Merced County CA Archives History - Books .....First American Settlers To California 1925
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Book Title: History Of Merced County California

CHAPTER III

FIRST AMERICAN SETTLERS TO CALIFORNIA

   "The significant work of the overland fur traders," says Cleland, "came to an
end about 1840." We shall find settlement by Americans in the San Joaquin
Valley—though we cannot say in what now is or ever was Merced County—had already
begun before this date.

   Anyone who has traveled the western slope of the Sierra Ne-vadas anywhere
from the passes which lead over in the region of Lake Tahoe to as far south as
the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne, has very likely been struck with the distant
clear-cut peak of Mount Diablo, rising above the lesser hills clear across the
San Joaquin Valley. As a landmark it stood without an equal to the weary
emigrants from the East after their long and trying journey across more than a
thousand miles beyond the then most westerly boundaries of the United States.

   At the foot of this mountain, which now gives its name to the meridian and
baseline from which nearly all the surveys of the State north of the Tehachapi
are reckoned, Dr. John Marsh, an American gentleman of education and ability,
had in 1837 purchased the three square leagues of the Rancho Los Meganos. The
doctor lived in a small adobe house near the point where he afterwards built
"The Marsh Stone House." Here he lived until his death in 1856, and his ranch or
Captain Sutter's fort at New Helvetia was the goal of most of the early emigrant
parties.

   The following letter, which Dr. Marsh wrote to Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of
War, in 1842, is so illuminative of the period and the situation, that we give
it in full:

                         "Farm of Pulpines, near St. Francisco,
"Hon. Lewis Cass.                                    Upper California, 1842.

   "Dear Sir: You will probably be somewhat surprised to receive a letter from
an individual from whom you have not heard, or even thought of, for nearly
twenty years; yet although the lapse of time has wrought many changes both in
men and things, the personal identity of us both has probably been left. You
will, I think, remember a youth whom you met at Green Bay in 1825, who, having
left his Alma Mater, had spent a year or two in the 'far, far West,' and was
then returning to his New England home, and whom you induced to turn his face
again toward the setting sun; that youth who, but for your influence, would
probably now have been administering pills in some quiet Yankee village, is now
a gray-haired man, breeding cattle and cultivating grape-vines on the shores of
the Pacific. Your benevolence prompted you to take an interest in the fortunes
of that youth, and it is therefore presumed you may not be unwilling to hear
from him again.

   "I left the United States in 1835, and came to New Mexico, and thence
traversing the States of Chihuahua and Sonora, crossed the Rio Colorado at its
junction with the Gila, near the tidewater of Gulph, and entered this territory
at its southern part. Any more direct route was at that time unknown and
considered impracticable.

   "I have now been more than ten years in this country, and have traveled over
all the inhabited and most of the uninhabited parts of it. I have resided eight
years where I now live, near the Bay of San Francisco, and at the point where
the rivers Sacramento and San Joaquin unite together to meet the tide-water of
the bay, about forty miles from the ocean. I possess at this place a farm about
ten miles by twelve in extent, one side of which borders on the river, which is
navigable to this point for sea-going vessels. I have at last found the far
West, and intend to end my ramblings here.

   "I perceive by the public papers that this region of country, including that
immediately north of it, which until lately was the most completely a terra
incognita of any portion of the globe, is at length attracting the attention of
the United States and Europe. The world, at length, seems to have become awake
to the natural advantages of California and Oregon, and it seems probable that
at the same moment I am writing, their political destinies are about being
settled, at least for a long time to come. I mention the two countries together
because I conceive the future destiny of this whole region to be one and
inseparable. The natural conformation of the country strongly indicates it, and
a sympathy and fellow feeling in the inhabitants is taking place, which must
soon bring about the consummation. California, as well as Oregon, is rapidly
peopling with emigrants from the United States. Even the inhabitants of Spanish
origin, tired of anarchy and misrule, would be glad to come under the American
Government.

   "The Government of the United States, in encouraging and facilitating
emigration to Oregon, is, in fact, helping to people California. It is like the
British Government sending settlers to Canada. The emigrants are well aware of
the vast superiority of California, both in soil and climate, and I may add,
facility of access. Every year shorter and better routes are being discovered,
and this year the great desideratum of a good and practical road for wheel
carriages has been found. Fifty-three wagons, with that number of families, have
arrived safely, and more than a month earlier than any previous company. The
American Government encourages emigration to Oregon by giving gratuitously some
five or six hundred acres of land to each family of actual settlers. California,
too, gives lands, not by acres, but by leagues, and has some thousands of
leagues more to give to anybody who will occupy them. Never in any instance has
less than one league been given to any individual, and the wide world from which
to select from all the unoccupied lands in the territory. While Col. Almonte,
the Mexican Minister to Washington, is publishing his proclamations in the
American newspapers forbidding people to emigrate to California, and telling
them that no lands will be given them, the actual Government here is doing just
the contrary. In fact they care about as much for the Government of Mexico as
for that of Japan.

   "It has been usual to estimate the population of Upper California at five
thousand persons of Spanish descent, and twenty thousand Indians. This estimate
may have been near the truth twenty years ago. At present the population may be
stated in round numbers at seven thousand Spaniards, ten thousand civilized, or
rather domesticated Indians. To this may be added about seven hundred Americans,
one hundred English, Irish, and Scotch, and about one hundred French, Germans,
and Italians.

   "Within the territorial limits of Upper California, taking the parallel of
42° for the northern, and the Colorado River for the southeastern boundary, are
an immense number of wild, naked, brute Indians. The number, of course, can only
be conjectured. They probably exceed a million, and may perhaps amount to double
that number.

   "The far-famed missions of California no longer exist. They have nearly all
been broken up, and the lands apportioned out into farms. They were certainly
munificent ecclestistical baronies; and although their existence was quite
incompatible with the general prosperity of the country, it seems almost a pity
to see their downfall. The immense piles of buildings and beautiful vineyards
and orchards are all that remain, with the exception of two in the southern part
of the territory, which still retain a small remnant of their former prosperity.

   "The climate of California is remarkably different from that of the United
States. The great distinguishing difference is its regularity and uniformity.
From May to October the wind is invariably from the northwest, and during this
time it never rains, and the sky is brilliantly clear and serene. The weather
during this time is temperate, and rarely oppressively warm. The nights are
always agreeably cool, and many of the inhabitants sleep in the open air the
whole year round. From October to May the southeast wind frequently blows, and
is always accompanied by rain. Snow never falls excepting in the mountains.
Frost is rare except in December or January. A proof of the mildness of the
winter this moment presents itself in the shape of a humming-bird, which I just
saw from the open window, and this is in latitude 38° on the first day of
February. Wheat is sown from October until March, and maize from March until
July. As respects human health and comfort, the climate is incomparably better
than that of any part of the United States. It is much the most healthy country
I have ever seen or have any knowledge of. There is no disease whatever that can
be attributed to the influence of the climate.

   "The face of the country differs as much from the United States as the
climate. The whole territory is traversed by ranges of mountains, which run
parallel to each other and to the coast. The highest points may be about six
thousand feet above the sea, in most places much lower, and in many parts they
dwindle to low hills. They are everywhere covered with grass and vegetation, and
many of the valleys and northern declivities abound with the finest timber
trees. Between these ranges of mountains are level valleys, or rather plains, of
every width, from five miles to fifty. The magnificent valley through which,
flow the rivers of St. Joaquin and Sacramento is jive hundred miles long, with
an average width of forty or fifty. It is intersected laterally by many smaller
rivers, abounding with salmon.

   "The only inhabitants of this valley, which is capable of supporting a
nation, are about a hundred and fifty Americans and a few Indians. No published
maps that I have seen give any correct idea of the country, excepting the
outline of the coast.

   "The Bay of San Francisco is considered by nautical men one of the finest
harbors in the world. It consists of two principal arms, diverging from the
entrance in nearly opposite directions, and each about fifty miles long, with an
average width of eight or ten. It is perfectly sheltered from every wind, has
great depth of water, is easily accessible at all times, and space enough for
half the ships in the world. The entrance is less than a mile wide, and could be
easily fortified so as to make it entirely impregnable. The vicinity abounds in
the finest timber for ship-building, and in fact everything necessary to make it
a great naval and commercial depot. If it were in the hands of a nation who knew
how to make use of it, its influence would soon be felt on all the western coast
of America, and probably through the whole Pacific.

   "I think it cannot long remain in the hands of its present owners. If it does
not come into possession of Americans, the English will have it. This port in
their hands, what will Oregon be worth to the United States? They loudly
threaten to get possession of Cuba as an offset against Texas. Will they not be
quite as likely to obtain California, as an offset against Oregon?    A British
ship of war was here last summer, whose captain was a brother of Lord Aberdeen,
and one of her lieutenants a son of Sir R. Peel. The gentlemen declared openly
that this port would soon belong to them. This I take to be only a slight
ebullition of John Bullism; but that they want this port, and will have it if
possible, there can be no doubt, a consummation most earnestly and ardently to
be deprecated by every American. I hope it may direct your views to take an
interest in this matter.

   "The agricultural capabilities of California are but very imperfectly
developed. The whole of it is remarkably adapted to the culture of the vine.
Wine and brandy of excellent quality are made in considerable quantities.
Olives, figs, and almonds grow well. Apples, pears, and peaches are abundant,
and in the southern part oranges. Cotton is beginning to be cultivated and
succeeds well. It is the finest country for wheat I have ever seen. Fifty for
one is any average crop, with very imperfect cultivation. One hundred fold is
not uncommon, and even one hundred and fifty has been produced. Maize produces
tolerably well, but not equal to some parts of the United States. Hemp, flax,
and tobacco have been cultivated on a small scale, and succeed well. The raising
of cattle is the principal pursuit of the inhabitants, and the most profitable.

   "The foreign commerce of Upper California employs from ten to fifteen sail of
vessels, mostly large ships. Somewhat more than half of these are American, and
belong exclusively to the port of Boston. The others are English, French,
Russian, Mexican, Peruvian, and Hawaiian. The French from their islands in the
Pacific and the Russians from Kamtschatka, and their establishments on the
northwest coast, resort here for provisions and live stock. The exports consist
of hides and tallow, cows, lard, wheat, soap, timber, and furs. There are
slaughtered annually about one hundred thousand head of cattle, worth $800,000.
The whole value of the exports annually amounts to about $1,000,000. The largest
item of imports is American cotton goods. The duties on imports are enormously
high, amounting on most important articles to one hundred and fifty per cent on
the original cost, and in many instances to four or five hundred. Thus, as in
most Spanish countries, a high bounty is paid to encourage smuggling. Whale
ships visit St. Francisco annually in considerable numbers for refreshments, and
fail not to profit by the facilities for illicit commerce.

   "California, although nominally belonging to Mexico, is about as independent
of it as Texas, and must ere long share the same fate. Since my residence here,
no less than four Mexican governors have been driven from the country by force
of arms. The last of these, Micheltorena, with about four hundred of his
soldiers and one hundred employes, were driven away about a year ago.

   "This occurred at the time that the rest of the nation was expelling his
master, Santa Ana, although nothing of this was known here at the time. The new
administration, therefore, with a good grace, highly approved of our conduct. In
fact, the successive administrations in Mexico have always shown a disposition
to sanction and approve of whatever we may do here, from a conscious inability
to retain even a nominal dominion over the country by any other means. Upper
California has been governed for the last year entirely by its own citizens.
Lower California is in general an uninhabited and uninhabitable desert. The
scanty population it contains lives near the extremity of the Cape, and has no
connection and little intercourse with this part of the country.

   "Upper California has a productive gold mine, and silver ore has been found
in many places. A mine of quicksilver has been very lately found in this
vicinity, which promises to be very valuable.

   "I know not, since you have been so long engaged in more weighty concerns, if
you take the same interest as formerly in Indian affairs, but since I have
supposed your personal identity to remain, I shall venture a few remarks on the
aborigines of California. In stature the California Indian rather exceeds the
average of the tribes east of the mountains. He is heavier limbed and stouter
built. They are a hairy race, and some of them have beards that would do honor
to a Turk. The color similar to that of the Algonquin race, or perhaps rather
lighter. The visage, short and broad, with wide mouth, thick lips, broad nose,
and extremely low forehead. In some individuals the hair grows quite down to the
eyebrows, and they may be said to have no forehead at all. Some few have that
peculiar conformation of the eye so remarkable in the Chinese and Tartar races,
and entirely different from the common American Indian or the Polynesian; and
with this unpromising set of features, some have an animated and agreeable
expression of countenance. The general expression of the wild Indian has nothing
of the proud and lofty bearing, or the haughtiness and ferocity so often seen
east of the mountains. It is more commonly indicative of timidity and stupidity.

   "The men and children are absolutely and entirely naked, and the dress of the
women is the least possible or conceivable remove from nudity. Their food varies
with the season. In February and March they live on grass and herbage; clover
and wild pea-vine are among the best kinds of their pasturage. I have often seen
hundreds of them grazing together in a meadow, like so many cattle.

   "They are very poor hunters of the larger animals, but very skillful in
making and managing nets for fish and fowl. They also collect in their season
great quantities of the seeds of various grasses, which are particularly
abundant. Acorns are another principal article of food, which are larger, more
abundant, and of better quality than I have seen elsewhere. The Californian is
not more different from the tribes east of the mountains in his physical than in
his moral and intellectual qualities. They are easily domesticated, not averse
to labor, have a natural aptitude to learn mechanical trades, and, I believe,
universally a fondness for music, and a facility in acquiring it.

   "The Mission of St. Joseph, when in its prosperity, had one hundred
plough-men, and I have often seen them all at work in one field, each with his
plow. It had also fifty weavers, twenty tanners, thirty shoe-makers, forty
masons, twenty carpenters, ten blacksmiths, and various other mechanics. They
are not nearly so much addicted to intoxication as is common to other Indians. I
was for some years of the opinion that they were of an entirely different race
from those east of the mountains, and they certainly have but little similarity.
The only thing that caused me to think differently is that they have the same
Moccasin game that is so common on the Mississippi, and what is more remarkable,
they accompany it by singing precisely the same tune! The diversity of language
among them is very great. It is seldom an Indian can understand another who
lives fifty miles distant; within the limits of California are at least a
hundred dialects, apparently entirely dissimilar. Few or no white persons have
taken any pains to learn them, as there are individuals in all the tribes which
have communication with the settlements who speak Spanish.

   "The children, when caught young, are most easily domesticated, and manifest
a great aptitude to learn whatever is taught them; when taken into Spanish
families, and treated with kindness, in a few months they learn the language and
habits of their masters. When they come to maturity they show no disposition to
return to the savage state. The mind of the wild Indian, of whatever age,
appears to be a tabula rasa, on which no impressions, except those of a mere
animal nature, have been made, and ready to receive any impress whatever. I
remember a remark of yours some years ago, that "Indians were only grown-up
children." Here we have a real race of infants. In mdny recent instances when a
family of white people have taken a farm in the vicinity of an Indian village,
in a short time they would have the whole tribe for willing serfs. They submit
to flagellation with more humility than the negroes. Nothing more is necessary
for their complete subjugation but kindness in the beginning, and a little
well-timed severity when manifestly deserved. It is common for the white man to
ask the Indian, when the latter has committed any fault, how many lashes he
thinks he deserves. The Indian, with a simplicity and humility almost
inconceivable, replies ten or twenty, according to his opinion of the magnitude
of the offense. The white man then orders another Indian to inflict the
punishment, which is received without the least sign of resentment or
discontent. This I have myself witnessed or I could hardly have believed it.
Throughout all California the Indians are the principal laborers; without them
the business of the country could hardly be carried on.

   "I fear the unexpected length of this desultory epistle will be tedious to
you, but I hope it will serve at least to diversify your correspondence. If I
can afford you any information, or be servicable to you in any way, I beg you to
command me. Any communication to me can be sent through the American Minister at
Mexico, or the Commanding Officer of the Squadron of the Pacific, directed to
the care of T. O. Larkin, Esq., American Consul in Monterey.    I am, sir, very
respectfully,
                                       "Your obedient servant,
n      »                                             "John Marsh.
"Hon. Lewis Cass"  

   A careful reading of this letter, an immersion of himself in it so far as
posible, will do much to put the present-day reader back in that period, only
eighty-two years distant in point of actual time, yet so remote in all its
factors from the age in which we live. We are in a time when the western
boundary of the United States was the Rocky Mountains, and what it is even
harder to remember when the eastern boundary of California was the so-called
Diablo Range, the most easterly of the Coast Range summits. The country between
was of course claimed by Spain, and after 1823, by Mexico in her turn; but the
weakness of the whole scheme of Spanish colonization stands out in the
practically nothing which either had done to actually take it, or even to find
out what it was like.

   The Spaniard and the Mexican had done something to give place names to the
streams and other geographical features of the region; but already the
enterprising Gringo, heir to another and a far more effective idea of
colonization, had done more to subject it than the top-heavy centralized system
of the Dons had been able to accomplish in more than three centuries.

   It is apparent from Dr. Marsh's letter that he was a man of both education
and intelligence, which makes it all the more interesting and significant to
note some of the limitations of his information, in the face of his statement
that he had been pretty well all over the country. Perhaps the two most glaring
inaccuracies are his six thousand feet as the maximum altitude of the mountains,
showing familiarity with the Coast Range but not much with the Sierras, and his
naive estimate of the wild Indian population as probably a million and perhaps
double that number—a figure several times as large as that which scholars now
assign as the Indian population of the entire continent in the aborigines'
palmiest days. Gabriel Moraga was in all probability the man who had found out
more than any other about the interior up to that time, and the very cursory
nature of some of his explorations has already been suggested. It was hardly to
be expected that Dr. Marsh should have more knowledge of the country than he
displays, after a residence of some five years in it.

   It is interesting to note that the northern and southeastern limits which he
mentions when estimating the Indian population are the present northern and
southeastern boundaries of the State, but there is nothing in the estimate to
indicate very definitely how far east he considered the country he was
describing extended. The present eastern boundary of the State was never heard
of until the first constitutional convention in 1849, when its location was the
cause of no little argument. He clearly means to include materially more country
than that which the Spaniards and the Mexicans had reduced to actual occupation;
he knew, of course, though inexactly, of the existence of the Sierra Nevadas,
the most likely natural limit, and beyond that we cannot go from his letter.

   He mentions a party of fifty-three wagons and as many families which arrived
"this year," and as he writes under date of February 1, 1842, and the parties,
starting invariably in the spring or early summer, arrived as invariably in the
fall, he is most likely referring to what was the first company which history
has clearly written down among those who come entirely as settlers—the
Bartleson-Bidwell expedition, which reached his ranch November 4, 1841.

   Though there is no reason to believe that any member of the Bartleson-Bidwell
party reached Merced County, their story may fairly be told here as typical of
the stories of other similar parties, of which it was the first. There had been
a good deal of advertising of California in the United States. Dr. John Marsh's
letter quoted above is only one sample of a considerable number, from one source
and another, which received a wide publicity among a people decidedly likely to
be stirred by them. Richard Henry Dana, to mention only one other, in "Two Years
Before the Mast," first published in 1840, has the following paragraph:

   "Such are the people who inhabit a country embracing four or five hundred
miles of sea-coast, with several good harbors; with fine forests in the north;
the waters filled with fish, and the plains covered with thousands of head of
cattle; blessed with a climate than which there can be no better in the world;
free from all manner of diseases, whether epidemic or endemic; and with a soil
in which corn yields from seventy to eighty fold. In the hands of an
enterprising people, what a country this might be!"

   In Platte County, Missouri, in the months preceding the spring of 1841, the
Western Immigration Society was organized, with a good deal of enthusiasm, for
the purpose of enlisting recruits and providing a systematic program  for  an
expedition to this wonderful country. A trapper named Robidoux, recently
returned from the coast, who, says Cleland, appeared to be a 'calm, considerate
man,' so impressed his Platte County hearers that he was asked to speak before a
large assembly of settlers. He described California as a land of 'perennial
spring and boundless fertility.' Several hundred people from several of the
western States were signed up; but a reaction set in, with landowners and
merchants, alarmed at the idea of a wholesale exodus of their people, throwing
more or less cold water on the enthusiasm which had been kindled. Many drew
back. Of the sixty-nine who gathered at the appointed rendezvous at Sapling
Grove, in what is now eastern Kansas, in May, 1841, only one, a young man named
John Bidwell, from Ohio, had signed the original pledge of the Emigrant Society.

   None of the party were experienced mountain men. "We knew," says Bidwell,
"that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge. Some of the
maps consulted, supposed to be correct, showed a lake in the vicinity of where
Salt Lake now is; it was represented as a long lake, three or four hundred miles
in extent, narrow, and with two outlets, both running into the Pacific ocean,
either apparanetly larger than the Mississippi River."

   So prevalent, says Cleland, was this conception of western geography, that
Bidwell was advised to take tools along with which to construct canoes for the
navigation of one of these rivers from Salt Lake to the Pacific!

   Poor leadership added to their troubles. John Bartleson, of Jackson County
Missouri, had been elected company commander, to prevent the withdrawal of
himself and his supporters and the breakup of the company. Fifteen women and
children intensified the problem. Each member supplied his own equipment—wagon,
animals, provisions, arms. The animals were a mixed bunch of horses, mules, and
oxen; the provisions were limited to essentials. Money was almost entirely
lacking. They went from Westport, the present Kansas City up the Platte far
north to the vicinity of the present town of Pocatello, then called Soda
Springs. The party split here, part going further north. Less than half of the
sixty-nine, including one woman, Mrs. Benjamin Kelsey, with her little daughter,
started southwest for California. Their journey was one of unbroken hardships
across the Utah and Nevada deserts; their party became separated when Bartleson
with eight others on horseback struck out by themselves. They were united again,
well along in September, on the Walker River, or, as they called it, the
Balm—recalling in this appreciative naming of the stream the circumstances under
which Gabriel Moraga had named the Merced thirty-five years earlier.

   They slaughtered their remaining oxen, jerked the meat, and went up the
Walker River and over the summit of the Sierras to the headwaters of the South
Fork of the Stanislaus. They became entangled in the gorges of this stream; food
was so scarce that they they were forced to eat crows, wild cats, and anything
else they could get. One member of the party became separated from the rest and
turned up later at Sutter's Fort. Their animals could scarcely travel: they
dragged themselves wearily down across the foothills, discouraged by the idea
that they must still cross the range they could see to the westward in order to
reach California. Bidwell tells how they came to the San Joaquin:

   "When morning came the foremost of the party waited for the others to come
up. They had found water in a stagnant pond, and what was better, they had shot
a fat coyote, and with us it was anything but mule meat. As for myself, I was
unfortunate, being among those in the rear and not aware of the feast in the
advance. I did not reach it in time to get any of the coyote except the lights
and the windpipe. Longing for fat meat and willing to eat anything but poor mule
meat, and seeing a little fat on the windpipe of the coyote, I threw it on the
coals to warm it and greedily devoured it.

   "But halcyon days were at hand. We turned directly to the north to reach what
seemed to be the nearest timber. This was at a distance of ten miles or so,
which in our weakened condition it took us nearly all day to travel. It brought
us to the Stanislaus River at a point not far from the foothills. Here the rich
alluvial bottom was more than a mile wide. It had been burned over, but the new
grass was starting up and growing luxuriously, but sparsely, like thinly sown
grain. But what gladdened our eyes most was the abundance of game in sight,
principally antelope. Before dark we had killed two of them and two sand hill
cranes, and besides there was an abundance of wild grapes. Still we had no idea
that we were yet in California, but supposed we had yet to cross the range of
mountains to the west."

   With the guidance of a friendly Indian, however, they came in a few days to
Dr. John Marsh's ranch at the foot of Mt. Diablo. They reached it on November 4,
1841, after having been six months on the way. Marsh secured passports for them
from General Vallejo, though Bidwell did not get his until he had been in the
San Jose jail for three days, without food and much annoyed by fleas. It was
merely an official oversight, soon set right.

   "Northwest America," Richman tells us ("California under Spain and Mexico,"
page 270), "including what is now Washington, Oregon, and Montana, was the field
of the Hudson's Bay Company. Relations between the latter and Alta California
were friendly, even cordial. The Company never encroached, and early in 1841 an
agreement was made with Alvarado whereby its trappers might operate along the
Sacramento."

   Captain Johann August Sutter had already established himself at New Helvetia,
the present Sacramento, in 1839. Sutter objected to the agreement mentioned.
That he felt himself pretty strongly established in the country is indicated by
a letter which Richman gives at length, warning the Mexican government "to
explain these ignorant people," he puts it, "what would be the consequence if
they do injure me, the first french freggate who came here will do me justice."

   Alarm amongst the Mexicans at the increasing influx of Americans was growing.
On July 4, 1842, President Santa Ana issued instructions to Governor
Micheltorena that from and after a date to be fixed by him no individuals
belonging to the United States were to be admitted to his department. The
Mexican counsul at New Orleans, as early as January 9 of the same year, had
written to the Minister of Relations that the American Government had expressed
a determination to acquire territory for a naval station on the Pacific coast
between the Columbia River and Guayaquil. He advised that Americans be denied
admission to the territory and that all such as were domiciled without passports
be expelled. On May 7, the same official called attention to statements in the
New Orleans papers that thirty American emigrants who had reached California
without passports had at first been arrested but later set free and given
passports—referring to the Bartleson-Bidwell party.

   On October 2 of the same year, Juan N. Almonte, Mexican representative at
Washington, wrote to his government: "There can be no doubt that of the thousand
families that this year have emigrated from the States of Arkansas and Missouri,
and the Territories of Tova (Iowa?) and Wisconseis in the direction of Oregon,
more than a third part have gone with the intention of establishing themselves
in Alta California. ... I infer that the objects of these emigrants are not
pure, and that there is involved a project that time will disclose. This I
communicate to the end that the comandante-general of the department may be
forwarned, not losing sight of the fact that this scheme of emigration may be in
consonance with plans that the Texans some time since entertained concerning
that beautiful land."

   There appears to have been real cause for his alarm. In 1843, of some 800
emigrants to the Northwest, the Hastings party (thirty-six strong) and the
Chiles-Walker company (about fifty) came to California, the first in one
division from Oregon, and the second in two, one by way of Fort Boise and New
Helvetia, and the other by Owens River and Lake, the Tulares, and Gilroy's
Rancho, where the present town of Gilroy stands. The latter therefore probably
passed through part of the present Merced County, most likely crossing the
Diablo Range by Pacheco Pass.

   "In 1844 three companies came," Richman tells us, "one twenty-five strong,
under Lieutenant John C. Fremont by way of the Carson River; a Kelsey contingent
(thirty-six strong) by a route not definitely known; and the Stevens party (over
fifty strong) by way of Truckee and Bear Rivers—line of the modern railway."

   In 1845 Richman mentioned six or seven parties, totaling perhaps 250 persons.
One, under Green McMahon, included James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold,
and came from Oregon. Among the others were the Sublette party, the Grigsby
party (including William B. Ide of Bear Flag fame), the Fremont-Walker party,
and the Lanford W. Hastings party. All of these except the one from Oregon came
in by the routes of the Sacramento or lower San Joaquin, except the Walker
party, which came by way of the Owens River and Lake.

   Parties become yearly more numerous. We have shown enough to correct the
idea, sometimes held, that immigration from across the plains was negligible
before the discovery of gold, and enough also to give some notion of the
haziness of the ideas about California and especially about the route to it.
These things of course were among those which the early pioneers of this county
shared with the rest.

   An incident which occurred about this time illustrates the extent to which
the more energetic American had taken over the work of the region and the extent
to which the easy-going Mexican government acquiesced in it, besides giving us
another look at the Indian situation and, most important for our purpose,
touching Merced County directly. In 1845, after the surrender of Micheltorena,
Pio Pico, resolved to put a stop to horse-stealing depredations, made a compact
with Captain John Gantt and Dr. John Marsh to attack the rancherias of the lower
San Joaquin and of the Merced Rivers, and to deliver the captives to "Senor
Sutter." Pio Pico, on his part, organized a movement further south. What the
result of either expedition was, we are not told.

   Some idea of how the number of Americans by this time in California compared
with the number of Spaniards or Mexicans— Californians, as they were then
called—is given in Dr. Marsh's letter in the statement of the Spanish population
which he there-makes. The number was exceedingly small. Richman (page 226), says
that under Sola, the last of the Spanish governors, who became also the first of
the Mexican governors, the State Secular, which in 1779 could claim a total
white population of about 500 persons, and by 1783 not over 1000, could in 1820
claim 3270, of whom about 700 were soldiers. The number of the neophytes at the
missions he puts at the last date at 20,500, a gain of 7000 since 1800. In 1820
he puts the number of cattle, horses, mules, and sheep at 349,882 head, a gain
of 162,882 since 1800; the agricultural products (wheat, barley, corn, beans,
and peas) at 113,625 bushels annually, a gain in annual production over twenty
years before of 57,625 bushels.

   The neophytes were dying off. In 1800 the death rate had equalled 50 per cent
of the baptisms; by 1810 it had risen to 72 per cent, and by 1820 to 86 per cent.

   It was what to us now must appear an almost unbelievably small, as well as a
decadent province, which in the ripeness of time was soon to be displaced by the
beginnings of an American State.


Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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