The Forty-Niners | Page 4

what to us are necessities. We see why he could display such admirable
carriage in rough-riding and lassoing grizzlies, and yet seemed to
possess such feeble military efficiency. We comprehend his generous
hospitality coupled with his often narrow and suspicious cruelty. In fact,
all the contrasts of his character and action begin to be clear. His
displacement was natural when confronted by a people who, whatever
their serious faults, had wants and desires that came from within, who
possessed the instinct to create and to hold the things that would gratify
those desires, and who, in the final analysis, began to care for other
men's opinions only after they had satisfied their own needs and
desires.

CHAPTER II
THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
From the earliest period Spain had discouraged foreign immigration
into California. Her object was neither to attract settlers nor to develop
the country, but to retain political control of it, and to make of it a
possible asylum for her own people. Fifty years after the founding of
the first mission at San Diego, California had only thirteen inhabitants
of foreign birth. Most of these had become naturalized citizens, and so
were in name Spanish. Of these but three were American!
Subsequent to 1822, however, the number of foreign residents rapidly
increased. These people were mainly of substantial character,

possessing a real interest in the country and an intention of permanent
settlement. Most of them became naturalized, married Spanish women,
acquired property, and became trusted citizens. In marked contrast to
their neighbors, they invariably displayed the greatest energy and
enterprise. They were generally liked by the natives, and such men as
Hartnell, Richardson, David Spence, Nicholas Den, and many others,
lived lives and left reputations to be envied.
Between 1830 and 1840, however, Americans of a different type began
to present themselves. Southwest of the Missouri River the ancient
town of Santa Fé attracted trappers and traders of all nations and from
all parts of the great West. There they met to exchange their wares and
to organize new expeditions into the remote territories. Some of them
naturally found their way across the western mountains into California.
One of the most notable was James Pattie, whose personal narrative is
well worth reading. These men were bold, hardy, rough, energetic, with
little patience for the refinements of life--in fact, diametrically opposed
in character to the easy-going inhabitants of California. Contempt on
the one side and distrust on the other were inevitable. The trappers and
traders, together with the deserters from whalers and other ships,
banded together in small communities of the rough type familiar to any
observer of our frontier communities. They looked down upon and
despised the "greasers," who in turn did everything in their power to
harass them by political and other means.
At first isolated parties, such as those of Jedediah Smith, the Patties,
and some others, had been imprisoned or banished eastward over the
Rockies. The pressure of increasing numbers, combined with the rather
idle carelessness into which all California-Spanish regulations seemed
at length to fall, later nullified this drastic policy. Notorious among
these men was one Isaac Graham, an American trapper, who had
become weary of wandering and had settled near Natividad. There he
established a small distillery, and in consequence drew about him all
the rough and idle characters of the country. Some were trappers, some
sailors; a few were Mexicans and renegade Indians. Over all of these
Graham obtained an absolute control. They were most of them of a
belligerent nature and expert shots, accustomed to taking care of

themselves in the wilds. This little band, though it consisted of only
thirty-nine members, was therefore considered formidable.
A rumor that these people were plotting an uprising for the purpose of
overturning the government aroused Governor Alvarado to action. It is
probable that the rumors in question were merely the reports of boastful
drunken vaporings and would better have been ignored. However, at
this time Alvarado, recently arisen to power through the usual
revolutionary tactics, felt himself not entirely secure in his new position.
He needed some distraction, and he therefore seized upon the rumor of
Graham's uprising as a means of solidifying his influence--an expedient
not unknown to modern rulers. He therefore ordered the prefect Castro
to arrest the party. This was done by surprise. Graham and his
companions were taken from their beds, placed upon a ship at
Monterey, and exiled to San Blas, to be eventually delivered to the
Mexican authorities. There they were held in prison for some months,
but being at last released through the efforts of an American lawyer,
most of them returned to California rather better off than before their
arrest. It is typical of the vacillating Californian policy of the day that,
on their return, Graham and