 Preface to A History of California the Spanish Period by Charles Edward Chapman. A History of California the Spanish Period by Charles Edward Chapman. Preface This is the third volume of the writer, which is the direct result of his enjoyment during two years of a Native Sons of the Golden West Traveling Fellowship, which enabled him to make researches in Spain. The writer's first thought, therefore, in publishing this volume, is to express his gratitude to the patriotic Californian order which has made it possible. The other two works by the writer on the history of California were directed primarily to the history profession. One, the founding of Spanish California, was an intensively documented monograph, and the other, catalogue of materials in the archivo general de Indias, is a technical manuscript guide. These two he is endeavouring in the present work to bring to their logical conclusion the ultimate aim, indeed, of all historical scholarship, by publishing what he hopes may be accepted as an authoritative popular history. Since it is intended for the general public, this volume omits much of the professional paraphernalia and does not hesitate to give space to interesting incident. As to its authoritativeness, it is, at any rate, the product of thirteen years' investigation of Spanish Californian history, involving the use of thousands of hitherto unknown manuscripts, as well as important printed materials not previously digested or assimilated. Two outstanding reasons exist for the publication of this volume. In the first place, it presents a vast amount of new material, some portions of which have never before appeared in print, while others were not known or not utilized by the general historians of the state. Secondly, an attempt is made to place the history of California in its proper perspective in relation to that of North America as a whole. Previous works have given a purely local narrative. This volume aims to show that California history is important as well as interesting. At the great Anza Expedition of 1775-1776 and the Yuma Massacre of 1781 demand inclusion in any comprehensive history of the United States. That California, while it indeed has a romantic history to tell, has also a great deal more than that to contribute to the cherished traditions of the American people. The writer first planned this volume seven years ago in conjunction with Dr. Robert G. Cleveland, whose point of view with respect to the American period of California history is precisely analogous to that expressed above about the era of Spanish rule. Since 1914 Dr. Cleveland and the writer have been in constant communication, but otherwise working independently, with a view to producing between them an authoritative popular history of California. Where the two works overlap in the first half of the 19th century, certain portions have been left for detailed treatment by Dr. Cleveland while others are taken up here. This it is possible to do without a rough break in the narrative since the aim here for that period is merely to finish the local annals of Spanish California carried through to the end of the Mexican rule. Dr. Cleveland, on the other hand, tells the story of those events which pushed irresistibly toward the ultimate acquisition of California by the United States. Dr. Cleveland's volume is about to go to press as this work comes from the publisher. Bancroft's works in the writer's own monograph, The Founding of Spanish California, have been drawn upon freely and in less degree so also the great general histories of Hittal and Eldridge. Since these, or some of them, have been used in most of the chapters, it has seemed unnecessary to cite them. Other strikingly important items are mentioned at the end of each chapter. The following chapters have previously been published in substantially the same form, one, five, six, seven, and nine in the Grizzly Bear magazine, four, and eight in Sunset, ten, eleven, and the appendix in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and fourteen and twenty-four in the Catholic Historical Review. Do thanks are given here for permission to use them in the present work. Some explanation may be made of methods adopted in the mechanical construction of the volume. Frequent excerpts are inserted from the narratives of eyewitnesses, as well as occasional well-formulated statements from later writings. Two maps have been prepared to cover place names in the text. The Spanish family names are employed according to the name of the father and spelled when possible as the individuals themselves spell them. In this connection it may be pointed out that in Spanish nomenclature the mother's family name is often retained and written after the father's. Thus, in the case of Rodríguez Cabrillo, Rodríguez is the father's family name and Cabrillo is the mother's. Furthermore, there are more than a score of names, Rodríguez, García, López, etc., which are of about as frequent usage in Spanish as Smith is in English. On this account, many Spaniards use their two family names or, occasionally, that of the mother alone, if it is of the uncommon variety, to distinguish themselves from the many others of their kind. Buccarelli has been adopted in spelling the name of the great viceroy who figures so prominently in this volume. To be sure, as he wrote it, it was Buccarelli wherefore that form was employed by the writer in a previous work. It is true, however, that I and Y were almost interchangeable in 18th century Spanish and that the name was invariably spelled Buccarelli in contemporary printed documents, including those emanating from the viceroy himself. Since, also, the word has been given that form in various Mexican monuments, it has seemed best to interpret the final letter as an I. This indeed accords with the present Spanish usage in writing this name. Accents are used in proper names according to modern Spanish practice, except in the case of certain place names that appear very frequently in English, thus Santa Barbara, Sonora, with the accent, and Santa Barbara, California, without. There are possibly some inconsistencies in applying the rule, thus Santa Inés and Purísima Concepción retain their accents while they are dropped in all other California place names, and Panama and Peru are accented while Mexico is not. New Spain appears in translation, but other regions below the Rio Grande retain their Spanish form. A notable instance of this is Baja California, frequently called Lower California in the United States. The correct Spanish name is employed, the better to distinguish it from Alta California, the region now embraced by the state of California. To many persons other than those already referred to, the writer is deeply indebted, notably to his fellow haunters of the Bancroft Library, Professor Herbert E. Bolton and Professor Herbert I. Priestley, each of whom indeed has provided much of the new material set forth in this book, and to Dr. Robert G. Cleland, author of the Companion History. Not least deserving of thanks are the writerís pupils of the past seven years. All unconsciously, perhaps, they have stimulated him by their interest, or lack of it, to transform lectures into what he now ventures to set forth in a printed volume. Charles E. Chapman, Berkeley, California, November 4, 1921. End of Preface. Chapter 1 of a History of California, the Spanish period. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 1. The Effects of Geography upon California History. The land, California, was not always as it is today. Numerous evidences, such as seashells found on mountains, make it clear that, many thousands of years ago, it was under water. Later it seems to have been a tropical land. Remains of gigantic prehistoric animals which could only have lived in such a climb, have recently been found in the celebrated Lake of Tar at the Hancock or La Brea Ranch near Los Angeles. Doubtless, too, the land had a very different shape from what it now has, and indeed many writers have held that San Francisco Bay is of comparatively recent formation. Their argument is based on the fact that no white man seems to have seen the bay prior to its discovery by the Port de la Expedition of 1769, although the rest of the coast had been fairly well known for over two hundred years. In particular, the English navigator Francis Drake had made a stop of about a month a few miles north where the bay now is most assuredly located, and appears not to have learned of its existence, even though he made a journey inland. Since nobody saw the bay, and since it was such a remarkable bay that it was at least an odd chance that it alone should have remained undiscovered, and since above all California is known to have suffered earthquakes in the past, why therefore, say these writers, the bay did not exist, but was produced by an earthquake at some time between 1759 and 1769. It may be remarked that this theory has been advanced most prominently since the California earthquake of 1906. Furthermore, it is easy to account for the failure of navigators to see the bay. The winding character of that body of water, and the position of Angel Island in the direct line of the Golden Gate or entrance to the bay, make it difficult of recognition from the sea to say nothing of the fogs which so frequently hide that coast from view. Finally, there is no necessary reason why Drake's journey inland, the length of which is not indicated in his account, should have taken him to a place where he could have seen the bay if it existed. Present-day automobilists will not fail to remember that there are some not inconsiderable hills between Drake's landing-place in San Francisco and, besides, vast areas of forest. But if the great western port owes its existence to an earthquake, what an extraordinary cataclysm it must have been. How tiny a tremble in comparison was that other event of 1906, and what a beneficent stroke of nature for California and the Pacific Coast. Whether or not the Bay of San Francisco was produced by an earthquake, there was at least a tradition among the Indians to the effect that the bay did not formerly exist. In describing a trip that he made north of the bay in 1819, Father President Mariano Pallaris said that the body of water was, in ancient times, according to the tradition of the old men, an oak forest, with no other water than that of a river which was passed on foot. In proof of this tradition they say that there are still found trunks and roots of oaks in the port and in the strait. In footnote. All of these matters are of little, if any, concern, however, as affecting the history of California, and so too the possibility, sometimes referred to, that a new continent may be expected to rise up in the Pacific, making the Golden State an inland country many thousands of years hence. For the purposes of history the geography of California may be considered in the light of what it now is. Numerous mountain chains course through the state, running generally north and south and separated from one another by narrow valleys, except for the one long and broad valley which is the most striking characteristic of Central California. The coasts are rough and high, offering few good ports, and indeed only one first rank natural port. Communications by land with the outside world were difficult, for where unusually high mountain ranges did not intervene there occurred the vast desert spaces in the south. Thus California, with its best port hidden, remained for centuries in a state of isolation from the rest of the world. Even after the white man came there was little in California in its natural state upon which he could live. The fruits for which the state is now so famous did not exist formerly, and there were no fields of grain or herds of domestic animals. The land was inhabited by Indians, but of so wretched a type that they were unable to produce anything suited to the needs of white men, or even to serve acceptably as laborers. Manufactured articles of the kind that white men used were, of course, entirely lacking. Little wonder then that Gaspar de Porto La, commander of the Spanish expedition of 1769, should say that if the Russians wanted California he would let them have it. In his mind such a gift seemed a meat punishment for the sins of their aggressive imperialism. Economically backward, as California undoubtedly was, it is hardly necessary to say that she had abundant natural resources, such as fertile soil, rich grasslands, and belts of timber, plentiful water from the mountain snows, a variety of metals including, most important of all from the standpoint of history, an extraordinary wealth in gold, and not least of all California had an exceptionally agreeable climate. If the white man could contrive to get there, found permanent settlements, and established communications with the outside world, the future would take care of itself. Granted California's economic potentialities, the most important geographical fact bearing upon her history was the location of the land with respect to the rest of the world. If California could have been placed in western or central Europe, it would undoubtedly have been one of the most populous lands of the earth. But California was in fact very far from the centers of white civilization, indeed almost the farthest distant point of the earth, when we consider the routes which necessarily had to be followed before men could reach the Pacific shores of North America. Furthermore, there were difficulties in getting there and staying, besides which the much better known hardships of the pilgrims of Plymouth Rock pale into insignificance. To reach California from Europe, a sea voyage was necessary. Although it might be broken by a journey on land, the shortest route by sea, whether along the coast of Asia or of North America, was by way of the North Pole but this way was impracticable in fact. A long voyage around South America, or a much longer voyage around Africa and beyond Asia might take one directly by sea from Europe to California. Land routes necessitated the journey across North America or Asia. The difficulties of the sea routes to California, even for such comparatively short stretches as the voyage from western New Spain or Mexico, were due primarily to the length of the voyage. Down to the close of the 18th century ships were small and frail. Boats of five hundred tons were considered large, while trans-oceanic voyages were not infrequently made by ships of fifty. Compared with such monsters as the twenty-seven thousand tons steamers on which travelers of recent years have crossed the Pacific, it would be seen at once that the vessels of the past had their limitations, accentuated too by a lack of the advanced notions about shipbuilding which obtain in the world today. Nautical science had not yet gone far along other lines either. Men did not know how to calculate longitude except by a system called dead reckoning which reduced itself to guessing, and instruments were so imperfect that the latitudes found were rarely correct. The calculations for the California coast were usually over a hundred miles too high. Furthermore, the Pacific Ocean was not well known, few charts existed, and none were accurate. Rocks, shoals, currents, coasts, and winds too frequently appeared where least expected, with the result that shipwreck was one of the ordinary perils of a voyage. Only a sailor can appreciate the terror of uncharted seas. To this was added the terrific storms of the ill-named Pacific. Pacific indeed it often is in the far south where Magellan entered it, but assuredly he would have given another name perhaps the exact opposite. Could he have experienced the gales of the north? In the words of the Italian traveler Girmelli Carrari who made the voyage from Manila to Alcapulco in 1697 to 1698, the Spaniards and other geographers have given this the name of the Pacific Sea, but it does not suit with its tempestuous and dreadful notion, for which it ought rather to be called the Restless. Particularly it was difficult for vessels beating up the coast, since they had to buff it against the ocean current as well as encounter the winds. Those who at the present time had made the voyage between San Francisco and Los Angeles appreciate the difference between going down and coming up. Other and yet more terrible factors combined to make the voyage to such a distant land as California little better than a sentence of death. Possibly worst of all was the dread disease of the scurvy. This disease, resulting from a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, baffled medical science down to the close of the eighteenth century. Other ills there were in greater proportion than now, but the deaths from scurvy alone in a voyage from Europe into the Pacific might range from 40 to 75 percent. Casualties were not infrequently quite as great for the short voyage from New Spain to California. It is no wonder that men were sometimes driven on board ship at the point of a bayonet and compelled to go there. To be sure there were usually many others who were willing to go because of the enormous wealth which in some mysterious way they hoped to acquire. Once arrived in California the troubles of the would-be settler were only just begun. There was nothing in the land that could provide a regular food supply, wherefore he must bring with him all that he was going to consume. If the voyage had been long, the chances were that there would be little more than enough remaining for the return. It was impossible to stay unless there might be a sure resort for more, and this inevitably necessitated a base of supplies reasonably near at hand. Moreover there was nothing easily obtainable in California that could serve as an article of exchange. Cortez and Pizarro had found vast quantities of ready-made wealth in Mexico and Peru, but there was nothing of the sort in California. Thus colonies could be maintained only at great expense, and governments were poor and disinclined to spend money except for a definitely recognizable return. Not until the late 18th century did European countries display a willingness to finance explorations and colonization for scientific objects, and even then there was usually the ulterior motive of imperialistic design. Yet for strategic reasons Spain endeavored, during more than two centuries, to occupy the Californias from Cape San Lucas to the north, and after her extraordinary efforts had, at length, achieved success, she at her own expense supported the colonies of the northern coast, which otherwise must have failed. Those who would make the journey to California by land encountered difficulties which, until the close of the 18th century, were perhaps greater than those of the voyage by sea. There were the same problems of the immense distance to be traversed, including lack of information, scurvy insufficient supplies, and the lack of an article of exchange, just as in the case of the Roots by Sea. In addition there were hostile intervening peoples to be considered. A small party might conceivably have carried supplies enough to cross what is now the United States, but would almost certainly have succumbed to the Indians. A large party might defeat the Indians, but could not carry sufficient food. Thus faced by the dilemma of a violent death or starvation, it is no wonder that the Atlantic coast pioneers did not reach the Pacific until the frontier of settlement had been pushed many hundreds of miles to the west. Furthermore, there were the actual geographic difficulties of great mountain chains, wide deserts, and undeveloped lands, making the discovery of a practicable route a problem in itself of no mean proportions. A study of the factors just referred to makes it clear that under normal conditions California could be occupied and held only through development of an advancing base of supplies, that is, through the settlement of intervening lands, until a point were reached near enough to assure the settlers of readily accessible relief for their necessities. Such a development was bound to be slow, requiring centuries for its completion, unless peculiar or extraordinary circumstances should arise to make nations or individuals desirous of overcoming the great obstacles in the way. Strategic reasons impelled Spain to hasten or northward colonization to include California, and even more rapid settlement would surely have occurred if California's vast wealth in precious metals had become known, for that would have given an exceptionally alluring economic reason for individual effort. The history of California down to 1848, therefore, reduces itself to this. Those nations which approached by land would in normal course have the best opportunity of getting a foothold because of the advantage of an advancing base of supplies. The first comer would not necessarily retain the land, for if it proved desirable it might eventually be taken over by a stronger power. California was eminently desirable for it contained wealth and gold in a good port on the Pacific as original inducements, with eventual possibilities of a greater and varied character. The United States had the best opportunity under normal conditions, for she was geographically better located than her rivals for a solid advance from base to base by land. Even better than Spain and her successor Mexico, who held the province by a thin and precarious line of communications, besides which Mexico was so weak that she could not have retained the land in any event. The history of California proved to be, therefore, an interesting race between the development of the United States and the discovery of California's gold. Had the discovery come many years earlier than it did, some other great power might have acquired California and the entire Pacific Coast, or it might have become a Hispanic American Republic, thus delaying or perhaps altogether preventing the opportunity of the United States to obtain frontage on the western ocean. Most of the great peoples of the earth advanced by sea or land toward the California's. Chronologically considered, they were the Indians who were on the ground at the dawn of California history, the Chinese, Spaniards, English, Japanese, Dutch, Russians, Portuguese, French, and Americans. The prize fell eventually to the powers which came by land. Thus the peoples of Spain, England, France, and Russia began approaches, which in the hands of their successors, Mexico, the United States, England, and Canada, and the United States again in Alaska resulted in the acquisition of all the old California's, stretching from Cape San Lucas indefinitely northward to the end of the North America. The achievements of each one of these peoples will be taken up, or at least alluded to, but the major share of attention belongs properly to the Spaniards, who discovered and settled California, and to the Americans who developed it into the great state of the American Union which it undoubtedly is today. Chapter 2 The Indians First of all the historic peoples to acquire California were the Indians. It is therefore pertinent to ask why it is that California is no longer an Indian country in any sense of the term. The answers will be made in course of many of the succeeding chapters, but it will become clear from this that the Indian could not hope to compete with the civilized races, though he might have rendered their occupation of California more difficult than in fact he did. Anthropologists frequently attempt to classify primitive peoples according to different standards which they apply. To the lay mind these classifications are helpful, even though they are almost invariably denounced by anthropologists themselves other than the authors of the particular classifications. Perhaps the most generally accepted mode of describing primitive man of prehistoric times is accorded to the implements he used. Thus there lived the Paleolithic or old stone age man who used rough stone implements followed by the Neolithic new stone age man who improved his implements by polishing them. Then came ages of bronze and iron until historic times were reached when man first began to write down records. Various paleoethnologists have dared to estimate the length of time man existed in each of the ages. One of them, Mortalay, gives 222,000 years of life to Paleolithic man and 10,000 for the Neolithic bronze and iron ages together. The date for the beginning of recorded history is quite definite. That occurred less than 7,000 years ago. That date is also taken to mark the beginning of a great of culture which we call civilization. The above suffices, however, if at all, only for man in his most advanced stage at any time. Many people lagged far behind the foremost. It therefore has seemed necessary to apply some test whereby backward races may be recognized and differentiated from one another and from civilized peoples. One of the most useful of the classifications employed, if also one of the most impossible of applications in a given case, and therefore one of the most criticized by expert authority, is that which distinguishes between three grades of savagery and three of barbarism through which primitive peoples are said to pass before they arrive at a state of civilization. According to this characterization, savage man is a wanderer. In the lower or arboreal stage he lives in trees and eats fruits and nuts. This is the time when he first differentiates himself from other animals through his acquisition of articulate speech. The vanguard of mankind may have reached this stage anywhere from about 160,000 to 60,000 B.C. Learning how to fish and control fire, man passes into the middle or fishing stage. This may have occurred between 60,000 and 20,000 B.C. for the leaders of humankind. Then man discovered how to make and use the bow and arrow, and passed into higher savagery or the hunting stage. This may have lasted from about 20,000 B.C. to about 10,000 B.C. for those who reached it first. With the invention of pottery and therefore the very great multiplication and improvement of his utensils, man passes into a state of barbarism and tends to give up his wanderings and to lead a settled life. In the lower age of barbarism comes the domestication of animals, followed by the beginnings of agriculture at which point the middle grade of barbarism has reached. Both of these states first appeared in the Neolithic age, with the use of metals originally in the bronze and iron ages, particularly with the smelting of iron ore and with the development of manufacturers of a rude character. Man advances into upper barbarism, from which he emerges into civilization when he begins to write down records. As already observed, no hard and fast line between groups according to the above classification can be drawn in fact. A given people will often exhibit the traits of various groups. Furthermore, inferior peoples imitate the external forms of civilization in a very short space of time, when they come in contact with civilized man, but they can hardly be said to advance at one jump out of a savagery tree in barbarism. After all, however, all that is necessary for the layman to know is that the primitive man, however learned he may be in his own lore, when measured by the standards of civilization seems to have the mind of a child. Primitive Californians ranged from a state of upper savagery to that of lower barbarism in the case of the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel, who were by far the most advanced. The average in the region taken over eventually by the Spaniards was about that of upper savagery or some 15,000 years behind the white man in general culture. There are many controversies about their origin and racial affinities which need not be entered into at great length here. It is generally agreed that they and other Indians of this hemisphere came either from Asia or the Pacific Islands, whether by way of Alaska, the long sea route, very likely against their will driven by storms, or even across some prehistoric Pacific continent. This has not been definitely determined. The number of tribes in California without close racial affinity seems to have been very great. According to Krober, the leading authority on the subject, there were as many as 21 linguistic families, not to mention the much greater number of dialects. One of the most interesting contentions is that California Indians show evidences of relationship with the Aztecs. Can the great Aztec migration into Mexico have passed by way of California? If so, it would seem that some of the least desirable elements were left behind. As the Spaniards found them, the California Indians were not nomadic. Often they were somewhat unsettled in habitation, but always within a very limited territory. The groups in which they lived were hardly tribal. Indeed, they depended on language and topography more than upon any political or social organization. The small village was the most common unit. Of first rate importance, historically, is the number of Indians who dwelt in California. Not many years ago it was taught in the schools of this country that there were only some 250,000 Indians in all of what is now the United States at the time of the discovery of America. With a more intensive study of far western history there has come about a considerable multiplication of this figure. There is one estimate for California alone which reaches as high as 700,000. This number seems far too great. Krober's estimate of 133,000 quite likely approximates the fact. Figures for the region occupied by Spain after 1769 are very confusing since only the records of the missions which were far from containing all the Indians in the conquered country even approach completeness. It would seem not unreasonable to say that there may have been some 70,000 Indians between San Francisco and San Diego or adjacent there too. These figures become significant in the light of the scant number of Spaniards in California. In the entire Spanish period the population of California was never much higher than 3,000 and for more than two decades it was less than 1,000. Indeed in the crucial years of the early settlement Spain held some 400 miles of territory in the face of a patent, if not very strenuously manifested Indian hostility notably in the South, with from less than 100 to about 200 men more than 1,000 miles from effective reinforcement. It was this fact that made the whole history of California tremble in the balance. Success crowned Spain's efforts, wherefore unthinking posterity has assumed that the task was easy. It will be one of the purposes of this volume to show forth the Spanish achievement in truer perspective and to indicate its overwhelming importance as affecting the later acquisition of the province by the United States. Against a determined and competent Indian people Spain would have found it impossible to prevail. Fortunately the Californian showed neither the one attribute nor the other. This will appear from a general survey of their manner of life. Though there were many differences from group to group there was a general underlying uniformity which applied to most of them. It will therefore suffice here to describe them as a whole, making such differentiation in specific customs as may seem necessary. Judged by standards prevailing among civilized peoples, the habits of the Californians were, to say the least, gross and somewhat in need of expurgation in the telling. Krober sums them up as follows. Quote, ethnologically, California may be said to be characterized by the absence of agriculture and of pottery, by the total absence of totemism or gentile organization, by an unusually simple and loose social organization in which wealth plays for a somewhat primitive and an American group a rather important part, by the very rude development of all arts except basketry, by the lack of art of realism, by a slight development of fetishism and by the conspicuous lack of the symbolism and ritualism so highly developed by most of the American Indians, by the marked prevalence of religious restrictions connected with birth, death, sexual matters and similar phases of life, by the predominance among ceremonials of mourning and initiation rites, and by a considerable development of true conceptions of creation and mythology. These characteristics hold true in some degree almost throughout the entire state, but in nearly every case they are most marked in the large central region, the inhabitants of which may be justly regarded as the most typical of Californians. Hand in hand with these ethnological characteristics go the temperamental ones of an unwarlike nature and a lack of intensity and pride which are such strongly marked qualities of the American Indians as a whole. This may be illustrated by a discussion of some of their more obvious customs. Dress had little to do with style or morality, as those words are now understood, but depended more especially on climate. In summer the men wore a loincloth or nothing. There was no such thing as a sense of shame. The women wore an apron or skirt reaching from the waist to the knees, made usually of tulik grass. Skins of animals gave additional warmth in winter. Style entered in to some extent. Ornaments of bone, shell or wood were worn in the ears or hair or around the necks or wrists. Women beautified themselves by tattooing their faces, necks and breasts, and the men were not free from this bit of vanity. The latter often painted their bodies grotesquely, hardly from a sense of humor, but rather to frighten evil spirits and enemies away, or perhaps also from motives of style. Homes were simple in the extreme. The typical wigwam made in conical shape of poles and banked with earth with an opening in the top for smoke to go out and air to come in and with a slit in the side for an entrance was the most commonly used. In summer the Indians of Central and Southern California, who were somewhat more backward than those of the North, often found sufficient shelter under a bush or in a tree. This does not apply to the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel, however. They had well-fashioned huts of thatch. Those who hold it food as the mainspring of human activities will not be loath to admit that the diet of the Californians left much to be desired. They ate very little meat because they lacked domestic animals and were so beastly lazy, especially in Central and Southern California, that they were poor hunters. Nevertheless, they were far from being vegetarians. On the contrary, they ate nearly everything that teeth could bite which came their way. Coyotes, crows, lizards, rats, mice, frogs, and not merely the hind legs, skunks, and snakes were eaten by many groups. And when a dead whale drifted ashore, it provided occasion for rejoicing because of the meat it supplied. Grasshoppers were something of a delicacy. They were eaten in various forms, dried, mashed, or roasted. Many of the Indians caught fish, but many others, even those who dwelt along the coast, confined themselves to taking salmon and lampreels in the rivers. Bearmeat and the flesh of other large game were rarely eaten, not that the Indians objected to the taste, but because they believed that such dangerous creatures must be possessed of a demon, and to eat the meat would mean swallowing the demon. The rough delicacies thus far named were not, however, the principal food supply of the Californians. Otherwise there would have been no Californians left to greet the white man. The Indians lived chiefly on foods that grew wild. Of these acorns were easily the most important item. They were ground to a flour and cooked to make bread. Many wars were fought in primitive California over the possession of acorn groves. Next after acorns came seeds, especially of grasses and herbs. Roots and berries were also used. The soil was left untilled, for to the natives of the land seemed bountiful enough as it was. In a word then the Californians ate little more than that which came easily to hand without effort. It is hardly necessary to observe that a country with no better food supply than that just described would be little better than a barren desert to the white man coming from afar to make settlements. Occupations were simple and kind. In time of peace the man busied himself in doing nothing chiefly. Occasionally he would hunter fish, but much more often not. The women did all the real work. They gathered the acorn's seeds and other food, did all of the drudgery about the domestic hearth, and made clothing and such other simple articles of manufacturer as the Indians required. Worthy of special notice were the waterproof baskets, stone cooking vessels, and alls of bone that they fashioned. The northern and southern Californians had canoes and rafts, but those of the central regions, despite their aquatic opportunities, seemed to be little if at all acquainted with this valuable adjunct of primitive life. Nothing but tully rafts graced the waters of San Francisco Bay. It was in war that the men found their true occupation. Their military customs are particularly deserving of notice because of their bearing eventually upon the Indians' prospects of retaining the country against the white man. Attention has already been directed to the considerable number of the Californian Indians. Furthermore, they seem to have been far from cowardly. If not exactly brave, they at least showed courage in meeting death. Nevertheless, the Californians must be rated very poor warriors. They had no idea of organization or discipline, and their weapons were nothing more elaborate than bows and arrows and clubs. Worst of all, was their apathy in the presence of foreign invasion. They rarely resisted and never effectually. Battles among themselves were not productive of much bloodshed. As soon as somebody was killed or badly wounded, the fight was wont to stop. Yet, weak as they were, the Californians needed only to persevere, just as the much less numerous UMAS did in 1781, to have wiped out the settlements Spain founded after 1769. Some of their other practices in warfare may also be noted. It was customary to cut off the heads, hands, and feet of a dead enemy to save as trophies. Scalping was rare except among the southern Indians. The gustatory habits of the Californians did not ordinarily extend to cannibalism, but a bit of every brave enemy who had died in battle might be eaten, not because of the meat he provided, but rather in order to get his courage. Prisoners of war were almost always put to death and not enslaved. There was little or no warfare of the migratory conquering type, for the Californians had found their several abiding places and were satisfied with them. There were some economic wars, such as those arising from disputes over acorn groves, or from the erection of a weir by a down river tribe to prevent salmon from going upstream, and occasionally there were deliberate campaigns for plunder. Religion was also a cause for war. The medicine men or priests of one tribe would sometimes proclaim that those of another were practicing sorcery and magic to the detriment of the former. War was a natural consequence. A curious ceremonial often attended the Californian wars. Not infrequently the time and place of battle would be arranged beforehand by heralds. The personal habits of the Californians were, to say the least, healthy. Their houses and they themselves were covered with vermin, which on occasion they would catch and eat. Food for the winter was often gathered in milder seasons and kept around the inner walls of their simple houses. As dried fish was sometimes an important article of the winter food supply, it may well be imagined that the odors of the home were none too inviting. Over some of their other private customs it is perhaps best to draw a veil. It is not surprising that many diseases followed in the wake of the filthy habits of the Californians. To these were added a number of ailments, cause they believed by evil spirits. Imaginary ills, many would characterize them, though often the sickness must have been real if indeed of supernatural attribution. To effect a cure, a barking doctor would be first called in to diagnose the disease. He would bark until the spirits revealed the locality the sickness, and then perhaps would suck the effected part, pretending to cure it. Or he might call in an herb doctor to administer treatment. Sometimes an air-proof underground room called the Temescal, an institution of many uses, was resorted to by the sick man for a cure. The idea was that in the hot, and be it said murky, air of the Temescal, often called a sweat-house, in which a fire was built, he could get up a free perspiration, after which he was supposed to rush outside and jump into cold water. In parts of Central and Southern California the dead were cremated. Their ashes were mixed with grease to form a paste, which was painted upon the face in the sign of mourning. This was retained in honor of the dead until the wind and weather wore it away. Then mourning ceased. Relations of Indians, with one another, even within the same tribe, were marked by little that approximated the present-day meaning of economic and political institutions. Yet property and a kind of money existed. White shells were most used as money, but obsidian and the skins of animals were also employed as a circulating medium. The tribal chiefs were usually hereditary, but in Northern California the richest wielded deceptor such as it was. Other than that they were leaders in war the chiefs had no real power beyond that of their personal influence. Government was mainly a matter for the individual family, and there the man was indeed the Lord and Master. Nevertheless there were tribal laws which were rigidly enforced. These dealt principally with murder and adultery. Usually murder might be compounded for by a monetary payment, and in the case of a man this was true also for the crime of adultery, but for the woman there might be a horrible death. The rigors of the law concerning adultery were due rather to a sense of economic injury since the wife was the most prized possession of the husband, rather than to any feeling of moral repulsion over the act itself. Sexual incontinence among the unmarried was hardly in offense at all. The Southern Californians alone were not polygamists. The marriage ceremony was simple or lacking altogether. There were no intermediaries except relatives and no promises made. In the North it was purely an economic transaction just as the purchase of a valuable skin would have been. Everywhere it was the usual practice for men to buy their wives. In the North the social standing of the woman depended on the amount she cost. If she were bought on the partial payment plan she was not considered fully married until all of the debt was paid. Naturally the girl had no lawful right to refuse the man to whom her parents sold her. Naturally, too, divorce at the will of the man existed, if he were willing to separate himself from so valuable and expensive a piece of property. It is at least interesting as an evidence of the primitive mentality of the Californian Indians that men were wont to affect the pains of childbearing in the belief that by this procedure they lightened the labors of the woman. Slavery was not unknown, but was rare and never hereditary. With plenty of women to do such little work as they required, there was hardly a need for slaves. The institution served rather as punishment for debt and as a penalty for illegitimate birth. The keynote to a broad understanding of the Indian mind lies surely in the study of his religion. It is impossible to give a detailed statement here, but it may suffice to say that there were gods, demons and spirits and omens and portents everywhere and at all times. The rustling of leaves in the forest had something in it of the supernatural to the Indian, and so too the shooting stars of the heavens and thousands of other little happenings as well. Naturally the profession of the sorcerer, soothsayer and astrologer fared well among the Indians. Particularly this was so because religion was quite apart from ideals of righteousness and good conduct. Rather it would seem it was a necessary evil, something to be guarded against rather than to embrace, for the gods were vengeful when they were not downright wicked. He was perhaps the greater hero who could successfully deceive the gods than he who blindly served them. Yet certain of the Californians had a hazy notion of a supreme being and of a future life in which those who had performed the appropriate religious services would get every material want satisfied. Once death came, however, it was necessary for the departed soul to race with the demons in order to get to heaven, and unless his relatives performed certain ceremonies to frighten the demons away, or give the soul a good start, it would assuredly lose. In times of peace, too, a regard for individual and tribal safety necessitated the keeping of lodge fires. The Temaskal, to which none but the men were admitted, was often used for this and other rites. But the fire was retained there only in the cold months. The natives rarely traveled due in large measure, no doubt, to the chains of religion which bound up their lives with a particular locality. Amusements, too, such as they were, grew out of religion. The Temaskal was something of a club room for the men as well as a religious temple. Dancing and feasting at different seasons were also in the nature of a religious ceremonial. The dancing was accompanied by chants, and the men alone took part. Formal amusements, as such, did not exist, unless gambling is to be so considered, that Californians were indeed inveterate gamblers. It can be seen that no civilized state might be expected to develop among the barbarous Californians. The only question was, how long could they postpone the inevitable conquest of the land by a capable people? They had the advantage of distance from civilized lands, intervening geographical difficulties, and considerable numbers among themselves. Yet they did not delay white settlement and conquest for a single day once the white men had overcome the obstacles of nature. This is indeed an evidence of their insufficiency, but it was also far more than civilization had a right to expect. That the Spaniards were so successful in coping with them is more a tribute to the Spaniards than conclusive proof of utter Indian incapacity. The subject of the California Indians has recently been treated exhaustively and authoritatively by Alfred L. Krober, whose manuscript is in the hands of the Smithsonian Institution awaiting publication as this volume goes to press. Among the numerous writings of Professor Krober already in print, the two following are of special interest to the general reader. 1. Indians of California, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Part 1, A-M, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Washington 1907, 190. 2. Types of Indian culture in California, University of California, Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Berkeley 1904, Volume 2, No. 3, End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of A History of California, the Spanish period. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 3, The Chinese Along the Pacific Coast in Ancient Times. In the past, present and future, the peoples of the Far East have been, are and will continue to be a factor of great importance in the life of the American Pacific Coast. Few persons today are aware of this relationship in the distant past. Yet it seems clear that the Chinese had some sort of opportunity to acquire a footing on this coast at least a thousand years before the discovery of America by Columbus. And in the early modern period, Japan was once very near to endangering Spain's hold on her Pacific colonies. If it had happened that the Chinese had followed up their opening and populated the land, in all probability the Pacific Coast, perhaps all of the Americas, never would have been white. European races might indeed have made conquests, but the examples of India, Egypt, and China herself today are eloquent evidence to the effect that a people whose numbers run into the millions are fairly secure in their hold upon land, however dominated they may be politically and economically. For instance, India, which began to be conquered by European people some four hundred years ago, is reputed to have only about one hundred thousand whites in a population of three hundred and fifteen million, or one in over three thousand. To return to the relations of California and the Far East, the Oriental question has, since 1849, been mainly one of immigration, while trade with China and Japan has for some time been an important element in the economic growth of the Pacific states. Whatever attitude one takes with regard to those countries, few or none will deny their importance as affecting California and the other states along the Pacific in the future. China is said to contain one fourth of the world's entire population, four hundred thirteen million, and Japan is a country of over fifty millions. Moreover, both peoples have undoubted physical strength and virility, such that they are able to endure hard labor and privation and almost any climb, and both have an intellectual capacity which already enables them to cope with the white man. The Japanese have shown ability in warfare, and there is no reason to expect that the Chinese cannot also become effective. From these facts some have argued the imminence of a yellow peril striking at us perhaps through the weakly guarded back door of Hispanic America if not directly at our gates. However that may be, few will deny that our relations with such great, numerous, and powerful people are bound to be very important in the future, almost certainly more so than they have been in the past. A history of California that did not give some attention, therefore, to our neighbors across the sea would most assuredly be lacking in perspective. There are numerous evidences that Chinese or other Orientals visited this coast many centuries before Europeans came. No such difficulties in getting here were encountered by them as the white man had to face. Indeed, the difficulty was often one of keeping from coming in view of the storms and currents that drove them on. If one looks at a map showing the Pacific as it really is, and not as the false Mercator projection maps which have for so long dominated and deceived us, would make it appear, he will see that it is possible to go in an almost direct line from China to California without ever being far from land. As the accompanying cut shows, the route lies by way of Japan and the Kuril Islands to Kamchatka, and thence by way of the Kamondorsky and Aleutian Islands to Alaska and California. Between the farthest east of the Kamondorsky Islands and the farthest west of the Aleutian group there is a stretch of about 200 miles of sea. At no other place along the route are lands so much as 100 miles apart. Furthermore, there is a powerful and warm ocean current called the Blackstream or Japanese Current which takes this very course, raking to the west again after it has left California to return to Asia by way of the Hawaiian Islands. As it leaves Japan and passes the Kuril Islands, this current has a velocity of from 75 to 100 miles a day. There is said to be an authentic record of some 60 Oriental craft which were driven across the Pacific in the 18th and 19th centuries. Furthermore, Indian traditions are full of stories about the coming of ships out of the west. In 1774 when the great Spanish explorer Juan Batista de Anza was at Carmelo, he saw a strange wreck of a type of construction which none of the Spaniards there had ever seen. No doubt an Oriental boat. In 1815 Captain Alexander Adams of the Brig Forester came upon a Japanese junk off Santa Barbara. It was drifting before the waves, rudderless and without a mast. Captain Adams went on board and found fourteen dead in the hold and three survivors. The boat had started on a voyage from Osaka to Yedo, or Tokyo, both in Japan, and had been out seventeen months. Once arrived on this coast it was, of course, possible for the Oriental boats to return along the southern courses of the current, but the few who were still alive ignorant of the root of the stream may well have preferred not to venture again on such a terrible voyage. There is much general evidence that the Chinese must have reached the western shores of the Americas and produced an effect on the life of the inhabitants. It is said that there are among the Indians many traditions of recognizably Chinese origin and also linguistic affinities, notably so in the Puget Sound country. Many of the customs of the most advanced Indian peoples of the American continents, the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas, show a marked similarity to those of the Chinese. Some of the Indian hieroglyphics were like those the Chinese employ. There were noteworthy resemblances in religious practices, such institutions and beliefs as the transmigration of souls, the highly developed monastic system in Mexico, religious festivals, household gods, the use of incense and chanting of charms and amulets, cremation, the preservation of ashes and urns, and the idea that an eclipse was produced by a celestial dragon devouring the sun were common to both China and the Americas. There were many similarities in architecture. A notable instance was that of the rope-like bridges in Peru made of twisted willow branches, almost exactly like the twisted bamboo bridges of certain parts of China. Many other customs of the two lands were peculiarly alike, political, marital, and industrial. In China the emperor used to plow a furrow annually with a yellow plow. This ceremony is said to be nearly 4,000 years old. In Peru the same ceremony was performed by the Inca monarch, but there the plow was of gold. Numerous as are these evidences they cannot be accorded too much weight, for it is customary for those peoples who have not achieved the fullness of civilization to develop quite independently from one another on markedly similar lines. Even the ceremony of the plow has been found in other lands. There are actual remains, however, to prove a likelihood and almost a certainty of Chinese appearances on our Pacific coast in the very distant past. In the course of excavations ancient Chinese implements and coins have been found. Notable instances of this have occurred in the Pacific Northwest. A Chinese bronze fan with ancient Chinese characters was found at Victoria, British Columbia, and at a place called Cassiar in the same province some brass coins were unearthed, said to be over 3,000 years old. The one thing lacking to prove Chinese visits to this coast has been that of incontrovertible literary evidence. According to the New York Tribune of September 10th, 1890, the Reverend Dr. Shaw, a missionary in China, claimed to have discovered a manuscript at Sinegon Fu, China, proving that a regular trade existed between China and California in the first century of the Christian era. This assertion seems never to have been verified. Definite literary evidence does exist, however, showing that as early as the 5th century the Chinese knew of a land called Hussein, which many writers have identified with the Pacific coast of North America. The story is found in volume 231 of the Great Chinese Encyclopedia and not only there but in many other Chinese works of recognized authority, and it has long been known to Chinese scholars. In other words, the account itself is authentic, whatever the truth may be concerning the facts it relates. The facts stated in the Chinese Encyclopedia are substantially as follows. In 499 AD, a Buddhist priest named Huishan came to China from the Kingdom of Hussein. He told the route he had taken from China to that country, giving directions followed and distances traveled, and told about the peoples encountered on the way. Hussein, he described in detail. He wound up his account by saying that in 458 five mendicant Buddhist priests from Kabul, in Afghanistan, went there, introduced Buddhism and the monastic system, and reformed the manners and customs of the country. The remarkable feature about this story is that it corresponds so nearly with the facts about the Pacific coast as we now know them. There were some inconsistencies, however. Some of the translations make Huishan say that the natives had horses, carts and grapes. Those which are usually regarded as not having existed in the Americas. Very few travelers who have seen a land for the first time, however, without the advantage of other travelers' accounts to correct their own faults and perspective, have been accurate in all the details of their story. Herodotus told of a land in which the air was filled with feathers, and he had heard of another, but doubted the truth of the story, where men slept for six months at a time. Naturally, to peoples who rarely or never saw a snowstorm and who had never heard of an arctic winter, Herodotus long seemed to be the father of liars. Today nobody doubts any longer that Herodotus was truthful and essentially accurate about the peoples he described. Similarly, it is perfectly clear that Marco Polo was in China in the 13th century, and that his tale of travels was founded on fact. The value of his account is but little lessened when he tells of a bird, the rock and the Arabian knights, so large and strong that it could seize an elephant and lift it in the air, or of oxen as large as elephants, of men with tails and of dogs the size of asses, and so on add infinitum. Indeed, what more remarkable yarns were spun than those of the Spanish conquerors of the New World, of which more later, in their expeditions along our own Pacific coast. Furthermore, Huishan was not a Chinese and had to talk through an interpreter. What more natural than that these things with which the Chinese were not familiar should be interpreted in terms of things they knew. It may be added to that Huishan's account in its present form is the result of many ages of successive copyings. Not only have words have more than 14 centuries in which somewhat to change their meaning, but also that crimes of copyists are too frequent in all ages to permit of any doubt in the minds of those who have used documentary materials as to the likelihood of error. Indeed, some have referred to believe that the word translated as grapes was intended for tomatoes. When all is said and done, however, every other bit of evidence is in favor of the authenticity of the voyage to Fusang. The only remaining doubt is the location of Fusang. Huishan's description of the route traveled in the distances would make Fusang lie about in California or Mexico. The only other possibility that has ever been discussed is whether it might have been Japan. This, however, was impossible. There are authentic records of Chinese knowledge of Japan, at least as early as 57 AD, and hardly any of Huishan's description of Fusang would have applied to Japan. The distance from China was many thousand miles too short. Fusang was said to be about 5,000 miles east or southeast of Great Han, which he described as about 3,000 miles northeast of Japan. This in itself is almost clear proof that he could not have referred to Japan. Furthermore, there is no tree in Japan at all resembling the wonderful Fusang tree of Huishan's account. And finally, Buddhism was not introduced into Japan until 552 AD. It is clear then either that Fusang was in America, presumably in Mexico, or else that the story was a lie. The evidence that it was true is almost overwhelming. In the first place, Huishan succeeded in inspiring all whom he met with confidence in his story. The story itself bears internal evidences of truthfulness, including its freedom from the marvelous or unnatural. Huishan had with him a large quantity of so-called silk and a strange mirror, the description of which corresponds respectively to the vegetable fiber of the sentry plant and the obsidian mirrors of the Aztecs and their predecessors. Most important of all, he gave an accurate description of the peoples of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, and especially of life and conditions in what could only have been Mexico. In his recital about Fusang, Huishan said, That region has many Fusang trees, and it is from these trees that the country derives its name. The leaves of the Fusang resembled the tongue tree, and the first sprouts are like those of the bamboo. The people of the country eat them and the fruit, which is like a perin form, but of reddish color. The bark is spun into thread, from which they make cloth for wearing apparel. They also manufacture a finer fabric from it and make paper from the bark of the Fusang tree. Mexico means the land of the sentry plant, just as Fusang was named for the Fusang tree. In no other country in the world is there a plant put to such uses as those described by Huishan but the magay, or sentry plant, of Mexico. The sprouts of the sentry plant do resemble those of the bamboo, and the people do eat them. The plant does furnish a rough sort of thread, from which a kind of hempen cloth is made, and also a fine variety resembling linen. Furthermore, paper is made from the sentry plant, but from the fiber and not the bark. The prickly pair of Mexico is usually reddish and edible, though indeed it does not grow on the sentry plant. Huishan might have added yet other attributes of the sentry plant, notably its provision of intoxicating liquor, but it seems quite improbable that he should have hit upon such a clearly recognizable description of a wonderful plant which was utterly unknown in Asia unless he had, in fact, seen it. The country contains no iron, said Huishan, but it produces copper, gold and silver are not valued, and trade is conducted without duties and levies and without fixed prices. Iron ore existed in Mexico but was unknown to the natives while copper was indeed abundant. Trade was carried on by means of barter, without a circulating medium, while gold and silver were used principally for ornaments. They have no citadels or walled cities, no soldiers or military appliances, and they do not wage war in that kingdom, said Huishan. This accords with the view of writers about the pre-Aztek peoples of Mexico, for the warlike Nawa tribes, among whom the Aztecs were numbered, did not arrive until the thirteenth century. They have a species of writing, said Huishan. It is generally recognized that the Mexicans had a highly developed pictographic writing which contained the germ of a phonetic writing. Long description was given by Huishan of the methods of punishment for crime, including such features as covering an offender with ashes and leaving him to die. This and other practices referred to survived in Mexico down to the time of the Spanish conquest. Similarly, the marriage customs were in part described with a mention of unique features in a statement that the marriage ceremony resembled that of China, and here too the estimate was remarkably true to the facts with regard to Mexico. Finally, the story of Huishan agrees strangely with the Mexican legend of the Pias Quetzalcoatl, who came from across the seas and introduced many religious practices into the country. The likenesses of the old Mexican religion to early Buddhism are many striking. There is a record of a high priest of Mishtaka who was called Te Saka or the Man of Saka. It is at least a curious parallel that Buddha himself was called Sakyamuni or the Man Hermit of Sakyamuni. The root Zaka, Sakyamuni, it may be noticed occurs frequently in Mexican place names, for example Zakatula Zacatecas. Much more evidence might be given, but it is perhaps already sufficiently clear that Huishan had indeed visited Mexico. Furthermore, the five Buddhist missionaries must surely have passed along the coast of California on their way to Mexico. They or others like them did indeed introduce a new religion, including the institution of a monastic system, and they reformed the manners and customs of Mexico perhaps also better. But the people of the New World remained of the same race and in much the same state of backwardness as before, for only stray individuals came from the Far East and not any more or less civilized mass. The question arises why such an enlightened and numerous people as the Chinese did not take over this Pacific coast land of which they had heard, when because of its relatively slight population and lack of advancement it might have seemed easy to do so. The history of China would undoubtedly provide a satisfactory answer. Attention may be called the two interesting facts of that history which might have acted as a deterrent. One of them was the long survival of feudalism in Chinese life involving the separate rule and separate ambitions of different princes. China was unable, therefore, to develop as a strong unitary government, and such loosely formed empires as China was do not ordinarily engage in overseas undertaking. There is too much trouble at home. The second factor was the binding conservatism of Chinese tradition which goes thousands of years farther back than that of any other great living people. In the time of Confucius, 551 to 479 BC, the Chinese were unquestionably many centuries ahead of their contemporaries in Western Europe, but by the 5th century AD the day had already come when they were too contented with the greatness of their past and stratification had set in. Confucius himself formulated the moral ideas of the Chinese in a way that satisfied them, and they proceeded more and more, henceforth, to turn inward upon themselves. Instead of pursuing natural science and observation, they devoted themselves to memorizing ancient books, for in them they thought the problems of life had been solved. Such a state of mind was not calculated to produce a trans-Pacific conquest. It is well to remember, however, that for all of their advantages the acquisition of a foothold on the North American Pacific coast would have been slow and difficult process involving the necessity for advancing bases of supply. China was far away and the route to California was over the water. But, as I already pointed out, the sea route they would have used was an extraordinarily favorable one, and China had almost unlimited time. The Russians went all away from European Russia to California in less than 300 years. From a point much nearer at hand and with as good an opportunity to go by land, China had a thousand-year chance. But the peril never passed the bounds of potentiality. Footnote. The principal basis for this chapter is Vining Edward Payson, an inglorious Columbus or evidence that Huishan and a party of Buddhist monks from Afghanistan discovered America in the 5th century AD. New York, 1885. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of a history of California, the Spanish period. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 4. The Japanese Opportunity in the Pacific in the Early Modern Period. If the Chinese had something of an opportunity in ancient times to acquire a foothold in California and along the Pacific coast, the Japanese had a still better opening, all things considered, in the early 17th century. Japan was at that time relatively as powerful with respect to the rest of the world as she is today, and would have had very little opposition in encompassing any designs for an extension of her commercial and political influence. Spain alone stood in the way from the side of the Americas, and Spain was already a power with more enemies in Europe than she was able to cope with. Furthermore, under the great shogun Ayayasu, Japan looked clearly toward the east, and made persistent, though fruitless, endeavors to follow a policy of peaceful penetration in Mexico through the medium of trade. Those who today believe they'd describe a yellow peril might indeed have had occasion for alarm had they lived three centuries ago. Fortunately for the future of the United States, however, a strange chance intervened to turn Japan aside from her projects and to close the door of opportunity for more than two hundred years. By that time the United States had come into the most important part of her heritage along the Pacific, and the danger was reduced to less discernible proportions. From the standpoint of chronology the Spaniards come next after the Chinese, but it seemed best to deal here, once and for all, with the Japanese opportunity. The early history of Japan is a maze of mythical obscurity, and it was not until the fifth century that the records which have come down to us can be termed authentic. The middle of the sixth century, however, is a better point of departure in the history of Japan, for it was then in 552 that Buddhism was introduced, and with it an advance in culture which brought Japan for the first time to the plain of what we call civilization. Little need be said here of the next thousand years of Japanese history. It was at the close of the twelfth century that the Shogunate was established to endure for nearly seven centuries. This institution was of the same character as that of the mayors of the palace in early French history, whereby the monarchs were reduced to the position of Mire-Roy-Foyant, or do nothing kings, with only nominal sovereignty. The Japanese Shoguns had the function of providing for the defense and tranquility of the empire, and were given the entire military resources of the state in order to achieve these ends. Thus the emperors tended more and more to withdraw from active political life and to be looked upon as gods. Meanwhile feudalism in all its evils with military lords more or less dominant on their own estates was the keynote of national life. Civil war was almost incessant. It is particularly to be noted that the period from 1333 to 1603 was one of constant life. During this medieval era of Japan, too, the Buddhist priesthood became enormously wealthy and powerful, and got wholly out of sympathy with a mass of the people. Japan was still in a chaotic state when trade relations with the European people were established for the first time. This was with the Portuguese, who visited Japan in 1542, after which date their ships regularly appeared at Japanese ports, introducing among other things firearms and a knowledge of how to use them. In 1549 the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis Javier came in a Portuguese ship to plant the first seeds of the Christian faith in that country. He could not have arrived at a more propitious time, for the people were in a spirit of revolt against Buddhism. Other Jesuits followed in a few years the number of their converts reached the hundreds of thousands. Attention may here be called to other events tending to produce an awakening of Japan to the greatness of her opportunity in the Pacific. In 1565 the Spaniards had made a beginning of the conquest of the Philippines, and a few years later established themselves at Manila, whence a ship sailed each year past Japan and on to Acapulco and Mexico. In 1580 Philip II of Spain became king of Portugal, although he agreed to keep the dominions of the two crowns separate, this brought the Portuguese East Indies and Portuguese activities in Japan under a measure of Spanish control. Meanwhile the Dutch had broken away from the government of Philip II and chose to direct their attacks primarily against his Portuguese dominions. In 1600 a Dutch ship appeared in Japan. On this boat as pilot was a certain Will Adams, probably the first Englishman to set foot in Japan. Many tales are told about this man. He became a favorite of the Shogun and was heaped with wealth, honors, and wives, though by his own account he was a virtual prisoner in the island kingdom and long to return to his family in Europe. This romance loses some of its flavor when we learn that Will Adams was on one occasion sent to the Philippines and returned to his Japanese wives. Nevertheless he was an important figure. To the Japanese he was able to teach something of the arts of navigation and shipbuilding. To his Dutch friends he was a useful helper, being in part responsible for the grant to them of trading privileges, as a result of which Dutch ships came regularly to Japan from 1609 onward. It may be mentioned too that English ships engaged in commerce with Japan from 1613 to 1623. At the opening of the 17th century the Japanese were indeed a people to reckon with in the affairs of the Pacific. In social organization and material achievements they were not far behind the Europe of the day. For example they had schools with courses in ethics, law, history, and mathematics and were in the habit of accumulating libraries. Feudalism still existed but had only recently been stamped out in Europe. They knew how to use ordinary firearms and cannon and were capable of warfare on a large scale. Indeed the Japanese were distinctly a military people. Under the Great Shogun Hideyoshi from 1582 to 1598, later called the Napoleon of Japan, an army of nearly 200,000 made an invasion of Korea while many thousand more were held in the islands in reserve. Many other large armies were utilized in this period for campaigns in Japan. The ability to handle these large forces must needs have been great. Furthermore the Japanese were a race of sailors. Fishing has always been one of the leading industries of the Japanese people. They were also engaging in trade with lands as far away as India and had established colonies in Luzon, Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Siam. Against this powerful people Spain could oppose little more than a corporal's guard of fighting men. The total Spanish population of the Philippines was only a few hundred and the soldiers of the entire empire of Spain and America did not number far into the thousands. Not more than enough to combat the hostile Indians along the borders. Following the root of the current across the North Pacific it should not have been difficult for the Japanese to establish advancing bases along the islands mainland coasts until they reached California. Incidentally all Australasia and Oceania presented to them a wide open opportunity. It becomes pertinent then to trace the workings of two opposite factors. That which urged the Japanese on in their attitude favoring Trans-Pacific relations and that which induced them to give up this idea and to shut themselves in in their island empire away from communication with the outside world. Hideyoshi was an imperialist and though he turned his attention more particularly toward Korea he did not neglect to consider the possibilities of Japanese expansion to European possessions in the Pacific. In 1592 he sent an embassy to the Philippines to demand the subjection of those islands to his rule. Nothing came of this and it was not until after Hideyoshi's death in 1598 that further steps were taken. Hideyoshi was succeeded by Ayayasu although he did not take the title of Shogun until 1603 who was for several years engaged in consolidating his power in Japan. Nevertheless in the year 1598 when he came into actual authority he intimated very strongly to a Spanish friar that he would be glad to have the ships from the Philippines stop in Japan on their way to Mexico and engage in trade with the Japanese. In 1599 he sent an envoy to Manila to press his request. When the Spanish governor of the Philippines did not embrace the offer, due as Ayayasu thought to the depredations of Japanese pirates, the Shoguns seized and executed two hundred of the Buccaneers and then sent a second envoy to Manila. This man arrived in 1602 bearing the Shogun's message. Nothing would satisfy my desires, wrote Hideyoshi, so much as to see merchant vessels establishing frequent communication between my country and New Spain or Mexico. He referred also to the advantages Spanish vessels would have in being able to take shelter in Japanese ports and to his wish to see Japanese vessels making voyages between the Quanto and New Spain. In the same year a Franciscan friar came from Japan to urge acquiescence in Ayayasu's proposals on the ground that it would make the Japanese government more willing than they had recently shown themselves to be to accept Christian teaching in Japan. This factor, coupled with several others, induced the governor to petition the royal authorities in Spain for permission to establish the trade. Several voyages between the Philippines and Japan were made in the next few years, but nothing was done about opening trade relations between Japan and New Spain, though Ayayasu continued to desire it. Will Adams was sent to Manila in 1608 and made arrangements whereby the annual ship from Manila should touch at a Japanese port, but it was not to take Japanese goods to New Spain. In 1609, however, Governor Vivero, who was proceeding to Mexico after having completed his term of office in the Philippines, was wrecked off the coast of Japan and obliged to remain in that country until the following year. He was well treated by Ayayasu, who again spoke of his desire for the trade with New Spain. When the Franciscans joined their voices to that of Ayayasu, for they were alarmed lest the river that was being shown to the Protestant Dutch might operate to check Catholic missionary endeavor, Vivero was convinced, so in 1610, when he set sail from Japan, he was accompanied by twenty-three Japanese merchants in an envoy from Ayayasu to the King of Spain. When Vivero reached Mexico, he found that an expedition was just about to sail toward Japan in search of two mysterious islands said to be rich in gold and silver, wherefore they came to be known by the names Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata. Footnote number one. It is usually stated that they had been first visited by a Portuguese navigator, but a remark in Gimeli Carreira's account of his travels around the world identifies them with the Solomon Islands. These islands were discovered in 1567 by Álvaro Mindaña de Naíra, who headed another expedition in 1595 with a view to taking possession of this group. This time the islands were not found, and for two centuries they remained one of the mysteries of the Pacific. What more natural than that they should have traveled, like so many other things the Spaniards expected to find farther north. Gimeli calls the commander Álvaro de Vendosa and gives 1596 as the date, but actually goes on to describe the voyage of Mindaña in 1595. End of footnote one. These islands were sought more as a way station at which the ships from the Philippines might stop than for the wealth they might contain. The Spanish authorities believed this course would be safer than to utilize a Japanese port. The commander of the expedition of 1611 in search of Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata was a man who has become widely known in the annals of California, for it was none other than Sebastián Vizcaíno, who had made a famous voyage to Monterey in the years 1602 to 1603. Footnote two. The relation of Vizcaíno to the California's is discussed in Chapter 11. End of footnote. It was now decided that Vizcaíno should first visit Japan in order to thank Ayayasu for the kindness he had shown to the Vero and to take back the Japanese merchants. He was also to seek permission to make a survey of Japanese ports on the ground that the Spaniards wished to know the best ports in which to take shelter in case of a storm. However good a navigator Vizcaíno may have been, the event proved that he was hardly qualified for an ambassadorial task. He embittered the Japanese merchants on board his ship by threatening to hang some of them unless they refrained from quarreling with his sailors. The message that these merchants gave to Ayayasu about their mission to Mexico was also not calculated to please that ruler. They reported that the Spaniards had thanked them but had gone on to say, Our countries are far apart and navigation is difficult. Pray do not come again. Nevertheless, Vizcaíno was received at the courts of both the Shogun and the Emperor but gave a fence by refusing to conform to Japanese court etiquette and by making it plain that he considered his king or even the viceroy of New Spain whom he in fact represented as superior to the highest authorities in Japan. He was given permission however to make a survey of the Japanese ports which he accordingly did. Soon afterward in 1612 he left Japan in order to search for Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata. Arrived at the place where they were indicated on the map, he searched three weeks without finding them, which is not to be wondered at since they were not there. Forced back by storms, Vizcaíno returned to Japan but this time did not get the cordial reception which had previously been granted him. Many things conduced to this end. Vizcaíno had concealed the primary object of his voyage which was the discovery of the two rich islands. This became known to the Japanese authorities through Will Adams and the Dutch, who also informed them that it was unwise to have allowed the Spaniards to survey the Japanese ports. As undoubtedly this was done by them with ulterior motives in view. It was the Spanish way, they said, to send missionaries to stir up rebellion and then troops to effect a conquest. Ayayasu was displeased but seems not to have been alarmed. Vizcaíno too had been guilty of inconsistencies in discussing the objects of his mission. On one occasion he maligned the Dutch and said that the principal business about which he had come to Japan was to find out whether the Japanese intended to be friends with the Dutch, for if that people were allowed to enter Japan the King of Spain would not consent to have his own subjects trade there. It was well known too that he represented only the viceroy of New Spain instead of the King as he had made pretense of doing. Nevertheless Ayayasu continued to request the Spaniards to consent to the trade with Mexico, though the petitions were presented by other hands than Vizcainos. The latter, meanwhile, had procured another ship since his own had become unseaworthy and departed on this in 1613. He records that he was virtually no more than a passenger on this vessel, which belonged to a powerful Japanese lord, and he seems to have left it at the first port in New Spain, though the ship went on to Acapulco, arriving there early in 1614. The Spanish government had for a time been disposed to permit the trade between Japan and Mexico, and in 1612 the Council of the Indies formally gave advice to that effect to the King. Immediately there was a chorus of objections. The Portuguese of Macau feared that it would ruin their trade. The Jesuits felt that it might result in giving over Japan to the Franciscans from Manila, and the Manila merchants who were profiting by the trade between the Philippines and Japan were inclined to believe that they would be injured by the competition of Mexico. These elements were able to carry the day. The Japanese trade with Manila was saved, but that with Mexico never got fairly under way. More might have been accomplished but for the death of Aeyasu in 1616. His successors found reason to distrust the Spaniards with the result that in 1624 all communications with them were discontinued. The prime cause for the cessation of commercial relations was the same as that which a few years later caused Japan to close their doors to Europeans and shut herself in. This was the aversion of the Japanese government to Christianity. The early successes of the Portuguese Jesuits in Japan have already been alluded to. Much of their good fortune was due to the support of the warrior Nobunaga, 1573 to 1582, who made use of Christianity to overthrow the then much more powerful and more feared Buddhist priesthood. Hideyoshi, 1582 to 1598, seemed at first to favour the new religion, but in 1587 he executed a sudden about face and ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan, alleging that they had preached things contrary to the law and had even had the audacity to destroy temples devoted to other religions. Back of this there seems to have been a suspicion that the Jesuits aimed at an ultimate foreign conquest. It was noticed that they were very successful in their attempts to convert certain of the powerful nobles, and some thought that this was done with a viewed promoting civil war, into which a foreign government could wedge itself for the sake of achieving its own ends. The Jesuits succeeded in evading this decree, and nothing serious occurred for another ten years. Meanwhile, several Spanish Franciscans from the Philippines came to Japan in 1593 as an embassy to the Shogun, but really with the intention of preaching their religion despite the fact that a papal bull of 1585 had granted the Japanese field to the Jesuits. The Franciscans established themselves in Kyoto, and very soon there were evidences of a dissension between them and the Jesuits. Affairs came to a head in 1596. A richly laden Manila Galleon, the San Felipe, under Captain Landecho, was lured into a Japanese port in that year by a Japanese noble, forced upon the beach, and was then claimed by the wily Japanese on the ground that all stranded vessels in their cargoes were the property of the authorities on whose shores they had been driven. Landecho endeavored to recover his ship in its precious freight, but was unable to do so since Hideoshi himself was sharing in the loot. Unable to accomplish anything by soft words, Landecho at length tried threats, dwelling upon the power of the mighty Spanish king, in proof of which he produced a map of the world to show his vast domains. Asked how it was that so many countries had come to acknowledge the sway of one man, Landecho replied, Our kings begin by sending missionaries into the countries they wish to conquer. These induce the people to embrace our religion, and when they have made considerable progress troops are sent to combine with the new Christians, then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest. This speech made a very different impression from the one the imprudent captain expected. Hideoshi decided that the time had come to strike at this faith, which at the least seemed likely to produce civil war from which Japan was just on the point of emerging after two centuries of conflict. The result was the first edict of persecution in 1597 directed against the Spanish Franciscans and their Japanese converts. Twenty-six of them were mutilated and crucified. The Jesuits had not been excluded from the terms of the decree, but were protected by their powerful friends, although the order of 1587 was renewed for their expulsion from the country. The death of Hideoshi in 1598 halted the persecutions. As already mentioned Ayayasu was eager for Spanish trade and was therefore ready to tolerate Christian teaching though without approval. Thus the Jesuits and Franciscans renewed their labors, the latter having in 1600 secured a veto of the exclusive Jesuit right to the field. Later Augustinian and Dominican fathers also came. Many incidents occurred which tended to revive the former Japanese suspicions. Vizcaino, for example, was unwise enough to remark that his master, the king of Spain, had no desire for trade but Japan, what he really wanted was the extension of the Catholic faith. Ayayasu's views were just the opposite. He wrote to the viceroy of New Spain in 1612, urging an interchange of merchandise, but if Christianity said, I am persuaded it would not suit us, adding that it would be best to put an end to the preaching of your doctrine on our soil. The persistent quarrels of the Franciscans and the Jesuits, the unfortunate manner in which Vizcaino conducted his mission and the interpretation placed upon his axe by Will Adams the Dutch, the reports Ayayasu got about Christianity from emissaries he sent to Europe, the discovery of treason in the ranks of Christian-Japanese nobles in his own personal following at length caused Ayayasu to uproot the foreign religion. There were persecutions and deportations in 1612, 1613, and especially in 1614, though none of the missionaries were put to death. Yet the missionaries evaded deportations or else made their way back after they had been sent out of the country. Hidetara, 1616 through 1632, the successor of Ayayasu, harried the persecutions to greater extremes, and the missionaries now began to be tortured and executed, as also were Japanese converts, while the Spanish trade was sacrificed as a necessary measure to ensure riddance of Christianity. The death of Hidetara bought no pause in the persecutions for his son and successor Ayayasu was of the same mind. It is said that from the time of the first persecutions down to 1635 no fewer than 280,000 Japanese were punished for accepting Christianity. In 1636 the Japanese went a step further and took the fatal action which ended their opportunity for expansion in the Pacific. By the edict of 1636 Japanese Christians were ordered to apostatize and Japanese subjects were forbidden to visit Christian lands. To make this latter provision effective it was ordered that henceforth no large ships were to be built in Japan, thus rendering it difficult for the Japanese to leave the country. Furthermore, the death penalty was imposed upon any Japanese subject who should do so, in case he ever returned no excuse was taken and it is said that even those who had been driven from the islands by storm were executed. The Portuguese and Dutch were allowed under great restrictions to continue their trade but otherwise a policy of non-intercourse with the outside world was to be followed. This measure produced the great Christian revolt of Shimabara of 1637 to 1638 but the government put it down and massacred the survivors. As the Portuguese were suspected of complicity in the revolt they were forbidden to set foot in Japan again. When the Portuguese of Macau sent an embassy in 1640 to ask for a renewal of their trading privileges the Japanese governor burned their ship put the four ambassadors and fifty-seven of their attendants to death and gave the following message to the few who were permitted to live and return to Macau. Inform the inhabitants of Macau that the Japanese wished to receive from them neither gold nor silver nor any kinds of presents or merchandise in a word absolutely nothing that comes from them. You are witnesses that I have caused even the clothing of those who were executed yesterday to be burned. Let them do the same with respect to us if they find occasion to do so. We consent to it without difficulty. Let them think of us no more just as if we were no longer in the world. While the sun warms the earth let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan and let them all know that if King Philip of Spain himself or the very God of the Christians or even the great Buddha shall contraven this prohibition he will pay for it with his head. Thus did the wide-awake Japan of Hideyoshi and Ayayasu pass into a profound sleep under their successors. A sleep which endured until Commodore Perry entered the Bay of Tokyo in 1853 and induced the Japanese much against their will to reopen the country. Thus did Christianity in a left-handed manner render a service to those white races which now hold lands around the Pacific. Because of their disapproval of Christianity the Japanese deprived themselves of an opportunity to be the dominant power in the Pacific. Perhaps also in its train a world power beyond anything that a Japanese at the present day would even dream about. Possibly they would not have availed themselves of their chance but who can deny that they most certainly had it. And one of the readiness lands to hand was the old California's reaching from Cape San Lucas to Alaska unoccupied in most of its extent until the close of the 18th century inviting in its potentialities and lying along the island-studded route of the Japanese current. Footnote 3 The following works were used in the preparation of this chapter. One, Ken and George how Japan lost their chance in the Pacific in the outlook for June 27, 1914. Two, Murakami Neojiro Japan's early attempts to establish commercial relations with Mexico in the Pacific Ocean in History, New York, 1917. Three, Murdoch James with collaboration of Aiso Yamagata a history of Japan during the century of early foreign intercourse between 1942 to 1651. Kobe, Japan, 1903. Four, Natal Zelia the earliest historical relations between Mexico and Japan in University of California publications in American archeology and ethnology Berkeley, 1904. End of footnote 3 End of chapter 4