Yerba Buena, Updated Edition

Larry Van Meter

Description

In 1776, a Spanish exploration party led by Don Gaspar de Portolá established a Franciscan mission, fort, and small village near the northern end of what is today the San Francisco Peninsula. The village would be named Yerba Buena, or "good herb," for the fragrant, flowering vine that grew in the area.

Sujets

• 18th Century
• Histoire
• América
• Settlement
• Spain
• Colonial
• Spain (groupe)
• United States
• History
• California
• America
• Exploration
• Colonialisme

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781646936809
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Yerba Buena, Updated Edition
Copyright © 2021 by Infobase
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Contents Chapters A New Spanish Settlement Exploration of Alta California The Portol Expedition Juan Bautista de Anza s Journey The Final Push North The Early Years of the San Francisco Settlement Support Materials Chronology
Chapters
A New Spanish Settlement
1775

It had been a long, brutal journey. The leaders of the expedition, Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Pedro Font, had begun their trek five months earlier in Tubac, a dusty outpost lying near the border of present-day Arizona and Mexico. On October 23, 1775, the arduous trek from Tubac to Upper California, known to the Spaniards as Alta California , had begun. Their mission, financed by the Spanish king himself, Charles III, was to escort 240 people from New Spain (present-day Mexico) to establish a new settlement in the newly mapped area known as the Grand Port of San Francisco, a massive protected harbor located in Alta California. King Charles was in a hurry: There were reports of Russian traders moving down to the California coast from the north, and the king wanted a presidio (fort) and mission (church) founded at the grand port, known in Spanish as the Gran Puerto . In the king's mind, the west coast of the Americas belonged to Spain. Indeed, there were so many Spanish outposts along the coasts of the Pacific that the ocean was known throughout the world as the "Spanish Lake." But Charles wanted yet another harbor.
Colonel Anza had made the trip two years earlier, blazing an overland trail that was far more attractive to explorers than a dangerous overseas trip. Years before, three Spanish ships sailing to Alta California had lost almost half their crews to scurvy. The Anza trail had been prepared for the pilgrims. The 240 people who had begun the trip, which became known as the "San Francisco Expedition," had survived a traumatic journey: the death of a beloved mother, a brutal winter in the California mountains, abandonment by several soldiers (who had stolen crucially important horses and materials), and the loss of hundreds of animals. Exhausted, the members of the expedition had stopped on the way at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , near present-day Los Angeles. After a short respite, they headed north, traveling along the beautiful California coast, all the while marveling at the mild climate of Alta California, which was far more comfortable than the brutal heat of Lower ( Baja ) California. After 142 days, the expedition had traveled from Tubac to Monterey, a journey of more than 700 miles.
After a week's rest, Colonel Anza and Father Font left the expedition behind to scout locations for the new presidio and mission. A ship, the San Carlos , had recently returned from the Gran Puerto with new maps of the area. The San Carlos 's captain, Juan Manuel de Ayala, had spent seven weeks inside the harbor, drawing detailed maps of the interior. But the area was larger than anyone had thought possible—indeed, there were more than 1,600 square miles of water in the harbor. Anza and Font left Monterey in order to find suitable locations for the new presidio and mission. On March 27, 1776, Anza and Font approached the northernmost point of the San Francisco Peninsula. To the west they could see the Pacific Ocean, and on that particular day they could see the Farallon Islands, located more than 30 miles to the west. They hiked up a small rise and, as if in a dream, they were met with one of the most stunning vistas on Earth! Standing on the edge of a white cliff as a stiff north wind blew in their faces, Anza and Font looked down on the majestic Gran Puerto! It was far more glorious than even Ayala had described. In his diary, Father Font described the scene: The port of San Francisco is a marvel of nature, and might well be called the harbor of harbors … and I think that if it could be well settled like Europe, there would not be anything more beautiful in all the world, for it has the best advantages for founding it a most beautiful city, with all the conveniences desired, by land as well as by sea, with that harbor so remarkable and so spacious, in which may be established shipyards, docks, and anything that might be wished. 1
As Anza and Font gazed in wonder at the Gran Puerto, they knew that the hundreds of miles of arduous travel had been worth the effort. 1. Herbert Eugene Bolton, Outpost of Empire: The Story of the Founding of San Francisco (New York: Knopf, 1939), 333.
Exploration of Alta California
(1492–1603)

Until very recently, most histories of American colonization began their narratives with the arrival of Europeans. That is a troubling practice because, as is now known, what those Europeans found when they came to the "New World" were people. Those people had been living in that "New World" for thousands of years. For example, the Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus, when he landed in the "New World" on October 12, 1492, discovered that there were already residents living there. On Columbus's first landing, in the area of the Atlantic Ocean now known as the Bahamas, he was met on the beach by Arawak Indians.
Even the term Indian is problematic: Columbus gave these people the name "Indians" because he thought he had landed in India. Columbus had been trying to find a shortcut to India. Prior to Columbus's expedition, European traders had to sail all the way down the west coast of Africa to get to India, and Columbus believed that a westward route might be shorter. Consequently, when he reached the island of San Salvador, he believed the brown-skinned natives to be Indians. For centuries, the name stuck. Of course, Native Americans are not Indians, so many have been uncomfortable with that term for centuries. Nor, in fact, was the "New World" even "new": It was called "new" because it was "new" to the Europeans. To the people who had been living in the New World for generations and generations, the land seemed old.
Beginning on that fateful day in October 1492, Western (that is, European) expansion into the New World was a story of discovery, but it was also a story of displacement: Wherever the Westerner went in his expansion, he found native people already living there. And wherever the Westerner traveled in the New World, he founded settlements. Many times, the native inhabitants were forced to move or were even killed. Many of those European settlements still exist today. The English settlements of Jamestown (named after the English king James I) and Plymouth (named after an English seaport) are still around. The French colony of New Orleans (named after Philippe II, duke of Orleans, the regent of France at the time of its founding in 1718) is still one of the most famous cities in the United States. The settlement of St. Augustine in Florida is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the United States, founded by Spanish explorers in 1565.
This book is about the settlement known as Yerba Buena, a town that is now known as San Francisco, California. It is located in one of the most beautiful places in the world and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. San Francisco rests on the seven-mile-wide tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, located along the north-central coast of California. Situated on the northwestern tip of the peninsula is Fort Point, where the Golden Gate Bridge begins its 8,981-foot journey across the Golden Gate Strait, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula to Lime Point, the southern tip of Marin County. On the northeastern side of San Francisco Peninsula, the Bay Bridge crosses San Francisco Bay and connects the city to Oakland, California. No longer the tiny settlement of Yerba Buena, San Francisco today is a vibrant city—a thriving metropolis famous throughout the world for its diversity, heritage, and beauty.
Native Californians
Although many history books about Yerba Buena begin with the Western "discovery," this one will not. It will begin with the native populations who lived in the area surrounding San Francisco Bay for many centuries before Europeans arrived. According to archaeologist Robert F. Heizer, there were more than 50 Native American tribes in California at the time Europeans arrived. In the San Francisco Bay area, there were at least five known tribes: the Costanoan (Ohlone), Miwok, Patwin, Coast Miwok, and Wappo. 2 Along the central and north-central coast of California, the climate is mild, a factor reflected in the temperament and lifestyles of the Native Americans who lived there before the European conquests. According to historian James Rawls, in the centuries before colonization, Famine was unknown, for the oaks of the rich valley plains and rolling foothills produced acorns—the staple of the Indians' diet—in greater quantities than could be consumed. Likewise, berries, seeds, deer, elk, and waterfowl were available in bountiful supply … Housing varied from the reed-thatched shelters along the coast to the semisubterranean homes of the interior valleys, which were banked with earth for insulation. 3
In the San Francisco Bay area, the natives incorporated fish into their diet as well. The fishing culture necessitated boatbuilding. The most common type of boat, a "rush raft," was constructed of tule (pronounced "too-lee") rushes. Found commonly in the marshy areas around San Francisco Bay, tule is a common leafy plant that can grow to about nine feet in height, and its stalk can easily be man