VII In the Neighborhood of Monterey
Monterey. “Llegamos á este puerto de Monterey á 16 de Diciembre, 1602 á las siete de la noche” (We arrived at this port of Monterey on the sixteenth of December, 1602, at seven o’clock in the evening).—(From the diary of Sebastián Vizcaíno.)
When Vizcaíno sailed into the beautiful blue bay of Monterey, and looked about him at the ring of hills, dark with the dense growth of pines covering them from summit to base, he became at once enamored with the place, and wrote enthusiastically to his Spanish Majesty concerning it. In a letter of the date of May 23, 1603, he says: “Among the ports of most importance which I found was one in latitude 37, which I named Monterrey. As I wrote to your majesty from there on the twenty-eighth of September of the said year, it is all that can be desired for the convenience and sea-port of the ships of the Philippine line, whence they come to explore this coast. The port is sheltered from all winds, and has on the shore many pines to supply the ships with masts of any size that they may wish, and also live-oaks, oaks, rosemary, rock-roses, roses of Alexandria, good hunting of rabbits, hares, partridges and flying birds of different sorts. The land is of mild temperature, and of good waters, and very fertile, judging by the luxuriant growth of the trees and plants, for I saw some fruits from them, particularly of chestnuts and acorns, larger than those of Spain; and it is well-populated with people, whose disposition I saw to be soft, gentle, docile, and very fit to be reduced to the Holy Church. Their food is of many and various seeds that they have and also wild game, such as deer, some of which are larger than cows, also bears, and cattle and buffalo, and many others. The Indians are of good body, white of countenance, and the women somewhat smaller, and well-favored. Their dress is of the people of the beach, of the skins of seals, of which there are an abundance, which they tan and prepare better than in Spain.”
At first thought it would seem that Vizcaíno must have been in error about finding buffalo at Monterey, but investigation shows that in 1530 those animals “ranged through what is now New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.”—(Handbook of American Indians.) Oregon is not so far away but that scattering herds may have wandered as far as Monterey, and that Vizcaíno actually saw them there. It has been suggested, also, that he may have mistaken the tracks of the great elk for those of buffalo. In calling the Indians “white,” he was, no doubt, speaking comparatively. According to the diaries of the Spaniards, the natives of different sections varied considerably in complexion. What he meant by “chestnuts” can only be conjectured, since that tree is not indigenous to Monterey, but it is possible that the nut of the wild buck-eye, which resembles the chestnut in size and shape, may have been mistaken for it by the Spaniards.
Vizcaíno named the port in honor of Gaspar de Zúñiga, Count of Monterey, at that time Viceroy of Mexico. The word itself, whose literal meaning is “the King’s wood,” or “the King’s mountain,” since monte may be used in either sense, was formerly spelled Monterrey, Monterey, or Monte Rey.
When Father Serra arrived at Monterey in 1770, he decided to make it the headquarters of all the California missions, and it was there that the rest of his life was spent, excepting the periods of absence required in visiting the other missions, and in one visit to Mexico. Very shortly after the landing of the party in a little cove at the edge of the present town, it was decided that not enough arable land existed at that point for the support of the mission, so the religious establishment was removed to Carmel Bay, while the Presidio and its chapel remained at Monterey.
The Mission San Carlos Borroméo (St. Charles Borroméo), was founded June 3, 1770, near the shore of the charming little bay of Carmel, about seven miles from Monterey. This church, now in an excellent state of repair, through the efforts of the late Father Ángelo Casanova, is distinguished above all the others, “for under its altar lies buried all that is mortal of the remains of its venerable founder, Junípero Serra.”
Its patron saint, St. Charles Borroméo, belonged to a noble family of Lombardy. Being a second son, he was dedicated to the church at a very early age, and soon rose to distinction, receiving the cardinal’s hat at twenty-three. The death of his elder brother placed the family fortune at his disposal, but he gave it all in charity, reserving for himself merely enough for bread and water, and straw on which to sleep. In public he gave feasts, but never partook of them himself. At the time of the plague in Milan, when all others fled from the city, he remained to attend the sick. His remains repose in a rich shrine in that city.
San Antonio
At San Antonio (St. Anthony), in Monterey County, between Kings City and Jolón, Father Serra established the mission of San Antonio de Padua, July 14, 1771. In connection with its establishment, Palou tells a story that brings out one of the most marked characteristics of the venerable founder, his ardent enthusiasm: “They [the founding party] departed for the Santa Lucía Mountains, taking priests for the new mission, the required escort of soldiers, and all necessaries. Twenty-five leagues south-southeast from Monterey, they arrived at the hollow of this ridge, where they found a great cañada, which they called Robles (oaks), from the great number of those trees. Finding a level plain in the same cañada, bordering on a river which they called San Antonio, and which they thought to be a good site, for the good flow of water, even in the dry month of July, which could be conducted to the lands without difficulty, all agreed upon the choice of this spot. Serra ordered the mules to be unloaded, and the bells to be hung up on the branch of a tree. As soon as they were hung up, he began to ring them, crying out, ‘Ho! Gentiles, come, come to the Holy Church, come to receive the faith of Jesus Christ!’” One of the other priests remonstrated with him, saying it was idle to ring the bells in the absence of the gentiles, but Serra said, “Let me ring, let me relieve my heart, so that all the wild people in this mountain range may hear!” It happened that some natives were attracted by the ringing of the bells, and came to witness the first mass, which Serra regarded as a good augury.
St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of this place, was a Portuguese by birth, who entered the Franciscan Order. He went as a missionary to the Moors, but was compelled by illness to return to Europe, where he had great success in Italy and France as a preacher. Among many miracles accredited to him is the one thus related: “When preaching at the funeral of a very rich man, St. Anthony denounced his love of money, and exclaimed, ‘His heart is buried in his treasure chest; go seek it there and you will find it.’ The friends of the man broke open the chest, and to their surprise, found the heart; they then examined his body and found that his heart was indeed wanting.”—(Stories of the Saints.)
Point Cypress
La Punta de los Cipreses (Point Cypress), is the home of those wonderful trees, twisted and gnarled into a thousand fantastic shapes by their age-long struggle against the ocean winds, which furnish yet another proof of the part played by California in the preservation of the rare and the unique, for this species of coniferous tree is said to be confined to that region, not occurring in any other part of the world.
The following interesting paragraph on these trees is quoted from The Trees of California, by Willis Linn Jepsen, Asst. Professor of Dendrology in the University of California: “Cupressus Macrocarpa is limited to two localities on the ocean shore at the mouth of the Carmel river near Monterey. The Cypress Point grove extends along the cliffs and low bluffs from Pescadero Point to Cypress Point, a distance of two miles, reaching inland about one-eighth of a mile. The Point Lobos grove is much smaller. The trees are scattered over the summits of two headlands, and cling to the edges of the cliffs, where on account of the erosive action of the ocean, they are occasionally under-mined and fall into the sea. Monterey Cypress is most interesting for its remarkably restricted natural range and the exceedingly picturesque outlines characteristic of the trees growing on the ocean shore. As a result of their struggle with violent storms from the Pacific Ocean which break on the unprotected cliffs and headlands of Cypress Point and Point Lobos, they present a variety and singularity of form which is obviously connected with their exposed habitat, and lends a never-failing interest to these two narrow localities. Of the highly picturesque trees, the most common type is that with long irregular arms. Such trees recall most strikingly the classical pictures of the Cedars of Lebanon. Monterey Cypress is of course a genuine cypress and Lebanon Cedar a genuine cedar; the two do not even belong to the same family of conifers. Yet the popular story that the two are the same makes so strong an appeal to the imagination of the tourist at Monterey that the guides and promoters in the region will doubtless never cease to disseminate it. As a consequence the error goes into the daily press and the magazines, and is evidently destined to flourish in perennial greenness under the guise of fact. The wide dissemination of this fiction is all the more remarkable in that in the case of all other unique features of the state, such as the Sequoias and the Yosemite, our Californians have evinced a remarkable pride in their possession, without thought of inventing a duplication of them elsewhere.... The matter of the age of these trees has been much exaggerated. It is a tree of rapid growth, and the older specimens are probably not more than 200 or 300 years old.”
The above paragraph, quoted from a writer acknowledged to be one of the best authorities on the trees of California, is given here in full, in the hope of correcting these two common errors concerning the Monterey Cypress,—the one that it is identical with the Cedar of Lebanon, the other, an exaggerated notion of the great age of some of the trees. As Professor Jepsen justly remarks, the truth in this case is a greater matter for pride than the fiction.
Point Pinos
La Punta de Pinos (the point of pines), is situated a few miles from Monterey, just beyond Pacific Grove. It is one of the most picturesque points on the coast, and is the location of one of the government light-houses.
Salinas
When the Portolá expedition of 1769 arrived at the Salinas River, they made the first of the series of errors which caused them to pass by the bay of Monterey without recognizing it, for they mistook this stream for the Carmel. The Salinas (salt marshes), so-called for the chain of salt-water ponds lying along its course, was known by various names before a permanent one became attached to it, appearing at different times as El Río Elzeario, Santa Delfina, and El Río de Monterey.
The town of Salinas is the county-seat of Monterey County and is situated about eighteen miles east of Monterey, in the heart of an important agricultural, dairying, and sugar-beet district.
Soledad
Soledad (solitude), in Monterey County, 143 miles southeast of San Francisco, is described as “a very dry plain, with few trees, swept by fierce winds and dust storms in summer.” No wonder they called it Soledad,—Lonesometown!
Yet those same dry plains proved to be of sufficient fertility to warrant the establishment, in 1791, of the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, freely translated as “Our Lady of Sorrows,” which became the center of a large and prosperous Indian community. The buildings of the mission have now fallen into almost complete decay.
Pájaro
Pájaro (bird), a town in Monterey County, on the Pájaro River, which rises on the slope of the Coast Range, and flows westerly, falling into Monterey Bay, derives its name from a circumstance told in the diary of the faithful Father Crespi: “We saw in this place a bird, which the Gentiles (unbaptized Indians), had killed and stuffed with straw, and which appeared to some [of the party] to be a royal eagle; it was measured from tip to tip of the wings, and was found to measure eleven palms (nine feet and three inches), for which reason the soldiers called the place El Río del Pájaro.” The scream of the eagle may still be heard in the more remote parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the great birds are occasionally seen circling far over-head, or perched in the tops of the tallest trees.
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz (holy cross), the well-known seaside resort lying at the northern hook of the great curve that forms Monterey Bay, was named by the Portolá expedition, as thus described by Father Crespi: “We camped on the north side of the river [San Lorenzo], and we had a great deal of work to cut down trees to open a little passage for our beasts.... Not far from the river we saw a fertile spot where the grass was not burnt, and it was a pleasure to see the pasture and the variety of herbs and rose-bushes of Castile.” The next day they moved on again, and the diary continues: “After proceeding about five hundred steps, we passed a large stream of running water, which has its source among some high hills and passes through some great table-lands of good soil, that may easily be irrigated by the waters of the said creek. This creek was named Santa Cruz.”
A mission was established at this place by Padres Salazar and López, September 25, 1791, but the buildings finally fell into a ruinous condition, and were removed to give place to the modern church which now stands upon the original site.
San Juan Bautista
San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist), has suffered mutilation by the dropping of its last part, and usually appears as San Juan. San Juan is a small town in San Benito County, in a fertile valley on the San Benito River, forty-four miles southeast of San José. At this place the mission of San Juan Bautista was founded, June 24, 1797. Although this mission passed through some strenuous experiences, and was twice attacked by the Indians, and somewhat damaged by repeated earthquakes in 1800, it is still moderately well preserved.
Supplementary List
Agua Amargosa (bitter water), a place in San Benito County now known by its English translation, “Bitter Water,” and so-called from mineral springs.
Año Neuvo (new year), is the name of a prominent cape running out from the shore of Santa Cruz County, where one of the coast light-houses is situated. It received its name from the day of its discovery.
Arroyo Seco (dry creek). The Arroyo Seco, rising in the Santa Lucía Range and flowing northeasterly into the Salinas River, is probably the most remarkable example of terrace formation to be found among the streams of the state.
There are other Arroyo Secos in the state, one near Los Ángeles which is very striking in its color effects.
Blanco (white), is a town in Monterey County which may have received its name from Thomas B. Blanco, a pioneer and grantee of land in that county.
Cañada Segunda (second valley).
Cerro del Venado (hill of the deer).
Chualar is a village in Monterey County, in the Salinas valley, 128 miles southeast of San Francisco. The chual is a wild plant of California,—pig-weed or goose-foot, and chualar is a spot abounding in chual plants.
Corral (yard, enclosed place). On October 11, 1769, the Portolá party stopped at a place about a league from the Pájaro River, where they constructed a fence between a lake and a low hill, in order to keep the animals secure at night without the need of many watchmen. Palou, in his Life of Serra, says: “The first expedition called this place the Corral, on account of having built there, with some sticks nailed together, a pasture in the manner of a yard, in order to keep the animals safe at night. This was of great assistance, for there were so many sick that there were not enough [people] to guard the animals.” In different parts of the state there were many Corrals and Corralitos (little yards). Sometimes the enclosing fence was made of stones, when more convenient, and the enclosure was then called Corral de Piedra (stone corral); sometimes a barricade of earth was thrown up, and it was then called Corral de Tierra (earth corral). Corral de Tierra is the name of a well-known ranch near Monterey. In the days of old, many a joyous merienda (picnic) and barbecue was held at the Corral de Tierra Rancho. Corralitos (little corrals), is in Santa Cruz County, fourteen miles east of Santa Cruz.
Gabilán, also spelled Gavilán (hawk), is the name of the long mountain ridge, a branch of the Coast Range, which extends through the counties of San Matéo and Santa Cruz.
Gonzales (a surname). This place is in Monterey County, in the Salinas valley, seventeen miles southeast of Salinas.
Gorda (fat, thick).
Las Grullas (the cranes). In the diaries of the Portolá expedition, date of October 7, 1769, we read: “We pitched our camp between some low hills near a pond, where we saw a great number of cranes, the first we had seen on this journey.” This was about four leagues from the Pájaro River.
Jolón, a word of doubtful origin, which has been variously explained. It is thought by some persons to be a corruption of Jalón, a proper name, but old Spanish residents say it is an Indian word, meaning “valley of dead oaks.”
Llanada (a plain, level ground). This place is in San Benito County.
Laureles (laurels). Los Laureles is the name of a ranch near Monterey. The wild laurel is a shrub common to many parts of the state.
Lobos (wolves), generally used on this coast in the sense of lobo marino, (sea-wolf, or seal). There is a Punta de Lobos (seal point), near Monterey which is noted for the bold grandeur of its ocean scenery, as well as for its seals.
Loma Prieta (dark hill), is the name of a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Moro Cojo (literally “lame Moor”), is the name of a well-known ranch in Monterey County. The Spaniards were in the habit of using moro to mean anything black, and in this case, according to old residents, the ranch was named for a lame black horse that ran wild there.
Natividad (nativity of Christ), is the name of a town in Monterey County, about one hundred miles southeast of San Francisco.
Paicines is in San Benito County. This is a word of doubtful origin, and many theories have been advanced to account for it. The most probable is that given by an Indian woman, a resident of the place, who says it was the name of an Indian tribe. The word is also sometimes spelled Pajines. See Tres Pinos, page 98.
Panocha is in San Benito County. This is a word applied to crude sugar, or syrup, somewhat resembling sorghum. Probably modern.
Paraíso Springs (paradise springs), is a health resort in Monterey County.
Pleito (quarrel, argument, lawsuit). This place is in Monterey County. It has not been possible to ascertain the application of its name.
Potrero (pasture). There were many potreros scattered about the state.
Puentes (bridges). This place, two leagues from the San Lorenzo River, was reached by the Portolá, party October 18, 1769, and the reason for its naming is explained by Miguel Costansó: “These canyons contained running water in very deep ditches, over which it was necessary to lay bridges of logs, covered with earth and bundles of sticks, so that the pack animals could cross. The place was called Las Puentes.”
San Benito (St. Benedict), was named in honor of the founder of the great order of Benedictines. San Benito Creek was named in 1772 by Father Crespi, and the name was eventually applied to the county. The town of San Benito is on the Salinas River, sixty miles southeast of Monterey. It is said of St. Benedict that he became a hermit at the age of fifteen and fled to the wilderness, where he lived on bread and water. While there he was tempted by the remembrance of a beautiful woman he had seen in Rome, and to overcome his wish to see her again “he flung himself into a thicket of briers and thorns, and rolled himself therein until he was torn and bleeding. At the monastery of Subiaco they show roses, said to have been propagated from these briers.”
San Lucas (St. Luke), is in Monterey County, sixty miles southeast of Salinas. St. Luke was the disciple of Paul, who speaks of him as “Luke, the beloved physician,” but tradition reports him to have been an artist, and that he always carried with him two portraits, one of the Saviour and the other of Mary. Doubtless for this reason he is regarded as the patron of artists and academies of art.
Sur (south). Point Sur (south point), on the coast south of Monterey, is a bold promontory where a light-house was placed by the government, in consequence of the frequent occurrence of shipwrecks there. The Sur River runs through a region remarkable for the wild picturesqueness of its scenery, and for the strange tales told of happenings among its early inhabitants.
Toro (bull), is the name of a ranch near Monterey, said to have been so-called after a wild bull.
Tres Pinos (three pines), a place in San Benito County, one hundred miles southeast of San Francisco. Postmaster Black, of Tres Pinos, gives us the following history of the naming of this place: “The name was originally applied to what is now known as Paicines, but when the railroad came to this place they appropriated the name of Tres Pinos, hence it has no significance as applied to this town. The name was given the stopping-place now known as Paicines because of three pines alleged to have grown on the banks of the Tres Pinos creek near that place. Paicines, then Tres Pinos, was the scene of the Vásquez raid and murders in the early ’70’s.”
Uvas (grapes), the name of a town and creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains, no doubt so-called from the abundance of wild grapes found in that locality.