San Francisco / Yerba Buena
Contents Key to the Cover Illustration Maps and Illustrations Introduction Miguel Costanso, 1769 Manuel de Ayala, 1775 Pedro Font, 1776 George Vancouver, 1792 Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, 1806 Otto von Kotzebue, 1816 Camille de Roquefeuil, 1817 Otto von Kotzebue, 1824 Frederick William Beechey, 1826 Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly, 1827 William Antonio Richardson, 1835 Jean Jacques Vioget, 1839 William D. Phelps, 1841 Sir George Simpson, 1841 Edward Cleveland Kemble, 1846 A Walk through Yerba Buena, 1847 The Progress of Yerba Buena/San Francisco, 1847 California in September 1849 Scenes in California in 1849 Recollections and Requiem Index
Maps and Illustrations
Map of the West Coast of California and Baja
California, 1771
The Portola Expedition discovers San Francisco Bay, 1769
Map of the San Francisco Bay region, 1772
Plan of the Port of San Francisco, 1776
Plan of the Great Port of San Francisco, 1781
The San Carlos sails through the Golden Gate, 1775
Map of Anza's route, Monterey to San Francisco Bay, 1776
Excerpts from the diary of Pedro Font, 1776
Map of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, 1776
Sketch of the East Bay shore, 1776
Plan of the Port of San Francisco, 1779
Entrance of the Port of San Francisco, 1792
Plan of the Port of San Francisco, 1789
View of the San Francisco Presidio, 1806
View of the San Francisco Presidio, 1816
Dance of the Indians at the Mission of San Francisco, 1816
Diagram of the Presidio of San Francisco, 1820
Detail of the Presidio diagram, 1820
Entrance of San Francisco Harbour, 1826
Chart of San Francisco Harbour, 1826
The Mission of San Francisco, 1826
Entrance to the Golden Gate
Looking out through the Golden Gate
Plan of Yerba Buena, 1835
Plan of Yerba Buena, 1839
Yerba Buena in the spring of 1837
Vioget's Plan of Yerba Buena, 1839
A Map of the Town of San Francisco, 1847
San Francisco, Upper California, in 1847
Map for “An Hour's Walk through Yerba Buena,” 1847
The Original and Authentic Plan of San Francisco, 1847
View of the Port of San Francisco, 1849
Custom House on the Plaza
San Francisco in 1849, from the head of Clay Street
Preface
It is my intention in this book to relate a
concise history of San Francisco Bay and of the village of Yerba Buena, which would become
San Francisco—from the discovery of the bay in 1769 to the Gold Rush in 1849. The
history of this era has been told many times, often in exhaustive detail, especially
concerning the political and religious struggles that consumed the energies of the Spanish
and Mexicans in the pre-American period. I have deliberately compiled a record of a
different sort, one that portrays, in words, maps, and illustrations, the impressions,
attitudes, and geographical knowledge of the observers of the farthest reaches of New
Spain, Mexico, and the onset of the American dominion, as they perceived it over a stretch
of eighty years.
It is told as much as possible in the words of the explorers, visitors, and early inhabitants. These excerpts are taken mainly from their published works, but also—in the Yerba Buena period—from newspapers and reminiscent accounts. Most of the unwitting contributors to this volume were selected not only for their words, but also because most of them created maps and illustrations of the bay; and, later, produced the first surveys of the town of Yerba Buena and the city of San Francisco.
Introduction
We are constantly told that we are living in a
revolutionary age, and that this is a unique period in our history—and we do not
doubt the ferocious evidence of unceasing rapid change nor deny our personal reactions to
the daily stimuli. Yet at various times in our national existence our political,
religious, and social leaders have claimed that those times were
a revolutionary age—and what a wondrous thing it was! Progress means
change—change is progress—always and forever a cause for celebration.
Each generation since the founding of the Republic has asserted that it is at the forefront of modernity, innovation, and limitless improvement. Built into that assertion is the notion that no generation before it has ever experienced such radical change, such drastic upheaval, such shattering of mores. And how proud each generation is at having transcended the pedestrian ways of its forefathers, and having surpassed the trivial and mawkish advancements of which they were so proud.
The acceleration of history is not a recent phenomenon. Wars, revolutions, and mass migrations have occurred throughout human history, and doubtless those alive at the time felt overwhelmed by the shock of events and the rapidity of change. But the speed of change—or progress, if such it be—is not constant. There have been times and places when not much of anything happened, when the advance of 'civilization' came to a halt for decades and even centuries, leaving historians of the future with nothing to report.
Such a place was California before 1769. In the early 1520s Hernando Cortes sent ships north along the Pacific coast in search of the fabled Strait of Anián. There was no such thing to be found, but the 800-mile-long peninsula now named Baja California was discovered. The land was a desert, the Indians hostile, and with political problems brewing at home, Cortés gave up the effort to further expand the boundaries of New Spain.
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, another sea captain questing after the Strait of Anian, landed at what is now San Diego in 1542. He also visited Santa Catalina Island and the islands in the Santa Barbara Channel. The next to touch upon California was Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno, who in 1595 was looking for a safe port where the Manila galleons could refit after the arduous voyage from the Philippine Islands en route to Acapulco. He located Drakes Bay (Drake had been there in 1579), which he named San Francisco Bay—a name that created much confusion during the first few years after the discovery of the present San Francisco Bay. Cermeno's ship, the San Agustin, was wrecked in a storm while in Drakes Bay, and went to the bottom. Cermeno and his crew eventually got back to Mexico in an open launch—an heroic journey that saved their lives but had no effect whatsoever on the course of history.
In 1602 and 1603 Sebastián Vizcaino explored the California coast as far north as Cape Mendocino. He stopped briefly at San Diego, and gave it its present name. His major contribution to geographical knowledge was the discovery of Monterey Bay, in January 1603. The irony of the discovery was that his glowing description of the bay was so profound that the first Spanish land expedition to reach it—an astonishing 166 years later—simply didn't recognize it when they stood on its shores. They thought that Monterey Bay might be farther north, so they pressed on up the coast—and in early November 1769 discovered San Francisco Bay. It is after this great historical hiatus that the modern history of San Francisco Bay begins.
The progress of Spanish settlement of the bay and its environs was slow and halting. The mission and presidio that were established on the future site of San Francisco, in 1776, began to deteriorate and crumble almost as soon as they had been created. George Vancouver, captain of the first non-Spanish ship to enter San Francisco Bay, in 1792, commented on the feebleness and fragility of the Spanish effort—as did practically all the other foreign visitors for the next fifty years.
It was but eighty years from the discovery of San Francisco Bay in 1769 to the magical year of 1849. If one were to demonstrate the economic and social advance of the region on a graph, the line of progress would barely struggle upward from zero—and would even decline at times, to show, perhaps, the high mortality among the Indians, or the collapse of the mission system. The line would show a modest but steady ascent in the early 1840s and up to 1847. By the middle of that year, San Francisco had a population of 459.
Gold was discovered in January 1848, and by 1849 the line would be off the chart at an almost vertical angle. At the end of 1849 the estimated population of San Francisco was 40,000, and 4,000 immigrants were arriving by sea every month.
Now there is a true acceleration of history—a revolutionary age to put ours in the shade.
A
Abello, Fr. Ramon, 76-77
Aguirre, Juan B., 25
Alcatraz Island, 18, 82, 92, 111
Angel Island, 24-25, 29, 98, 111
Anza, Juan Bautista de, 30
Arguello, Luis Antonio, 56, 58, 76-77
Aspinwall, 130
Ayala, Juan Manuel de, 18-29
B
Bartlett, Washington Allon, 140, 146, 150-52, 158
Beechey, Frederick William, 82-93
Brannan, Samuel, 116-17, 128, 132, 146-47, 149
Brooklyn , 116, 128, 130, 132, 136, 146, 149
Brown's Hotel, 147-48, 150
Brown, John Henry, 134-35, 147-48, 150
Bueno, Cabrera, 13
C
C. L. Ross & Co., 137
Calle de la Fundacion, 105-6, 108, 143, 148
Canizares, Jose de, 18-29
Carquinez Strait, 27-28, 35-36, 82, 112
Casa Grande, 148, 184, 189
Castillo de San Joaquin, 55, 70, 73, 79, 83, 95, 119, 187
City Hotel, 134-35
Clarks Point, 131, 150
Costanso, Miguel, 10-17
Custom House, 148, 168, 185-86
D
Davis, John Calvert, 111
Davis, William Heath, 136, 143, 146
Diablo, Mount, 90
Dillon, Patrice, 166-75
Duhaut-Cilly, Auguste Bernard, 94-101
E
Ellis, Alfred J., 150
Ermatinger, Francis, 115-16
Estenega, Fr. Tomas Eleuterio, 97-99
F
Farallones, 11, 19-20, 34, 44, 55, 89, 93
Folsom, Joseph L., 144
Font, Pedro, 30-41<R>
Fort Point, 36
Fremont, 177
Fuller, John (Jack), 111, 133, 144-46
G
Garces, Francisco, 30
Gilroy Valley, 31
H
Haro, Francisco de, 103, 105
Hinckley, William Sturgis, 145-46, 150
Howard & Mellus, 136, 145
Hudson's Bay Company, 113-15, 118, 120, 122, 144-45
I
Indian canoes, 47
Indians of San Francisco, 51-53, 59-63, 67-68, 70-71,
76-77, 80-81, 86, 89, 98-99, 125-26, 145
Islais Creek, 29
J
Jones, Elbert P., 147
K
Kemble, Edward Cleveland, 128-37, 147, 149, 159-60
Kent Hall, 146
Kip, Leonard, 184-88
Kotzebue, Otto von, 64-71, 78-81
L
Langsdorff, Georg Heinrich von, 54-63
Larkin, Thomas Oliver, 150
Leese, Jacob Primer, 106, 111, 114, 143, 145-46, 148-49
Leidesdorff Hotel, 134-35
Leidesdorff, William Alexander, 134, 144, 147-48, 150
Llagas Creek, 31
Lobos Creek, 34, 38
M
Mare Island, 27
Martinez, Ignacio, 95-96
Marysville, 178
McLoughlin, John, 114, 118, 145
Merchants' Exchange, 167-68
Miranda, Juana Briones de, 143-44
Mission Bay, 29
Mission Creek, 112, 155
Mission Dolores, 50-52, 59-63, 65, 68, 76-77, 89, 97-99,
103, 124-27, 149, 155, 188
Mission San Jose, 86-87, 98
Mission Santa Clara, 58, 98
Monterey, 31
Monterey Bay, 10
Moraga, Gabriel, 73, 76
Mormons in San Francisco, 116-17, 128, 130, 132, 147, 149
Mountain Lake, 33
N
Nahl, Charles C., 129
Napa Slough, 27
Natividad, 31
New Archangel, 54
Nicolaus, 177
Nye, Gorham H., 144
O
O'Farrell, Jasper, 135, 147, 152, 160
P
Pajaro River, 31
Parker, Robert A., 132
Paty, John, 148, 150
Phelps, William D., 110-17
Point Ano Nuevo, 19-20
Point Bonita, 33
Point Lobos, 33
Point Pinos, 19
Point Reyes, 11, 19-20, 34, 55, 79, 89
Portola expedition, 10-17
Portsmouth House, 134-36, 147-48, 156
Portsmouth Square, 134, 148, 156, 179, 185, 188
Presidio anchorage, 21, 46, 55, 80, 95-97, 102
Presidio of San Francisco, 46-48, 50, 52, 56, 58, 65, 76-77,
84, 86, 95, 119, 130, 187
R
Rae, William Glen, 114-16, 118, 120, 145
Rezanov, Nikolai Petrovitch, 54, 56, 58
Richardson Bay, 21
Richardson, William Antonio, 96-97, 102-7, 111, 141, 143-144, 184
Ridley, Robert, 143-44, 147-48
Rincon Hill, 146
Rincon Point, 112, 131, 141
Roland, Gelston & Co., 137
Roquefeuil, Camille de, 72-77
Russian Hill, 130, 132
S
Sacramento, 178-79
Sacramento River, 28, 76, 110, 112-14, 120, 177
Sal, Hermenegildo, 46, 50
Salinas River, 31
San Benito Valley, 31
San Bruno Mountain, 90
San Carlos, 18
San Diego, 10
San Francisquito Creek, 14, 33, 39
San Joaquin River, 28, 112, 120
San Jose, 102
San Mateo, 92
San Mateo Creek, 33, 38
San Pablo Bay, 27, 35, 82, 112, 120
San Pedro Creek, 11
San Pedro Point, 34
Santa Clara Valley, 38-39
Sausalito, 84, 102, 111, 155-56
schools in San Francisco, 153
Semple, Robert Baylor, 150
Sherman & Ruckel, 137
Sherreback, Peter, 133
Sill, Daniel, 146, 149
Simpson, George, 114-15, 118-27
Sinclair, John, 113
Smith, Stephen, 149
Southhampton Bay, 28
Spear, Nathan, 111, 145-46
Stevens Creek, 33
Suisun Bay, 28, 112
Sutter's Fort, 113
Sutter, John Augustus, 112-13
Sweeney Ridge, 10
T
Telegraph Hill, 111, 130-31, 141, 150
Thomes, William H., 143-44
V
Vancouver, George, 42-53, 55, 93
Vernon, 177
Vioget, Jean Jacques, 108, 135, 147-48, 152, 155
W
Ward & Smith, 136-37
Washerwoman's Lagoon, 131
Whaler's Harbor
See Richardson Bay
Y
Yerba Buena, 102-3, 105-6, 108, 110-11, 115-16, 118, 120-22,
124, 128-82, 184, 189
Yerba Buena Cove, 29, 44, 46, 53, 73, 84, 89, 96-97, 99, 102-3, 105, 120
Yerba Buena Island, 18, 24, 29, 82, 92, 144, 154, 160
Yuba River, 177