Tirey Lafayette Ford

“ Rich in historic memory, unmoved by the feverish activities of a commercial age, Monterey has been slow to depart from the pleasant paths along which she has found such happiness and delight. Down through the centuries she has marched with dignity and grace, ever cultivating and practicing those ceremonial courtesies that have left an indelible impress upon her daily life.
The visitor to this old historic town will find no towering skyscrapers nor throbbing centers of commerce, but he will find a business center with clean and well paved streets and modern and well conducted shops. ”

“ Francisco Serra, President de Croix, Viceroy, of the California and Junipero Missions: Galvez, honest, masterful and bluff; Croix, honest, discerning and diplomatic; Serra, a seraphic spirit, a later Salvitierra, a New World Francis of Assissi; post-medizval, yet not belated for his task; beholder of visions, believer in miracles, merciless wielder of the penitential scourge; yet through simple purity of heart, possessed of courage not unequal to labor the most arduous, and of a wisdom not unequal to situations the most perplexing. ”

“ Just outside Monterey’s eastern gate is the world renowned Del Monte and the equally famous Del Monte grounds, where the world’s pleasure seekers gather throughout the year, and where one may wander amid the beauties of garden and grove. Here, in a natural park of unusual beauty, for whose adornment a world-wide arboreal and horticultural tribute was levied, the genius of man and a bountiful nature have conspired to produce a veritable fairyland. ”

“ Generous, forbearing people of Monterey! There is more true hospitality in one throb of your heart than circulates for years through the courts of capitols and kings!” The kindness and charity of these people are thus pictured in an entry of December 7, 1847:
“Their hospital-
ity knows no bounds. They are always glad to see you, come when you may; take a pleasure in entertaining you while you remain; and only regret that your business calls you away. If you are sick, there is nothing that sympathy and care can devise or perform which is not done for you. ”

“ Almost the only means of vehicular
cards were
traffic of that time in California,
sometimes
driven
two hundred
these ox-miles to market. Trees and cattle cost next to nothing, had no special value. Thus ran the days away in that land of springtime, when industry and romance walked together, and pastoral pursuits yielded to merry-making. How difficult it is with mere present a faithful likeness of that uniquely time in a far away land. ”

“ Through this forest wound those olden trails over which the padres led the ceremonial processions—past rustic stations of the cross—from the provincial capital of Monterey to the Mother Mission of Carmel. Few are the changes that have been wrought in these wooded heights, save for winding roads and bridle paths that lead through their shadowy depths. Deer and elk find there a safe haven, while an occasional fox or coyote is surprised by the passing horseman or the sightseeing motorist. ”

“ Down through the centuries, historians have recorded great loves, and painter and poet have immortalized them. But for sweetness and purity, and for steadfastness of woman’s devotion, no more beautiful story was ever told than that unfolded by this tender romance of Spanish California.
Nikolai Petrovich de Rezanov was a Russian nobleman, tall, handsome and blond. ”

“ SPANISH MONTEREY
FOR centuries, nature had been fashioning the Monterey peninsula into a fitting habitation for the beauty loving people who would be led by their heart’s desire to wander into this nae of dreams. ”

“ Another charming custom was the making of satin shoes by the groom for the bride. A few weeks before the wedding, he obtained the needed measurements, and made the slippers with his own hands. The groomsman presented them to her the night before the wedding.
The festival spirit—so possible in California, where all nature lends itself to every form of outdoor amuscment—was the particular heritage of Spanish Monterey. Their joyous temperament led the people to seek amusements in the open in the form of fiestas, picnics, rodeos, barbecues, horse racing and dancing. ”

“ Absolutely unconfined socially and politically, or as nearly so as it were possible for poor, erring humanity to be, who cannot escape a master of some sort, or who make any pretentions to government, religion or social ethics; masters of all their eyes surveyed, the beautiful earth and its fruits as free as the sweet air and sunshine, lands unlimited, cattle on a thousand hills, with ready-made servants to tend them ”

“ Westward these small craft sailed to circle the globe, cross the Atlantic, and find India; a daring and adventurous voyage based on these wonderful stories of Marco Polo, and the cosmographic theories of Columbus. And strangely enough, Columbus found land just as he expected he would, almost to a day of the time he reckoned, on October 12, 1492; and there wasn’t the slightest doubt in his mind but that it was the very land he was looking for. It wasn’t—not by one vast continent and one mighty ocean. San Salvador he named this island—and he knew very shortly that it was an island. ”

“ A glimpse at the chivalrous standards and social ethics of these early Californians may be had through an entry of July 28, 1846, just three weeks after Commodore Sloat raised the American flag over the Custom House at Monterey. Says Colton, “Though a quasi war exists, all the amenities and courtesies of life are preserved. Your person, life and liberty are as sacred at the hearth of the Californian as they would be at your own fireside. He will never betray you; the rights of hospitality, in his generous judgment, require him to peril his own life in defense of yours. ”

“ Avenues of almost endless variety lead off through the circling steeps, and winding through long, shadowy ravines, lose themselves in the vine-clad recesses of the distant hills. It is no wonder California centered her taste, pride and wealth here. ”

“ Its dwellers have increased in number; outdoor pleasures have multiplied; and this perennial playground of the Don has taken on new life and color. But the spirit of the Don still abides, and old Spain lingers on. ”

“ The change to AngloSaxon rule had been sudden and complete; the gold rush in 1849 and 1850 had brought thousands of adventurers, whose sole aim was the acquirement of sudden wealth; and in those first mad years, love for California, which grows in the heart of everyone who comes within the alluring embrace of her magic charm, had to yield to the lure of gold. Joaquin Murietta was born in Mexico, in the State of Sonora, in 1832. ”

“ With American occupation in 1846 and the discovery of gold in 1848, the center of historic significance shifted to San Francisco, but the romantic days of Spanish chivalry moved on in happy sequence at Monterey, and the joyous spirit of that elder time still finds its full expression on the Monterey Peninsula. ”

“ THE lure of the Monterey peninsula has brought within its circle of enchantment a strange mosaic of diverse communities. The common and dominant note of satisfied content runs through them all, but the means employed by each community in the pursuit of its ideal is peculiarly and strikingly divergent. ”

“ Moved by these combined considerations, and acting
under an imperial order from Spain, the Viceroy of Mexico fitted out an expedition to sail up the California coast in search of the Strait of Anian, to find a harbor of
refuge for returning galleons, and to search out a point suitable for settlement and colonization. This expedition consisted of two hundred picked men under the command
of Sebastian Vizcaino, a man of rather superior
native ability, who had risen in a few years from a humble pearl fisher to a bold and successful navigator. ”

“ One of the men in the party claimed ownership, and they took the young Mexican to the ranch where the half-brother lived, hung the half-brother to a tree, and,
tying Murietta to the same tree, flogged him severely. The horse had probably been stolen, but whatever may
have been the truth in that regard, Murietta was innocent even of a guilty knowledge of the offense. Suffering from the physical torture of the undeserved flogging, and smarting under the humiliations to which he and Rosita had been subjected, Murietta swore an oath of vengeance, and declared war on the gringo. ”

“ All these international longings and rivalries were, of course, brought to an end by the war between the United States and Mexico, and the resulting treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Again may the fatalist declare that California was destined to become American.
The social and industrial changes were slowly wrought. Cattle raising continued the principal industry, and hides and tallow the only exports. Love-making and merry-making went happily on without apparent abatement or diminution. Hospitality knew no lessening, and the horse remained supreme in the field of passenger transportation. ”

“ Isolated from the rest of the world, these happy adventurers of Spanish descent and their rapidly increasing progeny, under a genial sky, and amid surroundings the most delightful that nature had ever prepared for man, recked little of the world beyond their imperial and fruitful domain. This was the Spanish period— Mexican independence came in 1821—and California was, politically,a Spanish colony. ”

“ In one, religion holds the key that unlocks the door of happiness, and discloses the quiet abode of puritan serenity. In another, literature and art, led by the spirit of Bohemia, invite to intellectual joy and informal merriment. In yet another, a vast playground out-of-doors entices the pleasure seeke to its alluring and perennial charms. ”

“ But at the time, Columbus was probably inspired more by desire for wealth and position than by any urge to advance civilization. He became thoroughly convinced that his that his idea was reasonable and feasible, and he set at work to find the financial backing needed for his adventurous plans, a difficult job, for the monied men of that day were no swifter in loosening pursestrings for visionary schemes than they are now. ”

“ Cattle raising was the big industry. To quote Robert Glass Cleland, “The natural conditions of California were so thoroughly congenial to cattle raising that the development of the industry was unbelievably rapid. Before the close of the century—that is before 1800—the hills and valleys from San Diego northward to the farthest point of Spanish occupation were covered with the offspring of the few hundred animals driven overland from Mexico by the early colonizing expeditions.” ”

“ The Governors sent out from Mexico appeared to enjoy the new and altogther novel surroundings. Governor Borica, appointed in 1794, in one of his letters said, “This is a great country, neither hot nor cold. To live long and without care, one must come to Monterey.”
Nor was the governing of California in those days a difficult task. The white population, small in number, peaceable and law abiding, were permitted to pursue their individual and community pleasures with a minimum of restraint; and the extraordinary work of the Missions made easy the control of the more numerous natives. ”

“ Sanchez, still lives at Monterey. The Monterey peninsula has ever been, and probably will ever be a playground. Stock raising has been driven into the near-by mountains, whence radiates something of the old pastoral charm of equestrian days. The numerous fishing fleet of small boats that daily rides at anchor in the Monterey harbor adds a peculiar and pleasing picturesqueness to the town. There is no other industry on the peninsula of sufficient importance to merit special attention. The call of the Monterey peninsula was never industrial. ”

“ Though manufacturing and banking were unknown, and agriculture received scant attention,
stock raising, the principal industry of the day, grew to remarkable proportions. Cattle, horses and sheep, in limited numbers, had been driven from Mexico over the Anza trail during the few years that perilous and hazardous trail remained open. These, especially the cattle, had multiplied with astonishing rapidity. The horses were of Andalusian strain, and in their new environment, developed unusual speed and endurance. The sheep were of less importance, though they grew to considerable numbers. ”

“ A round world was all that was necessary to his plan. He had studied with painstaking care the account given by Marco Polo of his journey to and from the Far East. It is known that Columbus possessed a printed copy of the Latin version of Polo’s book made by Pipino, and that on more than seventy pages of this book, there were notes in the handwriting of Columbus.
Columbus was a great cosmographer and an experienced navigator. He believed the world was round, and that the ocean Polo saw, looking eastward from India, was the Atlantic. ”

“ THE environment in which these early Californians lived was in perfect harmony with their pleasure loving and carefree spirit. A joyous lot, they loved the outdoors, and lived on horseback. The world never before saw, and has never since seen, such skillful and dashing horsemen. ”