OClA o CvJ >- r '^i V-Ts/s-/ The Spanish Press of California 1833^(844 THE SPANISH PRESS OF CALIFORNIA.* C2^ (1833-1844.) By Robert E.iCowAN. ~ ^_- ^ c7 Unlike the earlier colonies of Spain, California was one of the latest to establish the printing-press. Although . Ci /^ ^ dating back in Mexico to 1538, in Manila to 1590, and / / ' in Peru to about 1600, in California it is not known that )/\yi zl-^^ any printing was done until 1833, sixty-four years after / * its first colonization. This want of progress may be ref- erable to the fact that California was settled by the Fran- ciscan padres, whereas in the other colonies the Jesuit was usually the pioneer. The latter, deeply learned, versed in books, and a firm believer in the making of more, — such, at least, as were sanctioned by the Church, — apparently carried the press with him, for the interval from his arrival until the doctrine was issued in a printed form was very brief indeed. On the other hand, the Franciscan, equally zealous, it is true, but living a quiet, pastoral life, was content with the saving of heathen souls through his patient teachings, without considering it vital or necessary that his neophyte need even read at all. A more probable factor would be, that many of the Indians, particularly those of the southern part of the country, from their proximity to the numerous tribes along the Rio Colorado, where the missionaries then had been for many years, already spoke some Spanish. This, then, obviated the necessity of studying the native dialect, or the preparation of grammar or vocabulary, which was always one of the earliest duties of the Jesuit missionary. No linguistic works of any kind, other than those in the prevailing language, — Spanish, — were ever issued from the press in California during Spanish and Mexican rule. Furthermore, the Spanish Californian had no particular * Reprinted from the California Historic-Genealogical Society Publication III. \C,{^-i\(i The Spanish Press of California. 11 education, nor was he a writer, — that is, of other than his official documents, and these were, for the most part, circulated among the officials only. The ordinary indi- vidual lived on his rancho, if he had one, and if he was without one, the government stood ready at all times to make him a grant of land upon his application therefor. For himself, he need neither read nor write. All that was necessary was to find a suitable piece of unoccupied territory, present himself before the magistrate of the jurisdiction in which he lived, and state his request, whereupon the magistrate drew up a description of the piece of land desired, and a description of the individual himself, presented it to the governor, who presently con- firmed the requested grant. After this, if he were not an official of some sort, about all the owner ever did was to ride his horse, smoke his cigarrito, drink aguardiente, enjoy his siesta, and live as a gentleman generally. In the mean time, the Indians, aided by a fertile soil, kept his rancho under tillage, and his cattle numbered hun- dreds, sometimes thousands. He had neither time nor inclination to read, nor his family under him, and the few books that were to be found were invariably brought from Mexico. However reasonable or conjectural these surmises may be, it is quite certain that no printing was done in Cali- fornia until the year 1833, nor is there any reference thereto among the Archives. Early in January of that year, Jose Figueroa came from Mexico to Monterey, where he immediately assumed office as governor of Cali- fornia. He had caused to be brought with him a hand- press and a small quantity of type. The whole plant was a somewhat primitive affair, for the printing shows the type to have been very poor, and the earliest printing was done on what is technically termed a hand-press. Ban- croft states that this press was brought to establish an 12 The Spanish Press of California. office for the printing of cards and official circulars, and perhaps also as a novel curiosity. The very earliest specimen of printing executed in California does not mark any distinct epoch in the pro- gress of the art itself, for printing, to be at all legible, could not very well be worse. The type, from its appear- ance, would seem to have been some second-hand mate- rial gathered up in Mexico. The work of the unknown printer went quite well with the type, for he seems to have known little or nothing about his business. The devil in a modern shop is a skilled workman by com- parison, and he seems only to invite and encourage abuse. This document is printed on one side of a small sheet, six by seven inches in size, and the printed matter is nine lines only.* It is an official address by Governor Figueroa on his arrival in California, and is worded in the magnificent style so much beloved by the Spanish official, be his office what it may. As a specimen of ele- gant composition this proclamation is of some consider- able merit, but as a piece of printing it is unquestionably beneath contempt. The lines are set up unevenly, sev- eral letters have fallen out altogether, and the ink, spread lightly on one side, is daubed heavily on the other. How- ever, a collector would readily overlook these trifling de- ficiencies, and would be very apt even to enthuse over them. In this he would be justified thoroughly by one feature, for the specimen is one of a very limited edition. Who was the first printer of California is not definitely known. It has long been popularly supposed that Jose de la Rosa was, but for this there is no authority, beyond the statements of writers of newspaper and magazine articles. As already mentioned, the earliest printing executed in California bears the date of January IG, * Figueroa, Josi- (Governor of Californiii) : Atiuncia d los Californios su Uegada. Monterey : 16 dc Encro de 1833. The Spanish Press of California. 13 1833. From the most authentic accounts, we find that De la Rosa came to California with the Hijar and Padres Cosmopolitan Colonization Company, which did not arrive until August, 1834. The sole printed specimen of the press during the year 1833 does not bear the name of the printer, and has no imprint of any kind. In 1834, before the arrival of Jose de la Rosa, Agustin V. Zamo- rano began to operate his press, and all the specimens therefrom bear his name. The typ3 used by him differs from that used by the printer of 1833. The first printer, then, unless perhaps Zamorano, who was at that time in Monterey, must, for the want of definite proofs, remain fqr the present in obscurity. If an impossibility that he could have been the first, Jose de la Rosa was apparently the last printer in California, so far as the Spanish press is concerned. Agustin Vicente Zamorano, it is stated, came from Florida, his parents being Spanish. Concerning his early life, other than that he received a good education, nothing is known until 1821, when he entered the army as a cadet. He came to California with Governor Eche- andia in 1825, and for five years served him in the capa- city of secretary. In 1827 he married a daughter of San- tiago Argiiello, and continuing in the military service, he rose gradually till he attained the rank of " comandante of the north." Upon the arrival, in 1833, of Governor Figueroa, Zamorano, until 1835, served as his secretary, and in addition to his duties as captain of the presidio, conducted from 1834 to 1836 the government printing- office. After this date his name does not appear on any production of the press, and his further movements until 1842 are unknown, except that in this latter year he returned to California with Micheltorena, as lieutenant- colonel and inspector. He lived but a short time after his return, dying in August, 1842. His contemporaries 14 The Spanish Press of California. speak of him as a man of much ability, honor, and en- ergy. His conduct was exemplary, but he was ambitious, having been, in 1837, an unsuccessful aspirant for the governorship of California. The Citizen Santiago Aguilar, as his imprints read, was the next of the printers of California. Of his career in California not very much is known, and he did not figure very prominently in public life. That he must have been of intense democratic principles, is evidenced by the fact that in two of the proclamations printed by him, he indulges in the peculiarity of printing upside down the word "aristocrata." That this was quite inten- tional is clearly shown, for a period of several months elapsed between the publication of the two broadsides. He operated the press during the latter part of 1836 and in 1837. About the middle of the year 1837, for some reason not well known, the press was removed to Sonoma, where it was directly under the supervision of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Who the printer was does not appear, but during his lifetime the General frequently stated that he sometimes did the press-work himself. Jose de la Rosa, the last of his calling in California, was born in Puebla, Mexico, January 5, 1790. His was a curious career. He was engaged in many vocations, having been a tailor, watchmaker, printer, bookbinder, and editor. He had been educated, also, for the priest- hood, but never had been ordained. As before men- tioned, he came to California in 1834, and bore a com- mission from Santa Ana, authorizing him to do the gov- ernmental and ecclesiastical printing. He started his office in Monterey, and did all of the work himself. The date of the establishment of his press is not known, and his name does not seem to have appeared on any produc- tion before 1844. In later life he lived in the city of San The Spanish Press of California. 15 Buenaventura, where he was a well-known character. Not the least remarkable feature of his strangely check- ered life was the great age he attained, for he died as recently as 1892, having reached the extraordinary age of 102 years. A celebration of his one-hundredth birth- day, given him by the residents, among whom he had lived many years, shows the esteem and respect in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. Some years before, he had written his recollections, and intrusted them to a friend for publication, but the friend lost them, and they were neither found nor ever rewritten, — one more link of the many in the history of California dropped for- ever. The productions of these various presses were for the greater part proclamations printed in broadside form, — that is, generally on one side of a single sheet, varying in size from sheets eight by twelve inches to eighteen by twenty-four. Nearly all were official in character. The few exceptions were such 23ublications as the notice issued by Zamorano concerning the opening of his printing- office and appending his scale of prices; an invitation to the ball given by Governor Figueroa in 1834; and a poeti- cal effusion of a moral and religious nature, — a somewhat indifferent composition, — issued by Vallejo at Sonoma. The official documents, in character and contents, were, generally speaking, in that diction peculiar to the Spanish official of that and all other periods. Nearly all are worded in the most grandiloquent manner. Whether the proclamation be of two sheets or only half a dozen lines, they are all one; for each contains sentiments of the loftiest patriotism, the most flowery rhetoric, mingled with the most magnanimous offers and promises of un- paralleled generosity. Truly, the political complexion of California has remained unchanged.* ♦Bancroft: History of California, iii. 16 The Spanish Press of California. A sample or two is appended. I quote from General Vallejo, announcing to the citizens his platform upon being created comandante: — '■^ Felloiu-Citizens: The sovereign legislative assembly of the free state of Alta California calls me to its aid, and I obey its supreme determination, putting myself at the head of the brave men who surround me, and accepting the Comandancia General for the public welfare, whose slave alone I am. Yes, fellow-citizens, I swear to you before God, I would promise to secure your happiness, if, as my soul abounds in love for the country, my knowl- edge were sufficient to second my good intentions and the purity of my desires. Yet I will strive to that end, and I will succeed in showing that I am a citizen who loves the liberty of a country so often outraged with impunity. If I succeed, my reward will be the Avellbeing of the sovereign people to whom I have the honor to belong: but if it may not be so, my fitting recompense will be a cold stone, which, confounding me among insen- sible things, shall proclaim, Here lies a Calif ornian who yielded to Death, rather than to Tyranny." * One more extract, from one of the proclamations of Governor Micheltorena: — ^'■Fellow-Citizens: The calamitous scourge of intestine wars, which fortunately had fixed itself out of this De- partment some years since, was to visit with its destroy- ing contagion, developing itself in a political movement, which happened in the vicinity of this capital on the 15tli ultimo: the arms which the Supreme Government has confided to my care to resolutely preserve order, would have been employed with energy to stifle this event in its cradle — leaving in tears and mourning a great many families, if ... I had not given to the voice of reason * Bancroft: History of California, lii. The Spanish Press of California. 17 and humanity a preferable hearing than to the horrible booming of the cannon. Yes, fellow-citizens, ... I flew to the front of those who led the movement, — not as their tyrant, but as the best of their friends, and as the pilot who only aspires to save the ship from the storm, even without regard to personal danger. . . . This frank conduct will always be the north star of my procedure, and the gentle character which with pleasure I see adorns the Californians has had the result of causing the alarmed citizens to retire to the circle of their families, leaving to the Government of the Department the time to occupy itself in procuring the happiness and welfare of its people, and to prove that he who has the satisfaction of presiding over them, among all the classes and profes- sions of those that compose the same, is the most sincere and enthusiastic of their friends." * This reads not unlike political documents of the pres- ent day, more especially those known as campaign docu- ments. This patriotic outburst on the part of Governor Micheltorena was without the desired effect, however, for early in 1845 the enraged citizens expelled him from California, in the annals of which he is known no further. This, also, was the last printed document issued from the Spanish press. The entire number of the printed broadsides, procla- mations, orders, etc., issued from the press during the dozen years of its existence was not large, for the different specimens altogether are barely over fifty. Of the indi- vidual number of each printed there are no data, but it could not have been over one hundred, and in many cases doubtless was considerably less. Of the copies that are extant, specimens of nearly all are in the Bancroft * Micheltorena, Manuel. Conciudadanos : El calainitosa azote de las guerras, etc. Monterey: Die. 16, 1844. Impr. del Gob. fi, cargo de Ciud. Josd de la Rosa. Broadside, iolio. In V. Dept., State Papers, 610. 18 The Spanish Press of California. library and in the United States surveyor-general's of- fice at San Francisco. A few are in the State Univer- sity, and a very few are in private hands, but, generally, they are unknown. The books printed on this press are much less numer- ous. In his Essays and Miscellany, Mr. Bancroft states conclusively that they are only seven in number. For this statement he has based his authority, no doubt, upon the fact that for a quarter of a century he had been en- gaged in gathering up his historical material, and after so long a time and so extensive research, he concluded, per- haps, and not without good reasons, that no more were to be found. However this may be, the writer of this present article had in his possession, until recently, four books printed in Monterey between the years 1836 and 1843, the very existence of which Mr. Bancroft knew nothing, and three of which are not known to exist else- where, being possibly unique. However, to avoid further error, we will only assume that the chances of finding duplicates are rather remote. This, then, at the present time, would make the number of volumes eleven in all, eight of which were printed in Monterey, anl the re- maining three in Sonoma. The first book to be printed in California was the Reglamento Provisional, or Provis- ional Rules for the Government of Upper California, issued by Governor Figueroa, and printed on the press of Zamorano at Monterey, under the date of 1834. It is a small affair, 4i by 5^ inches in size, and consists of title and sixteen pages. The most pretentious work is the Manifiesto of Figueroa to the Mexican Republic. This bears the date of 1835, also from the press of Zamorano, and is a 12mo of 184 pages. The presswork is about the best of the lot, but even the best is of a somewhat low grade of excellence. Of these eleven little books, four are of a political or military nature, one is a medical The Spanish Press of California. 19 work, and six are school books. Four of the latter bear no imprint, other than Monterey and the date. The school books are small, and it would be difficult to find elsewhere more wretched specimens of printing than some of them. One of them, issued at Monterey, in 1843, by an unknown printer, consists of title and 67 pages, and is four by six inches in size. It is the worst of the lot. The type is battered and broken, letters and syllables in some places have dropped out, and it is discouraging to find, at the end, three solid pages of corrections. The most unfortunate feature is that this pamphlet bears the title Compendio de la Gramdtica* This grammar was pre- pared and printed presumably for the same purpose as that expressed on the title of another of these small books: "For the use of those who aspire to learn" (the lan- guage).! The road to knowledge is not royal, it is true, but its course might be more smooth than through this book. It has been seen that the total output of the press in the eleven years of its existence was, in books and broad- sides, about sixty in number. The press, however, was by no means as idle as might be supposed. The Spanish officials had a most extraordinary fondness for writing, and all official documents were drafted on what was termed sealed paper, or stamped paper which bore the printed heading of the office, whether that of governor, justice, or otherwise. Between the surveyor-general's office and the Bancroft library, there are many thou- sands of these documents with the printed headings; so the press was kept reasonably busy, — perhaps, judging * Compendia de la Gramdtica. Monterey: 1843. pp. 67 (3), including title. (Cowan.) t Tablas para los Ninos que Empiezan d Contar. Monterey: 1836. Imprenta de A. v. Zamorano. Border around title. Ten unnumbered leaves, of which the last is blank on the reverse. Size, 2^ by 3% inches. (Only copy known, until recently in the possession of the writer, is now in the library of A. S. MacDonald, Esq., of Oakland, California.) 20 The Spanish Press of California. from the appearance of a deal of the work, the ofhee was, at times, even "rushed." With the overthrow of Governor Micheltorena the work of the Spanish press came to an end. It had been popu- lar during his administration, for Micheltorena was a notoriously lazy man, who did but little writing, and when he did, he invariably abbreviated his surname, and his rubric, which was one of the dearest possessions of the Spanish official, was, in his case, merely a double pen-scratch without ornament or character. Pio Pico, who succeeded Micheltorena as governor early in 1845, had no need of a printer. He was a writer, and his secretary, Olvera, was a scribe of most prodigious powers. There is no better evidence of this than a proc- lamation issued by Governor Pico, which was formerly in the possession of the writer of this article, and now preserved in the State University at Berkeley. It is en- tirely in MS., being a foot and a half wide and about five feet in length. There appears to be nothing in the Archives relative to the abolishment of the printing-office; but in the presence of such colossal work as that MS. proclamation, Jose de la Rosa, the last of his craft under Spanish rule, could foresee that his services were to be in demand no longer, so, after closing his printing-office early in 1845, he retired to pursue quietly one of his numerous professions, and thus ended the last chapter of the history of the Spanish press in California. I II-: !rY*^A'i'tV* i \7fH-x ^r-rnJ'.tt : /: ■ •» r -v.'- S« ' '-• :fJ^i 'r-y-'.^i^.'. ■^yArY-:-^ . :^' \f'>-^v\-i^i 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 25Nov'58CSf Rf^CD L-D JUW 30 iab9 ^RPl3 t96T B^' RECEIVE::) m ^'67 -4 PM LOAN pcrr -':WWJ' W^m, FEBlC7r LD 21A-50m-9,'58 (6889sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley ' »♦->.■'' <• V 1.7 i'.