The character of patriotism and distinction among the people of California is as strong and positive as for those who have lived in the eastern United States who perhaps feel a special closeness due to the location of events during the American Revolution and events that have commemorated it since that time. Yet, it was in San Francisco, California that the first modern day patriotic society, the Society of Sons of Revolutionary Sires, was founded. Although not involved in the struggle for America's independence from England, California has a long and colorful history. Many people equate the beginnings of California with the Gold Rush of 1849, few realizing that California's history stretches to a time over three hundred years prior.
California was first seen by Europeans in 1540. Hernando de Alarcón, a Spanish-American navigator, employed by Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of New Spain, was the first European to touch California soil and, entering the Gulf of California, ascended the Colorado River for more than one hundred miles on an expedition of discovery, cooperating with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. In 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese mariner in the Spanish service, proceeded under orders from Mendoza upon a voyage of discovery of the western coast. With two ships, San Salvador and Vittorio, he entered the harbor of San Diego on the eve of the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, on Thursday evening, September 28, 1542. For this reason, most historians credit Cabrillo as the discoverer of California.
Over the years, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California has published numerous historical accounts relating to both the American Revolution and California history. Many of these treatises appeared in the Society's Bulletin while others appeared in special publications. Because of the rarity of its publications, and inherent inaccessibility to much of the public, the following interesting compilation of some of that research is presented.
The following will establish in the mind of the reader something of the history, romance and patriotic intensity of the Golden State.
The Discovery of California
By Cassius Milton Jay
When the history of the State of California is now related as a portion of the history of these United States, the modern state becomes but a part of the great whole. No history of the nation, regarding California as but an acquired portion and written from the viewpoint of a people of decidedly different temperament, can give to California that charm which was already hers at the time of the acquisition.
The romance of California's history lies in its intimate connection with those forces which originally led to the discovery of the western world, and with the history of the nation which continuously and persistently followed up the discovery by further exploration and colonization.
It was a little "old-world" that centered about the Mediterranean; on every side stretched out the great unknown, and, as everywhere, the "unknown" was populated by "barbarians". Out of the far east, however, came the Wise Men bringing riches. Centuries later, too, Marco Polo brought back first-hand reports which were not believed, though proved to some extent by "an incredible display of rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, emeralds and diamonds." (See National Geographic, Nov., 1928.) "And these travels were only the beginning of a very considerable intercourse."
By the middle of the fifteenth century much of the wealth and spices and silks and jewels which excited the cupidity of the European merchants was arriving by caravan from the far east. But in 1453 the Ottoman Turks captured the strategic city of Constantinople; their battles on the east with the Persians, and in the west with the Christians raised an effective barrier which cut off the profitable eastern trade.
At the western end of the Mediterranean on the Iberian peninsula, the Christian states of Aragón, Castile, León, and Navarre were completing a crusade six centuries long. They had wrested the soil, foot by foot, from the Moors, and Granada was yet to be taken. Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand in 1469, and in 1474 assumed the throne. She strengthened her authority in 1476 by defeat of the King of Portugal; in 1479 Ferdinand succeeded to the Kingdom of Aragón. The union of these kingdoms resulted in the establishment of the new court of Spain. Granada was captured in 1492. These rulers determined to unite all in a common religious faith. After 1480 the Spanish Inquisition sent hundreds to torture and thousands to a death in flames. In 1492, 800,000 Jews were expelled.
So Columbus came to Isabella at the propitious moment. He came from Genoa (see National Geographic, Sept., 1928) which for some reason was not able to deal through the Turks for the eastern trade as did Venice and other Mediterranean towns. Hence the necessity for a western route. He came to the rulers of a newly organized nation who could exert the strength necessary to the voyage of discovery. He came also to zealous rulers who, aside from any commercial advantage, could assign a positive religious duty to spread the religious faith throughout the world.
The discovery was perfected. That these purposes were pursued will not be denied. Balboa discovered the Pacific in 1513; Grijalva discovered Mexico in 1518 of which Hernando Cortés effected the conquest 1519-1521. In 1520 Magellan reached the strait, and discovered the Spice Islands (the Philippines).
We can readily imagine the avidity with which Cortés sought to locate the source of the wealth of the empire of Montezuma. In 1524 he wrote to the Spanish King: "They tell me that Ciguatan (the Indian name for the Californias) is an island inhabited by women. . . .They also tell me it is very rich in pearls and gold, respecting which I shall labor to obtain the truth, and give your majesty a full account of it."
In 1527 he sent Alvara de Saavedra from Tehauntepec, with instructions to discover a route to the recently discovered Spice Islands. Two additional expeditions were sent out without success.
In 1532 he sent Mendoza from Acapulco to search for the western island whence came much of the treasure of Montezuma, according to report. At that time a widely read romance entitled Las Sergus de Esplandian contained this phrase: "On the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very near to the terrestrial paradise - an island peopled by Amazons." Mendoza did not return. The new land was long called Las Islas Californias, and California is shown as an island as late as 1719 in an atlas prepared in England for George II.
In 1533 Cortés sent another expedition from Tehauntepec. One ship under Diego Becerra had Fortun Ximines as pilot; another under Hernando Crijalvo had as pilot Martin de Cósta. They were instructed to search for Mendoza. Becerra was murdered by Ximines, who landed in a bay called Santa Cruz, now the Bay of La Paz, Baja California, became the discoverer of the Californias and was killed by the natives; his crew returned with pearls which they discovered.
In 1535 Cortés himself reached the Bay of Santa Cruz. The following year the story of the Seven Cities of Cibola reached New Spain, and in 1539 Cortés sent out his last expedition. Francisco de Ulloa, commander of three ships, sailed to the head of the Mar de Cortés (Gulf of California), to the Bay of Santa Cruz, around Cape San Lucas, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Cedros Island. But one of the ships returned, and without Ulloa.
Mendoza, a new Viceroy, and a bitter rival of Cortés, sent an expedition under Fernando de Alarcón which reached the head of the Gulf in 1541, where they "found a mighty river which ran with so great a fury of stream that we could hardly sail against it."
In 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese mariner in the Spanish service, proceeded under orders from Mendoza upon a voyage of discovery of the western coast. With two ships, San Salvador and Vittorio, he entered the harbor of San Diego on the eve of the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, on Thursday evening, September 28, 1542. Thus Cabrillo is entitled to be called the discoverer of our California. He called the port San Miguel, where he remained until Tuesday, October 3rd; sailing up the coast he probably reached the port of Monterey, but did not land. Returning south, he stopped at Cuyler's Harbor on the Island of San Miguel, off Santa Barbara, where he died about the beginning of the year, having suffered a broken arm from which he could not recover. So, on California soil, in an unmarked grave, rests the body of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, California's discoverer. Would that a fitting monument could mark the approximate site upon that lonely island!
Under the command of Pilot Bartolomé Ferrelo the San Salvador returned to San Miguel (San Diego) on Sunday, March 11, 1543, and left for New Spain on Saturday the 17th.
Those who know the coast which Cabrillo discovered and explored, the kind of vessels in which he undertook the expedition, the rigorous season during which he pursued his voyage in those intemperate climes, and the state of the science of navigation at that period, cannot help admiring a courage and intrepidity which though common among sea-faring Spaniards of that time, cannot be appreciated in our day.
About 1560 Andreas Urdeneta, a sailor monk, steered a course from the Philippines with favorable winds, and arrived off California at Cape Mendocino, sailing southerly to Acapulco.
After 1570 Spanish treasure ships sailed twice a year from Acapulco to the Philippines by way of the Island of Guam and the Ladrones, returning by the course of Urdeneta, favored on both journeys by wind and current.
In 1587 Cavendish, an English privateer, sighted the galleon Santa Ana near Cape San Lucas and took a cargo of Chinese goods and three million dollars in jewels and bullion. An interesting side-light on such privateering, and the length of the period during which it was practiced, is offered in this item: "In the year 1709 Captain Woodes Rogers of England appeared off Cape San Lucas in search of the Manila galleon, having as pilot William Dampier, and as his second mate one Alexander Selkirk, whom he had picked up on San Fernandez Island; a few years later this Alexander Selkirk, in the hands of Defoe, became the wonderful Robinson Crusoe who has enthralled boyhood for nigh two centuries. Rogers put in with his vessels at the Bay of San Bernarbé. Shortly thereafter, though only by a sharp contest, he captured the Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación de Singano with a cargo of one or two million dollar's valuation." In the 1719 edition of Robinson Crusoe there is a map of the world, upon which California appears as an island. (See National Geographic, Sept., 1928.)
Sebastian Viscaino was sent out from Acapulco in 1602 to locate a place of settlement below Cape Mendocino, in order that a base might be had, from which to operate against the privateers. He landed at the Bay of Monterey; but the expedition came to naught. Procrastination led to a delay of 150 years and more before further exploration was made upon the western coast.
Life In California in 1851
The following letter, illustrative of the conditions in California, was written by a brother of one of the Society's members, Mr. Abram Ehle Pomeroy (SR #208), in the year 1851.
Lassons Ranch, California
March 12, 1851
Dear Brother:
I hardly know in what way to begin to apologize for my neglect in not having written you for so long a time. In fact I have no good reasons unless I claim that I have not received any answer to the one (& only one) that I wrote you near a year since, but whether you wrote me or not I have no good reasons for not troubling you occasionally & I hope & trust that you will let me occasionally hear from you. I am now stopping on Lassons Ranch, it is situated on the most northerly route or road from the States on the Sacramento River about 100 miles above Sacramento City and about 250 miles from San Francisco.
I am this season engaged in farming and gardening. Shall cultivate probably from 80 to 100 acres, the soil is excellent & is easily cultivated, in fact it is almost impossible to raise vegetables especially without irrigation. Frank, Sheldon & myself last season were engaged jointly in mineing on Feather River, principally in damming and draining the beds of the River & with us as it was with all others who were operating upon that Stream it proved an entire failure, we not only lost our whole summer's work but all that we had previously made.
Since which time Frank has been stopping in Sacramento City, keeping a Restaurant and doing tolerably well. Sheldon is on a Steam Boat, gets good wages & lays up his money & as for myself after leaving Feather River I came down to Sacramento City with the intention of going into business, but after remaining there a short time the Cholera broke out and from its severity, I thought it most prudent to leave and again I went to mineing at which I continued until the middle of December, but for the want of water, I was compelled to leave the location we had selected, as we have had no rains this winter to raise the water in the ravines. We wash when the rains do come if ever, as we have had no rains since the first week in January & then but very little. An old acquaintance and friend of mine had bought this Ranch, & persuaded me to come up & cultivate it. It contains 36 square miles of sand bars, 12 miles on the Sacramento River & extends back 3 miles, a large majority of it is excellent sand and it has the reputation of being one of the best Ranches in California.
They have discovered a new pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in fact, a regular sink or rent in the mountains, being an excellent road without a single eminence in passing the mountains, it has also another advantage, about 30 miles of Desert and good water on the Desert. After passing the Sierra Nevada Range you enter what is termed the Feather River Meadows, a valley on the North Fork of the Feather River covered with the most luxuriant growth of clover and other grasses, in fact, these valleys are the best pastures I ever saw in any country that follow this valley to within a short distance of the Sacramento Valley, it is believed this route is far preferable to any of the others heretofore travelled, & if the Emigration should take it will make a ready sale for all of our effects, as we are right at the termination of the road & of course the greater the demand the better the prices.
Anyhow, I am and shall be here this Season, & hope I may meet with better success than I did the last. I probably shall not do any worse. I can write you no news about California, it is an old story, and as the papers in the States give you all that is new or interesting, you of course are better posted in California news than I am. I will say this much for California, that the climate I do consider delightful, but it never can be an agricultural country or not so to any extent. Vegetation where the soil is moist grows beyond anything I ever saw, but the amount of such sand is limited & stock & Gold Digging will be the principal production. Gold I think will be found here for ages but not in the quantities it has heretofore. Although for years it will pay a miner reasonable wages when the expenses of living and operating are reduced to a reasonable standard.
Remember me to your wife & ch -- I was going to say children but put it Charley. Also to all our folks, Gilbert &c, Uncle Shull &c, &c. Do write me soon and direct to this Ranch as we are to have a Post Office here after the first of April & if I was a Whig I might be P. M. I suppose, which would be a very lucrative office here as probably the office will not take in fifty dollars a year. I am in receipt of letters from home monthly. I received one a few days ago from my wife. My family were at the time she wrote (Dec.) in good health, but wanted me home, but I must try California a little longer, with the hope that I may yet get paid for coming.
From
Your Aff't Brother,
CHAS.
Mr. R. H. Pomeroy
The foregoing is excerpted from Centennial Register of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California by Richard H. Breithaupt, Jr.
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