LA CUIDAD DE LA REYNA DE LOS ANGELES.-I. A VISITOR to the semi-tropic city bearing the fanciful name of "Queen of the Angels" is at the very outset impressed with the feeling that a town lies before him which is not only interesting in the light of the present day, but has the charm of a historic past. Two distinct eras-two dissimilar nationalities are here plainly represented as one passes from the station of the Southern Pacific railway, in the northerly part of the city, through the quaint, dilapidated Sonora town to the neat modern streets of a rapidly growing Anglo-Saxon city. One is transported from the practical, work-a-day world of the United States to the dreamy air of a foreign land in the squares of low, flat-roofed, adobe buildings in "Sonora"; their bare walls, which show traces of whitewashing, hiding the life within, and exhibiting, in greater or less degree, the ravages of a long period of time. A stranger fancies many of these still, dark buildings unoccupied, until a door opens, and a swarthy Mexican saunters forth with the air of nothing to do and no necessity for doing anything, which is a characteristic of his race, albeit his garments may be tattered and torn, and he may not have been able to obtain even a tortilla for his breakfast. One feels a curiosity to know how these incongruous people, with their peculiar homes, came here. That they were once regnant where they are now superfluous, is evident from the priority of their portion of the town, and from the flowery Spanish name of that town. One is reminded of the homely but apt adage about every dog having his day, as one sees how completely these early inhabitants of the pueblo de los Angeles have been pushed aside by the more energetic and enterprising American, the despised gringo of a century ago; and one wonders about the emotions experienced by the powers that were as they beheld their position gradually usurped. What and who will reign in this favored spot of the earth one hundred years hence? For more than two centuries after the existence of the great and wonderful country now known as California was brought to light, its interior was untrodden, save by the native savages and wild beasts, owing to the marauding cruises of Dutch privateers, which rendered the Pacific waters unsafe for peaceful voyagers. As is well known, the Jesuit Fathers, everywhere noted for their daring and endurance, were the first to penetrate the unknown land; and it was not until Father Kino, in 1700 and the four succeeding years, journeyed to the Colorado and Gila rivers, that the fallacious idea that California was an island was dispelled. As voyager after voyager returned to Mexico with his wonderful tales of an immense region to the north, the attention of the church was drawn to the conversion of a hitherto unknown race, and to the possession of lands which might add materially to the revenue of that already powerful institution. Acting upon these religious and prudential motives, a mission was established at San Diego, in 1769, by Father Junipero Serra, the first of twenty-one similar institutions that were, in ensuing years, founded at intervals along the coast; and the next year another, the San Carlos, at Monterey. In March, 1771, the San Antonio arrived at San Diego harbor, with ten missionaries from the San Fernando College in Mexico on board, who brought with them ten thousand dollars in money, and the various sacred vessels and ornaments which were considered essential in the churches. Their first step was to found the San Antonio de Padua Mission at Monterey; then it was decided to establish that of San Gabriel. Father Pedro Cambon and Father Angel Somera started from San Diego on the 10th of August, 1771, guarded by ten soldiers, and accompanied by muleteers and beasts of burden, to seek a suitable spot for the construction of the great church, which proposed mission. They traveled northerly now forms one of the principal objects of a distance of forty leagues, when they reached interest in the vicinity of Los Angeles, were a river called "El Rio de los Temblores," obtained from the heights of the San Ganow known as the San Gabriel, where briel Mountains by the neophytes, a priest they halted and looked about them for the blessing each stick as it was prepared for site of which they were in quest. Did space removal; after which it was not permitted to permit, an interesting account of the surprise touch the ground until the destination was and wonder of the savages at beholding these reached, but was received at certain disstrange intruders might be given. When the tances by relays of Indians detailed for that first whites appeared in the interior, the na- purpose. The shrewdness of this excess of tives thought them gods, and the women fled religious fervor is apparent, as it did away into the bushes, while the men put out the effectually with any tendency towards dilafires in their huts. After close observation toriness of action on the part of the laborers. of their customs, the Indians pronounced the visitors human beings "of a nasty white color, having ugly blue eyes," and gave them the name of chicbinabros-reasonable beings. When the Padres began their work of founding the new mission, their operations were viewed with distrust and displeasure, and the natives soon appeared upon the scene, armed and yelling, determined to oppose the action of the invaders. The worthy Fathers had in their possession a banner bearing the image of Our Lady de las Dolores, which they held up to the view of the incensed savages. The effect was magical. At sight of the precious image, the natives at once ceased their hostile movements, and the two captains at their head ran and laid the beads they had worn about their necks at the feet of the image. All the people flocked to see the representation of the Holy Virgin, bring ing offerings of food; and from that time they manifested great interest and delight in the movements of the priests. The first mass was celebrated under a tree, on the nativity of the Virgin, September 8th, 1771. In a few years, the mission buildings on the bank of the river Temblores were seriously injured by the almost daily earthquakes that had given the stream its name, and a new mission was constructed four or five miles distant, near the Indian village of "Si-bag-na," in a forest of oaks and undergrowth. The soil of this spot when cleared proved very rich, and produced the first crops ever raised in Los Angeles County. It is related that the timbers used in the It became evident, as the soldiers at the mission served out their time, and expressed a desire to remain with their families in the new country, that a suitable location for a pueblo must be secured, and the Governor of California, Felipe de Neve, issued an order from the San Gabriel Mission, on the 26th of August, 1781, directing the establishment of a town on the site of the village of Yang-na, belonging to the Cahuilla Indians. The spot indicated was eight miles from the mission, on the north-west boundary of a large, level plain, bounded by high mountain ranges and extending to the ocean, skirted by the river Porciuncula (meaning "a small allowance"), now known as the Los Angeles. The pueblo, which was to be under the patronage and protection of Nuestra Señora la Reyna de los Angeles (Our Lady the Queen of the Angels), and to be called by that name, was located between the river and low, rolling hills to the west, and was formally founded on the 4th of September, 1781. These Spaniards of early days had different ideas of nomenclature from those possessed by our less romantic American race; and we incline to believe theirs the better. One could never feel aught but pride in residing in "The City of the Angels"; but who delights in having his letters addressed to Hangman's Flat, Tombstone, or Bloody Gulch? The founders of Los Angeles consisted of twelve adult males, heads of families, who were retired soldiers, but continued to draw pay and rations from the Mexican Govern ment. immense herds of cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs, from which large revenues were obtained; and its numerous extensive ranchos church which had been able to establish such grandeur in a wild and unknown country. Many vocations were here represented there were not only carpenters, millwrights, blacksmiths, and other mechanics among the soldiers and the converted Indians, but soap-works, tanneries, weavingrooms, spinning-rooms, and other industries were maintained. The strictest régime was followed, enforced in many cases by the use of the lash upon the natives. Even at this date the population of the embryo city was cosmopolitan, for two out of the pioneer twelve were natives of Spain, one of China-strange as that fact may all testified to the sovereign power of the seem-and the rest were from Sonora, Sinaloa, and Lower California. Each man was provided by the government with two oxen, two mules, two mares, two cows with one calf, two goats, two sheep, one ass, and one hoe, while the community in common was supplied with the necessary implements for cart-making; all of which was charged to the settlers at a price fixed by the government, and was paid for in installments deducted from their wages. A plaza was laid out in the center of the town, upon which the house lots of the twelve men of family fronted. Their houses were of the rudest description, not more than eight feet in height, built of adobes, and their flat roofs covered with brea, or asphaltum, which was brought from springs a few miles distant from the pueblo. Thirty fields were laid out for cultivation on the alluvial bottom-lands of the river, of a uniform size of forty thousand square. varas, in which a few roots and vegetables were raised; but the main source of supplies was the parent establishment of the San Gabriel Mission. Hither the towns-people repaired on the Sabbath to witness the festivities of that day, and to get their rations for the coming week. Who could predict that but a few generations would come and go ere the order of things would be exactly reversed, and the feeble, struggling child would far outstrip its now well-nigh omnipotent progenitor, and become the supporter where it had been the dependent? In those days the missions of California were institutions of remarkable prosperity and power. The accounts of their broad possessions and arbitrary dominion read like fairy stories or Oriental legends. The Mission of San Gabriel was one of the most wealthy on the coast. Its massive church, adorned with the paintings and sacred ornaments brought from the Old World; its numerous buildings; its mill and aqueduct, of which traces yet remain; its orchards and vineyards; its It was not until Padre Jose Maria Salvadea was placed in control of the mission that any attempt was made to master the native language; while the Indians were never taught the Spanish tongue, with the exception of a few words essential in religious service. Salvadea proved himself a man of far greater energy and forethought than any of his predecessors; for he not only translated the church service into the Indian tongue, preaching every Sabbath in that language, and reduced it to grammatical rules, but he planted the large vineyards, laid out the orchards, constructed the mill and dam, brought water by a skillful system from long distances, fenced the fields with the tumas (a species of cactus) which abounded in the vicinity, and remodeled and perfected the methods of government in vogue at the mission. The first vineyard, known as Vina Madre, consisted of three thousand vines, which one authority considers identical with the Alicarte, and another with the Bene Carlo of Spain, and from which all the other vineyards of the State sprung. There were, at one time, one hundred and fifty thousand vines at the San Gabriel Mission itself. In 1822, the independence of Mexico was recognized; and two years later a republican constitution was adopted, under which California ranked as a Territory. Official oaths were no longer registered under the king of Spain, but under the Mexican republic. The missions, however, went on as be fore, with none of the scenes of war and bloodshed that are usually attendant upon a change of sovereignty. The quietly growing pueblo of Los Angeles was under the rule of an Alcalde, who was appointed by the Governor of the Territory, who was also the military commander of the country, or by the officer in command of the military district in which the town was situated. Before the independence of Mexico, foreigners were excluded from the country; but afterward, vessels were permitted to enter the ports and trade under certain restrictions and heavy duties. San Pedro, being the port for three influential missions, for the largest town in the Territory, and for immense stock ranches, now became the most important point on the coast. It was visited by vessels from Boston and other parts of the East, which brought out supplies of foreign and domestic goods to be exchanged for hides and tallow. Dana has given a graphic account of this prosperous era in the history of the port, in his tale of "Two Years Before the Mast." He, in common with many others whose occupation brought them to these "barren shores," returned home as speedily as possible, disgusted with the country, and with not the remotest idea that it presented inducements for permanent settlement by white men. It was some time before the unusual excellencies of the climate met with appreciation, or the fruitful ness of the soil where water could be obtained was understood. It gradually be came a common event for a sailor, better pleased than his comrades with the sunny wilderness and its primitive inhabitants, to marry a young Mexican woman, and settle down to domestic life on this foreign shore. It is not certain who was the first Englishspeaking settler in Los Angeles County. There is an old Spanish document in the city archives, purporting to be the petition of one W. Whittle, an Englishman, for a grant of land, dated 1835, and claiming residency for a period of twenty years, in which he asserts himself the first English-speaking setler in California. It is elsewhere claimed hat the title belongs to one Joseph Chap man, of Pennsylvania, who was taken prisoner from a buccaneer in 1818; he assisted in getting out timbers for the church, married a Spanish woman at Santa Barbara; afterwards he became a carpenter and millwright at San Gabriel, with fair-haired children playing about. Chapman died in 1849, leaving descendants in Ventura County. Tom Fisher, a negro, was captured at the same time, and was, in after years, seen contentedly swinging the riata among the vaqueros. In 1837 societies were organized to encourage emigration from the East to California. Los Angeles was at this time the seat of Territorial government, and was the scene of numerous insurrections. The political affairs of Mexico were then, as at the present time, characterized by chronic turbulence, and by fickleness of opinion on the part of the ruling powers. Appointments, annulments, insurrections, ratifications, and reinstatements followed each other in rapid succession; and the Territorial Governor in officio could scarcely have maintained the peace of mind that follows on security of possession. José Maria de Echeandia was succeeded in 1831 by Manuel Victoria, and Echeandia was sent back to San Blas. But his successor's reign was brief. He soon became unpopular with the people on account of his severity in punishing criminals, and his acts were declared unconstitutional ere he had remained a year in office. An insurrection followed, in which Victoria was wounded. He thereupon sent in his abdication, and Pio Pico was installed in his place by the authorities in Mexico. Echeandia was at first upheld by the insurrectionists; but the residents of the northern part of the Territory refused to recognize either Pico or Echeandia, upholding Victoria as the lawful Governor, and sustaining in office, as his representative, Captain Agustin V. Zamorano. Pico, who was succeeded by Governor Figueroa, still lives in Los Angeles, in the shadow of the fine hotel to which his name has been given-an object of interest to the tourist who has read of the conspicuous position occupied by this city in early days, and of the sturdy old Don's part therein. But an interview with the quondam hidalgo is not as satisfactory as could be desired; for he has not, in all these years of sojourn with English-speaking people, acquired any language but his native Spanish, and he asserts that he cannot recall and discourse upon the events of his public career as well as other parties who were spectators thereto. He did what was best for the people at all times, in so far as he knew, he remarks to his interlocutors, though with no boastfulness of manner, and lets the matter drop. Governor Figueroa, whose name is perpetuated by a long and wide avenue-a favorite drive-bordered with pepper and eucalyptus trees, did not remain in undisputed possession of his office. The city was entered and seized by agents of the insurrectionist, Hijar, on the 7th of March, 1835, and Hijar was proclaimed Governor. With the usual instability of the times, these agents were betrayed by their followers on the very same day, the city was retaken by Figueroa, and the leaders of one of the most ephemeral insurrections on record were carried to Mexico as prisoners. Figueroa died in September of the same year, and was sincerely mourned by the public. He was succeeded by José Castro, who, in January, 1836, was followed by Nicolas Gutierrez. He, in turn, was displaced in a few months by Mariano Chico, who was sent up by the Mexican Government to assume control; but Chico proved so tyrannical and disagreeable that he was soon expelled from the Territory, and Gutierrez resumed his old position. A revolution was inaugurated in November, 1836-for all this overturning of governors had consumed less than a year-in favor of Juan Bautista Alvarado, a native Californian, and the first man born on this soil to hold an office. Alvarado at once proclaimed California a free and independent State, an action that, one may well imagine, did not meet with the approval of the parent government, which hastened to appoint Alvarado's uncle, Carlos Carillo, as Governor. And now ensued a most complicated situation, when the ties of consanguinity sank into insignificance beside the excitement of ambition. Los Angeles, with marvelous patriotism, declared her adherence to Mexico, and espoused the cause of Carillo, who declared war. The undaunted Alvarado took his uncle captive, and imprisoned him at Santa Barbara; then sent to the Mexican Government a letter of explanation, which was more successful than consistent or honorable. Though Carillo was their own candidate, and had proved himself zealous in his country's cause, this most unreliable government now turned about and ratified the acts of the nephew who had placed him in captivity, and confirmed the seat of Alvarado. He proved a poor Governor, and when Micheltorena arrived from Mexico, with authority to take his place, in 1842, the new Governor's course from the port of San Diego over the country was marked by a series of ovations. Micheltorena had served as a soldier under Santa Aña with distinction, and the people of this much-exercised Territory met him with admiration of his past and confidence in his future career. Yet his administration was not peaceful; for Commodore Jones, who commanded the United States squadron in Pacific waters, heard a report that war had been declared between the United States and Mexico, and forthwith deemed it his duty to take possession of Monterey, then the seat of government. This so frightened Micheltorena, who was on his way north, that he fled back to Los Angeles, and, one authority asserts, threw up the works of fortification on Fort Hill-of which traces may now be seen-as protection against a supposably advancing enemy. It is elsewhere affirmed that these works had no existence until 1847, when Cook's company of Mormons arrived in Los Angeles. Commodore Jones learned of his mistake in premising war between the two nations, and withdrew his forces from Monterey. Governor Micheltorena did not keep up the valiant reputation he had acquired under Santa Aña, and the citizens of Los Angeles so disliked him in 1844, that, hearing of an |