Lower California

“ The great influx of emigrants to Upper California has brought the subject of the settlement of the peninsula into consideration. There is but little doubt that Lower California will, sooner or later, become the property of the United States, and then its settlement and progress will be rapid. The coast upon the gulf affords many excellent harbors, and the mountainous region of the interior gives abundant evidence of mineral wealth, as far as it has been explored. ”

“ The country lying between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean, and bounded at the north, though somewhat indefinitely, by the Oregon Territory, and at the South by the Lower California, confined by the late treaty of the two neighboring Republics to the line three miles south of San Diego, is known as Upper California, a country now engrossing the attention of the civilized world with its future importance. ”

“ Lucas is the great headland of the Pacific Ocean, and is destined to be the Gibraltar and entrepot of that coast, or perhaps La Paz may be preferred, on account of its superior harbour. As a possession to any foreign power, I think Lower California more valuable than the group of the Sandwich Islands. It has as many arable acres as that group of islands, with rich mines, pearl-fishing, fine bays and harbours, with equal health, and all their productions. ”

“ Owing to its desert character the peninsula is very thinly peopled, and there are extensive sections where not a single inhabitant will be found. The most populous section is that south of La Paz, where the rains are more regular. A few small towns or villages will be found scattered around the coast, with a limited number of prospectors and miners gathered in the interior. The effort to colonize Lower California has been a tale of unbroken failure for more than fifty years. A few rainy years will cause apparent prosperity, but the [437] succeeding years may be rainless and disaster follows. ”

“ Thou dost not ask of the races, O thou indifferent one! What is the trouble, my Ysabel? Will no one bring the pearls? The loveliest girl in all the Californias has said, 'I will wed no man who does not bring me a lapful of pearls,' and no one has filled the front of that pretty flowered gown. But have reason, niña. Remember that our Alta California has no pearls on its shores, and that even the pearl fisheries of the terrible lower country are almost worn out. Will nothing less content thee? ”

“ And whenever a railroad corporation shall, for the purpose of competing with any other common carrier, lower its rates for transportation of passengers or freight from one point to another, such reduced rates shall not be again raised or increased from such a standard without the consent of the governmental authority in which shall be vested the power to regulate fares and freights. ”

“ The Indians were early converted to Christianity, gradually weaned from their nomadic and barbaric state, and induced to lead a settled life. They were taught farming and other civilized pursuits and became in time a peaceful and industrious people. The Spanish Government, which intended eventually to turn the mission estates into administrative districts, never acknowledged the title of the priests to the land, and in 1777 began the founding of pueblos or towns. Upper California was divided into the four provinces of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. ”

“ The press of the nation took up the story, and the people of the United States were taught to look upon California as a land of infinite promise, abounding in agricultural and commercial possibilities, full of game, rich in timber, possessed of perfect climate, and feebly held by an effeminate people quite lacking in enterprise and disorganized among themselves. ”

“ The remains of a vast number of villages in all the valleys of the Sierra Nevada, and among the foot-hills of that range of mountains, show that at no distant day there must have been a numerous population, where there is not now an Indian to be seen. There are a few still retained in the service of the old Californians, but these do not amount to more than a few thousand in the whole territory. ”

“ Making your way through the mazes of the Coast Range to the summit of any of the inner peaks or passes opposite San Francisco, in the clear springtime, the grandest and most telling of all California landscapes is outspread before you. At your feet lies the great Central Valley glowing golden in the sunshine, extending north and south farther than the eye can reach, one smooth, flowery, lake-like bed of fertile soil. ”

“ This flourishing city stands, in fact, with its half million or more human beings and its metropolitan activities, at the threshold of a new era. The operations of Nature change so slowly as to show almost no change at all: the Southern California of the 651 coming years will still possess her green hills and vales, her life-giving soil, her fruits, flowers and grain, and the same sun will shine upon her with the same generous warmth, out of the same blue sky, as ever. ”

“ Instead of returning, as the most of the gold-seekers intended to do on leaving their homes, they found California a delightful climate, with rich and fertile valleys, and many, very many of them concluded, after having a year's experience in the country, to become citizens, and a little later in the fifties, there were a great many people in the Western States who sold their homes and started with their families for the golden shores of the Pacific—in other words, for California—in view of adopting that State for their future homes. ”

“ The Californians like most other Mexican Spaniards, are a lazy, indolent and cowardly people, and have neither enterprise nor spirit of improvement in their disposition, they are only a grade above the aborigines, and like them they will soon be compelled from the very nature of things, to yield to the swelling tide of Anglo-Saxon adventure. Almost every thing which the Californians possess, is of the rudest and simplest construction. ”

“ Of all that mighty host, not more than one in a hundred remains in California to-day. In neglected graves, in the red earth of the Sierra, in the shadow of the cross of Calvary, under the laurel and willows of Lone Mountain, in the great depths of the sea, in the trenches of innumerable battlefields, in far-off Australia or Southern Africa, in Alaska, in Arizona, in Mexico, in Nicaragua, they sleep their last sleep. ”

“ The glamour of the gold excitement passed away with the first fifteen years of marvelous growth, and California was simply a new State, with, for a new State, a large class of wealthy men with the habits of men of business everywhere. ”

“ The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an intense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been: the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And live like hunted beasts. I like the valley; the sun in winter, the cool mountains in summer. If I am victor to-morrow, all the Indians in California will call me chief. They will run here from every Mission and hacienda, and from every hill and mountain, like little ones to their good father; and we will drive the priests out of the country, and make the hidalgos, the caballeros, the soft silk-dressed donas our friends or our slaves—as they wish. California belongs to us. The Great Spirit put us here, not the white man. ”

“ To what such commercial facilities, mineral and metallic resources, and an active and progressive population will conduct California, it is easy to imagine. They will build up a State, which, although the member of a confederacy, will be powerful enough to maintain itself, independent of the aid to be derived from the Union. Its ports will be the resort of the vessels of all nations, and its valleys and hill-sides will become the homes of an agricultural population, reaping the rich reward of their toil. ”

“ With such a climate and soil, to say nothing of its enormous mineral wealth, ‘it is bound,’ to use the local word, to leave New York, and Pennsylvania, and all the old leading States of the Union far behind, and, indeed, every other part of the world, whether new or old.
California compared with Italy.
One cannot become acquainted with half-a-dozen Californians without seeing that man himself has been improved in this wonder-working region—the [Pg 55] finest, not only that the Anglo-Saxon race, but that any race of man has ever inhabited. ”

“ The quantity of arable land in California, I believe, is much greater than has generally been supposed from the accounts of the country given by travellers who have visited only the parts on the Pacific, and some few of the missions. Most of the mountain valleys between the Sierra Nevada and the coast are exuberantly fertile, and finely watered, and will produce crops of all kinds, while the hills are covered with oats and grass of the most nutritious qualities, for the sustenance of cattle, horses, and hogs. ”

“ To know the glory of California scenery, one must live close to it through the changing years. From Siskiyou to San Diego, from Alturas to Tia Juana, from Mendocino to Mariposa, from Tahoe to the Farallones, lake, crag, or chasm, forest, mountain, valley, or island, river, bay, or jutting headland, every one bears the stamp of its own peculiar beauty, a singular blending of richness, wildness and warmth. ”

“ For, following the several spasms of development incident to the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and their successors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the opening of a new century all California awoke and made such progress as was never made before. ”

“ Indeed, it seems to be a settled opinion, that California is henceforth to compose a part of the United States, and every American who is now here considers himself as treading upon his own soil, as much as if he were in one of the old thirteen revolutionary states. ”

“ Placed by the side of Mount Shasta, or the high peaks of the Sierra, Mount Diablo would sink into insignificance, but standing alone in solitary grandeur, he is monarch of the land. No other mountain peak in America, perhaps in the world, commands a view of such wide extent of country and so wonderful and varied scenery; and he who has not ascended to its summit, certainly has not seen and can form no clear idea of California. ”

“ When that great resource is located and developed I shall publish in every American newspaper the extraordinary agricultural advantages of the country. In a word, my object is to make California a great State and its name synonymous with my own. As I told you before, for fame as fame I care nothing; I do not care if I am forgotten on my death-bed; but with my blood biting my veins I must have action while living. Shall I say that I have a worthier motive in wishing to aid in the development of civilization? ”

“ California has become a centre of attraction for population, wealth and trade. The grand auriferous region which has thus far been examined and partially drained of its deposits, is between four and five hundred miles long, and from forty to fifty broad, following the windings of the Sierra Nevada. ”

“ Even the hopeless stretches of alkali and sand, sinks of lost streams, in the southeastern counties, are redeemed by the delectable mountains that on all sides shut them in. Everywhere the landscape swims in crystalline ether, while over all broods the warm California sun. ”

“ What will be the future California is a question which admits of a ready answer. If she retains her present boundaries, with her extensive sea coast, and her progress bears any proportion to that since the conquest, in fifty years—it is a warranted conclusion—the State will surpass any of those upon the Atlantic coast. For, what State has such united commercial facilities and vast resources? Where are such internal wealth and such splendid harbors to be found united? It is probable, however, that the State may be divided, after the population has reached a sufficient number. ”

“ The native Californians form a goodly proportion of the gold-seekers. Many of the men are accompanied by their wives, who are attended by Indian girls. The graceful Spanish costume of the Californians adds quite a feature to the busy scene at the mines. ”

“ In the intervals scatter colonies of vine and orange growers, the numbers and dimensions of which are rapidly increasing.
The mountain barrier across the State is deemed by some to be of such importance that it should be a political as well as a natural division. They call for the construction of a distinct new State, to be called South California, its capital at Los Angeles. ”

“ To the east of California is a republic destined to a colossal future, because it is founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and its national life rises toward a realization of that truth. ”