Marin County CA Archives History - Books .....II Early Visitors To The "Mouth Of Waters" 1958 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 11, 2007, 12:54 am Book Title: Shark Point - High Point II Early Visitors to the "Mouth of Waters" BEFORE Portola claimed the lands of Alta California for the Spanish crown in 1769, Spanish explorers had been primarily interested in Baja California. Cabrillo had first touched the Pacific Coast in 1542, but the Spanish made no attempt to interfere in the life of the Indians for more than two hundred years. In the summer of 1775, Juan Manuel de Ayala, a 30-year-old lieutenant of the Royal Spanish Navy, was given a commision from Junipero Serra and the Mexican Viceroy, Bucareli, to proceed to "the arm of the sea tying north of Monterey" which the padres had twice reported, to see if it were a canal or a bay, perhaps even the legendary "mouth of waters" of which the Indians spoke. His orders were to survey those waters for the Mexican government. According to these instructions, then, Ayala crept up the coast from Monterey in heavy coastal fog and on the ninth day he sighted the narrow passage which now is known the world over as the Golden Gate. The strong ebb tides in the mouth of the bay and the narrow, rock-lined shore seem to have kept out any major exploring expedition until this time. Ayala's first mate, Juan Canizares, went into the bay in a small boat to see if it were pracitical for the frigate, the San Carlos, to enter. The water was found to be deep and relatively free from obstructions. But the small boat was caught in strong currents and could not return with this information. Nevertheless, Ayala instructed that the San Carlos be taken into the bay. And on the night of August 5, 1775, the Spanish frigate sailed into the bay, through the rock-guarded passage of the Golden Gate. Having safely entered, Ayala moored his vessel just inside on the beach of present-day Sausalito. Morning revealed that he had chosen too muddy a spot. He selected the largest of the islands and anchored in what is now Hospital Cove on Raccoon Strait, off Angel Island. Wood and water were in abundance and the natives on the peninsula shores most friendly. He brought his brigantine safely into the cove on the day of Our Lady Queen of the Angels. He read mass on the beach, waved the flag of Spain and gave nine cheers for the King. In gratitude, Ayala named his island "Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles". In their boats and rafts, the Indians soon surrounded the San Carlos and traded furs, fruits, berries and oysters with the crew. The Indians from the shark-infested waters and the wooded hills treated the Spanish sailors to their first California clam bake at the feast village on the northeastern end of Belvedere. They were so welcome that Ayala stayed in Hospital Cove a full forty-four days. Most of the actual charting was done by Canizares since Ayala was laid up for a while with a festered foot. But the lieutenant instructed that special attention be paid to the shore of Marin. Ayala named all of the area, but the only names which have come down to us are Tiburon, Angel and Alcatraz. Alcatraz is named for the many pelicans that roosted on the small southern island. Tiburon is called on his map "Punta de Tiburon", literally Shark's Point. Ayala's voyage had. quick results and the presidio and the Mission Dolores were both established on the large southern peninsula, Yerba Buena (so named for a fragrant herb used by both the Spanish and Indians). The San Francisco presidio was the last of the forts built by the Spanish to give some protection to possible colonists in California. Lieut. Jose Joaquin Moraga (or Morgaja), Sgt. Pablo Grigalba, two corporals and sixteen soldiers made up the first garrison. There were seven civilian settlers. Father Junipero Serra did not himself come to Yerba Buena but sent two of his order: Fathers Palou and Cambon. The story of Yerba Buena often has been told and has no place here. But Angel Island is our neighbor and deserves her own mention in this local history. The island remained uninhabited until 1839 when Governor Alvarado granted it as a rancho to Don Antonio Maria Osio, a customs official, to hold it as long as he or his major domo stayed in constant residence and guarded it from the Russian and Aleut fur hunters. Osio built four houses and a small reservoir. The well water was salty and he found no springs on the island. (According to Ranger Don Rover, park supervisor for Angel Island, there are now two adequate fresh water wells on the island.) Osio's claim was not welcomed by the Russians, who had held a store house for trading and storing otter furs on Angel Island. The sale of Fort Ross by Russia to Captain John A. Sutter was signed in this structure in 1841. Earlier, the island had been included in the grant of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio to John Reed. But Reed made no attempt to live on the island. To the whaling fleets, the island was known as "Wood Island" because it was possible to cut enough wood in about a week to last a ship a year. (See Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast.) The naming of Raccoon Strait apparently had nothing to do with the animal or the local Coon Indians. The strait was named for the British ship Raccoon which anchored there in 1814. The island's colorful history hasn't always been pleasant. While the state penitentiary was being built at San Quentin, in 1853, convicted criminals were confined in hulks anchored off Hospital Cove. Cannon were emplaced, and Fort McDowell was established at about this time. In more recent years, the island has been United States government property and for a number of years was district headquarters and detention barracks for the immigration and naturalization service as well as quarantine station of the public health service and overseas replacement depot. Alcatraz was known as White Island by the Indians. Fremont bought the island in 1849 for a "fortification" in the name of the United States government. The first light house on the coast was on Alcatraz in 1854. The first actual fortifications were built during the Civil War and these are the foundations of the present Federal penitentiary for desperate criminals. In 1875 a West Indian, Charles Stewart, came to the light house at Yerba Buena Island with a story of loot on one of the "other islands" of the bay. An out-bound Arctic whaler in 1837 stopped at Callao, Peru, where there was a rebellion. Two heavy barrels and a chest were brought to the captain for safe keeping. Since the rebellion didn't settle, the captain sailed up the coast to San Francisco Bay and buried the barrels and chest of jewels on a "sort of an island" in the bay, because he was afraid of losing them on the whaling voyage. Stewart claimed to have been one of the four men who assisted in the burying. All four deserted in the North. One was shot by the captain as the escape began. The vessel itself was lost in the Arctic. Off Strawberry Point is one of the more interesting "islands" of our peninsula. Where Richardson Bay Bridge joins Strawberry and the Tiburon area, the wooded island now known as De Silva's Island, was owned by J. Dalzell Brown in the early 1900s. Brown refused to let land or bridge be connected to "his" island. He wanted privacy. Whenever he wanted to leave, he flagged down the train crossing on the trestle to Lyford Station, had himself rowed over to the foot of Strawberry by his Chinese servant and then shopped or traveled as his fancy chose. Father Pedro Font, a member of the Anza expedition, wrote that "within the harbor I counted eight islands". Certainly, then, Father Font was counting Angel, Alcatraz, Yerba Buena (or Goat Island) and our own Belvedere and possibly also Corinthian. He must have gone as far as Mare Island, too, in the examination of the bay. As to Tiburon Peninsula, Ayala's survey was the starting point for the development of the entire area. When British Captain Beechey, commanding H. M. S. Blossom anchored in San Francisco Bay to map the area, he, too, paid particular attention to the Tiburon Peninsula, so much so that his maps showing Belvedere to be connected to the Peninsula by mud flats were later used to prove that Belvedere was not an island and hence could not be taken from private estate by the U. S. government. Beechey's log and correspondence at this time (1825-27-29) note that the Mexicans in the region were exporting quantities of hides, tallow and manteca (lard) as well as horses to the Sandwich Islands and grain to the Russians at Sitka and Kodiak in Alaska. This trade was so brisk that it threatened to replace the Canton fur business which had opened the Pacific to the money from New England. John Fremont's 1848 map of the bay area is not entirely readable, but this is the first naming of the Golden Gate, Chrysopylae, as it was registered by Fremont in Washington. Ayala's names, Tiburon, Angel Island and Alcatraz, also were kept. The actual mapping of Marin County has been comparatively easy to trace since it is prominent on any of the San Francisco Bay mappings. Historically, San Francisco Bay is not shown or mentioned in the earliest maps. If Drake's "Bay" is San Francisco Bay, then the Hondius broadside is the first "map" of the San Francisco area, dated 1579. More of this later. Ortelium shows California as a peninsula in 1589 with a nearly accurate outline of the Bay of Monterey, but no indication of any major northern inlet is made. The seventeenth century map of the globe by Visscher shows a surprisingly accurate Western Hemisphere with an indentation above Monterey which might be San Francisco Bay, but California itself is shown as an island. The earliest accurate map we have seen is the previously mentioned Frederick Beechey map of 1827-1828. 1841, 1843 and 1853 maps are to be found in the Grabhorn Press book, "The Maps of San Francisco Bay". An 1873 map showing the finally confirmed grant to the Reed heirs is in the Marin County Court House. Two maps which show Belvedere differently were published in the same year, 1850, in the heat of the Gold Rush. One shows Belvedere and Corinthian as definite islands, while the other shows them as an integral part of the Tiburon Peninsula. This leads us to believe that the mud flats were responsible for the way the different maps were drawn. In other words, when the tide went out, the mud flats connected Belvedere to the peninsula; and when it came in, Belvedere appeared to be an island. The map showing the definite islands was taken from the official map of the French Consul at Monterey. The other was drawn by a man named Jackson and printed in New York for the use of gold prospectors. The first official U.S. exploring expedition entered San Francisco Bay in 1841, acording to the Marin County chronology sheets in the county library, but we were not able to locate a recorded map of this expedition. The earliest British visitor to California landed just 37 years after Cabrillo had first touched the Pacific Coast. His name was Sir Francis Drake and his famous ship was the Golden Hinde. The commonly accepted theory locates Drake's New Albion at Drake's Bay on the ocean side of Marin County. However, another theory is that he careened in that part of Lyford's Cove in Tiburon which now is known as Keil Cove. The Golden Hinde when heavily loaded drew approximately thirteen feet of water. However, it drew as little as seven or eight feet when made ready for careening. Early maps indicate depths of eight to ten feet at Keil Cove and the Golden Hinde could have been careened there. Another thing that points to Keil Cove is that, in certain lights, the cliffs near there appear to be chalky white. A "chalk look" was a factor that led Drake to call his mooring spot New Albion. Francis Fletcher, chaplain with the Drake expedition, described in his diary some white cliffs which reminded Drake of the "Seven Sisters" on the Sussex seacoast of England. He came to the conclusion that he had landed on the 38th parallel. Parallel 38° leads us to Point San Quentin near where the famous Brass Plaque was found. This Brass Plaque was found in 1936 among some rocks on a hill near the Greenbrae intersection of Highway 101. Dr. Herbert E. Bolton of the University of California has identified the object as being Drake's "Plate of Brass" which is described in publications of journals and records of Drake's voyage. The plate is now on display in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Fletcher's diary described the weather as very foggy so that they could not take the height of the sun or stars. This is a weather condition common to this area in late July and early August. Some historians believe that the Jodocus Hondius broadside map correlates more closely with the Tiburon Peninsula and Belvedere Island than it does with Drake's Bay. There have been several artifacts found in this area, besides the controversial "Plate of Brass" found near San Quentin. A halberd, found in 1955 during excavation work at Reed School, dates from the 16th to 18th century. This halberd, or spear, was found as a county road crew was excavating a drainage ditch at the southwest corner of the Reed School playground, site of a small Indian village. The man who found it took it to the University of California for identification, but it was not shown to any one in our area, and the owner has not yet been located. The halberd is believed to be of Indonesian, possibly Javanese, origin. Robert H. Power, an amateur historian, revived the theory of a San Francisco Bay landing for the Drake party and is one of its principal champions. His group, the Nova Albion Explorations, financed an examination of Indian shell mounds at Point San Quentin in 1955 by Dr. Adam E. Treganza, archeologist. In his introduction to Dr. Treganza's report on the project, Mr. Power wrote: "This (finding of the halberd) raises the question of whether the halberd and the Drake plate of brass found at Point San Quentin may be historically related, and if so, is this the beginning of an archeological pattern of 16th Century material in the San Quentin and Tiburon area?" All of this leads us to believe that Drake's first anchorage was in the lee of Angel Island where Hondius drew his broadside map, and the second anchorage was on Tiburon or Point San Quentin. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Shark Point - High Point An Illustrated History of TIBURON & BELVEDERE IN MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA BY EIGHTH GRADERS OF THE REED SCHOOL CLASSES OF 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 PUBLISHED BY THE REED SCHOOL DISTRICT PARENT-TEACHER CLUB BELVEDERE-TIBURON MCMLVIII Designed by Lawton Kennedy, San Francisco 3000 Copies Printed by R. G. Fontana & Son, San Anselmo File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/marin/history/1958/sharkpoi/iiearlyv512nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 15.2 Kb