151 On the Coast of California (1835)
The bay of Monterey is very wide at the entrance, being about twenty-four miles between the two points, Año Nuevo at the north and Pinos at the south, but narrows gradually as you approach the town. We came to anchor within two cable lengths of the shore and the town lay directly before us, making a very pretty appearance. Its houses being plastered, which gives a much better effect than those of Santa Barbara, which are of a mud-color. The red tiles too on the roofs contrasted well with the white plastered sides and with the extreme greenness of the lawn upon which the houses — about an hundred in number — were dotted about here and there, irregularly.
The next day we were “turned-to” early and began taking off the hatches, overhauling the cargo, and getting everything ready for inspection. The Mexican revenue laws are very strict and require the whole cargo to be landed, examined, and taken on board again. The officers were dressed in the costume which we found prevailed through the country. A broad-brimmed hat usually of a black or dark-brown color with a gilt or figured band round the crown and lined inside with silk, a short jacket of silk or figured calico, the shirt open in the neck, rich waistcoat if any. Pantaloons wide, straight, and long, usually of velvet, velveteen, or broadcloth; or else short breeches and white stockings. They wear the deer-skin shoe which is of a dark-brown color and (being made by Indians) usually a good deal ornamented. They have no suspenders but always wear a sash round the waist which is generally red and varying in quality with the means of the wearer. Add to this the never-failing cloak and you have the dress of the Californian. This last garment, the cloak, is always a mark of the rank and wealth of the owner. The “gente de razón” or aristocracy wear cloaks of black or dark blue broadcloth with as much velvet and trimmings as may be, and from this they go down to the blanket of the Indian. The middle classes wearing something like a large table-cloth with a hole in the middle for the head to go through. This is often as coarse as a blanket but being beautifully woven with various colors is quite showy at a distance. Among the Spaniards there is no working class (the Indians being slaves and doing all the hard work) and every rich man looks like a grandee and every poor scamp like a broken-down gentleman. I have often seen a man with a fine figure and courteous manners, dressed in broadcloth and velvet with a noble horse completely covered with trappings, without a rial in his pockets and absolutely suffering for something to eat.
The Californians are an idle, thriftless people and can make nothing for themselves. The country abounds in grapes yet they buy bad wine made in Boston and brought round by us at an immense price and retail it among themselves at a rial (12 ½ cents) by the small wine-glass. Their hides too, which they value at two dollars in money, they give for something which costs seventy-five cents in Boston and buy shoes (as like as not made of their own hides which have been carried twice round Cape Horn) at three and four dollars and “chicken-skin” boots at fifteen dollars apiece. Things sell on an average at an advance of nearly three hundred per cent upon the Boston prices. This is partly owing to the heavy duties which the government, with the intent no doubt of keeping the silver in the country, has laid upon imports. These duties and the enormous expenses of so long a voyage keep all merchants but those of heavy capital from engaging in the trade.
Generally speaking, each person’s caste is decided by the quality of the blood, which shows itself too plainly to be concealed at first sight. Yet the least drop of Spanish blood is sufficient to raise them from the rank of slaves and entitle them to a suit of clothes — boots, hat, cloak, spurs, long knife — and to call themselves Españolos and to hold property if they can get any. Another thing that surprised me was the quantity of silver that was in circulation. I certainly never saw so much silver at one time in my life as during the week that we were at Monterey. The truth is they have no credit system, no banks, and no way of investing money but in cattle. They have no circulating medium but silver and hides — which the sailors call “California bank notes.” Everything that they buy they must pay for in one or the other of these things.
Monterey is decidedly the pleasantest and most civilized-looking place in California. In the center is an open square surrounded by four lines of one-story plastered buildings, with half a dozen cannon in the center. This is the “Presidio” or fort. Every town has a presidio in its center. Or rather every presidio has a town built around it for the forts were first built by the Mexican government and then the people built near them for protection. The governor-general lives here, which makes it the seat of government. He is appointed by the central government at Mexico and is the chief civil and military officer. In addition to him, each town has a commandant who is the chief military officer and has charge of the fort and of all transactions with foreigners and foreign vessels. And two or three alcaldis and corregidores elected by the inhabitants, who are the civil officers.
No Protestant has any civil rights nor can he hold any property or indeed remain more than a few weeks on shore. Consequently the Americans and English who intend to reside here become Catholics to a man, the current phrase among them being, “A man must leave his conscience at Cape Horn.” In Monterey there are a number of English and Americans who have married Californians, become united to the Catholic church, and acquired considerable property. The people are naturally suspicious of foreigners and they would not be allowed to remain were it not that they become good Catholics. And by marrying natives and bringing up their children as Catholics and Spaniards and not teaching them the English language, they quiet suspicion and even become popular and leading men. The chief alcaldis in Monterey and Santa Barbara were both Yankees by birth.
California was first discovered in 1536 by Cortes and was subsequently visited by numerous other adventurers. Two forts were erected and garrisoned, one at San Diego and the other at Monterey. Presidios have since been established at Santa Barbara and San Francisco, thus dividing the country into four large districts. The soldiers for the most part married Indians and thus in the vicinity of each presidio sprung up, gradually, small towns. Ever since the independence of Mexico, the missions have been going down until at last a law was passed stripping them of all their possessions and confining the priests to their spiritual duties and at the same time declaring all the Indians free and independent Rancheros. The priests have now no power except in their religious character and the great possessions of the missions are given over to be preyed upon by the harpies of the civil power. The change had been made but a few years before our arrival upon the coast, yet in that short time the trade was much diminished, credit impaired, and the venerable missions going rapidly to decay.
The government of the country is an arbitrary democracy, having no common law and no judiciary. Their only laws are made and unmade at the caprice of the legislature and are as variable as the legislature itself. They pass through the form of sending representatives to the congress at Mexico, but as it takes several months to go and return and there is very little communication between the capital and this distant province, a member usually stays there as permanent member, knowing very well that there will be revolutions at home before he can write and receive an answer.
Revolutions are matters of constant occurrence in California. They are got up by men who are at the foot of the ladder and in desperate circumstances, just as a new political party is started by such men in our own country. The only object, of course, is the loaves and fishes. And instead of caucusing, paragraphing, libeling, feasting, promising, and lying, as with us, they take muskets and bayonets and seizing upon the presidio and custom-house, divide the spoils and declare a new dynasty. As for justice, they know no law but will and fear.
Source: Richard Henry Dana, Two Years before The Mast (1840), 87-212. https://archive.org/details/americanhistoryt00ivunse/page/10/mode/2up
