Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 12:29:34 EST
"Old California - Its Missions and Its Lands."
Howdy,
After saturating you folks with my John Udell and George W.
B. Evans series, I spared you postings of a new series from NY Trib correspondent Bayard
Taylor's book "Eldorado". I did so because Taylor never ventured into
Socal country during his five or so month CA visit in 1849/1850. . But Taylor does have
one or two chapters that might interest all Californians.. SO:-))),
looking into the Lions' mouth/den:-)),
I post portions of Chapter 18 entitled "Old California - Its Missions and Its
Lands." of Bayard Taylor's ELDORADO book. His Missions observations, right or
wrong, fascinate me. Written & edited in 1849/1850 and PUBLISHED in 1850,
Taylor's research & written conclusions contain no post 1850 end/footnotes.. It's a
shame that his 1850 book - especially when republished nearly 100 years later in
1949 - didn't have an annotator. It would have helped a bunch:-).
We join Horace GREELEY'S NY Trib. special CA correspondent Taylor in September/October,
1849:
"Three or four weeks/pretty short time to become expert of my
stay in Monterey were principally passed in the office of the Civil Government, where I
was employed in examining all the records relating to land titles and Mission property in
California. Notwithstanding, the apparent dryness of the subject, I found the documents
curious and interesting. The smoky PAPEL SELLADO on which they were written - the naive and
irregular orthography - the rude drawings and maps which accompanied them, and the
singular laws and customs of which they gave evidence, had a real charm to anyone
possessing the slightest relish for the odor of antiquity. Most interesting of all was a
box of records, brought from La Paz, Lower California, where many similar boxes, equally
precious, were used for the wadding of CASTRO's cannon. Among its contents were letters of
instruction from the Viceroy GALVEZ, original letters of Padre Junipero SERRA, and mandates
from the Bishops of Mexico to the missionaries in Sonora and California.
"The extensive history of VANEGAS, and abridgement of which has
been introduced by Mr. FORBES into his work on California, is the most complete of all
which have been written. It is mainly confined, however, to the settlement of the
Peninsula, and throws no light on the after decay and ruin of the missions of Alta
California. These establishments, to which solely are owing the settlement and
civilization of the country, have now entirely fallen from their former supremacy, and are
of no further importance in a civil view ".....The history of their original
foundation is one of remarkable interest. Through the perseverance and self-denying labors
of a few Catholic priests alone, the natives, not only on the Peninsula and the coast, as
far north as San Francisco Bay, but the extensive provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa, were
taught the arts of civilized life and subjected to the dominion of Spain.
"The lives of Padres KINO, SALVATIERRA, and UGARTE exhibit
instances of danger, adventure, and heroic endurance scarcely inferior to those of CORTEZ
and CORONADO. The great work they accomplished on the Peninsula and in the northern
provinces of Mexico, in the beginning of the last century, was followed 50 years later by
Padre Junipero SERRA, who in 1769 founded the Mission of San Diego, the first settlement
in Alta California. In the succeeding year he landed at Monterey and , by a solemn mass
which was peformed under an oak tree still standing near the fort, took possession of the
spot.
"After laboring for 13 years which indefatigable zeal and
activity, during which time he founded nine missions, the good padre died in 1784, and was
buried in the graveyard of Carmel. His successors continued the work, and by the year 1800
had increased the number of missions to sixteen. Since that time only three more have been
added.
The missions are named and located as follows:
[1] San Rafael
[2] San Francisco Solano, north of San Francisco Bay;
[3]Dolores, near San Francisco;
[4]Santa Clara
[5] San Jose, near Pueblo San Jose;
[6]San Juan,
[7]Santa Cruz,
[8] Carmel, near Monterey;
[9]Soledad,
[10]San Antonio,
[11]San Miguel, in the valley of Salinas River;
[12]San Luis Obispo;
[13]LaPurisima,
[14]Santa Ynez,
[15]Santa Barbara,
[16]San Buena Ventura, near Santa Barbara;
[17]San Gabriel and
[18]San Fernando, near Los Angeles;
[19] San Luis Rey,
[20]San Juan Capistrano,
[21] San Diego, on the coast south of Los Angeles."
Taylor continues with his mission observations:
"The wealth and power in the possession of these missions
naturally excited the jealousy of Government, after Califronia was organized into a
territory. The padres, however, had been granted almost unlimited privileges by the
earlier viceroys, and for a long time no authority could be found to dispossess them. A
decree of the Spanish Cortes, in 1813, relating to the
mssions of South America, was made the basis of repeated atempts to overthrow the temporal
power of the padres, but without effect, and from1800 to 1830 they reveled securely in the
full enjoyment of their wealthy establishments.
"That, indeed, was THEIR age of gold - a right bounteous and prosperous
time, toward which many of the Californian and even of the old American residents look
back with regret. The each mission was a little principality, with its 100,000 acres, and
20,000 head of cattle. ..The special galleries, halls, and courtyards of the missions
exhibited every sign of order and good government, and from the long rows of adobe huses
flanking them as an obedient crowd came forth at the sound of morning and evening
chimes....The stranger who came that way was entertained with a lavish hospitality for
which all
recompense was proudly refused, and on leaving, was welcome to exchange his spent horse
for his pick out of the CABALLADA. Nearly all the commerce of the country with other
nations was in their hands. Long habits of management and economly gave them a great
aptitude for business of all kinds, and each succeeding year witnessed an increase of
their wealth and authority.
Part 2 of 2 - in just a little,
Bob Norris in Dallas deceased 1999
Howdy,
Without fanfare, we continue with NY Tribune correspondent
Bayard Taylor's 1849/50 research of the California Missions. In Part 1 he gave us the
good. Now comes the bad, as per Taylor:
"The first blow given to their [missions/padres] privileges was a
decree of the Supreme Government of Mexico, dated August 17, 1833, by which the missions
of Upper and Lower California were secularized and became public
property. They were converted by law into parishes, and the padres, from being virtual
sovereigns of their domains, became merely curates, possessing only spiritual powers over
their former subjects. Instead of managing the revenue
of the estates, they were paid from $2,000 to $2,500 at the option of the Government. The
Church was still kept for religious purposes, and the principal building for the curate's
house, while other portions. [for]... . court-houses and schools.
Taylor vaguely discusses the law emancipating the Indians from
the padres, which gave the head of every Indian family a non-transferable interest in a lot
from 100 to 400 square varas. Each mission's temporaral affairs was placed under an
AYUNTAMIENTO, whose job was to explain to the Indians this new relationship and to put
them in possession of the land. By another decree, in 1840, Governor ALVARDO replaced the
"ayuntamientos" with "majordomos" who were
to manage the missions' temporal affairs, with the power to spend and incurr debt only
with the government's permission.
NOW back to Taylor:
"These decrees put a stop to the prosperity of the missions. The
padres, seeing the establishments taken out of their hands, employed themselves no longer
in superintending their cultivation; while the Indians, though free, lost the patient
guidance and encouragement they had received, and relapsed into their hereditary habits of
sloth and stupidity. Many of them scattered from their homes, resuming a roving life among
the mountains, and very soon several of the missions almost ceased to have an existence.
Governor MICHELTORENA, therefore, in 1843, in a pompous proclamation setting forth his
loyalty to the Catholic Faith, attempted to restore the former state of things by
delivering 12 of the missions into the hands of the priests. He declared, at the same time,
that all the cattle and property should be given up them, but that those portions of the mission estates which had been granted to individuals should still remain in possession of
the latter. The proclamation, so far as I can learn, never went into effect, and the
chasing of Micheltorena from the country soon put an end to his plans.
Continuing with Taylor:
"In the year 1845 Governor Pio PICO completed the
obliteration of the missions. By a Government decree he directed that the Missions of San
Juan, Carmel, San Francisco, Solano, and San Juan Capistrano should be sold at auction on
a specified day. One month's notice was given to the Indian neophytes of the Missions of
San Rafael, Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel, and La Purisma to return to the cultivation and
occupancy of the lands assigned them by Government, otherwise the same should be declared
unoccupied and disposed of like the preceding. All the remaining missions, except
the Episcopal Mansion at Santa Barbara, were to be rented. Of the proceeds of these sales
and leases one-third was to be used for the support of the resident priests, one-third for
the benefit of the Indians, and the remaining third constituting
the Pious Fund of California to be applied to the purposes of education and beneficience.
"The Indian neophytes of the five last-named missions having
neglected to assemble, PICO, by a decree in October 1845, ordered that they should be sold
to the highest bidder; and at the same time that those of San Fernando,
Buenaventura, Santa Barbarta, and Santa Ynez should be rented for the term of nine years.
"This was the last valid decree touching the missions. The
remaining Missions of Santa Clara, San Jose, Santa Cruz, San Antonio, San Luis Obispo, San
Gabriel, and San Diego were therefore thrown immediately into the hands of the United
States after possession had been taken by our troops; and all mission property not legally
granted or sold under the laws of California becomes part of the public domain."
(From Bayard Taylor's ELDORADO (NY: Putnam, 1850, repub; NY: Alfred A Knopf 1949).
Guess I'll just hunker down; open it for discussion. I plead guilty to
republishing; but this is Taylor's 1849 research - not mine Bob Norris in Dallas