the gold
hunters had swept away the
greater part of her herds, yet there
remained over a thousand head. In
tull dress. adorned with gold chains,
pearls and jewels, she looked very mag
n%i6cent, seated in a large wagon drawn
by two oxen and sixteen mules, roughing
it over a country without roads. This.
however, was upon State occasions, and
of rare occurrence. Her home dress was
an old broad brimmed straw hat, leather
boots, a loose white shirt, and a short
petticoat of coarse red flannel. She ruled
over thirty Indian servants besides her
son-twenty-four years of age-and a
homeless Portuguese %adventurer, who,
seeking a support, had drifted to that
Eden before the rude gold hunters dis
persed the charm of silence, simplicity
and ignorance that reigned complete
everywhere. The Irish Captain was not
slow to perceive his advantage over the
sonora. He therefore proposed to her
to take charge of her cattle and sell to
the best advantage, on condition that he
should have one-half the sum realized,
which proposition was reluctantly accep-
ted by the sonora. The Irish Captain
now organized for the common defense
by calling a general meeting, and bind
ing each by a covenant to take care OF
his neighbours property by armed force
when necessary. But a short time THERE
after a boat laden with stolen beef from
the senora's herds was captured, and the
cattle thieves taken prisoners by the
Frenchmen of Low Point. The thieves
were tied, put under a boat turned upside
down, and closely watched. The Irish
Captain himself escorted the prisoners to
San Francisco the following morning,
and delivered them into the hands OF
the civil authorities. Instead of being
punished for their lawless crimes, they
were set at liberty by the civil authorl-
ties, and retaliated upon the Irish Cap
tain by butchering and carrying off all
his milch-cows. These thieves and this
system of robbery received the counte-
nance of rich and influential butchers OF
San Francisco, who furnished the means
for these predatory incursions aud the
money to retain influential counsel to
defend and acquit, through technicali-
ties of the law, such of the thieves as
should fall into the hands of the Irish
Captain and his cohorts. Convinced
that no redress could be obtained from
the civil authorities at San Francisco, a
second general meeting was held, and It
was unanimously resolved that the
residents Of the peninsula should form
themselves into a permanent committee
and assume all the duties Of police and
courts martial. No suspected party
should be permitted to land. Thieves
and other criminals should be tried be-
fore the committee, and, if found guilty,
executed on the spot. Thus was formed
the first vigilance committee that ever
existed within the limits of California
Harper's Magazine.