UC-NRLF 
 
 E73 <E>25 
 
 /PACIEi\ 
 
 %: / >**> vl. 
 
 TOUO BY 
 
 Harr Waoner 
 
l ; 3 
 

 
o 
 
Pacific History Stories 
 
 ARRANGED AND RETOLD FOR USE IX 
 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 by 
 
 HARR WAGNER 
 
 Assisted by 
 ALICE ROSE POWER 
 
 Principal the Washington Irving School 
 San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Westward the star of empire takes its way; 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 A fifth shall close the drama with the clay: 
 
 Time's noblest offspring is the last. 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 IIARR WAGNER PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 San Francisco 
 1918 
 
Copyrighted 
 
 1918 
 HARR WAGNER 
 
 C^Lrv^o^ cn . \ S O 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Preface 
 
 A Key for Pronouncing Words of Spanish Derivation . 11 
 
 Some Notable Voyages and Discoveries 12 
 
 Frontispiece .14 
 
 The Story of How Balboa Discovered the Pacific . . 15 
 Magellan; or the First Voyage Around the World . . 26 
 
 Cabrillo 
 
 At San Diego Bay 
 
 The Story of Drake, the Brave Sailor 43 
 
 The March of Portola .50 
 
 The Story of the Missions . 5J> 
 
 The First Ship to Enter the Golden Gate .... 72 
 The Discovery of the Rocky Mountains ... .75 
 
 The Story of the Donner Party .... .96 
 
 The Bear-Flag Republic 11* 
 
 The American Flag in California 118 
 
 The Discovery of Gold 
 
 Who Named the Golden Gate? 130 
 
 The Story of Fremont 134 
 
 How California Came Into the Union 112 
 
 377852 
 
The Story of a Battle With the Indians 
 
 Old Californias 
 
 The Story of the Great Fire. 1906 . 
 The Story of the Panama Canal 
 
 Who Named California? 
 
 Meaning's of Spanish Names .... 
 Historic Landmarks 
 
 . 146 
 
 . 157 
 
 . 162 
 
 . 171 
 
 . ISO 
 
 . 1S2 
 184 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The voyages of discovery and notable events of the 
 West Coast of America have not been accessible to the 
 teacher and pupil. An honest attempt has been made by 
 the writer to bring this knowledge to the schools in the 
 form of an historical reader. The book is designed for 
 the middle grades. The direct form of narrative has been 
 observed; clearness of statement, short words, and the 
 human side of history have been made characteristic 
 features. 
 
 The stories of Balboa, Magellan, Cabrillo, Drake, 
 Portola, the Discovery of Gold, the Bear-Flag Republic, 
 and others are interesting on account of the human and 
 heroic side of the adventures. Where is the boy whose 
 vision will not be enlarged by the picturesque situation 
 of Balboa 
 
 "Silent on a peak in Darien?" 
 
 The aim has been to make this a school-book for the 
 teaching of Western history. The mechanical forms of 
 numbered paragraphs and questions have not been intro- 
 duced, because the progressive teacher desires to avoid 
 the formality of the average text-book. 
 
 An effort has been made to teach history on the prin- 
 ciple of correlation. For this purpose the geography of 
 the West and Southwest Coast should be given special 
 emphasis. 
 
 Myths, legends, and inaccurate descriptions have been 
 
avoided. Sufficient authorities and original documents 
 have been consulted so that impartial statements could be 
 made. 
 
 On the pedagogical basis, that knowledge of the child 
 should be builded on the foundation of facts that lie 
 nearest to it, this book should have preference over the 
 history stories of other lands. 
 
 The story of Fremont and the account of "Old Califor- 
 nians" were written by Joaquin Miller. 
 
 Topics for school composition may be taken from the 
 different stories. The pupil will not then be puzzled for 
 material, and there will be plenty of opportunity for orig- 
 inal suggestions and descriptive writing. 
 
 Teachers will use different methods; but all teachers 
 who desire to be successful will use the blackboard, the 
 globe, maps, and drill on new words. 
 
 Carlyle, in his advice to his nephew, said in reference 
 to history: "Never read any such book without a map 
 beside you; endeavor to seek out every place the author 
 names, and get a clear idea of the ground you are on; 
 without this you can never understand him, much less 
 remember him. Mark the dates of the chief events and 
 epochs; write them; get them fixed into your memory- 
 chronology and geography are the t\vo lamps of history." 
 
 Harr Wagner. 
 
A KEY FOR PRONOUNCING WORDS OF SPANISH 
 
 DERIVATION. 
 
 A thorough drill on the following sounds will be helpful. 
 The children of the Pacific Coast are required to use 
 many foreign words. In pronunciation of Spanish words- 
 give a the sound of oh; 
 
 give c the sound of try; 
 
 give i the sound of ce; 
 
 give j the sound of h\ 
 
 give o the sound of oh; 
 
 give u the sound of oo; 
 
 h is silent; 
 
 // is sounded like lyii, like the // in million; 
 
 n is sounded like ny in lanyard; 
 
 Inta is sounded like tc'fl in water. 
 
SOME NOTABLE VOYAGES, DISCOVERIES 
 
 AND EVENTS 
 
 1492 Columbus discovers certain West Indian Islands. 
 
 1497 John Cabot discovers land in the vicinity of the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 1498 Vasco de Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope. 
 1499 Amerigo Vespucci discovers the northern coast 
 
 of South America. 
 
 1513 Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean. 
 1513 Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. 
 1519 Cortez conquers Mexico. 
 
 1519 Magellan makes first trip around the world. 
 1531 Pizarro conquers Peru. 
 1539 Hernando de Soto fits out his expedition. 
 1540 Coronado discovers the Colorado. 
 
 1542 Cabrillo sails along the coast of California and 
 
 into San Diego Bay. 
 
 1579 Sir Francis Drake discovers Drake's Bay. 
 1749 Junipero Serra leaves Mexico to begin his work 
 1770 Portola's party discovers Bay of San Francisco. 
 1849 Gold discovered by Marshall. 
 1852 California admitted into the Union. 
 1906 The Great Fire. 
 
 1915 The Completion of the Panama Canal, and the 
 Exposition. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 ) 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
c c c c 
 
 c c c c 
 
 c c c c 
 
 CC C c 
 
 c- c c c 
 
 tec 
 c c c 
 c c c 
 
 Balboa Taking Possession of the Pacific Ocean, Its Islands and 
 Firm Lands, and All the Shores Washed by Its Waves. 
 

 THE STORY OF HOW BALBOA DISCOVERED THE 
 
 PACIFIC. 
 
 HEN Balboa was a little boy, he 
 lived in Spain. He was seventeen 
 years of age when Columbus discov- 
 ered America. He was a poor boy, 
 and worked for a deaf man, the lord 
 of Moguer. 
 
 One day a stranger came to the place and told him 
 about the great deeds of Columbus and the won- 
 derful land he had discov- 
 ered. The stories about the 
 new world filled Balboa with 
 a desire to visit unknown 
 lands. 
 
 To think, with him, was 
 to act. In a short time he 
 found himself in Hayti, then 
 known by the musical Span- 
 ish name, Hispaniola. He 
 tried farming, but with no 
 
 R ef erence T opics . 
 
 The Barrel Incident. 
 
 Balboa's Marriage to 
 the Iiidiaii Chief's 
 Daughter. 
 
 Life in Darien. 
 
 The First Mention of 
 the AVestern Sea. 
 
 First Sight of the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Balboa Takes Posses- 
 sion, Sept. 29, 1513. 
 
 Death of Balboa. 
 
 15 
 
16 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 great success. He produced more debts than any- 
 thing else, and debts were as much trouble then 
 as now. 
 
 In order to avoid the people he owed, he hid 
 himself in a barrel. It was rolled on board a ship. 
 When the captain, Encisco, found him, the ship 
 was too far out at sea to put him off. The captain 
 was angry; but Balboa smiled and said: "I know 
 a country where there is a lot of gold. I'll take 
 you to it." 
 
 The captain, seeing that he was a brave, hand- 
 some young man, decided to make use of him. On 
 the advice of Balboa, Encisco sailed for Darien. 
 
 The sailors liked Balboa better than they did 
 their captain ; so they chose him for their leader, 
 and sent Encisco back. 
 
 Balboa became friendly with the native chiefs. 
 One day two natives came into his camp, dressed in 
 the skins of wild beasts. They told him about the 
 "Great Water" on the other side of the mountain, 
 and of the land of gold, afterward known as Peru. 
 They said that an Indian chief who lived near by 
 had much gold. 
 
 Balboa and his men made the chief a prisoner 
 and robbed him of his gold. The chief, however, 
 wanted to be friendly, and so offered Balboa his 
 daughter in marriage. He also led him to a place 
 
HOW BALBOA DISCOVERED THE PACIFIC 17 
 
 where was a village. They found plenty of food 
 and a fine drink made from palm-juice, which the 
 Indians called 'Tuba." 
 
 The chief had a son who gave Balboa gold. It 
 was divided among the men. Balboa kept a share 
 for his red dog with the black snout, called : ' Little 
 Lion." 
 
 The men fought about their share of gold. The 
 young chief parted them, and said : 'You fight 
 about such stuff; for this you make us slaves and 
 burn our towns. Beyond the mountains is a great 
 sea. The rivers that run into it are filled with 
 gold; the people drink from golden cups." 
 
 Balboa had heard about the big sea and the gold 
 many times before. He made up his mind that he 
 would cross the high mountain and find out if the 
 stories he heard were true. 
 
 He took with him about two hundred men,* a 
 lot of bloodhounds, including his favorite ''Little 
 Lion," and Indians. On the 6th of September, 1513, 
 he began his march to the sea. It w r as a hard trip. 
 
 Darien, now known as the Isthmus of Panama, 
 has seen the wrecks of many lives of people who 
 have tried to cross it since that time. On the 
 eastern coast it is full of sandy marshes ; farther 
 
 * Pizarro, who afterwards conquered Peru, was with Balboa on this 
 journey. 
 
18 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 inland dried and perished vegetation stands, like 
 skeleton sentinels, above the green of the under- 
 brush, which is protected from the fiery hot sun by 
 its own denseness. The silent hotness of the place 
 
 In the Swamps of Darien. 
 
 is great. No song of bird is heard. It is like the 
 twilight stillness of a country lane before sound of 
 cricket rasps the ear. 
 
 Through the hot glare of the sun and the lan- 
 guorous heat of the marshes marched Balboa and 
 his men, clad in clumsy armor. At night the 
 
HOW BALBOA DISCOVERED THE PACIFIC 19 
 
 swamps were full of pests ; big snakes fell from 
 the trees on the men ; monkeys chattered in the 
 trees; weird, strange birds, with beautiful feathers, 
 screeched ; the wild tiger growled ; fever lurked in 
 the air ; even the palm-trees were covered with 
 poisonous vines. 
 
 At last they came to the foot of a high mountain. 
 Porque, a chief, with one thousand men, met Bal- 
 boa. He said: "What do you want? I will kill 
 every one of you if you try to cross my path." 
 Balboa was not afraid and marched right on. 
 
 Porque and his men tried to stop him with their 
 big war-whoops. When the Spaniards fired their 
 guns and let loose their bloodhounds, many of the 
 Indians were killed. 
 
 Balboa and sixty of his men now started to climb 
 the mountain. The bushes were so thick the men 
 had to cut paths with their sabers. At last Balboa 
 reached the top of the mountain. He stood, as 
 Keats said of Cortez,- 
 
 "Silent upon a peak in Darien." 
 
 Before him was a great ocean. He would be the 
 first to see it. It would bring him great glory. 
 Who can picture the joy in his heart as he beheld 
 the Southern sea, the mightiest ocean of the globe, 
 its white foam fringing more than half the world. 
 With the majesty of the ocean before him and the 
 
20 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 majesty of God above him, he turned his eyes from 
 one to the other and in silence prayed. 
 
 As the men came up, Balboa said : 'There, my 
 friends, is the reward of your labors. You are the 
 first Christians to behold that sea !" The men 
 shouted for 'joy. They built a cross and piled 
 stones around it. 
 
 They carved the name of the ruler of Spain on 
 the big trees. Then Balboa, in a loud voice, said : 
 : T take possession of the Southern sea, with all its 
 Islands and firm lands, and all the shores washed 
 by its waves." A paper was then drawn up and 
 signed by each man, telling how they were the first 
 to see the big' ocean. 
 
 The Indians did not know why Balboa was so 
 interested about it. It is doubtful if Balboa himself 
 knew that the knowledge he gained would change 
 the map of the world. 
 
 He wanted to touch the water with his hands. 
 It was on the 29th of September, St. Michael's day, 
 1513, that he sat down upon a grassy slope and 
 waited for the return of the tide. 
 
 When the sand was covered one or two feet, Bal- 
 boa, dressed in his armor, holding his sword and a 
 banner, with the Virgin and Child on one side, and 
 on the other the arms of Spain, marched into the 
 water. He read to the waves and the silences quite 
 a long speech, using large words. 
 
HOW BALBOA DISCOVERED THE PACIFIC 21 
 
 He claimed that the sea was his. and all the 
 islands and all the lands the waters touched, upon 
 the belief that "finders are keepers," and took pos- 
 session of everything in sight in the name, of the 
 sovereign of Spain. He declared that he was able 
 to fight all the other nations on the face of the 
 earth. It was a big speech. 
 
 Balboa did not name the sea the Pacific Ocean. 
 It was not known by that name until some years 
 afterward, when Magellan sailed through the 
 "Straits of Eleven Thousand Virgins," now known 
 by his name, and found a smooth, placid sea ; and 
 he gave it the name Pacific, which means calm, 
 peaceful. 
 
 There is but little more to tell you about Balboa. 
 On his return he did a very cruel thing. They 
 came to a valley ruled by a rich Indian, Poncra. 
 He fled from, them and left his gold. They wanted 
 to know where Poncra found so much gold ; so his 
 men captured him and brought him back. 
 
 Balboa asked: "\Yhere did you get the gold?" 
 
 Poncra answered: T know not; my fathers left 
 it to me." He was tortured, but would tell no 
 more. Balboa then let the bloodhounds loose on 
 poor Poncra, and they tore him to pieces. 
 
 The enemies of Poncra were pleased, and made 
 Balboa king; but this cruel act will always stain 
 his name. 
 
PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 The brave men returned in triumph on the 19th 
 of January, 1514. They had been gone a little 
 
 over four months, and 
 brought back, not only 
 knowledge of the new 
 ocean, but gold, pearls, 
 slaves, weapons, and 
 cloth. 
 
 In Europe the news of 
 the great sea created al- 
 most as much of a sensa- 
 tion as the discovery of 
 America by Columbus. 
 
 Balboa devoted him- 
 self to serious things. 
 He became very popular. 
 The rulers w^ere jealous 
 of him. The governor 
 of Darien was a weak 
 and wicked man. 
 
 One day Balboa re- 
 ceived a message that 
 the governor wanted to 
 see him. He had four 
 hundred men, ships, and 
 gold, and would not need 
 
 to have obeyed the governor; but he was loyal. 
 
 When he arrived he was put in chains. 
 
 Ilalhoa, Vnsco Xuiiez, a 
 
 Spanish conqueror, was born 
 of a noble but reduced family, 
 at Xeres-de-Caballeros, in 1475. 
 After leading rather a disso- 
 lute life in his youth, he sailed 
 with Rodrigo de Bastidas to 
 the New World. He settled at 
 Hayti. In 1510, he joined the 
 expedition to Darien, com- 
 manded by Encisco. An in- 
 surrection in the new colony 
 placed Balboa in supreme com- 
 mand. September 25, 1513, he 
 obtained the first sight of the 
 Pacific from a mountain-top. 
 The governorship of the terri- 
 tories conquered by Balboa 
 was obtained in 1514 by Pedra- 
 rias Davila, by means of his 
 intrigues at the Spanish court. 
 Balboa resigned the command 
 into the hands of the new gov- 
 ernor, a narrow-minded and 
 cruel man, and, in a subordi- 
 nate position, undertook many 
 important expeditions. His 
 success only increased the ha- 
 tred of Davila towards him. A 
 dispute arose. Pedrarias in- 
 duced Balboa to deliver him- 
 self up, promising him protec- 
 tion. In violation of all forms 
 of justice, he was beheaded at 
 Santa Maria, in 1517. 
 
HOW BALBOA DISCOVERED THE PACIFIC 23 
 
 The governor tried him for treason, and ordered 
 him beheaded. He died like a brave man, declaring 
 that to Spain he was loyal and true. As time 
 goes on, the good qualities of Balboa are remem- 
 bered, and the evil forgotten. 
 
 The brave men of the sixteenth century had hard 
 fates Balboa and Raleigh beheaded ; Columbus 
 sent home in chains ; Cortez, neglected and in 
 poverty; Cabrillo and Drake died of exposure; 
 Magellan well, that is another story, which I will 
 tell you in the next chapter. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Magellan (ma-jel'lan), Darien (da're-en), Cabrillo (ka- 
 breTyo), Pacific (pa-slf'ic), governor (guv'ern-er), Encisco 
 (en-ces'co), Spaniard (span'yerd), majesty (maj'es-ty), Mo- 
 guer (mo-gar'), Hispaniola (his-pan-i-6'la), sovereign 
 (sov'er-in, or suv'er-in), qualities (kwol'i-tiz), isthmus 
 (is'mus), Balboa (bal-bo'a). 
 
 A 
 
 ND ever, as he traveled, he would climb 
 
 The farthest mountain ; yet the heavenly chime, 
 The mighty tolling of the far-off spheres 
 Beating their pathway, never touched his ears. 
 But wheresoe'er he rose the heavens rose, 
 And the far-gazing mountain could disclose 
 Nought but a wider earth ; until one height 
 Showed him the ocean stretched in liquid light, 
 And he could hear its multitudinous roar, 
 Its plunge and hiss upon the pebbled shore. 
 
 Then Jubal silent sat, and touched his lyre no more. 
 
 ******** 
 
 He thought, "This world is great ; but I am weak." 
 
 George Eliot. 
 
By the Balboa Seas 
 
 TJie golden fleece is at our feet, 
 
 Our hills are girt in sheen of gold, 
 
 Our golden flower-fields are sweet 
 With honey hives. A tliousand-fold 
 
 More fair our fruits on laden stem 
 
 Than Jordan's tow'rd Jerusalem, 
 
 Beneath our ancient cloud-clad trees 
 The ages pass in silence by; 
 
 Gold apples of Hesperides 
 
 Hang at our god-land gates for aye; 
 
 Our golden shores have golden keys 
 
 Where sound and sing the Balboa Seas. 
 
 JOAQUIN MILLER. 
 
On First Looking Into 
 Chapman's Homer 
 
 Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, 
 And many goodly states and kingdoms seen : 
 Round many western islands have I been. 
 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold; 
 Oft of one wide expanse liad I been told 
 That deep-brow 'd Homer ruled as his demesne, 
 Yet did I never breathe its pure serene 
 Till I heard CJiapman speak out loud and bold, 
 Then felt I like some wateher of the skies 
 When a new planet swims into his ken; 
 Or like stout Cortes ivhen with eagle eyes 
 He stared at the Paeihe and all his men 
 Look'd at each other witJi a wild surmise, 
 Silent, upon a peak in Da-Hen. 
 
 KEATS. 
 
MAGELLAN; OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND 
 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 ERNAN MAGELLAN grew to man- 
 hood in a quaint old town in North- 
 ern Portugal, called Villa Real. 
 
 When a boy, he climbed the rug- 
 ged, lofty mountains near his home, 
 and hunted the wild boar, the deer, 
 and other game. On the hillsides 
 grew the luscious, purple grapes from which the 
 
 famous port wine is made. 
 One day, when he looked 
 out upon the wide sea, the 
 hope came upon him to be 
 a captain and sail ships. 
 
 His father, who was a 
 kindly man, asked: ;< What 
 troubles you, Fernan?" and 
 Fernan answered : 'I thirst 
 for thrilling adventures by 
 land and sea." 
 
 26 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Magellan's Boyhood. 
 Services for King 
 
 Manuel. 
 The August Morning 
 
 in 1519. 
 
 October 21, 1520. 
 On the Pacific. 
 Philippine Islands. 
 Death of Magellan. 
 Return of the Victoria. 
 
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 27 
 
 The father replied : "I'll send you to our good 
 King Manuel. He will find some exploit for you. 
 A stalwart youth like you will find merit in his 
 royal eyes." 
 
 Fenian bade farewell to his father and friends 
 and appeared before the king, who received him 
 with favor. It was not long before he sailed to the 
 shores of Africa and India and fought many daring 
 battles in the service of his native country. 
 
 Magellan's desire to be a great discoverer and 
 sail to unknown lands led him to return to Portu- 
 gal. The king was angry with him for leaving his 
 post in Africa, and would not listen to his plan 
 of sailing westward across the Atlantic to India. 
 
 A man who read fortunes by the stars sent 
 Magellan to Spain. King Charles was a beardless 
 boy, with a short, thick form, and a head of stubby, 
 yellow hair; but he was brave and ambitious, and 
 he ordered five vessels to be made ready for the 
 daring captain from Portugal. 
 
 Fernan met his old sweetheart, Beatrix, in Se- 
 ville. She had heard about his exploits in Africa. 
 Her blushes told Magellan that she still Joved him. 
 Before he sailed they were married. It was with 
 a sad heart that she watched the men filling the 
 ships with food for the long, perilous voyage. 
 
 
28 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Tt was a warm, soft August morning in 1519, that 
 the five little ships sailed from Seville, and left 
 behind them the olive-crowned hills of Spain. 
 
 It was nearly two months before the ships reached 
 the coast of South America. The men were glad to 
 
 get on land once more. 
 They found a place 
 where there were thou- 
 sands of parrots, and 
 one of Magellan's men 
 discovered growing in 
 the ground an oval- 
 shaped tuber that grew 
 on a root. 
 
 The man said: "I 
 have found an Italian 
 chestnut growing in the 
 ground." The* chestnuts 
 were roasted on coals, 
 and tasted good. This, 
 no doubt, is the first 
 mention of the potato, 
 which John Hawkins 
 took to Ireland, in 1565, 
 from South America, 
 
 and is now known as the Irish potato. 
 
 As they sailed south, they came to a place where 
 
 the Indians were as large as giants. One of the 
 
 Magellan, Fernaii, or 
 Fernando, was born in Opor- 
 to, of good family, near the 
 close of the fifteenth century. 
 He served with distinction un- 
 der Albuquerque in the East 
 . Indies; but, King Manuel not 
 rewarding him for his services, 
 he went to Spain, in 1517, with 
 Ruy Falero, a geographer and 
 astrologer. They laid before 
 Charles the Fifth a scheme to 
 reach the Moluccas by sailing 
 west. It was received with fa- 
 vor, and he sailed with five 
 ships and two hundred and 
 thirty-six men. He sailed to 
 the mouth of the La Plata and 
 along the shores of Patagonia, 
 through the straits which bear 
 his name, and across the Pa- 
 cific, and fell in a fight with 
 the chief of the Isle of Matan, 
 one of the Philippine Islands, 
 April 26, 1521. His ship fin- 
 ally reached home, Septem- 
 ber 6, 1522, the first com- 
 plete voyage around the world. 
 
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 29 
 
 sailors got a big Indian to look at himself in a mir- 
 ror. It was so great a surprise to him that he gave 
 a loud cry, and jumped back so suddenly that 
 he knocked three or four sailors down. Magellan 
 treated the Indians kindly, and in return was 
 treated kindly by them. 
 
 Some of the sailors wanted to return to Spain 
 and created a mutiny. Magellan, with the aid of 
 a few friends, captured the leaders, and gave them 
 no mercy. He ordered them shot, and then placed 
 his friends in command. 
 
 On October 21, 1520, the heart of Magellan leaped 
 
 with joy. He had dis- 
 covered the Southern in- 
 let ; the straits that now 
 
 "In the afternoon they came 
 unto a land 
 
 In which it seemed always 
 
 afternoon. i 
 
 . i ., bear his name. 
 
 All around the coast the lan- 
 guid air did swoon, 
 
 Breathing like one that hath 
 a weary dream." 
 
 When the fleet came 
 to a favorable bay, two 
 ships were sent forward. 
 
 A storm arose. Magellan thought the ships would 
 
 surely be lost, but in a few days they returned. 
 
 The captain said : "Praise God, Admiral, we have 
 
 found the outlet!" 
 
 Magellan took him in his arms and burst into 
 
 tears. : Ts it true? Have you seen the other ocean 
 
 -the Western Ocean beyond?" "We have seen it," 
 
 was the answer. Then there was rejoicing. It was 
 
 a great day for Magellan and his brave sailors. 
 
30 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 It was decided to sail over the sea and discover 
 the Spice Islands, or Moluccas. It was a daring 
 thing to do, but they were brave men. So they 
 sailed out on the trackless and nameless sea. 
 
 One day he called his sailors about him and said : 
 "Comrades, we are on an unknown sea no ship 
 has ever sailed in these gentle waters. Comrades, 
 I will christen this calm, gentle sea, the Pacific." 
 The sea \vas so calm that the ship made no prog- 
 ress at all for weeks. 
 
 No land was in sight. The provisions were almost 
 out. The men were attacked with scurvy. The 
 
 biscuits were reduced to 
 powder and full of 
 worms. The men had 
 to eat leather after soak- 
 ing it in the sea. About 
 twenty of the men died, 
 and others were so ill that hardly enough were left 
 to sail the ship. At last they came to some islands, 
 which are now known as the Philippine Islands, 
 where there was plenty of food and water. 
 
 At one of the islands Magellan became very 
 friendly with the native king. It was a rich tropical 
 island. Food was plenty, and he traded with the 
 natives. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Note. "The Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge, should be read in 
 connection with this story. 
 
 Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
 Alone on a wide, wide sea, 
 
 And never a saint took pity on 
 My soul in agony. 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 31 
 
 Magellan was very religious. He converted the 
 king to Christianity. 
 
 One day he went out to fight the enemy of the 
 king. It was, however, a sad day for Magellan and 
 his men. They attacked the savages at midnight. 
 There were about fifteen hundred savages against 
 Magellan and his forty-nine men. The savage king 
 saw that while the Spaniards were protected by the 
 
 ''''..- ' '';.; 
 
 A Glimpse of a South Sea Island. 
 
 shields, that their legs were exposed ; so he ordered 
 his men to strike them on their shins with the 
 spears. It was a terrible battle. 
 
 Many of the Spaniards fell lifeless at the feet 
 of their foes. It was a brave struggle. Magellan 
 fought like a tiger. The blood streamed from his 
 many wounds. An enormous savage struck him 
 a blow on his left leg, and he sank forward on his 
 
32 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 face. A multitude of savages fell upon him. They 
 ran him through and through with their spears. 
 
 Magellan died at the age of forty-one. He was 
 a brave and heroic pioneer of the western seas. 
 
 But few of his men lived to complete the voyage. 
 After . terrible hardships, eighteen men reached 
 Spain on the 6th of September, 1522, in the Vic- 
 toria, the only ship that remained of the gallant 
 fleet that sailed away from there years before. The 
 men were given a great welcome. It was thought 
 that all had perished. 
 
 Among the people that looked wistfully at the 
 sailors was a beautiful woman, dressed in black, 
 leading a little child. It was Beatrix and her 
 daughter. 
 
 King Charles gave to each sailor a pension. And 
 to the captain he gave an image of the globe, with 
 the motto, "You were the first to go around me." 
 
 A curious thing about the voyage was that by 
 sailing from east to west a day was lost. But had 
 they sailed from west to east they would have 
 gained a day. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Magellan (ma-jel'lan), adventures (ad-ven'tures), Seville 
 (sev'il, or se-vilO, mutiny (mu'tl-ny), Moluccas (mo- 
 luk'kas), biscuits (bls-kits), Philippine (fil'ip-pm), perilous 
 (pcr'Tl-us), exploits (eks-ploits). 
 
CABRILLO. 
 
 southwest 
 nothing." 
 The harbor 
 
 ABRILLO was the first man to sail 
 along the coast of California. On 
 the 28th of September, 1542, he an- 
 chored in a harbor which he named 
 San Miguel. The man who reported 
 the voyage wrote : "A wind blew 
 from the west-southwest and south- 
 but the port being good, they felt 
 
 is now called the Bay of San 
 
 Diego. The entrance to this harbor is some- 
 times called the Gates of Palm. Cabrillo remained 
 
 in the harbor six days. 
 The Indians came down to 
 the shore and looked at the 
 ship. They were very timid. 
 
 One night, when the men 
 were fishing, the Indians 
 shot arrows at them and 
 wounded three. The sailors 
 were very careful after this. 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Discovery of the Bay 
 
 of San Diego. 
 The Indians. 
 Interior Civilization. 
 How Names Have 
 
 Been Changed. 
 Cabrillo Sailing 
 
 Northward. 
 Cabrillo's Return. 
 Death of Cabrillo. 
 
 Cabrillo learned from the Indians that, back from 
 the ocean, there were men dressed and armed like 
 
 33 
 
CABRILLO LANDING AT SAN DIEGO BAY. 
 
 34 
 
CAI5RILLO 
 
 35 
 
 the Spaniards. He took great interest in the 
 natives and treated them kindly. The sailors did 
 not want to leave San Diego Bay, because it was 
 such a good harbor. But Cabrillo was anxious to 
 sail northward. 
 
 The man who wrote descriptions of the places 
 Cabrillo visited in his voyage did not use exact 
 words. So the reader is not always sure of the 
 ports he meant. It is certain, however, he sailed 
 
 to San Pedro, Santa 
 Monica, and Santa Bar- 
 bara. Cabrillo gave long 
 names to these places, 
 but they are not the 
 ones now on the maps. 
 
 At Santa Barbara, Ca- 
 brillo found some queer 
 natives, who wore their 
 hair long, and had it 
 fixed up with some 
 strings of flint, bone, 
 and wooden daggers. 
 They caught fish, and 
 ate them raw. They also 
 had good canoes, and 
 were better than other 
 Indians in many re- 
 spects. He heard stories 
 
 Cabrillo, Juau Rodri- 
 guez, was born in Portugal. 
 He sailed from Navidad, June 
 27, 1542, with two ships the 
 San Salvador and the Victoria. 
 On July 2d, he reached Santa 
 Cruz, in Lower California. He 
 sailed northwestward and ex- 
 amined the coast with great 
 care, especially with reference 
 to its capes and roadsteads. He 
 gave the present name to the 
 Bay of Magdalena. The Bay of 
 Todos los Santos was named 
 by him San Mateo. In the lat- 
 ter part of September he passed 
 the Coronado Islands, and 
 sailed into the bay now known 
 as San Diego, which he named 
 San Miguel. He discovered the 
 islands of Santa Cruz, Santa 
 Rosa, and San Miguel. At the 
 latter place he died, January 3, 
 1543. Ferrelo, his chief pilot, 
 took commajid of the expedi- 
 tion. To Cabrillo belongs the 
 honor of the discovery of Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
36 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 like those at San Diego, that, distant seven days' 
 journey, was a great river, and that the people, who 
 looked like the sailors, had towns there. 
 
 Cabrillo then sailed farther north. His ship 
 drifted northwestward with the wind ; the weather 
 w r as pleasant, the coast rough, without harbors, 
 and off in the distance lofty mountains, covered 
 with snow. 
 
 One morning at dawn, as the sun sowed its path 
 of gold across the brown hills to the sea, he saw a 
 point of land covered with pines. He called ,it the 
 Cape of the Pines. Then he sailed on and on-- 
 past the Golden Gate and the great harbor within, 
 to Point Reyes. 
 
 Hi.story says he turned southward, and "de- 
 scended under lofty snow-capped mountains so 
 near that they seemed about to fall on them." The 
 ship anchored in a little harbor at San Miguel 
 Island, near Santa Barbara. One day Cabrillo fell 
 and broke his arm. He was not careful with it, 
 and it brought on an illness which resulted in his 
 death, January 3, 1543. His dying words were: 
 "Sail northward, at all hazards." 
 
 No trace of his grave can be found ; no stone 
 marks the spot where his body rests. He did not 
 seem to have the pirate's heart, like Balboa, Drake, 
 Pizarro, and so many other of the sea kings wh> 
 made voyages to the Pacific. 
 
CABRILLO 37 
 
 The books do not contain long accounts of his 
 deeds; yet his services to the world will not be for- 
 gotten. If monuments are an honor, then the 
 people of the West Coast ought to erect one to the 
 man who made the first voyage to California. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Cabrillo (ka-brel'yo), San Miguel (sail me-gel ), Reyes 
 (rays), San Diego (san de-a'go), hazards (haz'erdz), 
 anchored (an'kerd), Pizarro (pe-zar'ro), Santa Rosa (san'ta 
 ro'sa), Santa Barbara (san'ta bar'ba-ra), Balboa (bal-bo'a). 
 
 A H, what is this 
 
 ** Old land beyond the seas, that you should miss 
 For her the grace and majesty of mine? 
 Are not the fruit and vine 
 Fair on my hills, and in my vale the rose? 
 The palm-tree and the pine 
 Strike hands together under the same skies, 
 In every wind that blows. 
 
 Ina D. Coolbrith. 
 
AT SAN DIEGO BAY. 
 
 By Madge Morris Wagner 
 
 ERE first on California's soil, 
 
 Cabrillo walked the lonesome 
 
 sands ; 
 
 Here first the Christian standard rose 
 Upon the sea-washed Western 
 
 lands, 
 And Junipero Serra first laid loving hands. 
 
 What saw they here, that fearless band, 
 To bless, or touch with loving" hand? 
 Or bid them pause, or dream to stay, 
 Around this silent, sleeping bay? 
 
 An acreage of many miles, 
 
 Vast miles of sun-burnt naked space, 
 Red, brown, and bare, and baked as tiles ; 
 
 Whose surface lay unchanged of face 
 As it had lain, the hills among, 
 Since first Creation's psalm was sung; 
 
 38 
 
AT SAX DIEGO BAY 39 
 
 \Yhose people watched the squirrels play, 
 And cared not any more than they. 
 
 Not these alone, the fathers saw 
 
 Not these made hardships doubly sweet- 
 He never sees his arrow's flight 
 
 Who is always looking at his feet ; 
 Those holy fathers, wiser they, 
 
 They marked the broad expanse of plains, 
 And mountains gushing crystal life 
 
 Enough to fill its thirsting veins ;- 
 They saw, far off, the mingled weft 
 
 Of colors wrought from out the soil, 
 When Nature rounds upon her loom 
 
 The laborer's legacy of toil. 
 
 They served, and toiled, and built, and planned, 
 But ever saw a promised land ; 
 And heard its slowly rising swells 
 Ring joyous from their mission bells. 
 
 And decades past, and fifty years, 
 
 A century was born and died; 
 A nation struggled into birth, 
 
 And rose to midday of its pride. 
 And freedom's war-wet staff was set 
 
 Beside that one of love and peace ; 
 And suns of noons, and midnight moons, 
 
 Unwove and w r ove time's ageless fleece. 
 
40 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Time crept by the mission bells, 
 
 And back, and tied their tongues with rust, 
 And touched the eye-lids of the priest, 
 
 And garmented his bones with dust. 
 
 The glory of the mission passed, 
 
 Its gloom its glory overcast. 
 
 Within its corners, shadow-walled, 
 
 The bats made nests ; the lizard crawled 
 
 Upon the sunny side to sit, 
 
 With soulless eyes, and laugh at it. 
 
 But smile not ye with scornful lips, 
 
 Nor croak a prophecy of this ; 
 There's nothing lost that's lost, and naught 
 
 That once has lived has lived amiss. 
 Nay, smile not ye, nor count that false 
 
 Which failed in promises it gave; 
 For gold is gold, though it go down 
 
 A thousand fathoms in the wave ; 
 And brighter-hued the blossom is 
 
 That blooms upon a grave. 
 
 In silence sleeps the bay no more- 
 Its treasury of wealth is found ; 
 
 And all its crescent-curving shore 
 With infant cities girded round ; 
 
AT SAN DIEGO BAY 
 
 While through its gateway come and go 
 The sails of sun and sails of snow. 
 
 Progress to this old new West 
 
 Has turned her face and set her seal; 
 Has bound the waters, broke the hills, 
 
 And shod the desert sands with steel. 
 O land of sun ! hot, splendid sun !- 
 
 Of sea-cool winds, and Southern moons 
 Of days of calm, and nights of balm, 
 
 And languorous, dreamy noons ! 
 No seer hath need to tell for thee, 
 Thy daring and thy destiny. 
 
 41 
 
Drake at the Extremity of Cape Horn. 
 
THE STORY OF DRAKE, THE BRAVE SAILOR. 
 
 IR FRANCIS DRAKE was a great 
 sailor. Some of his adventures were 
 wild and thrilling. 
 
 He was born in Devonshire, Eng- 
 land, in 1539, near wdiere that other 
 brave sailor and friend of Queen 
 
 r^*- 
 
 Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, lived. His cousin 
 was the brave sea-captain, John Hawkins. He had 
 heard many stories about the sea. 
 
 The wonderful adventures of Columbus, Balboa, 
 
 Magellan, Cabrillo, and oth- 
 ers gave him an ambition t<j 
 be a sailor. 
 
 One day, while visiting 
 the sea-coast, he met a queer 
 old man who owned a little 
 ship. This bachelor sea- 
 captain took a great fancy to 
 Drake and well he might, 
 for Drake was a brave lad. 
 
 He made several sea trips 
 
 43 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Compare Drake with 
 S punish Explorers. 
 
 John Hawkins, the 
 Slave-Trader. 
 
 The Spanish Armada. 
 
 Drake on Cape Horn. 
 
 First Religious Ser- 
 vice in California. 
 
 The Q,ueer Animals. 
 
 Death of Drake. 
 
 The Golden Hind. 
 
44 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 with his old captain. On one of these voyages 
 
 the old man died and 
 left his ship to his young 
 mate. 
 
 It was not long after 
 this time that his cousin, 
 John Hawkins, asked 
 him to sail with him to 
 the New World. His 
 cousin told him about 
 
 the profits in the slave 
 trade, and of the chances 
 to get gold. The Eng- 
 lish and Spanish were 
 at war. Drake thought 
 it was all right to attack 
 Spanish ships and Span- 
 ish towns, and to take 
 all the gold that he 
 could find. He secured 
 so much gold and cap- 
 tured so many ships that 
 he became a great hero. 
 His men landed a1 
 Darien, where Balboa 
 had been before. Drake 
 Indians how the Spanish 
 
 Drake, Sir Francis, was 
 
 born in a cottage on the banks 
 of the Tavy, in Devonshire. 
 His father was a yeoman, and 
 had twelve sons. He went to 
 sea with a neighbor of his 
 father's, who possessed a bark. 
 Drake fell heir to the vessel. 
 While coasting about, he heard 
 of the exploits of Hawkins and 
 the New World. He fitted out a 
 vessel, and with wild and reck- 
 less spirits cruised in the West 
 Indies. In 1567, he plundered 
 the town of Nombre de Dios. 
 He crossed the Isthmus of 
 Darien, saw the Pacific Ocean, 
 and returned to England, laden 
 with spoils, a successful sea- 
 rover. Under the sanction of 
 Queen Elizabeth, Drake sailed 
 for the Pacific. He sacked the 
 Spanish towns on the coasts of 
 Chile and Peru. Hoping to 
 find a passage back to the At- 
 lantic, he sailed north. He 
 anchored near Point Reyes, 
 and took formal possession of 
 the country in the name of the 
 Queen of England. He then 
 sailed across the Pacific, dou- 
 bled the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and arrived at Plymouth, Sep- 
 tember 26, 1580. He was vice- 
 admiral of the fleet which 
 destroyed the naval suprem- 
 acy of Spain, in the Armada. 
 Drake died at Nombre de. Dios, 
 January, 1596. 
 
 heard stories from the 
 
THE STORY OF DRAKE 45 
 
 brought rich treasures from Peru across the Isth- 
 mus. He decided to capture the Spaniards and rob 
 them of their gold. 
 
 Then, like Balboa, he wanted to see the "Great 
 Water." After traveling twelve days he came to 
 the top of a hill. His Indian guide told him to 
 climb a tree and he could see the Southern Ocean. 
 
 He looked out through the leafy branches of the 
 tree and beheld the smooth waters of the Pacific, 
 
 "On whose bosom sparkled the diamonds of the sun." 
 He asked God to give him life and heart to sail an 
 English ship upon the unknown sea. 
 
 The view of the Pacific made him feel that he 
 would attain wealth and glory for England. His 
 active brain formed many plans. The thought 
 that he would bring proud Spain to the dust, fired 
 his fancy. He came down from the top of the tree 
 thrilled with what he saw. 
 
 At Panama he captured a mule train loaded with 
 bars of gold and other treasures. After many 
 trials, he again reached the Atlantic side and sailed 
 for England. 
 
 The news of his adventures and of his gold soon 
 spread through the towns. It was on Sunday, 
 the 9th of August, 1573, that Drake landed in 
 Plymouth harbor. 
 
 He was now a rich man. After giving money to 
 
46 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 all his relatives, he still had plenty to engage in 
 new enterprises. He wanted to sail to the Pacific. 
 One day the queen sent for him and made him a 
 present of a beautiful sword, and Drake knew that 
 he had her sanction to make the trip. 
 
 He soon had a fleet of five vessels. At five o'clock 
 in the afternoon, November 15, 1577, the gallant 
 fleet sailed toward the setting sun. 
 
 After many adventures, Drake sailed through the 
 Straits of Magellan, on the Golden Hind, and saw 
 the cape which stood at the outlet to the Pacific. 
 
 He cast anchor at the side of some lofty cliffs 
 and went ashore. He went to the highest cliff, and 
 going to the outer edge he flung his arms toward 
 the sea. 
 
 When he returned to the Golden Hind, one of 
 the men asked him where he had been. Drake 
 replied with a proud smile, "I have been farther 
 south than any man living." Drake left Cape 
 Horn and sailed northward. 
 
 All of his ships, save one, either met with dis- 
 aster or deserted. So the Golden Hind sailed alone. 
 
 It followed the west coast all the way from Cape 
 Horn to Oregon. He believed that he could find a 
 northern passage to the Atlantic. On his way 
 northward he stopped at the towns, in order to 
 fight the Spanish and secure gold, silver, and food. 
 
 Drake had with him on the Golden Hind, a chap- 
 
THE STORY OF DRAKE 47 
 
 lain by the name of Fletcher. This man kept a 
 record of the voyage. He tells in his report that the 
 snow and ice could be seen on the mountains along 
 the coast, and that the weather was so cold that 
 Drake gave up his northern trip and returned south. 
 
 It was in June that Drake found a harbor. Some 
 say that it was the Bay of San Francisco. But it is 
 more than likely that he sailed by the Golden Gate, 
 not dreaming that within its portals was one of the 
 finest harbors in the world. 
 
 He anchored at what is known as Drake's Bay, 
 near Point Reyes. The Indians came down to the 
 ship, and treated the Bailors very kindly, regarding 
 
 them with awe. The ship remained over one month 
 
 
 
 at this place. It was repaired and a new supply of 
 water and food secured. 
 
 Chaplain Fletcher here held the first religious 
 service in California. Drake made a journey in- 
 land, and saw fat deer and thousands of queer little 
 animals that had tails like rats and paws like 
 moles. The people ate them, and the kings had 
 holiday coats made of their skins. All this is 
 described in quaint old English that would be 
 hard for the modern schoolboy to spell. 
 
 Drake named all of California New Albion- 
 first, because it had so many white banks and 
 cliffs; and second, because Albion was the name 
 often applied to old England. 
 
48 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Then he sailed west, and sailed, and sailed, and 
 sailed, till he reached England. He had gone 
 around the world in two years and ten months, 
 and had secured gold and disabled many Spanish 
 ships. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth visited him and dined with him 
 aboard the Golden Hind. The queen took his sword 
 and said : 'This sword, Drake, might still serve 
 thee. Thou hast carried it around the globe ; but 
 ere we return it to thee, it must render us a 
 service." Gently tapping Drake on the shoulder, 
 she said in a clear voice, "Rise, Sir Francis Drake." 
 
 
 
 He was now a knight. He had sailed around the 
 globe. He nad defied danger in every form. He 
 had dealt terrible blows to the Spaniards. He had 
 made numerous discoveries. He had returned rich, 
 a conqueror, a pioneer. His exploits thrilled the 
 people. 
 
 He continued to fight the Spaniards for some 
 years, winning new laurels. King Philip of Spain 
 sent to Queen Elizabeth the Latin verse, which 
 translated reads thus : 
 
 "These to you are our commands: 
 Send no help to the Netherlands. 
 Of the treasures took by Drake, 
 Restitution you must make.' 
 
THE STORY OF DRAKE 49 
 
 In reply, Drake fought the Spanish Armada, and 
 continued to take treasures. He then returned to 
 the field of his first success, and attempted to cap- 
 ture Panama. His men died by the score with 
 fever. He was also taken sick ; and one morning 
 in January, in 1596, he arose to go on deck, but 
 fell back and died, surrounded by his men, and 
 he was buried beneath the waters that he loved 
 so well. 
 
 The Golden Hind was ordered preserved. It w r as 
 kept for one hundred years, but it has long since 
 decayed. A chair made from its timbers was given 
 by Charles II. to Oxford University, and it may be 
 seen yet a memento of the first English ship to 
 touch California's shores, and of its bold captain, 
 Sir Francis Drake, the sea-king of Devon. 
 
 Note. The Prayer-Book Cross in Golden Gate Park, the gift of 
 G. W. Childs, was erected in honor of Drake's voyage to California. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Englishmen (m'glish-men), adventure (ad-ven'tur), 
 bachelor (bach'e-lor), chaplain (chap'lin), San Francisco 
 (san fran-sis'co), translated (trans-lat'ed), university (u'ni- 
 ver'si-ty), memento (me-men'to), restitution (res-ti-tu'- 
 shun), exploits (eks-ploits'), Plymouth (pHm'uth), Armada 
 ar-ma'da, or ar-ma'da). 
 
THE MARCH OF PORTOLA. 
 
 HE trip overland of Don Caspar de 
 Portola from San Bias in Lower 
 California in search of the Bay of 
 Monterey, and leading to the dis- 
 covery of the Bay of San Francisco 
 is very interesting. The king of 
 
 Spain was afraid that the Russians would come 
 
 down from the North and take 
 
 California. So he sent men 
 
 from the City of Mexico to 
 
 fortify the Coast of California. 
 
 j 
 
 They had two ships, at La Paz. 
 
 The San Antonio and the San 
 
 Carlos. These two ships were 
 
 loaded and soon set sail for 
 
 the Bay of San Diego and 
 
 of Monterey. The San Carlos 
 
 as you will read in another Don Caspar Portola 
 
 chapter, was the first ship to enter through the 
 
 Golden Gate into the San Francisco Bay. Portola 
 
 so 
 
THE MARCH OF PORTOLA 51 
 
 decided to lead the march 
 overland. Among 1 the men 
 
 ."3 
 
 at San Bias were Ortega, 
 
 Father Junipero Serra, Fa- 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Discovery of Sail 
 
 Francisco Bay. 
 Portola. . 
 
 Ortega. ther Crespi, Costanxo, en- 
 
 gineer, and Prat, a -physi- 
 
 . . . 
 
 The second Mission. cian. Portola and his men 
 
 started from San Bias on 
 
 May 5, 1769. He traveled over two hundred miles 
 to the Bay of San Diego. 
 
 It was a dreary journey. As they approached San 
 Diego bay the native Indians came out to meet 
 them, and begged from Serra his robe, and took 
 from Portola everything he wore. The Indians 
 had Serra show them his glasses. They were a 
 curiosity, and caused him a lot of trouble before 
 he could get them back. The trip took forty-five 
 days. They found that those who had come by 
 sea on San Carlos had camped near where "Old 
 Town" San Diego is now located. They greeted 
 Portola and his men and 163 mules ladened with 
 provisions with joy. The San Antonio returned to 
 San Bias to tell the story of the trip, and the San 
 Carlos, with Captain Vila, remained at San Diego, 
 because so many of the sailors had died from sick- 
 ness that he could not continue to Monterey. 
 
 At San Diego, Portola left the sick under the 
 faithful Doctor Prat, and on July 14th started to 
 
52 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 March to Monterey. On July 16, 1769, Junipero 
 Serra founded the San Diego Mission, the first one 
 in California. Of the forty people Portola left be- 
 hind, eight soldiers, four sailors, one servant and 
 eighteen Indians died. Among the people that 
 Portola took with him was Pedro Amador, after 
 Avhom Amador County is named ; Ortega, path- 
 finder and discoverer of the Golden Gate, and the 
 San Francisco Bay. Alvarado, grandfather of Gov- 
 ernor Alvarado of California ; Carrilo, afterwards 
 commander at Monterey, Santa Clara and San 
 Diegro, and founder of the celebrated Spanish family 
 in California. Portola had fitted out a small ship, 
 called the San Jose, and loaded it with supplies 
 for Monterey. He was, however, a careful man 
 and for fear it might be lost at sea, he took with 
 him one hundred mules ladened with provisions. 
 The ship San Jose was lost at sea. It was an in- 
 teresting group of men starting to tramp over 
 500 miles, without roads, trails, or paths. How 
 different the trip today from San Diego to the I Jay 
 of San Francisco. Here is the way Portola started 
 out. You may ask how do we know this? \Vhy, 
 Father Crespi kept a diary, and he wrote every- 
 thing down that happened each day. At the head 
 lode Fages, a commander; Costanxo, the engineer; 
 two priests, and six others. Then came Indian-, 
 with spades and axes. These were followed by 
 
THE MARCH OF PORTOLA 53 
 
 pack mules in four sections; the last was the rear 
 guard, with Captain Rivera arid Governor Portola. 
 Each soldier had defensive weapons ; for instance, 
 his arms were wrapped with leather so that the 
 Indians' spears and arrows could not hurt him. 
 and then a leathern apron that fell on each side of 
 the horse over his leg's, to protect them when rid- 
 ing through brush. Each soldier carried a lance, 
 a sword and a short musket. The men were fine 
 horsemen, and good soldiers. They traveled very 
 slowly, not over five or six miles per day. The 
 greatest difficulty was with the horses. It is said 
 that a coyote or fox or even wild birds would 
 frighten the horses so they would run away. The 
 trip was along what is now known as the El 
 Camino Real, the King's Highway. It took them 
 four days to reach San Luis Rey, where the mission 
 now is. They rested four days at San Juan Capis- 
 trano. On the 28th of July they reached Santa 
 Ana River and experienced a terrible earthquake 
 shock. They crossed the Los Angeles River where 
 the city of Los Angeles now stands and gave it 
 its name. The city itself was not founded until 
 1781, when the full name, Nuestra Senora La Reina 
 de Los Angeles ("Our Lady the Queen of the 
 Angels"), was given to it. They gave the San 
 Fernando valley the pretty name of 'Valley of St. 
 Catherine of the Oaks.' Portola crossed another 
 
54 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 river near where Camulos now is and named it 
 Santa Clara in honor of the Saint whose day the} 
 celebrated on August 12th. Then they marched 
 on and on, across many rivers, and over mountains. 
 The Indians in the rancherias welcomed them and 
 gave them food, and showed them how they made 
 boats and implements of various kinds. They 
 passed on through where Santa Barbara now is 
 and on to San Luis Obispo. Here were many 
 Indians. Their big chief had a tumor on his neck 
 and the men called him and the place El Buchon. 
 Father Crespi did not like the name, but Point 
 Buchon and Mount Buchon, "Bald Knob," shows 
 how names will stick. The men were taken sick 
 and their way to the Salinas valley was rough and 
 hard. Many of the men were afflicted with scurvy, 
 a disease brought on by not eating enough vege- 
 tables. On the last day of September the men 
 halted near the mouth of the Salinas River, within 
 sound of the ocean, but could not see it. Portola 
 now sent out scouts to look for the Bav of Monte- 
 
 * 
 
 rey; but after a long search, and seeing the sand 
 dunes and the pines, failed to recognize the bay. 
 A council was called ; Portola told of the short- 
 ness of provisions and the danger of winter com- 
 ing on, so that all might perish. Costanxo said 
 they must travel farther north. Rivera thought 
 they should go and find a camp. If Monterey was 
 
THE MARCH OF PORTOLA 
 
 55 
 
 not found, they would discover some other place 
 where they could settle. So Portola determined 
 to put his trust in God and move on. Sixteen of 
 the men were so sick they had to be lifted on and 
 off the horses. The march was slow and painful. 
 They came to a river. The Indians killed an 
 eagle, with wings that reached seven feet four 
 inches from tip to tip. Father Crespi called the 
 river Santa Ana, but the people called it Pajaro, 
 "The Bird." On the 17th 
 of October they passed 
 through the section where 
 is now located the beau- 
 tiful town of Santa Cruz. 
 At Waddell Creek both 
 Portola and Rivera were 
 taken sick. At San Gre- 
 gorio it began to rain 
 and all were taken sick, 
 but strange to say, the 
 new ailments relieved the 
 scurvy and they were able to press forward. They 
 marched through Half Moon Bay and up along 
 the coast and reached the foot of Montara Moun- 
 tains on October 30th. The site of the camp is 
 about a mile north of Montara Light House. 
 They named the camp El Rincon de La Almejas 
 on account of the mussels and other shell fish 
 
 Monument to Pcrtola on 
 Montara Mountain. 
 
56 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 found there. Ortega and his men were sent out to 
 find a way over the mountains. In a few days 
 Ortega returned and told of seeing a great arm 
 of the sea that thrust itself into the land as far as 
 the eye could reach. Ortega was the first white 
 man to see the Golden Gate, and the Bay of San 
 Francisco, which has become so famous in song and 
 story and in the commercial life of the West. 
 
 Portola and his men now crossed into the San 
 Pedro valley, marched over to the bay side and 
 camped again near the site of Stanford University. 
 After many hardships Portola with his companions 
 were welcomed back to San Diego. On the way 
 they were forced to kill mules and eat the rlesh to 
 keep from starving. They reached San Diego on 
 January 18th, and reported that they searched for 
 Monterey Bay in vain. After resting until April 17, 
 1770, Portola set out again for the Bay of Monterey. 
 On May 24th they camped on the shores of Monte- 
 rey Bay. Portola, Pages, and Father Crespi noted 
 the calm and placid water, the seals, and spouting 
 whales, and all said: 'This is the port of Monte- 
 rey." It is as reported by Vizcaino.* 
 
 On the 3rd of June, 1770, under the shelter of 
 the branches of an oak tree, Portola, Serra, Crespi 
 and the soldiers met and established a presidio 
 
 * Vizcaino discovered the Bay of Monterey in 1602 and sent a glowing 
 account of it to the King of Spain. 
 
THE MARCH OF PORTOLA 
 
 57 
 
 and a Mission. Portola, the first Governor of Cali- 
 fornia, in the name of the King of Spain took pos- 
 session of the country, and thus was established the 
 first presidio and Carmel, the second Mission in 
 California. 
 
 On July 9, 1770, Portola sailed for Mexico. He 
 afterwards became Governor of Pueblo, Mexico, 
 and California knew him no more. 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 HE planting of the Cross in Cali- 
 fornia is full of heroic interest. 
 
 In the most beautiful places from 
 San Diego to San Francisco, Junipero 
 Serra and his followers built Mis- 
 sions. After a lapse of more than a 
 hundred years, they stand as land- 
 marks of the devotion of the earliest pioneers. 
 
 The founders, in the selection of sites, chose the 
 most attractive places, and adopted a style of archi- 
 tecture that is the basis of 
 some of the handsomest 
 modern buildings. 
 
 The buildings have the 
 color and atmosphere of Cal- 
 ifornia. They seem to have 
 grown up out of the brown 
 soil. The soft dove-color of 
 the adobe walls, the red- 
 brown tiles of the roof, the 
 olive leaves on the trees, the 
 
 58 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Junipero Serra's Over- 
 lisml Journey. 
 
 Bay of San Diego. 
 Mis.sion at San Diego. 
 
 The Journey to Mon- 
 terey. 
 
 Mission Dells. 
 
 L,ife and O'haraeter 
 of Junipero Serra. 
 
 The Missions. 
 l,-i rnlii!.-! rks of Span- 
 ish Civilization. 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS 
 
 59 
 
 violet haze of the distant mountains, the tawny hue 
 of the hills, all harmonize with each other. 
 
 It was at noon on July 1, 1769, that Junipero Serra 
 stood on the mesa above San Diego Bay. It is said 
 that as he looked out across the soft wind-dimpled 
 ocean and about him, his soul was filled with de- 
 light, and he stooped, took a golden poppy, touched 
 
 it with his lips and exclaimed: "Copa de oro ! the 
 cup of gold! the Holy Grail! I have found it!" 
 
 Junipero Serra, whose name was Jose Miguel be- 
 fore he devoted himself to the church, had walked 
 all the way from the City of Mexico to San Diego. 
 
 The ship San Carlos had sailed from San Bias, 
 and entered the harbor before the arrival of 
 Junipero Serra and his companions. 
 
60 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 The journey overland was hard on Junipero on 
 account of a painful affliction of his foot, 
 
 He asked one of the men for a remedy for the 
 ailment. The man replied, "J know no remedy; 
 I am no surgeon; I can only Cure the sores <>t 
 beasts." 
 
 'Well, son," replied Junipero, ''treat me as a 
 
 beast." The man smiled at the request. He took 
 some tallow, mashed it between two stones, mixed 
 some herbs with it, and applied the medicine. The 
 relief was almost immediate. 
 
 On July 14, 1769, Portola, Father Crespi and about 
 sixty others started northward overland to Monte- 
 rey, in accordance with instructions of Charles III. 
 
 Junipero Serra at once began the work of his life. 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS 61 
 
 On July 16th (the anniversary of the victory of the 
 Spaniards over the Moors in 1212), he erected a 
 cross near where the twin palms now stand at San 
 Diego. Mass was celebrated. The natives looked 
 on, and across their fiat faces crept an expression 
 of wonder. 
 
 One nig'ht the Indians, who were very fond of 
 cloth, cut out a piece of the sails from the San 
 Carlos. They would not eat the food of the Span- 
 iards for fear of sickness. This was fortunate for 
 the Spaniards, as their supply was limited. 
 
 Junipero did not succeed in converting" the In- 
 dians at first. 
 
 The little band was attacked one night. Jose 
 Maria, a servant, was killed, and several others 
 were wounded. The Mission was removed in 1774 
 to a spot on the San Dieg'o River about five miles 
 from the bay. Here palm-trees were planted, an 
 olive orchard started, and ground cultivated. 
 
 On November 4, 1775, eight hundred Indians at- 
 tacked the Mission. Father Louis Jayme and 
 several others were killed. The Mission was burned. 
 The few soldiers, aided by the settlers, fought 
 bravely. In the morning the Indians picked up 
 their dead and wounded and marched away, and 
 never renewed the attack. 
 
 Junipero Serra sailed for Monterey on April 16, 
 1770, to build a Mission. Portola, Father Crespi, 
 
62 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 and companions had made an overland journey 
 for the purpose, but had failed to find the port men- 
 tioned by Vizcaino in 1603. 
 
 Junipero succeeded in finding" an immense circuit 
 of smooth water, full of sea-lions and deep enough 
 for whales. He landed, and on the morning of 
 June 3, 1770, took formal possession of the place. 
 
 Carmel Mission. 
 
 THE Mission floor was with weeds o'ergrown. 
 And crumbling' and shaky the walls of stone; 
 Its roof of tiles, in tiers and tiers, 
 Had stood the storms of a hundred years. 
 An olden, weird, medieval style 
 Clung to the moldering, gloomy pile; 
 And the rhythmic voice of the breaking waves 
 Sang a lonesome dirge in its land of graves. 
 Strangely awed I felt that day, 
 As I walked in the Mission, old and gray, 
 The Mission Carmel, at Monterey. 
 
 Madge Morris 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS 
 
 63 
 
 Under an oak-tree an altar was raised, the bells 
 were hung, and celebration was begun with loud 
 and vigorous chimes. Junipero, in alb and stole, 
 asked the blessing of heaven on their work. A 
 great cross was erected. 
 
 The famous port of Monterey was in possession 
 of Spain, and the royal standard floated in this re- 
 mote region, the squirrels and Indians watching it 
 curiously. 
 
 / 
 
 The Mission was changed from the beach in 
 1771 to its present location. The beautiful wild 
 roses, the roses of Castile, grew all about it. The 
 
 San Gabriel. 
 
64 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Monterey cypress, the forest of pines, the Carmel 
 River, the quiet crescent-shaped bay marked it as 
 a beautiful spot. 
 
 Pala Mission. 
 
 At this place Junipero Serra was aided by new 
 arrivals, and the Indians began to take advantage 
 of the missions. 
 
 The establishment of Missions at San Luis, San 
 Gabriel, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Rev, Pala, 
 Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and other places 
 went on with great rapidity. 
 
 When the news of the conquest of California 
 reached Old and Xew Spain, the bells of the cathe- 
 drals rang in tune with the Mission bells of San 
 Diego, Monterey, and San Gabriel. 
 
 The Missions were founded by the order known 
 as Franciscans. Junipero asked of Galvez : "Is St. 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS 65 
 
 Francis to have no Mission?" "Let him show us 
 his port and he shall have one," was the reply. 
 
 Santa Clara Mission. 
 
 The port was shown and San Francisco is named 
 in honor of St. Francis, whose life was devoted 
 to unselfish service. The city flourishes, though 
 the Missions crumble into dust. 
 
 The same years that witnessed the conquest of 
 
 Spain in California saw war for freedom on the At- 
 lantic side. 
 
 The spirit of this work of Spain was in Junipero 
 Serra. In August, 1784, he sent a letter of eternal 
 farewell to the Franciscans, and prepared for death. 
 On August the 28th, he took leave of his old friend, 
 Palou, and went to sleep. 
 
 The Mission bells tolled mournfully. The people 
 
66 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 covered his coffin with flowers, and touched his 
 body with medals and rosaries. His garments were 
 taken as relics. He was buried at San Carlos. 
 
 Santa Barbara. 
 
 "He ended his laborious life," says Father Palou, 
 "at the age of seventy years nine months and four 
 days. Eight Missions were established, and five 
 thousand eight hundred Indians were confirmed 
 as the result of his labors in Upper California." 
 
 This much was accomplished with great hard- 
 ships. He limped from Mission to Mission, passed 
 sleepless nights, listening to the howls of the 
 coyotes, and in constant danger of an attack from 
 treacherous Indians. The food was poor, clothing 
 was scant, and his shelter frequently a gnarled oak, 
 on which hung the sacred Mission bells. His nanu- 
 is without a stain. 
 
THE STORY OF THE MISSIONS 67 
 
 He followed the paths of the saints and martyrs, 
 the ideals of his sickly boyhood. His work be- 
 longed to a pioneer age. 
 
 The tourist of to-day finds a melancholy interest 
 in the crumbling adobe walls, the wide corridors, 
 the broken tiles, the cracked bells, the odd nooks, 
 and strange, weird owls and bats that are now a 
 part of the deserted Missions. 
 
 Mission Dolores. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Junipero Serra (hoo-ni'pa-ro ser'ra), harmonize (har'mo- 
 nize), mesa (ma'sa), San Carlos (san kar'los), surgeon 
 (ser'jun), medicine (med'i-sin), Portola ( por-to-la'), Crespi 
 (kres'pe), exemplars (egz-em'plars), Franciscans (fran- 
 sls'kans), martyrs (mar'ters), weird (werd). 
 
FRANCISCAN MISSIONS OF ALTA CALIFORNIA. 
 
 The dates on which they were founded. 
 
 San Diego, in San Diego County, July 16, 1769. 
 San Luis Rey, San Diego County, June 13, 1798. 
 San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, November 1, 1776. 
 
 San Gabriel Arcangel, Los Angeles County, September 
 8. 1771. 
 
 San Buenaventura, Ventura County, March 31, 1782. 
 San Fernando, Los Angeles County, September 8, 1797. 
 Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, December 4, 1786. 
 Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara County, September 17, 1804. 
 
 La Purisima Concepcion, Santa Barbara County, Decem- 
 ber 8, 1787. 
 
 San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, September 
 1, 1772. 
 
 San Miguel Arcanger, San Luis Obispo County, July 25, 
 1797. 
 
 San Antonio de Padua, Monterey County, July 14, 1771. 
 La Soledad, Monterey County, October 9, 1791. 
 
 San Carlos de Monterey (or Carmel Mission), Monterey 
 County, June 3, 1770. 
 
 San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, June 24, 1797. 
 Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, August 28, 1791. 
 Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, January 18, 1777. 
 San Jose, Alameda County, June 11, 1797. 
 
 Dolores, or San Francisco de Asis, San Francisco Coun- 
 ty, October 9, 1776. 
 
 San Rafael Arcangel, Marin County, December 18, 1817. 
 San Francisco Solano, Sonoma County, August 25, 1823. 
 
THE ANGELUS. 
 
 (Heard at the Mission Dolores, 1868) 
 BY BRET HARTE. 
 
 ELLS of the Past, whose long-forgot- 
 ten music 
 
 Still tills the wide expanse, 
 Tingeing the sober twilight of the 
 
 Present 
 \Yith color of Romance ! 
 
 1 hear your call, and see the sun descending 
 
 On rock and wave and sand, 
 As down the coast the Mission voices, blending, 
 
 Girdle the heathen land. 
 
 Within the circle of your incantation 
 
 Xo blight nor mildew falls ; 
 Xor fierce unrest, nor lust, nor low ambition 
 
 Passes those airy walls. 
 
 Borne on the swell of your long waves receding-, 
 
 I touch the farther past,- 
 I see the dying glow of Spanish glory, 
 
 The sunset dream and last ! 
 
 69 
 
70 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Before me rise the dome-shaped Mission lowers. 
 
 The white Presidio ; 
 The swart commander in his leathern jerkin, 
 
 The priest in stole of snow. 
 
 Once more I see Portola's cross uplifting- 
 Above the setting sun ; 
 
 And past the headland, northward, slowly drifting, 
 The freighted galleon. 
 
 O Solemn bells ! whose consecrated masses 
 
 Recall the faith of old,- 
 O tinkling bells ! that lulled with twilight music 
 
 The spiritual fold ! 
 
 Your voices break and falter in the darkness,- 
 
 Break, falter, and are still ! 
 And veiled and mystic, like the Host descending, 
 
 The sun sinks from the hill! 
 
THE FIRST SHIP TO ENTER THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 HE ship San Carlos was the first to 
 sail through the Golden Gate into the 
 harbor of San Francisco. Drake, 
 Cabrillo, Vizcaino, had all drifted by 
 the bay locked in among" the hills. 
 The Bay of San Francisco was first 
 discovered by Portola and his land party, who were 
 looking for the Bay of Monterey. The date was 
 November 2, 1769, over tw r o hundred years after 
 Drake and Cabrillo had sailed along the coast of 
 California. 
 
 It was not, however, until August 5, 1775, that a 
 ship entered the narrow straits. The San Carlos 
 
 left Monterey under instruc- 
 tions to sail to the port of 
 San Francisco and make a 
 survey. 
 
 Ayala, the commander, set 
 sail. The ship crept cau- 
 tiously along the shore. It 
 was nine days before the 
 men on the ship saw the 
 seal rocks and heard the sea- 
 lions. 
 
 71 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 The Sau Carlos. 
 
 Overland Journey of 
 Father Cresni. 
 
 The Ships that Sailed 
 by the Golden Gate. 
 
 Cross on Point Lo- 
 bos. 
 
 Survey of the Bay. 
 Angel Island. 
 
 Some of the Changes 
 that have taken 
 place. 
 
- 1 
 
 AYALA SENDING BOAT AHEAD IN BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
FIRST SHIP TO ENTER THE GOLDEN GATE 73 
 
 A launch was sent ahead to explore the narrow 
 passage, now known as the Golden Gate. The men 
 in the little boat sailed in against the fog that 
 mantled the hills on either side. Ayala followed 
 with his ship. At night he anchored in the bay, 
 having safely passed through the straits. 
 
 The next morning the ship San Carlos was 
 moored at an island, now called Angel Island. 
 
 It was a delightful place. The picturesque sur- 
 roundings, the springs of pure water, the chaparral, 
 coves, and pebbly beach gave it unusual attrac- 
 tions for the sailors. 
 
 The launch was used in sailing about the main 
 body of the bay and along its outstretched arms, 
 the rivers, San Pablo and the smaller bays. 
 
 At Mission Bay, now mostly filled up and built 
 over, they saw three Indians, who were weeping, or 
 making" noises resembling crying, and for this 
 reason the cove was named 
 
 "THE COVE OF THE WEEPERS." 
 
 A cross had been planted by the land party a few 
 years before on the sand dunes of Point Lobos. At 
 its foot Ayala ordered two letters deposited, one de- 
 scribing his successful entrance to, and survey of, the 
 Bay of San Francisco, the other giving notice of his 
 return to Monterey, and asking that if the land 
 party, which he expected, should arrive, to build a 
 
74 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 fire iii sight of Angel Island. The party arrived, 
 the fire was lighted, but no response came back. 
 
 These men camped by the side of a lake, and 
 gave it the name which it bears to this day- -Lake 
 Merced in honor of ''Our Lady of Mercy." 
 
 The ship San Carlos had remained for forty days 
 in the Bay of San Francisco. It had taken posses- 
 sion, Ayala reported, of the best port of Spain. It 
 now sailed out of the harbor and down to Monterey. 
 
 Since then, thousands of ships have sailed in 
 and out through the Golden Gate. Flags of every 
 nation have been wafted to the breezes of the bav. 
 
 > 
 
 The gate stands well guarded, but the red, white, 
 and blue of "Old Glory" floats over the Presidio 
 more as a welcome than as a menace. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Launch (lanch), menace (men'es), chaparral (cha'par- 
 ral), cautiously (kaw'shus-ly), Point Lobos (point lo'bos), 
 Ayala (a-ya'la), pebbly (peb bli), Vizcaino (ves-ka-ee'no). 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 EXERAL PIKE, who was killed in 
 the last war with England while 
 leading his troops into Canada, was, 
 perhaps, the first real discoverer of 
 the Rocky Mountains to the south 
 (1805-6), as Pike's Peak will forever 
 testify, but he was preceded by still more intrepid 
 men, if possible, away up in the far north (1803). 
 
 Their path lay across what the Indians called 
 the "Shining Mountains" and \vhat now is the 
 
 gold fields of Montana. They 
 passed within hailing dis- 
 tance of the spot where Hel- 
 ena, the capital of Montana, 
 now stands. 
 
 Strange they did not dis- 
 cover gold ; for the great 
 journal of Lewis and Clark 
 speaks of quartz and sil- 
 ver and signs of gold. 
 
 This great expedition, the 
 first to cross the Rocky 
 Mountains, is known in his- 
 
 75 
 
 the 
 
 R ef erence T opics 
 
 Pike's Peak. 
 Buffaloes. 
 A Bear Fight. 
 The River o 
 AVest. 
 
 The Indians of the 
 Columbia. 
 
 The First Christmas 
 on the Shores of 
 the Pacific. 
 
 The Return of the 
 Party. 
 
 Lewis and Clark. 
 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
76 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 tory as the Lewis and Clark expedition, and was 
 made up of Captain Lewis, of the U. S. army, and 
 Captain Clark, also of the army, and in direct com- 
 mand of the men in hand, consisting of nine young 
 citizens of Kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the army, 
 
 two French watermen, a 
 hunter, an interpreter, 
 and a black servant of 
 Captain Clark's. 
 
 \Yhen the expedition 
 got to the Missouri River 
 the Spanish comman- 
 dant of all that vast re- 
 gion reaching up from 
 what is now Louisiana, 
 not having yet had offi- 
 cial information that we 
 had any rights there, 
 refused to let them pass, 
 and so the party win- 
 tered at the mouth of 
 Wood River. 
 
 Now, it is but right to 
 give some credit to a certain Mr. Carver, of Boston, 
 as we go along, for having in some sort preceded 
 Lewis and Clark a little ways; for he left a map 
 and the following note, dated 1774: 
 
 'From the intelligence I gained from the \Yau- 
 
 L.ewiN, Meri wether, ex- 
 plorer, was born near Char- 
 lottesville, Va., August 18, 1774. 
 He was a grand-nephew of 
 Fielding Lewis, who married a 
 sister of General Washington. 
 At the age of twenty, he vol- 
 unteered to assist in putting 
 down Shay's Rebellion. He af- 
 terwards became private sec- 
 retary to President Jefferson, 
 and was sent out by Congress 
 to explore the continent to the 
 Pacific. With William Clark 
 and a company of thirty-four 
 men, he left Washington, July 
 5, 1803, and beheld the Pacific 
 Ocean on November 7, 1805. 
 
 Their discoveries were made 
 a special message to Congress 
 in 1807. Lewis was appointed 
 governor of Missouri, and 
 served with distinction. He 
 committed suicide on his way 
 to Washington, October, 1809. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 
 
 77 
 
 I have 
 
 the four 
 
 rivers on 
 
 of North 
 
 dowessie Indians, whose language I perfectly ob- 
 tained during a residence of five months, and also 
 from the accounts I afterwards obtained from the 
 Assinipoils, who speak the Chippeway language 
 and inhabit the heads of the River Bourbon ; I say, 
 
 from these nations, to- 
 gether with my own 
 observations, 
 learned that 
 most capital 
 the continent 
 America, namely : the St. 
 Lawrence, the Mississip- 
 pi, the River Bourbon, 
 and the Oregon, or the 
 River of the \Yest, have 
 their sources hi the same 
 neighborhood. The wa- 
 ters of the three former 
 are within thirty miles 
 of each other ; the latter, 
 howt\'er, is rather far- 
 ther west." 
 
 But, of course, Lewis and Clark were the real dis- 
 coverers of the head-waters of these great rivers, and 
 we must proceed with them. They were equipped 
 with the steel frames of great boats, one of them 
 5n feet long. These frames they finally covered with 
 
 Clark, \\ i 1 1 i:i in. was born 
 in Virginia, August 1, 1770. He 
 entered the army in 1792, but, 
 after four years' service, had to 
 resign, on account of ill health. 
 In 1803, Lewis chose him as his 
 assistant in explorations of the 
 continent. 
 
 After his return from the 
 journey of nearly 8000 miles, 
 Jefferson nominated him as 
 lieutenant-colonel of the Sec- 
 ond Infantry, but the Senate 
 failed to confirm him. Later, 
 he acted as Indian agent, with 
 headquarters at St. Louis. In 
 1812, he declined an appoint- 
 ment as brigadier-general. 
 Madison appointed him gov- 
 ernor of Missouri, which posi- 
 tion he held until its admis- 
 sion into the Union, in 1821, 
 when he failed to be elected as 
 first governor. He then served 
 as Indian agent until the time 
 of his death, September 1, 1838. 
 
78 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 the skins of buffalo sewed together, and with these 
 w r orked their way up the Missouri, taking a whole 
 year to get within hearing of the great falls. 
 
 They carried many presents, seeds, beads, blan- 
 kets, and all sorts of things that might be useful or 
 pleasing to savages, and never in all their first years 
 had any trouble with them. Some Indians had fine 
 gardens and w r ere very nearly civilized, according 
 to the volumes of the great journal, which gives a 
 daily account of everything seen or heard. Here 
 is an account of a great feast there : 
 
 "As soon as we were seated, an old man got up, 
 and, after approving what w r e had done, begged 
 us to take pity on their unfortunate situation. To 
 this we replied with assurances of protection. 
 
 
 
 The Indians Were Friendly. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 79 
 
 "After he had ceased, the great chief arose and 
 delivered an harangue to the same effect; then, with 
 great solemnity, he took some of the most delicate 
 parts of the dog which was cooked for the festival 
 and held it to the flag by way of sacrifice; this done, 
 he held up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it 
 towards the heavens, then to the four quarters of 
 the globe, and then to the earth, made a short 
 speech, lighted the pipe, and presented it to us. 
 
 'We smoked, and he again harangued his people, 
 after which the repast was served up to us. It con- 
 sisted of the dog which they had just been cooking, 
 this being a great dish among the Sioux, and used 
 on all festivals ; to this were added pemmican, a 
 dish made of buffalo meat, dried or jerked, and then 
 pounded and mixed raw with grease, and a kind of 
 ground potato, dressed like, the preparation of In- 
 dian corn called hominy, to which it is little inferior. 
 
 "Of all these luxuries that were placed before us 
 on platters, with horn spoons, we took the pemmi- 
 can and potato, which we found good, but we could, 
 as yet, partake but sparingly of the dog." 
 
 But while there was no trouble with Indians to 
 speak of on this outward march, they were con- 
 stantly battling with the most formidable and 
 ferocious bears ever heard of. 
 
 These were mostly the same as what is now called 
 the California grizzly. But even the brown bears 
 
80 PACIFIC HISTORY STOKIES 
 
 of the Rocky Mountains were terrible. Here is the 
 journal's account of a battle with a brown bear: 
 
 'Towards evening (on the 14th) the men in the 
 hindmost canoe discovered a large brown bear lying 
 in the open grounds, about three hundred paces 
 from the river. Six of them, all good hunters, 
 immediately went to attack him, and, concealing 
 themselves by a small eminence, came unperceived 
 within forty paces of him. 
 
 "Four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged 
 a ball in his body, two of them directly through 
 the lungs. The furious animal sprang up and ran 
 open-mouthed upon them. 
 
 "As he came near, the two hunters who had 
 reserved their fire gave him two wounds, one of 
 which, breaking his shoulder, retarded his motion 
 for a moment; but before they could reload, he 
 was so near that they were obliged to run to the 
 river, and before they had reached it he had almost 
 overtaken them. Two jumped into the canoe; the 
 other four separated, and, concealing themselves 
 in the willows, fired as fast as they could reload. 
 
 'They struck him several times ; but, instead of 
 weakening the monster, each shot seemed only to 
 direct him towards the hunters, till at last he pur- 
 sued two of them so closely that they threw aside 
 their pouches and guns, and jumped down a per- 
 pendicular bank twenty feet into the river. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS gl 
 
 The bear sprang after them, and was within a 
 few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters 
 on shore shot the beast in the head and finally 
 killed him. They dragged him to the shore, and 
 found that eight balls had passed through him in 
 different directions. The bear was old, and the 
 meat tough, so that they took the skin only, and 
 rejoined us at camp." 
 
 Here, under date of May 29, 1804, we read : 
 
 "May 29. Last night we were alarmed by a new 
 sort of enemy. A buffalo swam over from the 
 opposite side and to the spot where lay one of our 
 canoes, over which he clambered to the shore. 
 
 'Then taking fright, he ran full speed up the 
 bank towards our fires, and passed within eighteen 
 inches of the heads of some of the men before the 
 sentinel could make him change his course. 
 
 "Still more alarmed, he ran down between our 
 fires, within a few inches of the heads of a second 
 row of the men, and would have broken into our 
 lodge if the barking of the dog had not stopped him. 
 
 ''He suddenly turned to the right and was out of 
 sight in a moment, every one seizing his rifle and 
 
 * When you bear in mind that these reports are official, and made 
 by United States army officers, who made it a point of honor to state 
 things exactly as they took place, you will understand that these few 
 men had a very lively time ; for nearly every day they had some sort 
 of adventure with wild animals. The buffalo were so numerous that 
 they often had to take care to keep out of their way, for fear of being 
 trampled to death. 
 
82 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 inquiring the cause of alarm. On learning what 
 had happened, we had to rejoice at suffering no 
 more injury than some damage to the guns that 
 were in the canoe which the buffalo crossed." 
 
 The whole region, as far as the eye could reach, 
 up, down, right, or left, w ? as one vast undulating 
 world of wild beasts and roving bands of Indians, 
 with here and there a patch of corn, and melons, 
 and pumpkins along the low, sandy river banks. 
 These primitive fields were tended by squaws. 
 
 Their implements for tilling the soil were sticks 
 and elks' horns, hardened in the fire. But all this 
 now is a world of homes and harvest-fields. At last 
 the great falls of the Missouri were reached. The 
 men were now in the heart of the continent. 
 
 It would have taken them longer to reach home 
 than it would take a man to go many times around 
 the world in our day. But for all their long absence 
 and distance from home, they exulted in each great 
 discovery, hoisted a new flag, and fired guns. 
 
 Hear their own account of it. 
 
 "June 14. This morning one of the men was 
 sent to Captain Clark with an account of the dis- 
 covery of the falls. Captain Lewis proceeded to 
 examine the rapids. From the falls he directed his 
 course southwest, up the river. 
 
 "After passing one continued rapid and three cas- 
 cades, each three or four feet high, he reached, at 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS g3 
 
 the distance of live miles, a second fall. The river 
 is here about four hundred yards wide, and for the 
 distance of three hundred, rushes down to the 
 depth of nineteen feet, and so irregularly that he 
 ave it the name of Crooked Falls. 
 
 
 'From the southern shore it extends obliquely 
 upward about one hundred and fifty yards, and 
 then forms an acute angle downward, nearly to the 
 commencement of four small islands, close to the 
 northern side. From the perpendicular pitch to 
 these islands, a distance of more than one hundred 
 yards, the water glides down a sloping" rock, with a 
 velocity almost equal to that of its fall. 
 
 "Above this fall the river bends suddenly to the 
 northward. ^Aliile viewing this place Captain Lewis 
 heard a loud roar above him, and, crossing the 
 point of a hill a few hundred yards, he saw one of 
 the most beautiful objects in nature. The whole 
 Missouri River is suddenly stopped by one shelving 
 rock, which, without a single niche, and with an 
 edge as straight and regular as if formed by art, 
 stretches itself from one side of the river to the other 
 for at least a quarter of a mile. 
 
 "Over this it precipitates itself in an even, unin- 
 terrupted sheet, to the perpendicular depth of fifty 
 feet, whence, dashing against the rocky bottom, it 
 rushes rapidly down, leaving behind it a sheet of 
 
84 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 the purest foam across the river. The scene which 
 it presented was indeed singularly beautiful. 
 
 Just below the falls is a little island in the mid- 
 dle of the river, well covered with timber. Here, 
 on a cottonwood tree, an eagle had fixed its nest, 
 and was the undisputed mistress of a spot where 
 neither man nor beast would venture across the 
 gulfs that surround it. 
 
 "This solitary bird did not escape the observation 
 of the Indians, who made the eagle's nest a part 
 of their description of the falls. Captain Lewis now 
 ascended the hill behind him, and saw from its top 
 a delightful plain, extending from the river to the 
 base of the snowv mountains. 
 
 j 
 
 "Along this wide, level country, the Missouri 
 pursued its winding course, while about four miles 
 above it was joined by a large river Mowing from 
 the northwest. The Missouri itself stretches to the 
 south in an unruffled stream of water, as if uncon- 
 scious of the roughness it must soon encounter, and 
 bearing on its bosom vast flocks of geese, while nu- 
 merous herds of buffalo are feeding on the plains 
 which surround it. 
 
 "Captain Lewis then descended the hill. lie 
 soon met a herd of at least a thousand buffalo, and 
 being desirous of providing for supper, shot one ot 
 them. 
 
 'The animal immediately began to bleed, and 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 
 
 85 
 
 Captain Lewis, who had forgotten to reload his 
 rifle, was intently watching to see him fall, when he 
 beheld a large brown hear stealing up to him. and 
 was already within twenty steps. In the first rm>~ 
 
 The Buffalo. 
 
 ment of surprise he lifted his rifle, but, remembering 
 that it was not charged, and that he had no time 
 to reload, he felt that there was no safety but in 
 flight. 
 
 ; 'It w r as in the open, level plain, not a bush nor 
 a tree within three hundred yards; the bank of 
 the river sloping, and not more than three feet high, 
 so that there was no possible mode of conceal- 
 ment. 
 
86 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIKS 
 
 "Captain Lewis then thought of retreating with 
 a quick walk, towards the nearest tree ; but, as soon 
 as he turned, the bear rushed, open-mouthed and 
 at full speed, upon him. The captain ran about 
 eighty yards, but finding the animal gained on him 
 fast, decided on getting into the water to such a 
 depth that the bear would be obliged to attack him 
 swimming. He, therefore, turned short, plunged 
 into the river about waist deep, and, facing about, 
 presented the point of his spontoon. 
 
 'The bear arrived at the water's edge, but became 
 frightened, wheeled about, and retreated with as 
 much precipitation as he had advanced. Very glad 
 to be released from this danger, Captain Lewis 
 
 The Highest Peak in the Rocky Mountains Where Fremont 
 
 Placed the Flae. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 87 
 
 returned to the shore, and saw the bear running 
 with great speed, sometimes looking back, as if he 
 expected to be pursued, till he reached the woods. 
 
 "He could not conceive the cause of the sudden 
 alarm of the bear, but congratulated himself on his 
 escape, and learned from the adventure never to 
 allow his rifle to be for a moment unloaded." 
 
 Far, far up the Missouri River, in the heart of 
 the Rocky Mountains, they had to walk up the 
 rugged banks, and leave their last remaining little 
 boats, having buried the big ones under heaps of 
 stones in the river, to be used on their return. They 
 found the rattlesnakes so numerous and vicious 
 that the men had to bind their legs in thongs. 
 
 Late in August they stood on the topmost reach 
 of the Rocky Mountains. Bear in mind, the moun- 
 tains here are now green fields and harvest-fields. 
 Do not let the idea prevail that the country on the 
 top of the Rocky Mountains is rugged. Strange to 
 say, these mountains, unlike our Sierras, may be 
 crossed easily, and almost anywhere that snow is 
 not encountered. Here is the record of August 12, 
 1805: 
 
 'They had now reached the hidden source of that 
 river, which had never before been seen by civilized 
 man ; and as they quenched their thirst at the 
 chaste and icy fountain, as they sat down by the 
 brink of the little river, which yielded its distant 
 
88 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 and modest tribute to the parent ocean, they felt 
 themselves rewarded for all their labors and all 
 their difficulties They reluctantly left this inter- 
 esting" spot, and, pursuing the Indian road through 
 the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a 
 ridge, from which they saw high mountains, par- 
 tially covered with snow, still to the west of them. 
 The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing 
 line between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans." 
 
 After crossing the mountains, the party suffered 
 terribly from cold, hunger, and heartsickness ; for 
 the country was, and still is, desolate indeed for a 
 long distance, made much longer to them from 
 want of guides and any good idea how to reach 
 the navigable waters of the Oregon (now called 
 the Columbia) River. More than once they had 
 only horse-meat. Finally, they had to buy dogs 
 to eat. 
 
 When they got down the head - waters of the 
 Columbia, to what is now the Nez Perce (Pierced 
 Nose) tribe, of whom the famous Chief Joseph is 
 now leader, they fared very well ; and, leaving 
 their horses with the Indians, they bought canoes, 
 and dashed on down the river toward the great 
 Pacific Ocean. Here follows the record of the first 
 Christmas ever held by Americans on the shore of 
 the Pacific Ocean : 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOTXTAIXS 89 
 
 "Dec. 25. \Ye were awakened at daylight by a 
 discharge of firearms, which was followed by a 
 song from the men, as a compliment to us on the 
 return of Christmas, which we have always been 
 accustomed to observe as a day of rejoicing. After 
 breakfast, we divided our remaining stock of tobacco 
 into two parts, one of which we distributed among 
 such of the party as made use of it, making a present 
 of a handkerchief to the others. 
 
 'The remainder of the day was passed in good 
 spirits, though there was nothing in our situation 
 to excite much gayety. The rain confined us to 
 the house, and our only luxuries in honor of the 
 season were some poor elk-meat (so much spoiled 
 that we ate it through mere necessity), a few f roots, 
 and some moldy pounded fish." 
 
 The men were starving; many of them were very 
 ill ; but still they did not lose heart, but, as we shall 
 see, hailed the new year with thanksgiving and 
 gratitude. Here is the journal's account of the first 
 "New Year's" ever celebrated under the American 
 flag on this coast : 
 
 "Jan. 1, 1806. \Ve were awaked at an early 
 hour by the discharge of a volley of small arms, to 
 salute the new year. This \vas the only mode of 
 commemorating the da}- which our situation per- 
 mitted ; for, though we had reasons to be gayer 
 than we were at Christmas, our onlv dainties were 
 
 J 
 
90 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 boiled elk and wapatoo, enlivened by draughts of 
 pure water. 
 
 "We were visited by a few Clatsops, who came by 
 water, bringing roots and berries for sale. Among 
 this nation we observed a man about twenty-five 
 years old, of a much lighter complexion than the 
 Indians generally. His face was even freckled, and 
 his hair long and of a color inclining to red. 
 
 "He was in habits and manners perfectly Indian; 
 but, though he did not speak a word of English, he 
 seemed to understand more than the others of his 
 party; and, as we could obtain no account of his 
 origin, we concluded that one of his parents at least 
 must have been white." 
 
 Many explorations were made up the many rivers. 
 At one place, where Oregon City now stands, they 
 found a large Indian village, with not a human being 
 in sight, all having suddenly died from some plague. 
 
 At last their work was done. Rivers had been 
 explored, valleys were measured, mountains had 
 been climbed and classified, and given place on 
 the maps of the republic. The men had a right 
 to return. These men, who had been so long from 
 home, and out of reach of all signs of civilization, 
 were now "hairy men." They were clothed en- 
 tirely in the skins of wild beasts; their beards 
 fell in matted masses on their breasts; their hair 
 blew about their shoulders in the wind. They 
 
DISCOYKRY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 91 
 
 were a wild-looking lot as they lifted their faces 
 once more to the rising sun, and set out to retrace 
 their steps up the Oregon River, o\-er the Rockies, 
 and down the yellow Missouri. 
 
 All along through the journal we find such en- 
 tries as these : 'To-day bought three more dogs, 
 and dried their flesh by the fire to take with us." 
 At one place w r e read of them buying twenty dogs. 
 At first they did not kill them at once, but took 
 them along with them alive. The dogs, however, 
 were too much given to getting out, so they had to 
 "jerk" them. 
 
 The Indians were, for the most part, dirty and 
 thievish. Their teeth were worn down to gums 
 from eating fish that had been dried on the sand ; 
 their eyes were red and weak from sand-storms ; 
 and they followed the wdiite men about like chil- 
 dren, begging for a sort of eye-water which Captain 
 Clark compounded out of sugar of lead. 
 
 As the party reached the Rocky Mountains on 
 their return, they divided, one going up one branch 
 of the Columbia (or Oregon) River, and the other 
 party up the other branch, to meet at the mouth of 
 the Yellowstone River, about one hundred miles 
 from what is now the great Yellowstone Park. 
 Strangely enough, they did not see or hear of the 
 marYels there; and one can but wonder if they are 
 not, comparatively, of recent date. 
 
92 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 I take pleasure in stating that these great 
 explorers found no trouble with Indians on their 
 outward journey; but now, as they returned and 
 n eared the tribes that afterward destroyed the brave 
 General C lister and his men, they barely escaped 
 with their lives. Here is their account of the ugly 
 affair : 
 
 'July 27. The Indians got up at sunrise and 
 crowded around the fire, near which J. Fields, who 
 was then on watch, had carelessly left his rifle by 
 the head of his brother, who was still asleep. 
 
 "One of the Indians slipped behind him, and, 
 unperceived, took his brother's and his own rifle, 
 while at the same time two others seized those of 
 Drewyer and Captain Lewis. As soon as Fields 
 turned around, he saw the Indian running off with 
 the rifles, and, instantly calling his brother, they 
 pursued him for fifty yards, and, just as they over- 
 took him, in the scuffle R. Fields stabbed him 
 through the heart with his knife. lie ran about 
 fifteen feet and fell dead. They now hastened back 
 with their rifles to the camp. 
 
 "As the Indian seized Drewyer's rifle, he jumped 
 up and wrested it from him. The noise awoke 
 Captain Lewis, who started from the ground and 
 reached to seize his gun, but, finding it gone, he 
 drew a pistol from his belt, and, turning about, saw 
 an Indian running off with it. Lewis followed 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 93 
 
 and ordered him to lay it down, which he did. 
 
 'Just then the Fields came up, and were taking 
 aim to shoot him, but Captain Lewis ordered them 
 not to fire, as the Indian did not appear to mean 
 any mischief. On finding that the Indians were 
 attempting to drive off the horses, Lewis ordered 
 the men to follow the main party, who were chasing 
 the horses up the river, and to fire instantly upon 
 the thieves, while he pursued two Indians who were 
 driving away horses on the left of the camp. 
 
 "He pressed them so closely that they left tw r elve 
 of their own horses, but continued to drive oft one 
 of ours. They entered a steep niche in the river 
 bluffs, when Captain Lewis called out, as he had 
 done several times before, that unless they gave 
 up the horse he would shoot them. 
 
 ''As he raised his gun one of the Indians jumped 
 behind a rock, but the other was shot. He fell on 
 his knees, but raising himself a little, fired at 
 Lewis, and then crawled behind a rock. The shot 
 very nearly proved fatal to Captain Lewis, and, as 
 he was almost exhausted from fatigue, thought it 
 most prudent not to attack them further, and retired 
 to the cam]). 
 
 'The Fields and Drewyer had returned to camp 
 and all were soon ready to leave. They knew there 
 was no time to be lost; for they would doubtless be 
 pursued by a larger body of Indians, who would 
 
94 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 hasten to the mouth of Maria's River to intercept 
 them." 
 
 The record of the last two days in this most re- 
 
 ^ 
 
 markable journal of the most notable expedition that 
 has ever been, perhaps, is as follows : 
 
 "September 22. When the rain having ceased, 
 we set out for Coldwater Creek, about three miles 
 from the mouth of the Missouri, where \ve found a 
 cantonment of the United States troops, with whom 
 we passed the day. 
 
 "September 23. Descended the Mississippi and 
 round to St. Louis, at which place we arrived at 
 12 o'clock, and, having fired a salute, went on shore, 
 where we received a most hearty and hospitable 
 welcome from the whole village." 
 
 Captain William Clark was a Virginian, born in 
 1770. He was, after this expedition, promoted to 
 brigadier-general, and two years later was made 
 governor of Missouri. He died at St. Louis in 1838, 
 universally lamented and beloved for his brave, 
 gentle, and generous disposition, and his devotion 
 to his great country. 
 
 His companion in this bold expedition, Captain 
 Meriwether Lewis, was also a Virginian, born in 
 1774. He was private secretary to President Jeffer- 
 son in 1801, and the President trusted him entirely 
 in the great work on which he was sent. Jefferson 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 95 
 
 wrote a memoir of the explorer and extolled his 
 merit. 
 
 He was the first Governor of Missouri after the 
 return. But his mind had been greatly broken 
 from long exposure, and being subject to temporary 
 fits of insanity, he committed suicide tw r o years 
 later. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Interpreter (m-ter'pret-er), Missouri (mis-soo'ree), Lou- 
 isiana (lop-ee-ze-ah'na), Wapatoo (wap-a-too), Sioux 
 (soo), equipped (e-kwipt'), official (6f-fish'al). 
 
 THOU, my best beloved! my pride, my boast; 
 Stretching thy glorious length along the West, 
 Within the girdle of thy sun-lit coast, 
 
 From pine to palm, from palm to snowy crest, 
 
 Charles Warren Stoddard. 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 
 
 HE covered wagons were packed with 
 food, goods, and articles useful in the 
 life of the early pioneer. The oxen 
 were yoked, and stood lazily waiting 
 the driver's order. The children had 
 said good-by, and, as they climbed up 
 on the wagons, shouted, "Ho! for California!" 
 
 Then the heavy wagons started, and the Donner 
 party began the long, perilous journey toward the 
 Pacific. It was early in April, 1846, that George and 
 Jacob Donner and James F. Reed formed the 
 train which was to cross the plains. The journey 
 
 began with bright hopes. It 
 
 was known that the roads 
 were difficult ; that Indians 
 might attack them ; that 
 great deserts would have to 
 be crossed, and roads would 
 have to be found over rough 
 mountains. 
 
 These were the days of 
 brave men and women. Fath- 
 ers and mothers were full of 
 
 96 
 
 R ef erence T opies . 
 
 An I. migrant Train. 
 
 The Desert. 
 
 The Sierra. 
 
 Donner Lake. 
 
 Slitter's Fort. 
 
 The Suffering;* of Hie 
 
 Do n ii er Party. 
 The Relief Parties. 
 The Tourist Cars vs. 
 
 r iii ii_r.ini Trains. 
 The Pioneers. 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 97 
 
 courage; lovers were full of hope; children were 
 full of glee. The bleaching bones of cattle, and 
 here and there a rude cross over a newly made 
 mound, along the emigrant road, did not change 
 either their courage, hope, or joy. 
 
 Fair, young California was before these people,- 
 its rich valleys, its pine-clad Sierra, its rivers and 
 matchless sea. 
 
 After the Dormer party left Independence, Mis- 
 souri, it was joined by others, until it contained 
 between two and three hundred wagons, and was, 
 when in motion, two miles in length. The great 
 train succeeded in reaching Fort Bridger, a trading- 
 post, without much trouble. 
 
 On one occasion, Mary Graves, a beautiful young- 
 lady, was riding on horseback w^ith her brother. 
 They were in the rear of the train. A band of 
 Sioux Indians fell in love with the maiden, and 
 offered to purchase her; but the brother was not 
 willing to sell. 
 
 One of the Indians seized the bridle of the girl's 
 horse, and attempted to capture her. The brother 
 leveled his rirle at the savage, and he promptly gave 
 a war-whoop and rode away. 
 
 At another place a division arose among the emi- 
 grants ; some wanted to rest the stock and hunt 
 buffaloes, and secure a larger supply of jerked meat. 
 Others wanted to go on, for fear the grass would 
 
98 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 be eaten off by the stock of other trains. It was 
 decided to go forward. 
 
 At Fort Bridger, the Donner party chose a new 
 route, called the "Hastings Cut-off." Those who 
 went by the old route reached California in safety. 
 
 The trials of the Donner party now began in 
 earnest. Instead of reaching Salt Lake in one week, 
 it was over thirty days, and the stock and men were 
 exhausted. The beautiful Salt Lake Valley, how- 
 ever, rilled them with joy, and all hoped for a peace- 
 ful, prosperous journey to California. 
 
 In crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert severe 
 hardships were endured. The suffering of the stock 
 for water was great. 
 
 Some teamsters unhitched the oxen from Jacob 
 Reed's wagons and drove them ahead for water. 
 The desert mirage deceived the oxen, and even the 
 men, and the cattle rushed off into the pathless 
 desert and never returned the desert- 
 
 "God must have made it in his anger and forgot." 
 The men went tramping through the sand and over 
 the sagebrush, calling, "Co, Boss ! Co-o-o, Bo-bo- 
 boss ! Soo-ok, Jer-ry--Soo-ook, sook, Jerry!" 
 
 No answer came. The loneliness of the desert 
 was increased as the sound of their voices died 
 away in the vast solitude. Reed was forced to 
 cache* the goods in his wagons and proceed with 
 
 * A term used by the pioneers when they buried anything of vnlur. 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 99 
 
 an ox and a cow. While the party was camped on 
 the edge of the desert, it was made known that the 
 provisions would not last until California was 
 reached. 
 
 It was decided to send two men ahead to secure 
 
 provisions and return. C. T. Stanton and William 
 McCutcheon decided to go. A tearful farewell was 
 taken, and the two brave men rode out on the dim 
 trail for California. They carried letters to Captain 
 Sutter, of Slitter's Fort. 
 
 At Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt River, a 
 tragedy occurred. In trying to ascend a hill where 
 it was required to hitch five or six yoke of oxen to 
 a wagon, Reed and a popular young man, by the 
 name of John Snyder, became engaged in a fierce 
 quarrel. 
 
 C. F. McGlashant gives this account of the affray : 
 'When Reed saw that trouble was likely to occur, 
 he said something about waiting until they got up 
 the hill, and settle the matter afterwards. Snyder, 
 who took this as a threat, replied, 'We will settle 
 it now.' He struck Reed a blow on the head with 
 the butt-end of his heavy whipstock. The blow 
 was followed in rapid succession by a second and 
 a third. 
 
 'As the third stroke descended, Mrs. Reed ran 
 between her husband and the furious man, hoping 
 
 t History of the Dormer Partv. 
 
10() PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 to prevent the blow. Each time the whipstock 
 descended on Reed's head it cut deep gashes. He 
 was blinded \vith the blood which streamed from 
 his wounds, and dazed and stunned by the terrific 
 force of the blows. He saw the cruel whipstock 
 uplifted, and knew that his wife was in danger, but 
 only had time to cry, 'John ! John !' when down came 
 the stroke full upon Airs. Reed's head and shoulders. 
 The next instant John Snyder was staggering 
 speechless and death-stricken. 
 
 "Patrick Breen came up, and Snyder said: 'Uncle, 
 I am dead.' Reed's knife had entered his lung. 
 Snyder's death fell like a thunderbolt on the Dormer 
 party." 
 
 Reed was banished from the train. At first he 
 refused to go; but the feeling against him was so 
 strong that he yielded to the pleadings of his wife 
 and daughter. He was to go without provisions, 
 
 
 
 or even a gun ; but his twelve-year-old daughter, 
 Virginia, supplied them. 
 
 As the train moved forward, Airs. Reed and Vir- 
 ginia would look at every little camping-place for 
 a message from him. He rode toward California, 
 and when he succeeded in killing geese or ducks 
 h'e would spread the feathers about in such a way 
 that it would be a message to his family, and some- 
 times would leave letters pinned to the sagv- 
 brush. 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 101 
 
 A day came, however, when they found no mes- 
 sage, no letter, or trace of the father. Was he dead? 
 Had he starved? Had the Indians killed him? 
 Mrs. Reed grew pale and worried. Then, she knew 
 that if she died her children might perish. With 
 a brave heart she roused herself, and with noble 
 devotion cared for her children.* 
 
 Near the present town of Wadsworth, Nevada, 
 Stanton, who had been sent on ahead, returned from 
 Sutter's Fort with provisions. He brought seven 
 mules, 'five of which were loaded with dried beef and 
 flour. If Stanton had not brought these provisions, 
 the whole company would surely have perished. 
 
 It was now late in October. If the party had 
 pushed right on, the Sierra could have been crossed 
 before the storm season. Another relief party was 
 sent forward. C. F. McGlashan thus describes the 
 approach to the Sierra : 
 
 "Generally the ascent of the Sierra brought joy 
 and gladness to weary overland emigrants. To the 
 Donner party it brought terror and dismay. 
 
 'The company had hardly obtained a glimpse of 
 the mountains, ere the winter storm-clouds began 
 to assemble their hosts around the loftier crests. 
 Every day the weather appeared more ominous and 
 
 * Mr. Reed reached California, and returned to Donner Lake to 
 rescue his family and aid the others. He lived at San Jose many 
 years, a respected and useful citizen. 
 
102 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 threatening. The delay at the Truckee Meadows 
 had been brief, but every day ultimately cost a 
 dozen lives. 
 
 "On the 23d of October, they became thoroughly 
 alarmed at the angry heralds of the gathering 
 
 Donner Lake in Winter. 
 
 storm, and with all haste resumed the journey. It 
 was too late ! 
 
 "At Prosser Creek, three miles below Truckee, 
 they found themselves encompassed with six inches 
 of snow. On the summits the snow was from two 
 to five feet in depth. This was October 28, 1846. 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 1Q3 
 
 Almost a month earlier than usual, the Sierra had 
 donned its mantle of ice and snow. 
 
 "The party were prisoners. All was consterna- 
 tion. The wildest confusion prevailed. In their 
 eagerness, many went off in advance of the main 
 train. There was little concert of action or har- 
 mony of plan. All did not arrive at Donner Lake 
 the same day. Some wagons and families did 
 not reach the lake until the 31st day of October; 
 some never went farther than Prosser Creek, while 
 others, on the evening of the 29th, struggled through' 
 the snow, and reached the foot of the precipitous 
 cliffs between the summit and the upper end of the 
 lake. Here, baffled, wearied, and disheartened, they 
 turned back to the foot of the lake." 
 
 Several attempts were made to cross the moun- 
 tain, but without success. Realizing that the winter 
 must be passed in the mountains, arrangements 
 were made for food, by killing the cattle and build- 
 ing shelters. The following' is a description of the 
 Breen cabin : 
 
 It was built of pine saplings, and roofed with pine 
 brush and rawhides. It was twelve by fourteen 
 feet, and seven or eight feet high, with a chim- 
 ney in one end, built "Western style." One 
 opening, through which light, air, and the occu- 
 pants passed, served as a window and door. Two 
 days were spent in its construction. 
 
104 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Patrick Dolan, a brave, generous Irishman, gave 
 all of his food to the Reed family, and started with 
 C. T. Stanton and thirteen others to cross the 
 Sierra on foot. 
 
 Before they left, one man had already died of 
 starvation. Matters were desperate. The party 
 only dared take six days' ration. The first day 
 the party traveled four miles, the next, six. 
 
 They crossed the summit. The camp of the 
 party was no longer visible. They were alone 
 .among the high snow-peak battlements of the 
 Sierra. The situation was terrible. The great 
 snowshoes exhausted them. The heroic Stanton 
 became so blind that it was difficult for him to pro- 
 ceed. The agony of blindness wrung no cry from 
 his lips. He could no longer keep up with the 
 rest of the company. 
 
 One evening he staggered into camp, long after 
 the others had finished their pitiful supper. He 
 said little. In the silence of his heart he knew he 
 had reached the end of his journey. 
 
 In the morning some one said to him, kindly, 
 "Are you coming?" 
 
 "Yes*; I am coming soon." These were his last 
 words. He died alone, amid the snow of the High 
 Sierra. 
 
 A terrible storm arose. The people were without 
 food. Unless their hunger was allayed, all would 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONXER PARTY 1Q5 
 
 die. Some one proposed to prolong their lives by 
 eating human flesh. It was decided to draw slips, 
 and the one who got the longest was to die. Patrick 
 Dolan got the fatal slip. No one would take Dolan's 
 life. It was not necessary; for hunger had done its 
 terrible work. 
 
 Several of the party, including Dolan, died, and 
 the others lived on the flesh of the dead until they 
 came to an Indian rancheria. The savages were 
 amazed. It is said that the Indian women cried 
 with grief at the pitiful spectacle of the starved 
 men and women. 
 
 They \vere given bread made from acorns, and 
 the Indians were very kind to them. But the acorn 
 bread did not strengthen them. They were now in 
 full view of the Sacramento Valley, in all its beauty 
 and loveliness, and yet were dying! 
 
 At last one, stronger than the others, went on 
 ahead to Johnson's Ranch, and sent back food to 
 the others. Of the fifteen who had started from 
 Donner Lake, only seven lived to reach Johnson's 
 Ranch. 
 
 Word reached Slitter's Fort that men, women, and 
 children were starving at Donner Lake, and Captain 
 Sutter sent a relief party at once. 
 
 The people who camped at the lake suffered the 
 pangs of hunger. One of the survivors, writing, 
 said : 'The families shared with one another as 
 
106 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 long as they had anything to share. Each one's 
 portion was very small. The hides were boiled, 
 and the bones were browned and eaten. We tried 
 to eat a decayed buffalo robe, but it was too tough 
 and there was no nourishment in it. Some of the 
 few mice that came into camp were caught and 
 eaten. 
 
 "Some days we. could not keep a fire, and many 
 times, during both clays and nights, snow was 
 shoveled from off our tent and from around it, that 
 we might not be buried alive. Mother remarked 
 one day that it had been two weeks that our beds 
 and the clothing upon our bodies had been wet. 
 
 'Two of my sisters and myself spent some days 
 at Keseberg's cabin. The first morning we were 
 there they shoveled the snow from our bed before 
 we could get up. 
 
 'Very few can believe it possible for human 
 beings to live and suffer the exposure and hard- 
 ships endured there/' 
 
 Quoting again from Mr. McGlashan, this touching 
 account of Christmas on Donner Lake is given : 
 
 'What a desolate Christmas morning that was 
 for the snowbound victims ! All were starving. 
 Something to eat, something to satisfy the terrible 
 cravings of appetite, \vas the constant wish of all. 
 Sometimes the wishes were expressed aloud, but 
 more frequently a gloomy silence prevailed. When 
 
THE STORY OF THE DONXER PARTY 1Q7 
 
 anything was audibly wished for, it was invariably 
 something" whose size was proportional to their 
 hunger. They never wished for a meal or a mouth- 
 ful, but for a barrelful, a wagon-load, a houseful, or 
 a storehouseful. 
 
 "On Christmas eve the children spoke in low r , 
 subdued tones of the visits Santa Claus used to 
 make them in their beautiful homes before they 
 started across the plains. Now they knew that no 
 Santa Claus would find them in the pathless depths 
 of snow. 
 
 "One family, the Reeds, \vere in a peculiarly dis- 
 tressing situation. They know not whether their 
 father was living or dead. No tidings had reached 
 them since his letters ceased to be found by the 
 wayside. The meat they had obtained from the 
 Breen and Graves families was now gone, and on 
 Christmas morning their breakfast was a 'pot of 
 glue,' as the boiled rawhide \vas termed. 
 
 "But Mrs. Reed, the dear, tender-hearted mother, 
 had a surprise in store for her children this day. 
 
 'When the last ox had been purchased, Mrs. Reed 
 had placed the frozen meat in one corner of the 
 cabin, so that pieces could be chipped off with a 
 knife or hatchet. The tripe, however, she cleaned 
 carefully, and hung on the outside of the cabin, on 
 the end of a log, close to the ground. 
 
 "She knew that the snow r would soon conceal this 
 
K)g PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 from view. She also laid away secretly one tea- 
 cupful of white beans, about half that quantity of 
 rice, the same measure of dried apples, and a piece 
 of bacon two inches square. 
 
 "She knew that if Christmas found them alive, 
 they would be in a terribly destitute condition. 
 She therefore resolved to lay these articles away, 
 and to give them to her starving children for a 
 Christmas dinner. 
 
 'This was done. The joy and gladness of these 
 four little children knew no bounds when they saw 
 the treasures unearthed and cooking on the fire. 
 They were, just this one meal, to have all they CQiild 
 eat! 
 
 "They laughed, and danced, and cried by turns. 
 They eagerly watched the dinner as it boiled. The 
 pork and tripe had been cut in dice-like pieces. 
 Occasionally one of these pieces would boil up to the 
 surface of the water for an instant; then a bean 
 would take a pee]) at them from the boiling kettle; 
 then a piece of apple or a grain of rice. The ap- 
 pearance of each tiny bit was hailed by the children 
 with shouts of glee. 
 
 'The mother, whose eyes were brimming with 
 tears, watched her famished darlings with emotions 
 that can only be imagined. It seemed too sad that 
 innocent children should be brought to such desti- 
 
THE STORY OF THE DOXXER PARTY \(\g 
 
 tution--that the very sight of food should so affect 
 them. 
 
 "When the dinner was prepared, the mother's 
 constant injunction was, 'Children, eat slowly; there 
 is plenty for all/ When they thought of the starva- 
 tion of to-morrow, they could not repress a shade of 
 sadness, and when the name of papa was mentioned 
 all burst into tears. 
 
 :< Dear, brave papa! Was he struggling to relieve 
 his starving family, or lying stark and dead 'neath 
 the snows of the Sierra? This question was con- 
 stantly uppermost in the mother's mind." 
 
 Four different relief expeditions went to the 
 rescue of the Dormer party. Of the ninety who 
 comprised the party, forty-two perished. Those 
 who survived became prominent in the history of 
 California. The names of Dormer, Breen, Murphy, 
 Foster, Graves, Reed, Eddy, McCutcheon, and others 
 of the party, are well known. 
 
 Donner Lake, calm and peaceful among the sigh- 
 ing pines, is often the scene of some tourist's camp. 
 Frequently a relic of the days of '46 and '47 is 
 found, and 1 it tells a mute story of death and star- 
 vation. 
 
 The travelers in palace cars pass over the Sierra, 
 near Donner Lake, unmindful of the struggles of the 
 pioneers; that the white peaks of snow on which 
 rest the golden afterglow of the sun, were not the 
 
HO PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 holy spires of God's eternal cathedrals, but the cold 
 menace of death ! 
 
 The pioneers have fought their last battle with 
 the elements. The names of those who have won 
 wealth and fame are recorded in history. Let the 
 names of the others be engraved with loving sen- 
 timent in the hearts of the young. The unnamed 
 graves are sometimes typical of the bravest strug- 
 gles, the loftiest manhood, and noblest sentiment. 
 The race of pioneers is passing away. Let us cher- 
 ish their deeds and their strength. It will soon 
 b e wr itten "THE LAST PIONEER." 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Sierra (se-er'ra), route (root, or rout), Slitter (sut'er), 
 rancheria (ran'che-re'a), survivors (sur-viv'ers), provisions 
 (pro-vizh'uns), exhausted (egz-awst'ecl), destitute (des'ti- 
 lut), injunction (in-junk'shun), baffled (baff'ld). 
 
 The Emigrant Trains. 
 
THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC. 
 
 T sunrise on June 11, 1846, thirteen 
 men left Fremont's camp at the 
 Buttes, near the mouth of the Feather 
 River. They were armed with rifles 
 and pistols. They crossed the Sacra- 
 mento River and made their way to 
 Gordon's Ranch on Cache Creek. 
 
 Gordon gave the men a bullock, which they killed 
 and roasted over a big fire. The men had a fine 
 supper. They traveled all night. The next day 
 
 nineteen men joined them. 
 
 They rode down into the 
 Sonoma Valley one dark 
 night and surrounded the 
 California settlement, and 
 captured the people. 
 
 At this time the Mexicans 
 were called the Californians, 
 and the Eastern people who 
 had settled in this land 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 The Buttes. 
 General Vallejo. 
 Fremont. 
 Kit Carson. 
 The Bear Flag. 
 Captain Stonemau. 
 Lieutenant Derby. 
 Sonoma. 
 
 were called Americans. 
 
 in 
 
112 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STURIKS 
 
 Eastern people who had settled in this land were 
 called Americans. 
 
 Sonoma is a small town, but it has played an im- 
 portant part in the history of California. On June 
 
 
 'j.;.., ;;.-- 
 
 Sonoma, 1850. The Northern Outpost of Spanish Settlement in California. 
 A Mission and Military Presidio Was Established, 1823. 
 
 14, 1846, there' was a Mission, a few adobe houses, 
 barracks, plaza, residence of General Vallejo, the 
 house of Jacob Leese, which was used in after years 
 as the headquarters of Colonel Joe Hooker, Major 
 Phil Kearny, Captain Stoneman, Lieutenant Derby, 
 and others known to fame. 
 
 At daybreak on June 14th, thirty-two men sur- 
 rounded Vallejo's house. He was roused from his 
 
THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC 
 
 113 
 
 bed and taken prisoner. He said : "I surrender, 
 because I am without a force to defend me. I ask 
 time to dress." 
 
 When he was told that no harm was intended, 
 wine was given to the men. The men who went in 
 to capture Vallejo stayed so long that those on the 
 
 
 General M. G. Vallejo. 
 
 outside sent a man named Ide to ascertain the 
 cause of delay. He found that they were having a 
 merry time. Ide came out and reported. 
 
 Then a demand was made that the prisoners be 
 
114 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 taken to Fremont's camp in the Sacramento Valley. 
 Grigsby, one of the men, asked : 'What are the 
 orders of Fremont?" No one could answer. It 
 seemed that no orders existed. A scene of wild 
 confusion ensued. One swore he would not remain ; 
 another said, "We'll all have our throats cut." 
 
 There was a move to quit the scheme, when Ide 
 stepped up and said : 'The Americans have not 
 been treated right. The Californians have told us 
 to leave or die. We must protect ourselves. I will 
 not run, like a coward. *If we do not succeed, we'll 
 be nothing but robbers or horsethieves. We must 
 succeed." 
 
 The speech made the men rally around Ide, who 
 was chosen the leader. "Now, take the fort !" he 
 said. It was taken without a gun being fired, and 
 the post at Sonoma was captured, with eighteen 
 prisoners, nine brass cannons, two hundred and fifty 
 guns, and a thousand dollars' worth of property. 
 
 Vallejo and three other prisoners were sent to 
 Fremont's camp. The first thing the Americans 
 needed was a flag. It did not take long to produce 
 one. A piece of coarse white cloth, about two 
 yards long and one yard wide, was used. A narrow 
 strip of red woolen stuff from an old flannel shirt 
 was sewed around its edges. 
 
 'There ought to be a bear on the flag," said one 
 of the men; and John Todd drew a large single 
 
THE BEAR FLAG REPUBLIC 
 
 115 
 
 star and a queer-shaped animal, which he called a 
 grizzly bear. Below the figures were the words 
 
 CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC. 
 
 The flag was then run up on the pole where be- 
 fore had floated the Mexican colors. Rules of order 
 and discipline were adopted. Ide again made a 
 speech to the Californians, in which he said: '\Ye 
 do not intend to rob you or deprive you of liberty. 
 \Ye want equal justice to all men." It was the 
 purpose of the republic to overthrow tyranny and 
 work for the rights of all. 
 
 The first night, it was decided to issue a declara- 
 tion of freedom. Ide had taught a village school 
 in Ohio, and knew something of text-books and 
 
PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 politics. In the silent hours of the night, from one 
 o'clock until four, he wrote the new declaration. It 
 was written in the glow of enthusiasm. 
 
 The new republic was to have civil and religious 
 liberty. It would foster industry, virtue, literature, 
 commerce, farming, and manufacture. It asked the 
 favor of Heaven and the help and wisdom and good 
 sense of the people of California. 
 
 Connected with the Republic were two terrible 
 incidents. Two Americans, named Cowie and 
 Powder, were lassoed, dragged, tied to trees, and cut 
 to pieces by their captors, the Californians. This 
 took place near the present town of Healdsburg. 
 
 The other event was the shooting of three Cali- 
 fornians, who were captured by Ford. Papers were 
 found in their boots which were to mislead the 
 Americans. The men were shot, though they threw 
 a\vay their guns and begged for life. 
 
 Kit Carson, who has figured in the song and 
 story of the West, \vas with the Americans when 
 
 f 1 
 
 this occurred. 
 
 There was now war in the air. Castro, a leader 
 of the Mexicans, with an armed force, was on his 
 way to recapture Sonoma ; and it was said that 
 he would put to death every man, woman, and 
 child, except Ide, who was to be tortured like a 
 beast. 
 
 One night the little band of Americans expected 
 
THE BEAR-FLAG REPUBLIC 117 
 
 an attack. There was the tramp of horses. It was 
 four o'clock the darkest hour just before the 
 daw r n. Every man was at his post. The cannons 
 were ready. The signal was that when Ide dropped 
 his gun, the men were to hre. 
 
 Xearer and nearer came the tramp of soldiers. 
 Ide, with a new light in his eye, was about to drop 
 his gun. The same moment Kit Carson's voice 
 rang out, "My God, they are going to fire !" Then 
 the shout, 'Tis Fremont ! 'tis Fremont !" broke 
 out in the fort, and Fremont came wildly dash- 
 ing up. 
 
 Two days after his arrival the American flag was 
 raised at Monterey, and when the news reached 
 Sonoma, the Bear Flag was hauled down and the 
 Stars and Stripes run up. 
 
 The Bear-flag revolution was at an end. Its flag 
 was formerly in the Pioneer Hall, San Francisco, 
 but \vas destroyed in the great fire of 1906. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Cache (kash), lieutenant (lu-ten'ant), scheme (skem), 
 literature (Ht'er-a-ture), Vallejo (val-ya'ho), tyranny (tlr'- 
 an-ni), Kearny (kar'ni). 
 
THE AMERICAN FLAG IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 HE story about raising the Mag at the 
 Golden Gate can be told in a few 
 words. Away down the coast at 
 Mazatlan was a war-ship, com- 
 manded by John D. Sloat. The sail- 
 ors heard about the Mexicans fight- 
 ing General Taylor over on the Rio Grande. They 
 wanted to do some fighting themselves. 
 
 In June, 1845, Sloat received from George Ban- 
 croft, Secretary of the Navy, a secret letter. The 
 orders were to blockade the Mexican ports, but first 
 to sail through the Golden Gate and take possession 
 of the port of San Francisco. He was told to treat 
 all the people of California in the most friendly 
 
 manner possible. 
 
 On May 13, 1846, Bancroft 
 wrote that Congress had de- 
 clared w r ar against Mexico, 
 and ordered Sloat to take 
 possession at once of San 
 Francisco, Monterey, and as 
 many other Mexican ports 
 as he could. But of San 
 
 118 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 The American King*. 
 Commodore Sloat. 
 
 George Bancroft, His- 
 torian, and Secre- 
 tary of the Navy. 
 
 .Inly G, 1840. 
 
 Sloat's Instruction to 
 His Men. 
 
 The Presidio. 
 
THE AMERICAN FLAG IN CALIFORNIA 1 19 
 
 Francisco he said : 'Take it without fail." His ship 
 sailed into the Bay of Monterey on the second of 
 July. He soon learned about the Bear-flag revo- 
 lution. There were two English war-ships in the 
 bay. He was afraid of them. It was several days 
 before he decided to raise the American flag at 
 Monterey. 
 
 Sloat said : "I'd rather be blamed for doing too 
 much, than doing too little." He demanded the 
 surrender of the Mexican fort, and was referred 
 to General Castro. Two hundred and fifty men 
 then marched up, and without the firing of a gun 
 pulled down the Mexican flag and hoisted in its 
 place "Old Glory." This was on the 6th of July, 
 1846. 
 
 As it floated its starry folds to the breeze, the 
 men gave a mighty cheer. Twenty-one guns were 
 fired as a salute to the flag; and from that moment 
 in law Mexican rule ceased and California became 
 a part of the United States. 
 
 Commodore Sloat said to the sailors : "Do not tar- 
 nish the hopes of bright success by doing any act 
 that you'd be ashamed to acknowledge before your 
 God or country. Treat the people friendly, and offer 
 no insult or offense to any one, particularly women." 
 
 In a few days the American flag floated over 
 Sutter's Fort, Sonoma, and Bodega Bay ; and in the 
 country north and south it was hailed with delight. 
 
120 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 It was on July 9, 1846, that Commodore Mont- 
 gomery, with seventy men, marched to the plaza of 
 San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena, and, amid 
 the cheers of the people, hauled down the Mexican 
 colors and raised our country's flag. 
 
 < 
 
 Governor Alvarado's House, Monterey, Then the Capital of California. 
 
 On the same afternoon Lieutenant Missroon, with 
 a few men, went to the fort at the Presidio. He 
 found it deserted. The old Spanish cannons, cast 
 
THE AMERICAN FLAG IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 121 
 
 several centuries ago, and some small iron guns, 
 spiked and useless, were exposed to the weather. 
 The old adobe walls were crumbled and the old tile 
 roofs tumbled in. 
 
 "Old Glory' was hoisted on the ramparts, and 
 has since kept a sleepless watch and ward over the 
 Golden Gate. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Rio Grande (re'o gran'de), salute (sa-lut'), Mazatlan 
 (ma-sat'lan), Yerba Buena (yer'ba bwa'na), Presidio (pra- 
 se'de-o), acknowledge (ak-nol'ej), Bodega (bo-da'ga), ram- 
 parts (ram'parts), commodore (kom'mo-dor), hoisted 
 (hoist'ed), tarnish (tar'nish), referred (re-ferd'), revolution 
 (rev-o-lu'shun). 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 OLD, gold, gold! Have you ever 
 seen it in the sand or in the rocks? 
 The first man to see gold in the sand 
 of California was James W. Marshall. 
 The story of how he found the yel- 
 low pebbles will interest you. 
 He had built houses, also saw-mills and grist- 
 mills. Lumber was very high in California at that 
 time ; so he thought it would be a good scheme to 
 build a saw-mill. He got John A. Sutter, a Swiss, 
 who built Sutter's Fort, now owned by the Native 
 Sons of the Golden West, to furnish him some 
 money and food. 
 
 Marshall started off in search of a site upon which 
 
 to build a mill. He found 
 one on the north fork of the 
 American River, at a place 
 now known as Coloma. 
 
 Ox-teams, carts, pack-ani- 
 mals, tools, and food were 
 on the grounds in a few 
 days, and the mill w r as up on 
 the 15th of January, 1848. 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 The Building of the 
 Mill, Jail. 15, 1848. 
 
 The Test of the Gold. 
 Sutter's Ring. 
 James Buchanan. 
 
 The Gold Excite- 
 ment. 
 
 M n r s h a 1 1 's Monu- 
 ment. 
 
 122 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD 
 
 123 
 
 S 
 
 utler furnished the money and Marshall the expe- 
 rience. When the mill was ready to run, it was 
 
 found that the ditch 
 which was to lead the 
 water to the wheel was 
 not deep enough. 
 
 Marshall opened the 
 flood-gates and let a 
 big swift stream rush 
 through to deepen the 
 ditch. The water run 
 all night. In the morn- 
 ing he shut, the gates. 
 and went down to see 
 the effect. 
 
 He \vas alone. The 
 swift current had dug 
 out the side and the bot- 
 tom, and spread at the 
 end of the ditch a mass 
 of sand and gravel. 
 While looking at it, he 
 saw beneath the water 
 in the ditch some lit- 
 tle yellow pebbles. He 
 picked one up and 
 looked at it closely. Marshall knew that gold was 
 bright, heavy, and easily hammered. The sub- 
 
 Sutter, John Augustus, 
 
 \vas horn in Baden, February 
 15, 1803. He was the son of 
 S\viss parents. He received a 
 commission in the French ar- 
 my, and became a captain. He 
 arrived in New York, to select 
 a location for a colony, in 
 July, 1834, and located in Mis- 
 souri. He joined a party of 
 hunters and travelers, and, af- 
 ter making a tour of New Mex- 
 ico, he went as far as Fort 
 Vancouver. He sailed for the 
 Sandwich Islands, and from 
 there to Sitka, then down the 
 coast to San Francisco, then up 
 the Sacramento River, where 
 he built the stockade which 
 afterwards became famous as 
 Sutler's Fort. He became the 
 owner of very valuable estates. 
 He had a flour-mill that cost 
 $25,000, a saw-mill $10,000, and 
 thousands of cattle, sheep, and 
 hogs. 
 
 The discovery of gold re- 
 sulted in his ruin. The gold- 
 hunters squatted on his lands, 
 and he spent his money and 
 property in fruitless litigation. 
 
 The California Legislature 
 granted him a pension of $250 
 per month. In 1873, he re- 
 moved to Lancaster, Pa. He 
 died in Washington, D. C., 
 Tune 17, 1880. 
 
124 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIKS 
 
 stance he had in the hollow of his hand was bright 
 and heavy. He laid it down on one stone and took 
 up another stone and hammered the yellow pebble 
 into different shapes. 
 
 The vision of millions did not dawn upon him. 
 He did not know that that little pebble would peo- 
 ple the land and make California leap into greatness. 
 
 Marshall returned to 
 the mill, and said to the 
 man that was working 
 at the wheel : "I have 
 found it." "What is it?" 
 asked the man. "Gold," 
 said Marshall. "Oh, no," 
 said the man ; "that can 
 not be." 
 
 Marshall held out his 
 yellow pebble and said : 
 "I know it to be nothing 
 else." The men about 
 the mill had no doubt 
 read about Sir Walter Raleigh having taken home 
 to England a lot of yellow clay from Virginia, and 
 had little faith in the discovery. 
 
 h 
 
 Marshall started for Slitter's Fort. He carried 
 with him a number of nuggets in a little rag pack- 
 age. Taking Slitter aside where nobody else could 
 hear or see them, Marshall showed him the small 
 
 Marshall, James Wil- 
 MOM, discoverer of gold, was 
 born in New Jersey in 1812. 
 He went to Oregon in 1844. 
 He came to California in 1847, 
 and entered the service of Sut- 
 ter. He built a mill at Coloma, 
 where he discovered gold. He 
 passed twenty-eight years in 
 poverty, while the State was 
 being built from the gold that 
 he discovered. He was never 
 married, and died at Coloma, 
 where he lived so long, on 
 August 8, 1885. He received a 
 small pension from the State, 
 and the State has erected a 
 monument, which stands at 
 Coloma. 
 
Sutler's Fort, the greatest early "American" landmark of its day. In 
 1841, Captain John A. Sutter, an adventurous Swiss gentleman and of 
 extraordinary prominence in the "geld discovery period" of California, 
 purchased the provisions and supplies of the Russian-American Fur 
 Co., then in possession of small trading stations at Fort Ross. The 
 Russians were being sharply watched by the Spanish governors, and at 
 last decided to relinquish their hold on California and return to Alaska. 
 Captain Sutter moved the purchased supplies to a place on the south 
 bank of the Sacramento River, where he erected a stout fort and 
 named the place New Helvetia, after his home, Switzerland. This fort 
 was the first structure on the site of the present thriving city of Sac- 
 ramento, now the Capital of California. 
 
 125 
 
126 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 yellow lumps and said : "It is gold." Slitter tested 
 it, read articles on gold, weighed it, and said that 
 Marshall was right, and that the lumps were real 
 gold. 
 
 Marshall started back in the rain. The great 
 white rain of California came down, but he went 
 right on. Sutter promised to visit the mill the next 
 day. Marshall w r as so excited that he could not 
 wait his coming, and met him on the road. 
 
 The flood-gates at the mill were turned on again, 
 and Sutter picked up a lot of the yellow lumps, 
 which he afterwards had made into a ring, on 
 which were written these words: 
 
 "THE FIRST GOLD FOUND IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 JANUARY, 1848." 
 
 Sutter wanted the discovery kept secret, so that 
 the men who were working for him on a mill near 
 the fort would not leave him and go to the gold- 
 fields. A woman told the secret to a teamster, who, 
 in turn, told Brannan and Smith, merchants at 
 Slitter's Fort. 
 
 Great excitement was aroused at once. Men left 
 their stores, trades, and professions, and crowded 
 into the gold-fields. The whole country sounded 
 with the sordid cry of ''Gold, gold, gold!" Houses 
 were left half-finished, fields half-planted, and news- 
 papers stopped because the editors and printers had 
 gone to the mines. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD 
 
 127 
 
 Captain John A. Sutter. 
 
 Thomas O. Larkin wrote a full account of the 
 gold discovery to James Buchanan, then Secretary 
 of State. President Polk called attention to the 
 matter in his message to Congress, December 5, 
 1848. 
 
 People came to California by the thousands- 
 brave men, honest men, brainy men, in search of 
 gold. There were also many true, good women. In 
 1849, there came by sea about thirty-five thousand 
 people, and across the plains about forty-five thou- 
 sand people. 
 
128 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 A Group of Miners in the Days of '49. 
 
 The coming of so many people in so brief a 
 space of time to a new country created conditions 
 that had not been seen before and may never be 
 seen again. 
 
 They laid the foundations of California, and gave 
 it the name which it will always bear as the Golden 
 State of the Union. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD 129 
 
 The little lump of gold grew to millions of dol- 
 lars. James W. Marshall, the discoverer, lived to be 
 an old man. The State gave him money in his 
 old age, and when he died erected a monument to 
 him. It stands at Coloma, in sight of the historic 
 old mill. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Sutter (sut'er), experience (eks-pe'ri-ens), substance 
 fsub'stans), nuggets (nug'gets), sordid (sordid), secre- 
 tary (sec're-ta-ri), historic (his-tor'ik), editors (ed'i-ters), 
 Virginia (ver-gin'i-a). 
 
 "49." 
 
 We have worked our claims, 
 We have spent our gold, 
 Our barks are astrand on the bars; 
 W r e are battered and old, 
 Yet at night we behold 
 Outcroppings of gold in the stars. 
 
 CHORUS: 
 
 Tho' battered and old, 
 
 Our hearts are bold, 
 
 Yet often do we repine; 
 
 For the days old, 
 
 For the days of gold, 
 
 For the days of forty-nine. 
 
 Joaquin Miller. 
 
WHO NAMED THE GOLDEN GATE? 
 
 HE entrance to the Bay of San Fran- 
 cisco has always been the delight of 
 the poet. It has been pictured in song 
 during the last fifty years as fre- 
 quently as Mount Parnassus itselt. 
 The strait between the sea and 
 the bay is picturesque. Mt. Tamalpais stands on 
 one side, Sutro Heights on the other, and the 
 wild sea dashes its foam against the rugged rocks. 
 It makes a picture worthy the inspired fancy 
 of the poet. 
 
 The view of the Golden Gate is always beautiful. 
 As the sun dips into the sea and shines back 
 through the Golden Gate the picture is sublime. 
 
 The strait is one mile wide at its narrowest 
 point, and five miles long from sea to bay. 
 
 John C. Fremont, in his book, "Memoirs of My 
 Life," writes: "To this gate I gave the name of 
 Chrysophylae or Golden Gate, for the same reasons 
 that the harbor of Byzantium (Constantinople) was 
 named the Golden Horn (Chrysoceras)." 
 
 The name was suggested to him by the beauty of 
 the sunset, the gatelike entrance to the bay, and 
 the value of the harbor for the commerce of the 
 world. He put the name on the map that was sent 
 to the Senate of the United States, in June, 184S. 
 
 130 
 
THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Madge Morris Wagner. 
 
 DOWX by the side of the Golden Gate 
 The city stands : 
 Grimly, and solemn, and silent, wait 
 
 The walls of land, 
 
 Guarding its door as a treasure fond ; 
 And none may pass to the sea beyond, 
 But they who trust to the king of fate 
 
 And pass through the Golden Gate. 
 The ships go out through its narrow door, 
 White-sailed and laden with precious store ; 
 White-sailed and laden \vith precious freight 
 The ships come back through the Golden Gate. 
 The sun comes up o'er the eastern crest, 
 The sun goes down in the golden West, 
 And the East is West, and the West is East, 
 And the sun from his toil of day released, 
 Shines back through the Golden Gate. 
 
 Down by the side of the Golden Gate- 
 The door of life,- 
 
132 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Are resting our cities, sea-embowered, 
 White-walled, and templed, and marble-towered,- 
 
 The end of strife. 
 
 The ships have sailed from the silent walls, 
 And over their sailing the darkness falls : 
 Oh, the sea is so dark, and so deep and wide ! 
 Will the ships come back from the farther side? 
 "Nay, but there is no farther side," 
 A voice is whispering across the tide- 
 'Time itself is a circle vast, 
 Building the future out of the past ; 
 For the new is old, and the old is new, 
 And the true is false, and the false is true, 
 And the West is East, and the East is West, 
 And the sun that rose o'er the eastern crest, 
 Gone down in the West of his circling track, 
 Forever and ever is shining back 
 
 Through the Golden Gate of life." 
 
 O Soul ! thy city is standing down 
 
 By its Golden Gate ; 
 Over it hangs the menacing frown 
 
 Of the king of fate. 
 
 The sea of knowledge, so near its door, 
 Is rolling away to the farther shore- 
 
 The Orient side,- 
 And the ocean is dark, and deep, and wide! 
 
 But thy harbor, O Soul ! is filled with sails. 
 
THE GOLDEN GATE 133 
 
 Freighted with messages, wonder-tales, 
 From the lands that swing in the sapphire sky, 
 Where the gardens of God in the ether lie. 
 If only thy blinded eyes could see, 
 If only thy deaf-mute heart could hear, 
 The ocean of knowledge is open to thee, 
 
 And its Golden Gate is near ! 
 
 For the dead are the living the living the dead,- 
 And out of the darkness the light is shed ; 
 And the East is West, and the West is East, 
 And the sun, from his toil of day released, 
 Shines back through the Golden Gate. 
 
THE STORY OF FREMONT. 
 
 E wore the white flower of a blame- 
 less life." This ideal hero of Amer- 
 ica was born in South Carolina dur- 
 ing- the War of 1812-13, of an old 
 and honored French family. 
 
 He seems to have been born a 
 student and a scholar; for we find 
 him, while yet a boy, teaching mathematics on a 
 Government ship in Cuban waters. His studious 
 and correct habits were rewarded with a lieuten- 
 ant's commission; and we next find him busy sur- 
 veying- and making maps of the then uncertain 
 line between his own country and Canada, on 
 the head-waters of our great rivers. 
 
 Benton, the broad-minded 
 
 and brave senator of Mis- 
 souri, had been a colonel 
 under General Jackson in 
 the late war with England ; 
 and it would seem he never 
 
 * 
 
 quite laid down his sword, 
 but kept his eye on the Brit- 
 ish Lion to the north to the 
 end of his life. 
 
 134 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Senator IJeiitoii. 
 The Hritish Lion. 
 Fremont the Student. 
 Fremont the Kxplorer. 
 Kit <'iir.soii. 
 
 California's First U. 
 S. Senator. 
 
 Fremont, Candidate 
 for President. 
 
 Fremont's Death. 
 
THE STORY OF FREMONT 
 
 135 
 
 He was soon attracted by the quiet energy, pure 
 life, and scientific skill of young Fremont, far up 
 in the then unknown wilderness of our Western 
 frontier, and when the still boyish-looking lieuten- 
 ant was called to Wash- 
 
 Carsoii, Kit (Christo- 
 pher), hunter and soldier, 
 was born in Kentucky, Decem- 
 ber 24, 1809. When he was fif- 
 teen, he was apprenticed to a 
 saddler, but two years later 
 became a trapper, roaming 
 over the plains between the 
 Kocky Mountains and the Pa- 
 cific Ocean. For sixteen years 
 his rifle supplied every parti- 
 cle of food on which he lived. 
 In 1842, after the death of his 
 Indian wife, he took his daugh- 
 ter to St. Louis to be educated, 
 and there joined Fremont. Kit 
 Carson was Fremont's guide 
 on both his exploring expedi- 
 tions. He married a Spanish 
 woman in New Mexico, and 
 settled there in 1853. In the 
 Civil War of 1861-65, he was 
 loyal to the Government, and 
 was made brigadier-general for 
 his services. Kit Carson died 
 at rort Lyon, Colo., May 23, 
 1868. 
 
 ington to report, the 
 great senator took him 
 to his house. 
 
 There he met, loved, 
 and married Benton's 
 daughter, Jessie, one of 
 the most beautiful and 
 brilliant young women 
 in all the world. 
 
 But there was \vork, 
 brave and dangerous 
 work, to be done, and 
 Fremont must be up and 
 away. The great big 
 paw r of the British Lion 
 w r as reaching down, 
 down, down from Can- 
 ada ; it already was laid 
 
 on Oregon, and was reaching on down for the Bay 
 
 of San Francisco. 
 
 Benton stood up in his place in the Senate, time 
 
 after time, and almost continually cried out, as he 
 
 pointed beyond the Rocky Mountains : 
 
136 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 'Yonder in the west lies the Orient ; yonder lies 
 the path to India." 
 
 General Fremont. 
 
 And so Fremont was sent to find the path, even 
 before the honeymoon was well half over. He left 
 his young wife at St. Louis, and there procured a 
 cannon of Captain Robert E. Lee, afterwards the 
 great General Lee, and always the true friend of 
 Fremont, and pushed on before the snow and ice 
 melted from the mountains. 
 
THE STORY OF FREMONT 137 
 
 And when it became known that he had taken 
 a cannon with him, the President sent an order 
 that he must not take the cannon, as his was a 
 mission of peace. But Jessie opened the letter, and 
 forgot to send it on for half a year ! So that the 
 brave explorer was not left defenseless. 
 
 And what perils ! One night near the Modoc 
 lava-beds, more than a third of his force was killed 
 or wounded ; and but for Kit Carson, not a man of 
 Fremont's had been left alive in that hand-to-hand 
 battle in the darkness. 
 
 Fremont reports that the arrows had steel points, 
 and were supplied from a British trading-post at 
 the mouth of the Umpqua River, Oregon. He adds : 
 "Kit Carson says they are the most beautifully war- 
 like arrows I ever saw." The Athenaeum, an Eng- 
 lish authority of this time, said: '\Ve are glad that 
 Lieutenant Fremont has been sent to survey Ore- 
 gon ; for we know it will be well done, and we will 
 then know how much blood and treasure to spend 
 to secure that wild region." 
 
 Fremont led three of these daring expeditions, 
 one after the other, in ensuing years. He named 
 the Golden Gate long before gold w^as found, fought 
 through the Mexican w r ar, from Mount Shasta to 
 Los Angeles, and then \vas made the first United 
 States Senator from California. 
 
 Never had there been such an active life in all 
 
138 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 history, perhaps ; certainly never such a useful, and 
 pure, and clean life. It is worth noticing here that 
 Fremont, like Washington and Lincoln, was always 
 a student, a student from his cradle to his grave. 
 
 General Fremont, the Pathfinder. 
 
 While others laughed or told stories of adventure 
 around the camp or cabin fires, Fremont was in his 
 tent or under a tree with his books, lie knew all 
 science, every tree or plant, and could talk to his 
 guides and soldiers, made up of all sorts of people, 
 in almost any tongue. 
 
 Fremont, from first to last, was the hero of heroes, 
 and the ideal of the young, and pure, and good, 
 from one end of the land to the other. If only the 
 pure and good, or if only the youths could have 
 
STORY OF FREMONT 
 
 139 
 
 voted for him in 1856, when he ran for President, 
 he would have carried every State in the Union. 
 
 In the fearful Civil War he was the most con- 
 spicuous figure until he issued his emancipation 
 
 General Fremont's Headquarters at Los Angeles. 
 
 proclamation, thus anticipating President Lincoln. 
 Envy and pitiful little jealousies that too often pur- 
 sue great souls were clamoring for his retirement 
 from the field of action. Yet he could not be idle 
 for a day. 
 
140 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 He had planned the first railroad to California, 
 and now would have perfected it, but for the envi- 
 ous and rich and powerful men who again thwarted 
 him. 
 
 In fact Fremont, if we except his fortunate mar- 
 riage, was never the favorite of fortune. He was 
 not cunning; he never cared for money; and, let it 
 be proudly said, with all his high offices and great 
 opportunities, he died poor. 
 
 Of his final hours (1890) let his sweet, gentle 
 Jessie speak. She says : 
 
 "Of the many kindnesses unknown Fate reserved 
 for Fremont, the kindest was the last. He had just 
 succeeded in a most cherished wish. Peace and rest 
 were again secured, when he was attacked in New 
 York by what he thought was a passing summer 
 illness. His physician recognized danger, and 
 quickly the cessation of pain showed a fatal condi- 
 tion. 
 
 "Night and day his loving son watched over him, 
 and with their long-time friend and physician, kept 
 unbroken his happy composure. Rousing from a 
 prolonged, deep sleep the General said : 'If 1 con- 
 tinue so comfortable I can finish my writing next 
 week and go home.' Seeing the eyes closing again, 
 his physician said, to test the mind : 
 
 'Home? AVhere do vou call home, General?' 
 
THE STORY OF FREMONT 141 
 
 "One last clear look, a pleased smile: 'California, 
 of course.' 
 
 "Hero, scholar, cavalier, 
 
 Bayard of thy brave new land, 
 Poppies for thy bed and bier, 
 
 Dreamful poppies foot and hand. 
 
 "Poppies garmented in gold; 
 
 Poppies of the land you won 
 Love and gratitude untold- 
 Poppies peace the setting sun!" 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 Ideal (i-de'al), government (guv'ern-ment) frontier 
 (fron'ter), Orient (6'ri-ent), Los Angeles (los an'ge-les), 
 Modoc (mo'dok), Lincoln (link'un), emancipation (e-man- 
 ci-pa'tion), recognized (rek'og-mzd). 
 
HOW CALIFORNIA CAME INTO THE UNION. 
 
 NOW, I'm going to tell you a story that's not 
 like any of the others. It has no hero. Our 
 country had a big war with Mexico, and we won. 
 California and much other land became part of the 
 United States. 
 
 The people of California soon wanted to form a 
 State. A convention met at Monterey, September 
 1, 1849. A constitution was adopted, officers elected, 
 and laws passed before California was admitted into 
 the Union. The first legislature met at San Jose. 
 It passed many laws and gave the names to the 
 
 counties of the State. Fre- 
 mont and Gwin were elected 
 United States Senators. 
 They went to Washington 
 and asked that California be 
 admitted to the Union. The 
 President sent a special 
 message to Congress about 
 California. 
 
 The giants of the Senate- 
 Clay, Calhoun, Webster. 
 
 142 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Convention at Mon- 
 terey. 
 
 The First U. S. Sena- 
 tors. 
 
 Webster's Speech. 
 
 Seward's Speech. 
 
 Calhoun. 
 
 September 9, 1850. 
 
 Why the Admission 
 \vtts Opposed. 
 
HOW CALIFORNIA CAME INTO THE UNION 143 
 
 Seward, and Jefferson Davis men whom you will 
 read about in the history of your country, were 
 interested in California. Calhoun and Davis did not 
 want California admitted because of the Slavery 
 Question. 
 
 Almost the last speech Calhoun made was against 
 California. He thought it would bring trouble be- 
 tween the North and the South. He tried to talk 
 again, but was too weak, and another Senator read 
 his speech. It was a great speech in all the arts that 
 go to make up a fine oration. 
 
 Daniel Webster said : : 'I believe in the Spartan 
 maxim- -'Improve, adorn what you have; seek no 
 further.' I do not fear slavery in California be- 
 cause the soil, climate, and everything connected 
 with the region is opposed to slave labor. There 
 has been talk of secession, peaceable secession. You 
 might as well talk of a planet withdrawing from 
 the solar system without a convulsion, as to talk 
 about peaceable secession. 
 
 'The Union, which has been so hard to form, 
 has linked together the destinies of all parts of the 
 country, and has made a great nation, because it is 
 a united nation, with a common name, and a 
 common flag, and a common patriotism. It has 
 conferred upon the South no less than upon the 
 Xorth great blessings. 
 
 'There may be violence; there may be revolu- 
 
144 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 tion ; the great dead may be disturbed in their 
 graves. 
 
 "All this is possible, but not peaceable secession. 
 The Union is one ; it is a complete whole. It is 
 bounded, like the buckler of Achilles, on either side 
 by the ocean." 
 
 William H. Seward, another name that you will 
 hear more about in history, said : "California ought 
 to be admitted at once ; California comes from that 
 clime where the West dies away into the rising 
 East ; California, which bounds the empire and the 
 continent; California, the youthful queen of the 
 Pacific, in robes of freedom, inlaid with gold, is 
 doubly welcome ! 
 
 'The stars and stripes should wave over its ports 
 or it will raise aloft a banner for itself. It would be 
 no mean ambition if it became necessary for its own 
 protection to found an independent nation on the 
 Pacific. 
 
 Tt is farther away than the old colonies from 
 England; it is out of the reach of railroads; the 
 prairies, the mountains, and the desert, an isthmus 
 ruled by foreign powers, and a cape of storms are 
 between it and the armies of the Union." 
 
 The delegates from California prepared a new ad- 
 dress in which they related in detail the claims of 
 California to be admitted into the Union. 
 
 It seems strange now, when there is no longer 
 
HOW CALIFORNIA CAME INTO THE UNION 145 
 
 any division between North and South, that Con- 
 gress should hesitate to receive as part of the Union 
 the Golden Land of the West. 
 
 The bill making California a State passed the 
 Senate, August 13, 1850. There were thirty-four 
 Senators who voted for it, and eight against it. On 
 September 7th, the bill was up for passage in the 
 House. There were several attempts to defeat it, 
 but it was passed by one hundred and fifty-four 
 ayes against fifty-six noes. 
 
 The President, Millard Fillmore, signed the bill 
 September 9, 1850. California was the thirty-first 
 State the thirty-first star in the flag, in order of 
 date, but the peer in many respects of many States 
 in the Union. 
 
 It has contributed more than its share to the ma- 
 terial and intellectual wealth of the world. Its 
 treasures of gold, of soil, of climate ; the patriotism 
 of its citizens ; the excellence of its schools, 
 churches, and libraries; its spirit of progress, its 
 color and art atmosphere, make California the 
 ideal Golden State. 
 
 BLACKBOARD WORDS. 
 
 San Jose (san ho-sa'), Monterey (mon-ta-ra/), conven- 
 tion (kon-ven'shun), constitution (kon'sti-tu'shun), seces- 
 sion (se-sesh'un), successor (suk-ses'ser), Calhoun (kal- 
 hoon'), libraries (li'bra-ries), ambition (am-bish'un), at- 
 mosphere (at-'mos-fer), solar (so'ler), Achilles (a-kil'lez), 
 delegates (del'e-gats). 
 
THE STORY OF A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 BATTLE a real battle with the In- 
 dians ! It took place at Castle Crags 
 in 1855. And it is said to be the last 
 battle of record where the Indians 
 fought with arrows only. 
 
 It occurred near Mount Shasta, 
 which the poet has described as- 
 "Lone as God, white as a winter moon." 
 "Mountain Joe," a picturesque figure of pioneer 
 days, was one of the men who took an active part 
 in the battle. 
 
 The entire country in the vicinity of Shasta was 
 a sea of tents. The soil had been turned upside 
 
 down by the miners. The 
 river was red with red dirt. 
 The fishes died. This was in 
 1855, when the gold excite- 
 ment was great. 
 
 The Indians had deter- 
 mined to drive out the 
 whites. It led to a general 
 war, which resulted in the 
 
 146 
 
 Reference Topics. 
 
 Mount Shasta. 
 Castle Crags. 
 The Shasta Indians. 
 Arrows. 
 Joutiulu Miller. 
 The Battle. 
 Mountain Joe. 
 Indians of To-day. 
 
STORY OK A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 
 
 extinction of many tribes in Oregon and some in 
 California. 
 
 A Group of California Indians. 
 
 R. P. Gibson, who had married an Indian chief's 
 daughter, was the leader against the Shasta Indians, 
 who were in revolt ; and he was aided by some 
 friendly Indians. 
 
 Joaquin Miller, who was then kno\vn as ''Moun- 
 tain Joe's Boy," fought and was wounded in the 
 battle of Castle Crags. He tells the story of the 
 battle as follows : 
 
148 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIKS 
 
 "\Ye rested by a deep, dark lake which the In- 
 dians call the abode of their devil, Ku-ku-pa-rick, 
 and they refused to approach its 
 grassy, wooded shores. 
 
 ''Here Gibson, leaving his In- 
 dians for the first time, passed 
 from man to man as they 
 crouched under the trees. He 
 told them that there was to be 
 a fight, and a fight to a finish ; 
 that the hostiles were not an 
 hour distant, and that no one 
 could turn back and live; for if 
 we did not kill them they would 
 kill us. He told us that they 
 had come down out of the Castle 
 to kill deer, and so their arrows were not poisoned, 
 and that we could swim. 
 
 : 'He broke us up in parties, putting good and 
 bad together, with Indians at the head of each. He 
 told me to go with Joe, whom he sent to make a 
 show of attack on the side next to Soda Springs. 
 \Vheri near the hostiles Joe put me behind a tree 
 on the edge of a small open place, and told me to 
 stay there. Then he went on creeping through the 
 dense brush, to place the other men. 
 
 "I put some bullets into my mouth so as to have 
 them handy, but I do not know what I did with 
 
 1856-1857, afterwards 
 
 "The Poet of the 
 
 Sierras." 
 
STORY OF A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 149 
 
 them. I tired a few shots after Joe opened the fight, 
 but hit only brush and rocks, I reckon. And now 
 pandemonium ! Indians do not often yell in battle ; 
 but on both sides of us now, the yelling was simply 
 fiendish. They yelled from the top of the Castle 
 to the bottom, it seemed to me. 
 
 ; '\Ye had taken the enemy entirely unawares,- 
 asleep most of them, after the morning's chase,- 
 and our first shots brought down their dozing sen- 
 tinels on the rocks. Finally there was some parley- 
 ing, and the yelling, the whiz of arrows, and the 
 crack of rifles stopped. Then some Indian women 
 came out and across the little gorge to Joe and his 
 men, and I, thinking they had all surrendered, 
 walked out into the opening. 
 
 "Gibson called from the rocks ahead of me and 
 to my right, 'Boys, the fight now begins, and we've 
 got to git them or they git us. Come on ! Who 
 will go with me?' I answered that I would go; for 
 it w r as all a picnic so far as I had yet seen, and I 
 ran around to him. But there was blood on his 
 hands and blood on his face, blood on all of his 
 
 Indians, and most of the white men were bloody 
 and hot. 
 
 'The enemy used arrows entirely. They could 
 tell where we were, but we knew where they were 
 only when we felt their sting. Gibson led, or rather 
 
150 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 crept, hastily on, his head below the chaparral. Xo 
 one dared speak. But when we got in position, 
 right in the thick of it, our men opened. Then the 
 arrows, then the yelling, as never before ! 
 
 "The women and children prisoners down with 
 Joe set up the death-song, as if it were not already 
 dismal enough. The savages bantered us and bul- 
 lied us, saying we were all going to be killed before 
 the sun w r ent down ; that we were already covered 
 with blood, and that they had not lost a man. I 
 had not yet fired a shot since joining Gibson, and, 
 rising up to look for a target, he told an Indian to 
 Tull that fool down by the hair,' which he prompt- 
 ly did. 
 
 "The battle had lasted for hours. The men were 
 choking, and the gun was near going down. \Ye 
 must kill or be killed, and that soon. \Ye must do 
 our work before dark. The white man has little 
 show with an Indian in battle at night. 
 
 "Gibson gathered all who could or would go, 
 and took still another place by storm. Then Lane 
 fell, mortally wounded by an arrow in the eye. I 
 saw Gibson's gun fall from his hand from the very 
 deluge of arrows ; then all was blank, and I knew 
 no more of that battle. 
 
 'The fight was over when I came to my senses, 
 and it was dark. A young man by the name of 
 Jameson was trying to drag me through the brush ; 
 
STORY OF A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 151 
 
 and it has always seemed to me that a good many 
 people walked over me and trod on me. I could 
 hear, but could not see. 
 
 "An arrow had struck the left side of my face, 
 knocked out two teeth, and had forced its point 
 through at the back of my neck. I could hear, 
 and I knew the voices of Gibson and Joe. They 
 cut off the point of the arrow and pulled it out of 
 my face by the feather end. Then I could see. I 
 suffered no pain, but was benumbed and cold as we 
 lay under the pines. Joe held my head all night, 
 expecting that I would die. 
 
 "Gibson had the squaw prisoners carry his 
 wounded down to the pack-trail on the banks of 
 the Sacramento. They laid us down under some 
 pines and pretty juniper-trees on the west side of 
 the swift, sweet river. And how tender and how 
 kind these heroic men w r ere ! I was as a brother 
 to them now, their boy hero. Only the day be- 
 fore I had been merely 'Mountain Joe's Boy.' 
 
 "Gibson's loss in killed was considerable for so 
 small a number engaged, several Indians, though 
 only one white man. Indians never give their 
 loss, because of encouragement to the enemy; and 
 Mountain Joe and Gibson, for a like reason, always 
 kept their list of killed and wounded as low as pos- 
 sible, and spoke of the battle of Castle Crags as a 
 trifling affair. Yet General Crook, in his letter to 
 
152 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Captain Gibson, marveled that he ever got out with 
 a single man. 
 
 "I had promises to mark the grave of Ike Hare 
 with a fragment of granite from Castle Crags, so 
 that those who pass up and down the pleasant 
 walks around Castle Crags Tavern might look with 
 respect on the resting-place of a brave man and an 
 honest legislator of two States. But my little tab- 
 let would seem so pitiful in the mighty presence of 
 Mount Shasta! 
 
 "And it is Crook's monument, and Dribelbies', 
 and Mountain Joe's. The finger of the Infinite 
 traces and retraces, in storm or sun, the story and 
 the glory of their unselfish valor here while the 
 world endures. It is enough. 
 
 "There are those who care to read of savage in- 
 cidents in these border battles. But such things 
 should be left to obscurity, and I shall set down 
 but two here. 
 
 "The first of these was the treatment of the dead 
 Modoc chief, Docas Dalla, by the chief of our In- 
 dian allies. When the body was dragged before 
 him, where he stood in the heat and rage of battle 
 directing his men, he threw off his robe, and, nearly 
 naked, leaped on the naked body (for it had al- 
 ready been stripped and scalped), and there danced 
 and yelled as no fiend of the infernal regions could 
 have danced and yelled. 
 
STORY OF A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 153 
 
 "He called his fallen foe by name, and mocked 
 and laughed, and leaped up and down on the dead 
 till the body was slippery with the blood which 
 gushed from its wounds, and he could no longer 
 keep his footing. Yet, after all, it was only the 
 old Greek and Trojan rage, the story of Homer 
 in another form of expression; and Castle Crags 
 was Troy above the clouds. 
 
 "One more incident, as described to me by the 
 son of this same furious chief, on revisiting the 
 battle-ground. This son of the chief was but a lad 
 at the time, and so was left by his father with two 
 Indians and a few white men who were too lame 
 and worn-out to rush into the fight, in charge of 
 the blankets, supplies, and so forth. They were left 
 in the little depression, or dimple, in the saddle of 
 the mountain, a few hundred feet above and to the 
 south of Crook's (or Castle) Lake, and in the 
 Modoc pass or trail. 
 
 "When Gibson forced the fighting, as night came 
 on, the hostiles separated, some going down the 
 gorge as if to reach their stores of arrows in the 
 caves of Battle Rock (for their supply must have 
 been well-nigh spent by this time), while others 
 stole oft" up the old Modoc trail that winds up 
 above and around the lake, and in which the son of 
 the chief and other Indians, as well as some whites, 
 lay concealed. 
 
154 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 "And here in this dimple, on the great granite 
 backbone that heaves above and about the lake, 
 here above the clouds, amid drifts, and banks, and 
 avalanches of everlasting snow, the wounded fugi- 
 tives, with empty quivers, and leaving a red path 
 as they crawled or crept on and up over the banks 
 and drifts of snow, were met by their mortal ene- 
 mies face to face. 
 
 "If you stand here facing Battle Rock to the 
 south, and with your back to the lake, which lies 
 only a few hundred feet to the rear, though far 
 below, you will see how impossible it was for the 
 wounded savages to escape down the rugged crags 
 to the left, or up and over the crescent of snow to 
 the right. They could not turn back ; they could 
 not turn to the left nor to the right; so they kept 
 on. But their relentless red enemies followed their 
 crimson trail, found and tomahawked and scalped 
 them where they lay, and threw their bodies into 
 the lake. 
 
 "Like all decisive battles with swift-footed sav- 
 ages, this one covered a large field. The fighting, 
 or at least the dead, and the blood on the rocks 
 and snow, reached from the south shore of Crook's 
 Lake to the north base of Battle Rock. The cross 
 cut in the white spruce-tree, by the hand that 
 writes this, and not far from the northernmost 
 
STORY OF A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 155 
 
 bank of the lake, may be set down as the outer 
 edge of the battle-ground in that direction. 
 
 'You wall find small stone cairns up here and 
 there on heads of granite rocks that break above 
 the snow^. It is the custom for an Indian when 
 passing the scene of some great disaster, especially 
 if alone, to place in a conspicuous position a stone 
 by the way, in memory of his dead. He never 
 rears his monument at one time, as does the w r hite 
 man. He places but one stone, often a very small 
 one, and leaves the rest to time and to other hands. 
 
 "I will add Captain Gibson's story of the fight, 
 from his own trembling hand : 
 
 "Gibson's Switch, Sacramento River, July 25, 1893. 
 
 "In the year 1855, there being a great rush of 
 miners here, the Sacramento River and other 
 streams became muddy, and thereby obstructing the 
 run of fish. The Indians became very indignant on 
 account of its stopping the run of fish, which was 
 their principal living. They commenced making 
 preparations for hostilities by getting into strong- 
 holds, the principal one being the Castle Crags. 
 Captain Crook came to the east fork of the Trinity 
 about twelve miles from here with a company of 
 regulars, and w r ent out to Castle Crags with a view 
 to break up the band, but failed to engage them. 
 
 "I sent him a letter telling him the way I was 
 situated, so that by raising some men I could de- 
 stroy them. His answer was to do so, which I did. 
 \Ye had a severe fight, some men killed and a 
 
156 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 number wounded. We also found that the arrows 
 were Modoc arrows ; also amongst the dead two 
 Modoc chiefs. I sent word of the battle to Captain 
 Crook, and he gave it his hearty approval, and 
 thanked me. 
 
 'We had and have every reason to believe that 
 the Indians intended to consolidate and make a 
 general outbreak, as the Modocs did soon after do; 
 and there is no doubt but they would have done 
 it had it not been for that battle as aforesaid at 
 Castle Crags. Captain Crook was afterward the 
 famous Indian fighter, General Crook. I was en- 
 abled to reach these Indians, which Crook could 
 not, through my father-in-law, Wielputus, the chief 
 of the Shastas. We took twenty-nine of his men 
 with us. R. P. GIBSON." 
 
 THE PIONEER 
 
 Oh, staunch path-finder! Grizzled pioneer! 
 
 Your brown, thick-furrowed cheek has known the heat 
 
 Of sun-scorched plain and felt the stinging sleet 
 On mountain peaks. Yet ever of good cheer 
 You toiled, though lean, pale Hunger came so near 
 
 You heard the tread of his approaching feet; 
 
 Dark-browed Despair you sometimes downward beat, 
 And stood above the prostrate form of Fear. 
 I count you as a soldier brave and true; 
 
 A hero loved of heroes, whose strong hand 
 
 Upheld the flag of Progress to the skies; 
 Who suffered patiently and never knew 
 
 Defeat, and who within a wild, wierd land 
 
 Did strike the blow that bade a new world rise. 
 
 Herbert Bashford. 
 
OLD CALIFORNIANS. 
 
 'Tis a land so far that you wonder whether 
 
 E'en God would know it should you fall down dead; 
 
 'Tis a land so fair through the wilds and weather, 
 That the sun falls weary and flushed and red, 
 
 That the sea and sky seem coming together, 
 Seem closing together as a book that is read: 
 
 Oh! the nude, weird West, where an unnamed river 
 Rolls restless in bed of bright silver and gold; 
 
 Where white flashing mountains flow rivers of silver 
 As a rock of the desert flowed fountains of old; 
 
 By a dark-wooded river that calls to the dawn, 
 
 And makes mouths at the sea with his dolorous swan; 
 
 Oh! the land of the wonderful sun and weather, 
 With green under foot and with gold over head, 
 
 Where the sun takes flame, and you wonder whether 
 'Tis an isle of fire in his foamy bed; 
 
 Where the ends of the earth they are welding together 
 In rough-hewn fashion, in a forge-flame red. 
 
 COMMEXD me to the old California!!. I should 
 say that an old gold-hunter of '49, standing 
 on a peak of the Sierras with the world behind 
 him, storm-blown and beaten, yet with hands 
 and heart open, unsullied by any sin of the popu- 
 lous world below, stands not far from God. 
 
 157 
 
158 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 They climb'd the rock-built breasts of earth, 
 
 The Titan-fronted, billowy steeps 
 
 That cradled Time. . . . Where Freedom keeps 
 
 Her flag- of white-blown stars unfurl'd, 
 
 They turn'd about, they saw the birth 
 
 Of sudden dawn upon the world: 
 
 Again they gazed; they saw the face 
 
 Of God, and named it boundless space. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ah, there have been clouds in the old Califor- 
 nian's life; storms and wrecks, and years of clouds! 
 And even still there are more than enough in the 
 West to make the sunset glorious. But the world 
 is away off to him. He has memories a lock of 
 hair in his hand, a little song in his heart. He 
 lives alone in the past. Life, love - - all with him 
 are over; but he does not complain. May he strike 
 it yet in the shaft he is still sinking, in the great 
 tunnel he is still boring into the mountains, and go 
 back to his waiting wife and babes. Alas ! his babes 
 are full-grown ; he will never see his babies any more. 
 
 It is to be allowed that these men were not at all 
 careful of the laws, either ancient or modern, eccle- 
 siastical or lay. They would curse. They would 
 fight like dogs aye, like Christians in battle. But 
 there \vas more solid honor among them than the 
 world will ever see again in any body of men, 1 
 fear, till it approaches the millennium. 
 
 Do you know where the real old Californian is- 
 the giant, the world-builder? 
 
 1 fe is sitting by the trail high up on the moun- 
 
OLD CALIFORNIANS 159 
 
 tain. His eyes are dim, and his head is white. His 
 hands are not strong. His pick and shovel are at his 
 side. His feet are weary and sore. He is still pros- 
 pecting. Pretty soon he will sink his last prospect 
 hole in the Sierra. 
 
 Some younger men will come along, and lengthen 
 it out a little, and lay him in his grave. The old 
 miner will have passed on to prospect the outcrop- 
 pings that star the floors of heaven. 
 
 He is not numerous now ; but I saw him last sum- 
 mer high up on the head-waters of the Sacramento. 
 His face is set forever away from that civilization 
 which has passed him by. He is called a tramp now. 
 And the new, nice people who have slid over the 
 plains in a palace car and settled down there, set 
 dogs on him sometimes when he comes that way. 
 
 I charge you, treat the old California!! well 
 wherever you find him. He has seen more, suffered 
 more, practiced more self-denial than can now fall 
 to the lot of any man. 
 
 I never see one of these old prospectors without 
 thinking of Ulysses, and wondering if any Pene- 
 lope still weaves and unweaves, and waits the end 
 of his wanderings. Will any old blind dog stagger 
 forth at the sound of his voice, lick his hand, and 
 fall down at his feet ? 
 
 Xo, he will never return. He has not heard from 
 home for twenty years. 
 
160 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 And though he may die there in the pines on the 
 mighty mountain, while still feebly searching" for 
 the golden fleece, do not forget that his life is an 
 epic, noble as any handed down from out the dusty 
 eld. I implore you, treat him kindly. Some day a 
 fitting poet will come, and then he will take his 
 place among the heroes and the gods. 
 
 But there is another old Californian a wearier 
 man the successful one. He, too, is getting gray. 
 But he is a power in the land. He is a prince in 
 fact and in act. What strange fate was it that 
 threw dust in the eyes of that old Californian, sit- 
 ting by the trail high up on the mountain, and 
 blinded him so that he could not see the gold just 
 within his grasp, a quarter of a century ago? And 
 what good fairy was it that led this other old Cali- 
 fornian, now the banker, the railroad king, or sena- 
 tor, to where the mountain gnomes had hidden 
 their gold? 
 
 What accidental beggars and princes we have in 
 the world to-day ! But whether beggar or prince, 
 the old Californian stands a head and shoulders 
 taller than his fellows wherever von may find him. 
 
 * 
 
 This is a solid, granite truth. 
 
 Our dead are the mighty majority of ukl Califor- 
 nians ! Xo one would guess how numerous the}' 
 are. California was one vast battle-field. The 
 
OLD CALIFORNIANS 
 
 knights of the nineteenth century lie buried in her 
 bosom ; while here and there, over the mountain- 
 tops, totters a lone survivor, still prospecting. 
 
 The Crusades knew not braver knight 
 Than these brave men before her walls; 
 
 The noblest in the old-time fight 
 
 Matched not the humblest here that falls. 
 
 And never were there worn such scars 
 
 As these won in these nobler wars. 
 
 These bloodless wars, that bring not pain, 
 These priceless victories of Peace, 
 
 Where Pride is slain, where Self is slain, 
 Where Patience hath her victories; 
 
 Where, when at last the gates are down, 
 
 You have not burned, but built, a town. 
 
 The Pioneer, by Solon Borglum. 
 
THE STORY OF THE GREAT FIRE, 1906. 
 
 THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE OF 1906. 
 
 Originated in an earthquake on April 18, 1906, affecting 
 an area of 450 miles in length and 50 miles in width at most 
 points. 
 
 Two thousand five hundred ninety-three acres (4.05 square 
 miles) destroyed in heart of down-town business and resi- 
 dence districts, about one-third of the city. Loss of life re- 
 sulting from it was 452 people. Loss of property was 
 $350,000,000; 28,188 buildings destroyed. 
 
 The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed 2,000 acres, 776 build- 
 ings, at a loss of $165,000,000. 
 
 The relative damage in the California earthqake was 
 greater in some outlying towns, as San Jose. 
 
 Martial law was declared and Gen. Fred Funston was in 
 command. 
 
 Failure of the water system caused a resort to dynamite 
 to destroy buildings in the path of the flames, to arrest their 
 progress. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty thousand people made homeless by 
 the fire, many wholly ruined financially. Splendid organiza- 
 tion of relief prevented great privation and suffering. 
 
 Steel-frame buildings, and those built on rock or with 
 good foundations, stood the shock and strain best. Steel and 
 concrete construction has generally been adopted in the 
 rapid rebuilding, giving security against a recurrence of the 
 disaster. 
 
 HE night of April 17, 1906, was beau- 
 tiful. The stars hung low from a 
 clear sky, the air was balmy. A wave 
 of heat rippled into your face from 
 the south. It was a strangely silent 
 night. On my way home from the 
 
 162 
 
STORY OF THE GREAT FIRE 
 
 163 
 
 theatre to the Richmond District, San Francisco, i 
 had a queer personal experience. A strange white 
 dog with sore eyes, and pitifully poor, followed me 
 from the car to the house. The dog tried to ex- 
 press his desire for companionship and sympathy 
 in the appealing gaze of his eyes. When the door 
 of the house was opened, the dog rushed in and 
 began to bark and then whine. A few hours after 
 the dog was put out of the house, the earthquake 
 came. The dog knew as the several birds knew r , 
 that the earth was out of tune. For several days 
 many people testified that cats pussy-footed about 
 
 Looking Down Market Street After the Fire. 
 
164 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 showing danger signals that were significant and 
 mysterious. Horses and other animals were stamp- 
 ing in their stalls affrighted, several hours before 
 the earthquake. So the white dog knew, and his 
 piteous howling was almost human. It was even 
 more real than the cry of the banshee behind the 
 stage scenery. The earthquake came at 5:13 a. m. 
 Wednesday morning, April 18, 1906. The earth 
 lifted and went in a tremendous zigzag. Fabled 
 Atlas, who had carried the globe on his shoulders, 
 let it fall. r> inklings fell, houses crumbled. Great 
 
 San Francisco After the Fire in 1906. 
 
STORY OF THE GREAT FIRE 165 
 
 steel beams were twisted. Chaos reigned. The 
 house in which I lived was moved from its founda- 
 tions, tables were overturned, glass broken. In 
 the crash I landed on the floor on my back. The 
 first flash of intelligence brought me a quick realiza- 
 tion that the dog knew the end of the world had 
 come. It was not the end of the world. In a few 
 minutes everybody was on the streets, thousands 
 of people only partially dressed. The birds began 
 to sing. The crash and roar of the ocean in- 
 creased. The ambulances came. Express wagons, 
 automobiles without regard to speed limits, wheel- 
 barrows, baby carriages and trunks, filled the 
 streets. The sun came up and flooded the city with 
 its brightness. Then the fire came. Smoke curled 
 with picturesque effect from a hundred different 
 places. The red tongues of flame reached towards 
 the sky. I ran to Lone Mountain, and from this 
 resting place of the bones of the dead I saw a 
 great city on fire. For three days the city burned, 
 and was destroyed, not by earthquake, but by fire. 
 It is true that some poorly constructed buildings 
 were wrecked, and thousands of brick chimneys 
 collapsed from the shock. The loss would not 
 have been great if the city had been able to stop 
 the onward rush of the flames. The city was 
 burning. Men and women began to rush here and 
 there. The first thought was not for property, but 
 
166 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 for loved ones who might be killed or injured. The 
 second thought was of valuable papers and records. 
 The third thought was for personal safety. I was 
 fortunate in securing a horse and buggy, and made 
 a tour of the line of fire. The white heat, the red 
 fire, the black and gray smoke, were great. The 
 fire fighters were brave, tireless and strong, but 
 the fire was triumphant. The city was without 
 light, water, sewers and the regular supply of food. 
 The days were all nights to the workers, and all 
 Sundays to the idlers. Mayor Eugene Schmitz, 
 with a vision oreatlv to his credit, ordered all 
 
 o> ./ 
 
 saloons closed, all whisky destroyed, and free milk 
 to be distributed for the children. A committee of 
 fifty, and the state and national governments, re- 
 sponded to the call of the Mayor, and order was 
 restored. 
 
 Pliny the Younger, in describing the eruption 
 of Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii, and in 
 which the historian, the Elder Pliny, lost his life, 
 shows how history repeats itself. Here was the 
 same motley crowd seeking safety in the parks, on 
 the hills, vacant lots, and in flight to distant lands. 
 A blind man sat a whole night and part of the day 
 waiting for some one to take him to safety. Mil- 
 lionaires and day laborers, poets and butchers, 
 members of all classes, neighbored together. At 
 the ferry, the wild rush to get across was on. 
 
STORY OF THE GREAT FIRE 167 
 
 Men and women and children were there, loaded 
 with blankets, bird cages, parrots, and both val- 
 uable and valueless household articles. They 
 had struggled from street to street, avoiding the 
 places where the flames burned the fiercest. A 
 caravan of people moved out Mission Street. 
 Everybody was loaded with personal belongings, 
 the fire licking at their heels. There were many 
 people pulling trunks along the sidewalks, vehicles 
 of all sorts loaded to over capacity, old women, 
 pitifully old, carrying an old portrait of some dear 
 ancestor, or perhaps some object of no value what- 
 ever. It was but the weak attempt to save some- 
 thing from the fire. In times of great stress the 
 little things are of as much importance as the big 
 things. The exodus was a thrilling sight. It 
 meant that over 200,000 people were homeless. A 
 hundred thousand were in the parks. Rumors of 
 approaching flames would drive many into wild 
 hysterics. In many cases the people would not 
 leave their homes until the flames came into the 
 back or front doors. There were few tears, and 
 much heroic work. Those who remained in the 
 city cooked in the streets, in the back yards, slept 
 out of doors in tents or in temporary cabins. The 
 officials devoted themselves to the sanitary condi- 
 tions. The weeks so passed. The people began 
 to smile at misfortune and to actually enjoy the 
 
168 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 life out of doors. The great fire and earthquake 
 banished selfishness. When the people of other 
 cities sent millions, emotion was strained to tears. 
 The awful desolation and the new, clean poverty 
 of the people were hid by the hand of friendliness 
 over the eyes of the refugees ; while fraternities 
 with secret oaths to help a brother, churches with 
 creeds, citizens in fierce competition, all responded 
 to the call of brotherhood as wide as humanity 
 itself. It was the Sermon on the Mount in action. 
 There will be a new San Francisco, a greater San 
 Francisco. The fire was a catastrophe, not a 
 calamity, that struck the city on that April morn- 
 ing. The new city will be the wonder of the 
 Twentieth Century- -new schools, new churches, 
 new public service utilities, new honor and fame- 
 new, new, everything new. 
 
 The dove will continue to sing; there are many 
 to-morrows for the living and the dead. 
 (Written May 1, 1906.) 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 April 18, 1918. 
 
 It came to pass as it was written. The thousands 
 of people who came to San Francisco to see the 
 great Exposition in 1915 saw a new city a mar- 
 velous city, with new schools, new churches, new 
 public service utilities, new homes, new business 
 blocks, new Civic Center new, new, new, every- 
 thing new. 
 
 A Glimpse of San Francisco, 1918. 
 
 169 
 
170 
 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 (From the Sea.) 
 BY BRET HARTE. 
 
 s 
 
 EREXE, indifferent of Fate, 
 Thou sittest at the Western Gate ; 
 
 I'pon thy height, so lately won, 
 Still slant the banners of the sun ; 
 
 Thou seest the white seas strike their tents, 
 O Warder of two Continents ! 
 
 And, scornful of the peace that flies 
 Thy angry winds and sullen skies, 
 
 Thou drawest all things, small or great, 
 To thee, beside the Western Gate. 
 
 O lion's whelp, that hidest fast 
 
 In jungle growth of spire and mast! 
 
 171 
 
172 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 I know thy cunning and thy greed, 
 Thy hard high lust and willful deed, 
 
 And all thy glory loves to tell 
 Of specious gifts material. 
 
 Drop down, O Fleecy Fog, and hide 
 Her skeptic sneer and all her pride ! 
 
 Wrap her, O Fog, in gown and hood 
 . Of her Franciscan Brotherhood. 
 
 Hide me her faults, her sin and blame; 
 With thy gray mantle cloak her shame ! 
 
 So shall she cowled, sit and pray 
 Till morning bears her sins away. 
 
 Then rise, O Fleecy Fog, and raise 
 The glory of her coming days ; 
 
 Be as the cloud that flecks the seas 
 Above her smoky argosies ; 
 
 When forms familiar shall give place 
 To stranger speech and newer face; 
 
 When all her throes and anxious fears 
 Lie hushed in the repose of years ; 
 
SAN FRANCISCO 173 
 
 \Yhen Art shall raise and Culture lift 
 The sensual joys and meaner thrift, 
 
 And all fulfilled the vision we 
 
 Who watch and wait shall never see. 
 
 \Vho in the morning of her race, 
 Toiled fair or meanly in our place, 
 
 But, yielding' to the common lot, 
 Lie unrecorded and forgot. 
 
THE STORY OF THE PANAMA CANAL. 
 
 HE United States completed the 
 building of the Panama Canal in 
 1915. It was four hundred and ten 
 years after the discovery of the 
 Pacific by Balboa. He was the first 
 white man to cross the Isthmus of 
 Darien, now named Panama. Columbus sailed into 
 the entrance of what he called the Bay of Ships. 
 It is now called Colon, which is the Spanish for 
 Columbus. It is said that Columbus sailed inland 
 as far as the Chagres River, which he called the 
 River of Crocodiles, because he saw so many of 
 them there. A Spanish engineer reported at about 
 the time Magellan sailed into the Pacific, that a 
 canal should be cut across the Isthmus to connect 
 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This is the first 
 mention in history of the canal, which was not 
 built for nearly four hundred years later. In 1521 
 a post road was made across the Isthmus. Sir 
 Francis Drake in his day made an attack on the 
 treasure house of Panama. The trail across the 
 Isthmus was used by traders for centuries. In 
 
 174 
 
STORY OF THE PANAMA CANAL 
 
 175 
 
 1849, when the gold rush to California was started, 
 thousands of people crossed on the way to Cali- 
 fornia. In 1885 the Panama Railroad w r as built. 
 In 1879 De Lesseps, a great engineer, who built 
 the Suez Canal, attempted to build a canal across 
 Panama. He was aided by the French govern- 
 ment. After several years' trial and after spending 
 over twenty-six million dollars, the venture failed. 
 Twenty-five thousand men died of fever and other 
 tropical diseases. President Roosevelt became an 
 advocate of building the 
 canal. Congress passed 
 the necessary laws, and 
 appropriated over four 
 hundred millions of dol- 
 lars. The best engineers 
 of the nation were se- 
 cured. The most wonder- 
 ful lesson in the building 
 of the canal was the care 
 taken of the human be- 
 ings who worked on the 
 canal. The United States 
 employed sanitary engi- 
 neers of health conditions. 
 Doctors and dentists were 
 employed, schools estab- 
 lished, recreation grounds The Panama Tree, After Which 
 
 & Panama Was Named. 
 
176 
 
 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 made, Y. M. C. A. buildings and home con- 
 structed, and in fact everything for the comfort, 
 health and pleasure of the people that could be 
 done was carried out by our government. Native 
 villages were also supervised, and the health of 
 the people was excellent. All this shows clearly 
 that a government profits by taking care of its 
 people. 
 
 It was a great commercial adventure. The At- 
 lantic is now connected with the Pacific, and 
 Balboa, were he to return and view the ocean and 
 the country that he discovered, would marvel at 
 the stupendous work that our people have per- 
 formed. 
 
 V' we fe.&b*. ' ' v 
 
 .V. A?" '. 
 
 KKPUBUf <)! PANAMA 
 
 Map of Republic of Panama. 
 
PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Celebrated inauguration of Panama Canal. 
 
 Location, Harbor View, S. F., on shore of bay, 635 
 acres. 
 
 Opened Feb. 20, 1915; closed Dec. 4, 1915. 
 Estimated total cost, $50,000,000. 
 
 Net profit on closing, less wreckage, $1,040,000. In 
 addition, the Exposition Co. paid for and presented to 
 the city of San Francisco the Exposition Auditorium, cost 
 $1,086,000, and its great pipe-organ, cost $50,000. 
 
 Thirty-six foreign nations participated; 37 states and 
 three territories were represented. 
 
 Eleven great exhibit buildings in the center of grounds. 
 West of these the foreign buildings, states and sports ; the 
 east end was the amusement "Zone." 
 
 Eighty thousand exhibitors, exhibits valued at 
 $350,000,000. 
 
 Total attendance, 18,413,399. 
 
 Eight hundred Congresses and Conventions held during 
 the period of Exposition. 
 
 Its superiority to other expositions was in the unity 
 of motive in architecture, color scheme and statuary, courts 
 and fountains. 
 
 Central feature was the Tower of Jewels, 435 feet 
 high. The Art building, its Colonnade and environs were 
 the most beautiful attraction. 
 
 Notable and popular statues were "The E'nd of the 
 Trail," "The Thinker," "The Pioneer," "The Mother of 
 the Dead," "Earth, Air, Fire, and Water," "The Rising 
 and the Setting Sun." 
 
 Special attraction was the unique, brilliant night elec- 
 trical illumination. The musical features were most excel- 
 lent, and the intramural transportation arrangements were 
 satisfactory and some of them novel. 
 
 President, Chas. C. Moore; Secretary, Rudolph J. 
 Taussig; Treasurer, A. W. Foster; Director-in-Chief, Dr. 
 Frederick J. V. Skiff. 
 
 177 
 
A Glimpse of Panama-Pacific International Exposition. 
 
 178 
 
PANAMA CANAL. 
 
 Three routes were surveyed -- the Tehuantepec, the 
 Nicaragua and the Panama. Gen. Grant advocated the 
 Nicaragua route in his inaugural address in 1873. It was 
 adopted first, but the French company, that had com- 
 menced operations on the Panama route and failed, made 
 offer of their property for $40,000,000, which was accepted 
 and work begun by the United States. 
 
 Secession of Panama from Colombia, and 'Panama 
 canal zone of 10 miles width ceded to the United States, 
 five miles on either side of the canal. Treaty with 
 Panama ratified Feb. 23, 1904. 
 
 Opened to commercial traffic Aug. 15, 1914. 
 
 Total cost, including general expenses, $305,148,000, to 
 which add $40,000,000 to new Panama Canal Co., $10,000,- 
 000 to Republic of Panama, $20,053,000 for sanitation, 
 making grand total of $375,201,000 exclusive of the annual 
 payments to Panama of $250,000 during a period of nine 
 I years. 
 
 (Nicaragua route would have been 377 miles shorter 
 than the Panama from New York to San Francisco. 
 (Panama route saves 7,873 miles from the distance around 
 the Horn formerly necessary to cover. 
 
 Total excavation, 239,000,000 cubic yards. 
 
 Total length from deep water to deep water, 50.3 miles. 
 Total length between shore lines, 40 miles. 
 
 Bottom width of channel, maximum 1,000 feet, mini- 
 mum 300 feet. 
 
 Twelve locks, usable length 1,000 feet, width 110 feet. 
 About 2J4 hours consumed from ocean to ocean in lockage. 
 
 System of tolls used, according to character of vessel. 
 Canal is fortified. 
 
 179 
 
WHO NAMED CALIFORNIA? 
 
 ALIFORNIA is mentioned for the 
 first time, so far as any one has been 
 able to discover, in an old Spanish 
 romance, printed in 1510. The name 
 appears in the following passages : 
 
 "Know that, on the right hand of 
 the Indies, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, 
 there is an island called California, which was 
 peopled with black women, without any men 
 among them, because they were accustomed to 
 live after the fashion of Amazons. 
 
 "In this island are many griffins, on account of 
 the great savageness of the country and the im- 
 mense quantity of wild game found there. 
 
 "Now, in the time that those great men of the 
 Pagus sailed (against Constantinople), with those 
 great rleets of which I have told you, there reigned 
 in this land of California a queen, large of body, 
 very beautiful, in the prime of her years," etc. 
 
 The name California next appears in the memoirs 
 of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who 
 served with Cortez in the conquest of Mexico. He 
 
 ISO 
 
WHO NAMED CALIFORNIA 181 
 
 writes that "Cortez again set sail from Santa Cruz, 
 and discovered the coast of California." 
 
 "The name California was gradually used to 
 designate the region from the Gulf of California to 
 the mythical 'Straits of Anian' (which were very 
 probably Bering "Straits)." 
 
 'The country was called Xew Albion by Sir 
 Francis Drake in 1579." 
 
 "In recent times the region north of San Diego 
 was called Alta California, and that to the south, 
 Baja California." 
 
 The name California, derived from the two 
 Spanish words, caliente fornalla, i. e., "hot fur- 
 nace," -was given by Cortez, in the year 1535, to 
 the peninsula now known as Old (or Lower) Cali- 
 fornia, of which he was the discoverer, on account 
 of its hot climate. 
 
MEANINGS QF SPANISH NAMES. 
 
 In pronunciation of Spanish words give 
 a the sound of ay; give i the sound of ee\ 
 give j the sound of h\ give o the sound of 
 oh] give u the sound of oo; h is silent; // is 
 sounded like Hi in million; n is sounded 
 like ny in lanyard; hua is sounded like 
 7i-a in water. 
 
 Acampo, pasture-land on commons. 
 
 Agua Caliente, hot water. 
 
 Agua Caiendo, falling water. 
 
 Agua Tibia, warm water. 
 
 Agua Puerca, pig-water. 
 
 Alameda, a poplar grove ; a public walk. 
 
 Alamo, poplar. 
 
 Alcatraz, pelican. 
 
 Alturas, the heavens. 
 
 Alvarado, a surname meaning "white 
 
 road." 
 Anahuac, said to mean "everlasting 
 
 water." 
 
 Arroyo Burro, jackass creek. 
 Arroyo Del Norte, north creek. 
 Arroyo Seco, dry creek. 
 Blanca, white. 
 Bolinas, noises. 
 Buenaventura, good luck. 
 
 Cache, a hiding-place for goods. 
 
 Cajon, box (valley) shut in by hills. 
 
 Calaveras, place of the skull. 
 
 Campo Seco, dry country. 
 
 Casa Grande, great house. 
 
 Castroville, named in honor of General 
 Castro. 
 
 Ceres, the goddess of grain. 
 
 Cerros, hills. 
 
 Chino, a Chinaman ; a half-breed In- 
 dian ; a simpleton. 
 
 Cienega, swamp. Wrongly spelled Se- 
 nega, in Ventura. A swampy place 
 in an arid region. 
 
 Coahquilla or Keweah, seceders (In- 
 dians). 
 
 Colorado, red ; ruddy. 
 Conejo, rabbit. 
 
 Contra Costa, the opposite coast. 
 Cordero, lamb. 
 
 Coronado, crowned. A surname. 
 Cruces, crosses. 
 Cruz, cross. 
 
 i 
 
 Dehesa, pasture-ground. 
 
 Del Mar, of the sea. 
 
 Descanso, place of rest. 
 
 Diablo, devil. A favorite Spanish name. 
 
 Dolores, sorrowful ; feminine name. 
 
 Dulzura, sweetness. 
 
 El Capitan, the captain. 
 
 Eldorado, the land of gold. 
 
 El Nido, the nest. Meaning residence. 
 
 El Paso, the pass. 
 
 Encinitas, little oaks. 
 
 Escondido, hidden ; concealed. 
 
 Estrella, star. 
 
 Eureka, "I have found it." 
 
 Garrote, cudgel ; also applied to the 
 
 Spanish method of execution. 
 Guajome, house by frog-pond. 
 
 Herrnosa, beautiful. 
 
 Jacumba, hut by the water. 
 
 182 
 
NAMES OF PLACES IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 183 
 
 Jamacha, scummy water, or the mock- 
 orange. 
 Jamul, antelope-water. 
 
 La Jolla or Joya, probably misspelling 
 
 of "Hoya," hole or cave. 
 La Mesa, a table-land. 
 La Paz, the peace. 
 La Playa, the beach. 
 Las Flores, the flowers. 
 Las Vegas, the meadows. 
 Lobos, wolves. 
 Los Alamos, the poplars. 
 Los Gatos, the cats. 
 Nos Nietos, the grandsons. 
 Los Osos, the bears. 
 
 Madera, wood. 
 Mare, sea. 
 Mariposa, butterfly. 
 Modoc (Indians), strangers. 
 Mojave, or Mohave, three mountains. 
 Monte Diablo, devil's mountain. 
 Montserrate, notched mountain. A sur- 
 name. 
 Morro, any round object. 
 
 Pajaro, bird. 
 
 Pala, shovel. 
 
 Paso Robles, pass of the oaks. 
 
 Pescadera, a fishing-place. 
 
 Pinole, a kind of drink. 
 
 Pinos, pines. 
 
 Presidio, garrison, fortress; penitentiary. 
 
 Reyes, kings. 
 
 Rio Grande, great river. 
 
 San (masculine), Santa (feminine), or 
 Santo, is the Spanish for saint. 
 More than a hundred places in 
 California are named in honor of 
 the saints. A few of the places were 
 discovered or founded on the day of 
 
 the sain whose name they bear. 
 Ranches, which give their names to 
 many streams and towns, were named 
 in honor of the patron saint of the 
 owner, or the saint whose day was 
 the owner's birthday: San Carlos, 
 Charles ; San Diego, James ; San Di- 
 eguito, James the Less ; San Felipe, 
 Philip ; San Geronimo, Jerome ; San 
 Jacinto, Jacinth; San Jose, Joseph; 
 San Juan, John ; San Luis Obispo, 
 Louis the Bishop ; San Luis Rey, 
 Louis the King; San Marcus, Mark; 
 San Mateo, Matthew ; San Nicholas, 
 Nicholas; San Pablo, Paul; San 
 Pasqual, holy passover ; Santa Ana, 
 Anna ; Santa Catalina, Kate ; Santa 
 Cruz, holy cross ; Santa Fe, holy 
 faith; Santa Rosa, Rose; Santa 
 Ysabel, Isabel. 
 
 Sierra, a saw ; then a mountain, be- 
 cause the tops look like saw-teeth. 
 
 Sierra Madre, Mountains of the Mother 
 (of Christ). 
 
 Sierra Nevada, mountains white with 
 snow. 
 
 limi, source of water. 
 
 3ur, south. 
 
 Tahoe, big water. 
 
 Tecolote, the ground-owl. 
 
 Temescal, a sweat-house. 
 
 Tia Juana, Aunt Jane ; was corrupted 
 
 by Tiwana, by the sea. 
 Todos Santos, all saints. 
 Toro, bull. 
 
 Tres Pinos, three pines. 
 Tulare, place of tules or rushes. 
 
 Vallecitos, little valleys. 
 Viejos, old. 
 
 Yreka, cave mountain. 
 
HISTORIC LANDMARKS 
 
 By JOSEPH R. KNOWLAND, 
 
 Chairman Historic Landmarks Committee, Native Sons of the Golden 
 
 West, Since 1902. 
 
 The Order of Native Sons of the Golden West has a record of 
 accomplishment in preserving and restoring the historic landmarks 
 of California of which it is justly proud. Distinctively a California 
 organization, with one of its chief objects "to perpetuate in the 
 minds of all native Californians the memories of the days of '49," it 
 was particularly appropriate that Native Sons should assume the 
 leadership in this important work, ably assisted by the Order of 
 Native Daughters. 
 
 Nearly every epoch of California's romantic and picturesque 
 history is recalled by landmarks located throughout the State. We 
 are reminded, for instance, of the days of Spanish sovereignty when we 
 view the remaining Franciscan missions forming part of the chain of 
 twenty-one establishments which extended from San Diego in the far 
 south to Sonoma in the north. In the preservation of these most 
 unique landmarks in the entire west, monuments to California's original 
 pioneers, no organization has accompished more. 
 
 Sutter's Fort is a reminder of the trials and hardships of the 
 pioneers of '49 and earlier; the old custom house at Monterey has the 
 rare distinction of having floated from its flagstaff the Spanish, Mexican 
 and American flags. Colton hall represents the Transition period. 
 Within this old building there gathered in September and October, 1849, 
 that remarkable assemblage of early Californians who drafted the 
 Constitution under which California was admitted to statehood. These 
 and many other landmarks have been preserved, monuments erected 
 and tablets placed, through the untiring efforts of the Order of Native 
 Sons, at an expenditure of thousands of dollars. 
 
 Sutter's Fort. Twenty-eight years ago at the eleventh session of the 
 Grand Parlor, held at Fresno, a resolution was unanimously passed tak- 
 ing the initial steps that resulted in the preservation and restoration of 
 Sutter's fort. The sum of $20,000 was raised by the Order for the 
 
 184 
 
HISTORIC LANDMARKS 
 
 185 
 
 purchase of the land, covering two blocks, in the city of Sacramento. 
 The State Legislature of 1891 appropriated an additional $20,000 and 
 appointed a board of Sutler's fort trustees. To this board the Native 
 Sons of the Golden West transferred the property and the work of 
 
 restoring the establishment to its original 
 state was begun. On April 26, 1893, the 
 restored Sutler's fort was dedicated and the 
 Grand parlor, which convened at Sacra- 
 mento that year, attended the ceremonies 
 in a body, viewing with undisguised pleas- 
 ure the consummation of the work the 
 Order had started. Additional sums have 
 since been appropriated for the improve- 
 ment of the property. 
 
 Marshall's Monument. The discovery 
 
 of gold, it is universally acknowledged, 
 revolutionized conditions in California, 
 turning the steps of thousands westward. 
 The Order of Native Sons realized the fit- 
 ness of erecting a suitable monument to 
 the man who first discovered the yellow 
 metal in California and at the Grand Par- 
 lor held at Woodland in 1886, a resolution 
 was passed providing for the appointment 
 of a committee of five "to prepare a 
 memorial and present the same to the next 
 Legislature of this State asking that the 
 said Legislature make provisions for erect- 
 ing a suitable monument to the late Hon. 
 
 James W. Marshall." The committee ap- 
 Monument to Native Sons . y ... A , 
 
 of the Golden West, San P omted set to work wlth that ener ^ so 
 Francisco. characteristic of the Order and one year 
 
 later reported an appropriation by the Leg- 
 islature of $5,000 for the erection of a suitable monument and the 
 appointment of a committee for its erection. This monument to-day 
 stands upon an elevation back of Coloma in Eldorado county near the 
 spot where Marshall picked up from the tail race of Slitter's mill a 
 few yellow particles that marked the beginning of one of the most 
 important epochs in the history of California. 
 
 Custom House. In 1900, the attention of tha Grand Parlor was 
 called to the condition of the old Monterey custom house where 
 
 ^A. 
 
186 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 Commodore John Drake Sloat raised the American flag on July 7, 
 1846, when California passed from Mexican to American rule. A 
 lease was obtained by the Order of Native Sons from the United 
 States Government, which owned the property. Later an appropria- 
 tion of $4,200 was provided by the State Legislature for the preserva- 
 tion of the building, and the lease held by the Order of Native Sons 
 was transferred to a State commission. 
 
 Colton Hall. Among the many interesting landmarks in quaint 
 Monterey stands Colton hall, bearing the name of Rev. Walter Colton, 
 former chaplain of the L'nited States frigate Congress and later Al- 
 calde for the district of Monterey. As already mentioned, there as- 
 sembled in this building during September and October, 1849, a con- 
 stitutional convention which drafted California's first Constitution. 
 Among the members of this convention whose names are familiar in 
 the early history of California were General M. G. Vallejo, John A. 
 Sutter, Thomas O. Larkin, William M. Gwin, H. W. Halleck and 
 many others. At the Oroville session of the Grand Parlor in 1900 
 resolutions were passed pledging the co-operation of the Order in a 
 plan for the preservation of the property. At the legislative session 
 of 1903, the writer, then a member of the State Senate, secured the 
 passage of a bill providing for the appointment of a board of Colton 
 Hall trustees to accept from the city of Monterey a lease of the prop- 
 erty and making an appropriation of $1,500 for its protection. 
 
 So popular and important became the work of preserving Califor- 
 nia's rapidly disappearing landmarks that the Grand Parlor, which 
 convened in Santa Cruz in 1902, authorized the incoming grand presi- 
 dent to appoint a permanent committee of seven to be known as the 
 Historic Landmarks Committee, this committee to ascertain the condi- 
 tion of the remaining historic buildings of the State and endeavor to 
 devise some practical method for their restoration and preservation. 
 Such a committee was appointed. Funds are now provided from the 
 per capita tax for this important work. 
 
 Fort Gunnybng'S. Among the notable things accomplished under 
 the leadership of the Historic Landmarks Committee, ably assisted 
 by other organizations, was the erection of a memorial tablet marking 
 the site of old Fort Gunnybags, the headquarters of the San Fran- 
 cisco Vigilance Committee of 1856. The building upon which this was 
 erected was destroyed by the great fire of San Francisco, but, through 
 most fortunate circumstances, the tablet was preserved and on June 1, 
 
HISTORIC LANDMARKS 187 
 
 1918, was replaced, ,a new building having been erected on the old 
 site. 
 
 Franciscan Missions. The necessity of restoring the Franciscan 
 Missions has particularly appealed to the Order, and several years ago 
 a survey was made of all the remaining establishments, following 
 which survey the committee set to work to repair and safeguard those 
 most in need of attention. San Antonio de Padua in Monterey county 
 was in a deplorable state of ruin. The roof of the once imposing 
 chapel and the unprotected walls of adobe were year by year being 
 leveled. The beautiful arches were fast becoming ruined heaps. The 
 work of restoration began in 1903. Nearly $1,500 was expended. Un- 
 fortunately, the earthquake of 1906 shook down the rebuilt walls and 
 work had to be begun anew. The walls, however, were later rebuilt 
 and a new roof erected covering the entire chapel. A total of over 
 $5,000 was expended. 
 
 In 1911 the attention of the committee was called to the condition 
 of Santa Inez in Santa Barbara county. The picturesque bell tower 
 or wall facade containing the openings for the bells, the most attrac- 
 tive feature of this mission, was a complete ruin. It was rebuilt at a 
 cost of $900, which sum was furnished by the Landmarks Committee. 
 This belfry has been extensively copied throughout the State where 
 the mission style of architecture is followed. 
 
 Mission San Jose in Alameda county, through the efforts of the 
 Historic Landmarks Committee and a joint committee of Native Sons 
 and Native Daughters from the Parlors of Alameda county, has been 
 repaired. A new roof was erected and the entire weight removed 
 from the adobe walls. Tiles cover the new roof, replacing the disfig- 
 uring shingles. Nearly $5,000 has been expended on this work. 
 
 Commander Montgomery's Lauding Place. On September 
 8, 1915, a tablet was placed at the corner of Montgomery and Clay 
 streets, San Francisco, marking the landing place of Commander 
 John B. Montgomery. The inscription on the tablet briefly tells the 
 story. It reads as follows: 
 
 "On July 9, 1840, in the early morning, in 'the 
 days when the water came up to 3Iontgomery 
 street,' Commander John B. Montgomery, for whom 
 Montgomery street was named, landed near this 
 spot from the U. S. Sloop-of-War 'Portsmouth,' to 
 raise the Stars and Stripes on the Plaza, now Ports- 
 mouth Square, one block to the west.'' 
 
188 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 One of the last and most important duels ever fought in California 
 was between United States Senator David C. Broderick and Judge 
 David S. Terry, which took place on September 13, 1859, in the 
 county of San Mateo, just over the San Francisco county line. As 
 this "affair of honor" aroused a public sentiment that marked the 
 end of dueling in California, and, as the principals were prominent 
 Californians as well as national figures, it was deemed important that 
 the location be suitably marked. Largely through the efforts of Mr. 
 Hermann Schussler of San Francisco, the meeting place was definitely 
 located and a bronze tablet placed February 22, 1917, bearing the 
 following inscription: 
 
 "UNITED STATES SENATOR 
 DAVID C. BRODERICK 
 
 and 
 JUDGE DAVID S. TERRY 
 
 FOUGHT A DUEL, ON THIS GROUND IN THE 
 EARLY MORNING OF TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 
 13 1859. SENATOR BRODERICK RECEIVED A 
 WOUND FROM WHICH HE DIED THREE DAYS 
 LATER. THE AFFAIR MARKED THE END OF 
 DUELING IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Senator Broderick, Facing West, Occupied the Posi- 
 tion Marked by the Shaft Farthest to the South, 
 "While Judge Terry, Facing East, Stood in the Posi- 
 tion Designated by the Shaft in the Foreground. 
 
 Spectators Occupied this eminence. 
 
 Erected by Historic Landmarks Committee, 
 
 Native Sons of the Golden West, 1916." 
 
 Funds have been raised through the activity of the Donner Monu- 
 ment Committee, headed by Dr. C. W. Chapman, for an imposing 
 monument to the Donner party. With Native Sons taking the initia- 
 tive, an artistic and striking monument has been erected at Sonoma 
 commemorating that enthusiastic band of Americans known as the 
 Bear Flag Party. The establishment of the fellowships in Pacific 
 Coast history and the splendid work accomplished is familiar. Truly 
 the Order has a record of which it can be justly proud, fully meeting 
 the expectations of those patriotic Californians who, in 1876, founded 
 an order to perpetuate its memories of the days of forty-nine. 
 
HISTORIC LANDMARKS 189 
 
 NOTABLE LANDMARKS IN CALIFORNIA.* 
 
 Presidio Hill, San Diego, marked by a great cross, erected 1915, 
 by the Order of Panama, in memory of Fr. Junipero Serra and his 
 works. The first chapel was erected on Presidio Hill. The massive 
 commemorative cross is made of steel, concrete, and fragments of tiles 
 from the old buildings of the first mission settlement. 
 
 Gigantic Grapevine at San Gabriel, planted 1861. Called the 
 largest in the world. 
 
 Presidio of Santa Barbara, founded 1788. 
 
 Presidio of Monterey, founded 1770. 
 
 Presidio of San Francisco, founded 1776, not built until 1792. 
 
 Slitter's Fort, Sacramento, built by Captain John A. Sutter, 
 1841-1842, was the headquarters of American emigrants. The prop- 
 erty was acquired by the State of California, the present building 
 erected on the old site, now used as a museum. 
 
 Marshall Monument, Colma, Eldorado County ; a memorial 
 erected to James W. Marshall, an employe of Captain Sutter, recog- 
 nized discoverer of gold in California; erected by the State of Cali- 
 fornia, 1889. 
 
 Fort Ross, the only Russian settlement made within State of 
 California, 1806, 1811; at present a ruin. 
 
 For "Ross," a corruption of Little "Rossiya," or Russia. 
 
 Captain Sutter bought equipment of Fort Ross from Russia and 
 conveyed forty pieces of cannon, and flintlock muskets to Sutter's 
 Fort. 
 
 Casa Grande, the old adobe ranch house and home of General 
 Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, last military governor of California, in 
 Sonoma foothills, 1834-1844. 
 
 Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, the site where Captain John 
 B. Montgomery, commanding the U. S. sloop-of-war Portsmouth, 
 raised the American flag, on July 8, 1846, thereby taking possession 
 of San Francisco in the name of the United States. 
 
 * Acknowledgement is made to "California Missions and Land- 
 marks," by Mrs. A. S. C. Forbes. El Camino Real, Los Angeles, 
 California. 
 
190 PACIFIC HISTORY STORIES 
 
 The Prayer-book Cross, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, was 
 
 erected by George W. Childs of Philadelphia to commemorate the 
 
 first protestant religious service held by Chaplain Fletcher, of Drake's 
 
 command, in California, near Point Reyes, in 1578. 
 
 Sherman Rose Tree, Monterey ; a Gold of Ophir rose tree, relic 
 of a romance between General W. T. Sherman, when a lieutenant, 
 with troops at Monterey, and Senorita Bonifacio, the belle of Monterey. 
 
 Custom House at Monterey, Alvarado street. Commodore John 
 Drake Sloat, U. S. X., took possession of California for the United 
 States July 7, 1846, raising the American flag. 
 
 The Custom House has been used by the Spanish, the Mexican 
 and the American governments. 
 
 Restored through Xative Sons of the Golden West ; now used as 
 headquarters for local ... S. G. \V. and X. D. G. \Y. 
 
 Colton Hall, Monterey. First capital of California. California's 
 first constitutional convention met in Colton Hall September 1, 1849. 
 
 Old Theatre, Monterey, a picturesque old adobe, still standing on 
 Pacific avenue, Monterey, belongs to the State. 
 
 Sloat Momime lit, Monterey, a memorial erected to Rear-Admiral 
 John Drake Sloat, who took possession of California for U. S. July 
 7, 1846, crowns the commanding eminence of the Presidio Reservation. 
 
 Kr. Juiiinero Serra's Monument, Monterey, erected by Mrs. 
 Jane L. Stanford, on a hill overlooking the Bay of Monterey. 
 
 A cross marks the spot where Father Serra landed, and the tree 
 under which he held service. 
 
 This spot is now in the United States Presidio Reservation, 
 Monterey. 
 
 Kl Camiuo Heal, the King's Highway, the Royal Road, is the 
 Spanish name for the road that joined the twenty-one Missions, three 
 
 pueblos, and four presidios in the early days of California, from San 
 Diego to Sonoma. 
 
 The greater portion of El Camino Real has been incorporated in 
 the system of State Highways of California. With but few excep- 
 tions El Camino Real is Route Xo. 2 of the State Highway, through 
 the coast counties, a continuous road over seven hundred miles long. 
 Now marked by four hundred Mission Bell guide posts erected by 
 El Camino Real Association, and donated by various organizations 
 and individuals. 
 
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