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California Pioneer Princes

By Rockwell D. Hunt, Ph. D.

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F IT IS TRUE that the task of the American people during the first century of its history was the development of the great West (Bogart, Economic History of U. S., 172), then the typical frontier settler is deserving of high tribute. The pioneer it was that broke the path of westward empire, that prepared the way for the unfoldment of the enduring qualities of advancing civilization.

Franklin was looking forward to an America of vast population when in 1754 he presented his Albany Plan for union, and he is said to have ventured the prophecy that in less than a century the great Trans-Alleghany country must become "a populous and powerful dominion;" Washington caught a vision of the West, and while yet a youth became impressed with the magnitude of that wide-spreading, unexplored domain. For young America to fulfill the prophecy of Franklin, and to actualize the vision of Washington, required the sheer physical strength, the intellectual daring and the moral stamina of a galaxy of pioneer princes. Glancing back over the wonderful century that in our history is but the synonym for westward expansion, we must pronounce these path-finding princes our truest Americans. It is they who have best exemplified the standard of greatness that is distinctively Western, who have displayed those qualities of heart and hand that betoken the spirit genuinely American.

"It has always been our happy fortune," observes a genial writer (Barrows, Oregon, 119), "to have a border. population that was constantly uneasy

to reach a farther front, wilder land, and harder life." In the vanguard of this population-supplying the very sinews of the conquest-has been the sturdy stuff of princely pioneers. But the sharp contrasts and exertion-compelling experiences of the frontier proved themselves a schoolmaster, imparting deep instruction in initiative, versatility and largeness of view. And so it was that these American men of energy and expansive outlook received a still higher enduement of the selfsame active qualities that made them pioneers from the experience of surmounting environmental obstacles of the frontier: rising to the occasion and subjugating their environment, their work of adaptation and subjugation redounded to their own enlargement, to the liberation of their highest powers.

The sturdiness of the men constituting the host that invaded the sweeping prairie, the forest primeval, and the paradisaical valleys paradisaical valleys was made yet more sturdy by the discipline of long and patient contact with the primitive conditions, the stern necessities, the widening opportunities of the West. If on the frontier were found those drawn from the degraded, shiftless and vicious classes, it happily remains true that the greater number of "men who came to the backwoods to hew out homes and rear families were stern, manly and honest." (Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 130.)

It was an early decree of "Manifest Destiny" that California, lying directly in the path of American progress, must at length fall to the United States. Still the real mother of

California-let us gratefully acknowledge-was not America, but Spain. For Spain it was, that empire of empire of matchless opportunity as she stood facing the modern age, that discovered our coast line, planted colonies on our soil, and introduced the elements of civilization within our borders.

Nor did Spain fail to contribute richly to the calendar of our princely pioneers. It is significant that Columbus, in his ascriptions of praise to the Almighty on the morning of the twelfth day of October, 1492, should thus pray: "May thy Majesty be exalted, who has deigned to permit that by Thy humble servant Thy sacred name should be made known and preached in this other part of the world." It is equally significant that by royal order this prayer should be repeated by Balboa, Pizarro and Cortez in the places of their respective discoveries. The preaching of that sacred name, the conversion of rude savages to the Holy Faith-here was one of the most powerful of all motives impelling to the discovery, the exploration, the occupation and settlement of new Western lands.

California's historical heritage is thereby the richer because of the names and deeds of devoted men like Eusebio Francisco Kino, Jesuit missionary and royal cosmographer who, after much tribulation, had surveyed from afar the promised land of Alta California, though not permitted to enter, finally laying down his brave life among the simple Pimas; Juan Maria de Salvatierra, Father Visitador of the Pimeria missions, and later the author of the endowment fund (Fondo Piadoso) devoted to the "conversion of California," "an emissary strong in body, firm in resolve, prudent in judgment, and of enduring gentleness of bearing;" (Richman, California under Spain and Mexico, 43), and Juan Ugarte, whose physical prowess, abounding works, and lofty and farreaching policy had won for him the title of "Hercules of the Society of Jesus" and of "preserver of the Lower

Californian missions"-"an admirable man, as God liveth, well worthy of immortality." (Cf. Hittell, History of California, I, 188.)

But it was not for the Society of Jesus to carry into effect the splendid vision of Father Kino for a grand cordon of missions stretching away to Mendocino. It remained for the then more popular, better-favored order of Franciscans, whose appearance in New Spain antedated Cabrillo's advent at San Diego by nearly a score of years, to carry forward one of the most interesting and noteworthy experiments that missionary annals have to record. If, as Carlyle once remarked, the history of England is the history of her church, then with equal truth it may be affirmed the story of Spanish California is the story of her Franciscan missions.

There is little of the heroic, little that becomes the prince, in the early annals of military or political Alta California. To be sure, Captain Caspar de Portola had displayed a high order of tact and skill in successfully executing the most unwelcome royal decree of expulsion hurled against the Jesuits missing the path to Monterey he may also be praised, as first nominal Governor of the new province, for the accidental discovery of San Francisco Bay. But no amount of festive celebrating, no superadded extolling of virtues can ever raise his figure to commanding or heroic stature. To be sure, there was the quick succession of governors from Portola to SolaBorica was a faithful guardian of the meagre revenues, and he wrought for secular education; Arrillaga brought the private rancho to a place of importance. But taken in entirety, the political annals of the times are decidedly jejune, yielding little of interest and less of inspiration to the student in a later age.

Not so the missions planted by the disciples of Saint Francis. Chief among these, he to whom more than to others was given to make the dream of Kino come true, was Padre Junipero Serra, Californian Knight of the Cross.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

Monument erected to the memory of Father Junipero Serra near the spot where he landed at Monterey Bay, California, to found the San Carlos Mission, June 3, 1770, the second mission in the State.

Easily first among those pioneer missionaries whose high courage and sublime faith were indispensable factors in the reduction of California by Caucasians, his place is unalterably fixed, his name written in flaming letters high up in the stately hall of fame.

When, on the sixteenth day of July, 1769, the devout Father-President, Father-President, then fifty-six years old, raised the cross of Santa Fe, and formally dedicated Mission San Diego, he at length entered upon his real life work, fervently saying: "All my life has been lived for this glorious day." And with the ringing Te Deum, under the giant Vizcaino Oak at Monterey in early June of the following year, the

ligious occupation of Nueva California became a reality proudly published throughout the wide possessions of Spain.

Nine California missions had Serra the happiness to establish. Then, at three score years and ten, lame, weary, scarcely belonging to this world, but with quenchless devotion and spirit transcendent, for the last time he made loving pilgrimage on foot along El Camino Real from San Diego to Monterey, failing not to turn aside into the many rancherias to bestow comfort upon the adoring neophytes. The mission church he loved best fittingly became his tomb.

His was a great spirit-gentle but strong, humble but austere, not without intolerance, yet utterly consecrated to the task of his life. The affectionate attachment which as a youth he had formed for Palou, Verger and Crespi in the Majorca Convent he never permitted to wane in later life. His attacks on the dissolute soldiery were relentless and unremitting. To him, religion was everything: for the sake of religion were spent his years of incessant toil and struggle, years of surpassing fortitude and incredible sacrifice-pouring out his very life for the rude aborigines.

Fermin Francisco Lasuen was, as Father-President, doubtless a great missionary light; but Junipero was a flaming torch. Palou wrought vali

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antly; but he was content to be the humble biographer of the truly great Look where we may, there is none in the missionary annals of Spanish California worthy to be compared with the first Father-President, Junipero Serra.

Following the regime of Spain and the golden age of the Franciscans, came the independence of Mexico, and the sad downfall of the religious establishments. Meanwhile the more than generous bestowal of land grants by the governors to Spaniards of rank give ground for deeming the manorial ranchero as the typical pioneer of the period of care-free California. There was, it is true, the officious commandante and the ceremonious alcalde; but neither sword nor silver-headed staff lent the princely dignity that belonged as of right to the lord of the wide-spreading leagues of the rancho.

Leading names among the pioneer Spanish families will not be forgotten. With the patrician caballero and the gracious senora surrounded by from twelve to twenty sons and daughters and a goodly retinue of Indian servants, these early Californian families were families indeed. There were some of pure Castilian blood, like the Carrillos, here and there a few displaying marks of brilliancy like Alvarado and Figueroa, many who, like de la Guerra and Pacheco, Bandini and Coronel, showed capacity for assimilating American ideas and American life, and of contributing worthily to that life.

Better than any of these does Mariano G. Vallejo link together the old and the new in California, bridging the gulf "between the quiet and happy age of the beginning of the century and the age of the American growth and change." Prominently identified with the social life as well as the political and military activities of the Mexican regime, he was pronounced many years later the most distinguished of surviving Spanish-Californians. He was generous, sometimes to the point of prodigality, distinguished in presence and courtly in personal address, high

CALIFORNIA PIONEER PRINCES.

spirited but affable-a soldier of ability, zealous legislator, caballero, ranchero, friend of Americans.

But the spirit of the "splendid idle forties" is almost inconceivably remote from us, and must needs be followed by another and more stirring age. Priceless as is our heritage in the "Arcadia of the West," and however we may treasure its names and story, it was the on-coming American, working his westward way into the land of the setting sun, that proved himself the dynamic factor in the metamorphosis of the things that were into what has come to be. He it was that exemplified the true California spirit, which is essentially democratic, instinct with progress, abounding in life, and-chief of all-fundamentally American.

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California became irrevocably American, call it "Manifest Destiny" or what you will. And early American California was at once the culmination of what had been before and the prophecy of things yet to be. Not all the foreigners who early came hither breathed the genuine spirit of California; nor did all possess the sterling qualities of the typical pioneer. The heterogeneous tide brought many an irresponsible adventurer, many a base exploiter of his fellows; but it brought also numbers of sturdy pioneer folk-hardy, dauntless, invincible-the men who more than all others have established for generations the norm of California life and character.

Our quest is for names of princely pioneers that embody in generous measure the marks of the Californian species of greatness. California is big and young and optimistic: the typical Californian must have the stamp of largeness of vision, unaffected virility, abounding resourcefulness, and essential democracy. California stands for altitude and amplitude, and the measure of her treasure is uncounted.

"Her poppies fling a cloth of gold O'er California's hillsFit emblem of the wealth untold

That hill and dale and plain unfold. Her fame the whole world fills." —Eliza D. Keith.

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Who are our truest, most real Californians? In what life-walks have they been found? By what token shall we know them?

The epoch-making gold discovery, focusing the world's eyes on the land of El Dorado, was indeed the pivotpoint in our far-western history; and no ungenerous measure of honor will ever be bestowed upon the name of the fortunate discoverer: but by no amount of verbiage or euphonic praise can James Marshall be exalted to the heroic stature of pioneer princeliness. He was an ordinary man admitted within the realm of fame by fortunate accident; to impute to him the quality of genuine greatness would show strange want of discernment. More reason by far would there be to pause before the name of Marshall's associate and superior, John Augustus Sutter, for here indeed is princely stature.

Sutter was the name that was on the tongue of every American journeying across the prairie toward California: Sutter's Fort was the objective point of uncounted immigrant trains, winding their arduous way toward the setting sun. Coming down from the heart of the Sierra Nevada at the end of their long and hazardous journey, the hardy host of pioneers received at New Helvetia such a welcome from the hospitable Swiss captain as caused his name to stand forth as the ideal to strong men and to women and children as a member of the Donner Party gratefully expressed it, “of all that is generous, noble and good."

Apparently secure in his vast possessions, the gallant captain, with his love of romance and wealth of imagination, might well boast himself lord of all he surveyed. It is grievous, therefore, to recall that this founder of the Fort, friend of pioneers, and lover of America, through the strange vicissitudes of fortune, died in poverty if not in utter neglect. Nevertheless his name will never perish: Eliza

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