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induced the Capitania (flag-ship) to put into Puerto Francisco was to take a survey of it and see if anything was to be found of the San Augustin, which, in the year 1595, had, by order of his Majesty and the Viceroy, been sent from the Philippines to survey the coast of California, under the direction of Sebastian Rodriguez Cermenon, a pilot of known abilities, but was driven ashore in this harbor by the violence of the wind. And among others on board the San Augustin was the pilot Francisco Volanos, who was also chief pilot of this squadron. He was acquainted with the country, and affirmed that they had left ashore a great quantity of wax and several chests of silk; and the general was desirous of putting in here to see if there remained any vestiges of the ship and cargo. The Capitania came to anchor behind a point of land called La Punta de los Reyes."

Did Vizcayno enter the Bay of San Francisco? I think it plain that he did

not.

Yet exceedingly curious and interesting it is to reflect that he was but a little way outside the heads, and that the indentation of the coast which opens into the bay of San Francisco was known to him from the report of the pilots of the ships from the Philippines, and by the same name. In the narratives of the explorers the reader is often puzzled by finding that objects upon the shore are spoken of as already known, as for example in this voyage of Vizcayno the highlands a little south of Monterey are mentioned by the name of the Sierra de Santa Lucia, so named at some previous time: the explanation follows in the same sentence where they are said to be a usual land-mark for the China shipsi. e., undoubtedly the galleons from the Philippines. Vizcayno could reach no further north than Cape Mendocino, in which neighborhood he found himself with only six men able to keep the deck; his other vessel penetrated as far as the forty-third degree; and then both returned to Acapulco. In those days there was a fabulous story very prevalent of a channel somewhere to the north of us which connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and it seems that some foreigner had actually presented to the King of Spain a history of a voyage he had made directly across from Newfoundland to the Pacific ocean by the straits of Anian. The King is said to have had an eye to the discovery of this desirable canal at the same time that he was making provision for his trade from the Western Islands.

In 1697 the Jesuits, with patient art and devoted zeal, accomplished that which had defied the energy of Cortez and baffled the efforts of the Spanish monarchy for generations afterwards. They possessed themselves of Lower California, and occupied the greater portion of that peninsula, repulsive as it was, with their missions. In 1742, Anson, the English commodore, cruising off the western coast of Mexico, watched for the Spanish galleon which still plied an annual trip between Acapulco and Manila. This galleon was half man-ofwar, half merchantman, was armed, manned, and officered by the King, but sailed on account of various houses of the Jesuits in the Philippines, who owned her tonnage in shares of a certain number of bales each, and enjoyed the monopoly of this trade by royal grant. She exchanged dollars from the Mexican mines for the productions of the east, and we read that at that day the manufacturers of Valencia and Cadiz, in Spain, clamored for protection against the silks and cotton cloths of India and China thus imported-by this sluggish craft which crept lazily through the tropics, relied upon rain to replenish the water jars on deck, and was cominonly weakened by scurvy and required about six months for the return voyage-into Acapulco, thence transported on mules to Vera Cruz, and thence again after another tedious voyage to Europe. Anson watched in vain; the prudent galleon thought it best to remain under the shelter of the guns of Acapulco, in the presence of so dangerous a neighbor. He sailed away to the west, stopped and refreshed his crew at a romantic island in the middle of the Pacific ocean, went over to Macao and there refitted, and then captured the galleon at last, with a million and a half of dollars on board, as she was H. Ex. Doc. 29—18

going into Manilla, after a desperate combat with his ship, the Centurion. He then returned to China, extinguishing a great fire in Canton with his crew, sold the galleon in Macao, and got back safe to England with his treasure. His chaplain, Mr. Richard Walter, the author of the admirable narrative of this celebrated voyage, goes on, after relating the capture, to say: I shall only add, that there were taken on board the galleon several draughts and journals. * * Among the rest there was found a chart of all the ocean, between the Philippines and the coast of Mexico, which was that made use of by the galleon in her own navigation. A copy of this draught, corrected in some places by our own observations, is here annexed, together with the route of the galleon traced thereon from her own journals, and likewise the route of the Centurion from Acapulco through the same ocean.

name.

Here we may look for information. We have at least one log-book and chart of the old Manilla galleons. What if we could have access to the books of account of those venerable old traders in their monasteries at Manilla! Examining this chart we find that the coast of California, from a little further north than Punta de los Reyes, is laid down with remarkable accuracy. We have a great indentation of the coast immediately below Punta de los Reyes, a large landlocked bay with a narrow entrance, immediately off which lie seven little black spots called Los Farallones-in short, a bay at San Francisco, but without a The Farallones, I think, were named by Cabrillo, in 1542, two hundred years before Anson's time. Was this our port of San Francisco as we know it, or that which Vizcayno entered when he anchored on the 12th of January, 1603, under a point of land called La Punta de los Reyes? Lower down we have Point Año Nuevo and Point Pinos, and a bay between, but not the name of Monterey, then a great many islands, then Point Conception, then San Pedro, and then the Port of San Diego, and Lower California to Cape San Lucas. The outward track of the galleon lies between 12 and 15 degrees north, and on her return she goes up as high as about 35 degrees, and there being off Point Conception, but a long way out to sea, she turns to the south and runs down the coast to Cape San Lucas, where the Jesuit fathers kept signal fires burning on the mountains to guide her into port, and expected her return with the fruits and fresh provisions which the exhausted mariners so much needed. Such was the strange precursor of the steamship and clipper on the waters of the Pacific, and the first great carrier of the commerce between its opposite shores! You will observe how nature brings this commerce to our doors. The outward run of the galleon so near the equator was to take the eastern trade-winds, which wafted her without the necessity of changing a sail directly to the Philippines; China and the Indies-and her returning course was to avoid these trade-winds and to catch the breezes which to the north blow from the west. And this great circle of the winds touches our shores at the Bay of San Francisco. This chart was drawn for the use of the Spanish generals, (for such was the title and rank of the commanders of the Spanish galleons,) and "contained all the discoveries which the Manilla ships have at any time made in traversing this vast

ocean."

It was these discoveries that gave names to so many points upon our coast undoubtedly, and prompted so many explorers, after Cabrillo, and both before and after Vizcayno. Knowing so much, the wonder is that these navigators did not know more. They named, and noted on their chart, yet did not know our Bay of San Francisco. Yearly for centuries they coasted by. A priest or soldier standing upon the deck of this old-timed ship, might gaze upon a glorious land that overhung the western sea; with hills on hills a swelling pile, glowing in sunsets that had gilded them through countless ages. But, save in the casual visits of the earliest navigators, we know not that foot of white man yet had pressed the soil of California. The world was busy in commerce and But the breeze still ruffled the vacant waters, dimpled the idle grass,

in war.

and fanned the sultry sides of the solitary mountains of California. These slopes and plains pastured but the deer and elk. A despicable type of man, in petty groups, wandered through these valleys, of which the bear was more the lord than be. No other human tenant occupied the most delightful of the habitations of man, nor had from the creation down.

The Spaniards were at best but feeble navigators. Witness the galleons making a tedious progress in the latitude of calms. Anson says that the instructions to their commanders were, in his day, to keep within the latitude of 30 degrees, if possible, as if they feared to encounter the stiffer breezes further north, an instruction, however, not always followed, as their chart demonstrates. To vessels such as then were built or to be found in Mexican or South American ports the daily winds from the northwest, which in summer roughen the sea all along the coast to Cape San Lucas, were gales against which it was dangerous and almost hopeless to attempt to make head. This labor had not diminished from the days of Cabrillo and Vizcayno. These most beneficent northwest trade-winds cut off California from Spanish America by sea. land the desert tracts of the Gila and Upper California, both unexplored, barred the approach from the south; and to the east the human imagination had not yet traversed the interval from the Atlantic ocean. In 1769 the history of mankind may be said to have begun upon this coast. In this wise it begun.

By

Charles the Fifth, on the 17th day of November, 1526, addressed these words to his Indies:

"The kings, our progenitors, from the discovery of the West Indies, its islands and continents, commanded our captains, officers, discoverers, colonizers, and all other persons, that, on arriving at those provinces, they should, by means of interpreters, cause to be made known to the Indians that they were sent to teach them good customs, to lead them from vicious habits and the eating of human flesh, to instruct them in our holy Catholic faith, to preach to them salvation, and to attract them to our dominions."

The same spirit breathes through every part of the laws of the Indies, as they were issued for successive centuries, which may be seen by reference to the code in which they are compiled.

The ministers who executed these pious purposes of the king were mainly the soldiers of the cross. Christian priests converted our savage ancestors in the forests of the north of Europe, and laid the foundations of the great republic of European states, of which the cement is modern civilization. Christian priests endeavored to repeat that grand achievement in America. A sublime contemplation! They interposed the cross and staid the descending sword and the still swifter destruction of private greed. Their powerful protector was the King of Spain, when both continents were almost entirely Spanish. Their dusky converts who acknowledged the dominion of Christ were saved as subjects of the king, were admitted to civil rights, and mingled their blood with that of the descendants of the Visigoths. In the lineaments and complexion of the Spanish American we still behold the native Indian whom the church preserved. Exalted charity! at least in motive; and although the teacher could not foresee that the same lesson would not effect the same result in pupils so diverse, it was not their fault that they did not raise the crouching Indian to the level of the conquering German.

In 1767 the Jesuits being banished from the Spanish dominions, Lower California was transferred to the charge of another celebrated order, the Franciscans. Into this field, when it had been wrested from the Society of Jesus, the Franciscans were led by one who was born in an island of the Mediterranean, the son of humble laborers. From his infancy Father Junipero Serra was reared for the church. He had already greatly distinguished himself in the conversion and civilization of heathen savages in other parts of Mexico; and

afterwards had preached revivals of the faith in Christian places, illustrating, as we are told, the strength of his convictions and the fervor of his zeal by demonstrations which would startle us now coming from the pulpit-such as burning his flesh with the blaze of a candle, beating himself with a chain, and bruising his breast with a stone which he carried in his hand. Further, this devout man was lame from an incurable sore on his leg, contracted soon after his landing in Mexico; but he usually travelled on foot none the less. You have before you the first great pioneer of California! His energies were not destined to be wasted in the care of missions which others had founded. He entered immediately upon the spiritual conquest of the regions of the north. Josef de Galvez, then visitor general, a very high officer, (representing the person of the king in the inspection of the working of every part of the government of the province to which he was sent,) and who afterwards held the still more exalted position of minister general for all the Indies, arrived at this time in Lower California, bringing a royal order to despatch an expedition by sea to re-discover and people the Port of Monterey, or at least that of San Dieogo. Father Junipero entered with enthusiasm into his plans, and after consulting with him and learning the condition of the missions and the latitude of the most northern, Galvez, the better to fulfil the wishes of his majesty, determined, besides the expedition by sea. to send another which should go in search of San Diego by land, at which point the two expeditions should meet and make an establishment. And he further resolved to found three missions; one at San Diego, one at Monterey, and another mid-way between these, at San Buena Ventura. A fleet, consisting of two small vessels, at this time came over to Lower California from San Blas; the San Carlos and the San Antonio, otherwise the Principe. Of these the San Carlos was the capitania or flag-ship. Galvez, a really great man, labored with great diligence and good nature to get them ready for sea; with his own hands assisting the workmen, such as there were to be found in that remote_corner of the world, in careening the vessels, and the fathers in boxing up the ornaments, sacred vases, and other utensils of the church and vestry, and boasting in a letter that he was a better sacristan than Father Junipero, because he had put up the ornaments, &c., for his mission, as he called that of San Buena Ventura, before that servant of God had those for his of San Carlos, and had to go and help him. Also, that the new missions might be established in the same manner with those of Sierra Gorda, where Father Junipero had formerly labored, and with which he was much pleased. Galvez ordered to be boxed up and embarked all kinds of household and field utensils, with the necessary iron-work for cultivating the lands, and every species of seeds, as well those of old as of new Spain, without forgetting the very least, such as garden-herbs, flowers, and flax, the land being, he said, in his opinion, fertile for everything, as it was in the same latitude with Spain. For the same purpose, he determined that from the furthest north of the old missions the land expedition should carry two hundred head of cows, bulls, and oxen, to stock that new country with large cattle, in order to cultivate the whole of it, and that in proper time there should be no want of something to eat.

Father Junipero blessed the vessels and the flags, Galvez made an impressive harangue, the expedition embarked, and the San Carlos sailed from La Paz, in Lower California, on the 9th day of January, 1769. The whole enterprise was commended to the patronage of the Most Holy Patriarch St. Joseph. On the San Carlos sailed Don Vicente Villa, commander of the maritime expedition; Don Pedro Fages, a lieutenant commanding a company of twenty-five soldiers of the Catalonian volunteers; the engineer, Don Miguel Constanzo; likewise Dr. Pedro Pratt, a surgeon of the royal navy, and all the necessary crew and officers. With them for their consolation went the Father Friar Fernando ParGalvez, in a small vessel, accompanied the San Carlos as far as Cape San Lucas, and saw her put to sea with a fair wind on the 11th day of January,

ron.

1769. The San Antonio, the other vessel, went to Cape San Lucas, and Galvez set to work with the same energy and heartiness to get her ready. She sailed on the 15th day of February, 1769. The captain of the San Antonio was Don Juan Perez, a native of Majorca, and a distinguished pilot of the Philippine trade. With him sailed two priests, Fathers Juan Vizcayno and Francisco Gomez. The archives of this State contain a paper of these times which cannot but be read with interest. It is the copy of the receipt of the commander, Vincente Villa, containing a list of all the persons on board the San Carlos, and an inventory of eight months' provisions. It reads thus:

OFFICERS AND CREW, SOLDIERS, ETC., OF THE SAN CARLOS.

The two army officers, the father missionary, the captain, pilot, and

6 persons.

surgeon..

The company of soldiers, being the surgeon, corporal, and twentythree men

25 persons.

The officers of the ship and crew, including two pages, (cabin boys doubtless)

25 persons.

The baker and two blacksmiths

3 persons.

[blocks in formation]

The cook and two tortilla makers.

Total ..

62 persons.

;

Dried meat, 187 arrobas, (25 pounds,) 6 libras; fish, 77 arrobas, 8 libras crackers, (common,) 267 arrobas, 3 libras; crackers, (white,) 47 arrobas, 7 libras; Indian corn, 760 fanegas; rice, 37 arrobas, 20 libras; peas, 37 arrobas, 20 libras ; lard, 20 arrobas; vinegar, 7 tinajas, (jars ;) salt, 8 fanegas; panocha, (domestic sugar,) 43 arrobas, 8 libras; cheese, 78 arrobas; brandy, 5 tinajas; wine, 6 tinajas; figs, 6 tinajas; raisins, 3 tinajas; dates, 2 tinajas; sugar, 5 arrobas; chocolate, 77 arrobas; hams, 70 arrobas; oil, (table,) 6 tinajas; oil, (fish,) 5 tinajas; red pepper, 12 libras; black pepper, 7 libras; cinnamon, 7 libras; garlic, 5 libras; 25 smoked beef tongues; 6 live cattle; 70 tierces of flour, each of 25 arrobas, 20 libras; 15 sacks of bran; lentiles, 23 arrobas; beans, 19 arrobas, 20 libras; one thousand dollars in reals (coin) for any unexpected emergency. Besides 32 arrobas of panocha (domestic sugars,) 20 for the two missions of San Diego and Monterey, one half to each, and the remaining 12 arrobas for the gratification of the Indians, and to barter with them. 16 sacks of charcoal 1 box of tallow candles of 4 arrobas; 1 pair of 16-pound scales; 2 pounds of lamp wick.

The original of this simple and homely document, but which enables us to realize so clearly these obscure transactions, yet so full of interest for us, was given unquestionably to Galvez, and this copy we may presume brought to to California on this first voyage of the Santa Carlos to serve as her manifest. It is dated the 5th of January, 1769. Of the same date we have the instructions of Galvez to Villa and Fages, addressed to each of them separately—that is, the original is given to Villa under the signature of Galvez and a copy to Fages. They are long and minute. The first article declares that the first object of the expedition is to establish the "Catholic religion among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness of paganism, to extend the dominion of the King our lord, and to protect this peninsula from the ambitious views of foreign nations." He also recites that this project had been entertained since 1606, when it was ordered to be executed by Philip III, referring to orders which were issued by that monarch in consequence of the report made by Vizcayno, but which were never carried into effect. He enjoins that no labor or fatigue be spared now for the accomplishment of such just and holy ends. San Diego, he says, will be found in latitude 33 degrees,

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