Father Short, writing from Valparaiso in February 1840, asks friend Hartnell: “Is Mr. Forbes of San Jose the author of the new History of California?” He likes certain extracts he has seen and is confused, like many others, by the fact that the man who wrote such a knowledgeable book never once visited the territory. The long-time resident, James Alexander Forbes, was a well-educated Scot who seemed a more logical historian than the Tepic trader. So the question is natural.
Following Patrick Short’s note up the coast came one from the author written to Hartnell on April 27, 1840:
‘I do not know if the book I took into my head to write about California has ever reached you – for this reason I take the opportunity by the French Man of War to send one. Captain Rosamel has kindly promised to take charge of it. You who know of course much more than I can possibly do of the country you live in, will doubtless find many things incorrect – many things overrated, and in short scores of blunders, and perhaps false notions of the capabilities of California. All I can say is, that what I have stated has been from conviction of its truth and taken from the best authorities I could procure, both oral and written. The book has been much noticed in all the periodical publications in England. But if you will plainly let me know your opinion it will be of more value with me than any other, as few can know so much on the subject as yourself. I also send a book of steam from friend Wyllie.’
The concluding portion of Forbes’s book is on the subject of steam and the wonderful possiblities of trade in the Pacific when there shall be a railroad, or perhaps a canal, across the Isthmus of Panama; also a line of steamers operating regularly along the western coast of the Americas and out to the Sandwich Isles, Manila and Canton. Only then will California fulfill her destiny.
Protestant Forbes gives credit to the mission fathers for good character and industrious habits. However, in the end he condemns their system and decries its results. His fellow countrymen, downtrodden and overcrowded at home, can take hope when he says:
‘I do not despair that the time will come when prudent men will be sent among the heathens, carrying with them Bibles and tracts certainly, but also agricultural and manufacturing implements and useful mechanical inventions, with instructions to reclaim the savages by the fascination of a more comfortable, worldly existence.’
Father Patrick’s favorable opinion of the book, derived from extracts, must have changed with perusal of the whole. The aims of padre and trader were diametrically opposed, and would forever be. Herbert Priestly, writing the foreward to a reprint of Forbes’s book one hundred years after first publication, calls it “a monument to the struggle of British imperialists to turn the tide of history into their own channels, against the reluctance of their own Foreign Office, the onrush of the swarming Yankees, and the hopes of the no less covetous French.”
William Hartnell reeceived a first edition of this explosive volume from the hands of a French naval officer. On June 11, 1840, Captain Rosamel, commanding the sloop of war Danaide, entered the Bay of Monterey with open ports, ready to fire.
In the south a wild rumor had reached him of an insurrection of Californians against all foreigners. Two Frenchmen, he heard , had been killed, and others severely wounded. The Captain was rushing in to avenge his country’s honor, to demand satisfaction. With representatives of Great Britain and the United States he would be drawn into the aftermath of the notorious Graham affair. This had started as a local fracas no more important than a number which had occurred in California during the revolutionary thirties. But it attained international importance because of its moment in time.
Isaac Graham was the crude backwoodsman who had assisted Alvarado into the governor’s seat in 1836. For a time Alvarado kept his campaign promises, showing gratitude to Graham and his following of lawless trappers and deserters from various coastal vessels. But this group, to which Belcher alluded as “a bandit gang,” presumed upon the connection in a way that gave offense to the Governor. Even the New Englander, Alfred Robinson, was sympathetic when Alvarado complained to him:
‘I was insulted at every turn by the drunken followers of Graham. When walking in the garden, they would come to the wall and call to me with excessive familiarity: “Ho! Bautista,, come here, I want to speak to you.” Bautista here, Bautista there, and Bautista everywhere!’
A multiplication of annoying incidents strained Alvarado’s patience to the breaking point. Also he commenced to fear the double influx, from over the mountains and across the seas, of more of Graham’s kind, few of Robinson’s, from the United States. He feared that California might become another Texas, where the uprising against Mexican government (in 1836) and subsequent state of independence had been attended with much lawlessness and the introduction of Negro slavery.
Early in April 1840, Padre del Real of San Carlos warned the Governor of an intended uprising of American residents in the vicinity of Monterey. The plot had been revealed to him in confessional by a foreigner on the point of death. At an emergency meeting of the junta, called on April 4, further evidence was introduced. Though mostly circumstantial, it sufficed to arouse the legislative body. The Governor was cheered when he cried that the presumption of the foreigners called for punishment. Following the meeting, by Alvarado’s orders, General Vallejo started a roundup of suspicious characters who had entered and were living unlawfully in California. The worst offenders, equal numbers of Americans and British subjects, were carried away on the Guipuzcoana to trial in Tepic. And peace settled over the country, for a few weeks.
From this incident grew the most fantastic stories of abuse and torture to person and despoliation to property of all foreigners in California, and so on, and so on. It was overlooked that respected British and American subjects like Robinson, Hartnell, Cooper, Spence, and Larkin continued to go about their business and remained friendly and sympathetic with Governor Alvarado. The few troublemakers who remembered these men attacked them vituperatively in memoirs and newspaper articles.
Thomas Jefferson Farnham became a prime offender in falsifying and magnifying the Graham affair. He was a grandilloquent lawyer from Maine who happened to arrive in Monterey in the midst of the excitement. Unfortunately, when calling by custom at the Hartnell home, he found Don Guillermo out of town, thus losing the opportunity of calm discussion with a fair-minded man. To Hartnell he penned his disappointment in not meeting so rare a creature as “an enlightened gentleman on these distant seas.” He continued:
‘I had anticipated, among other advantages to be derived from an interview with you, Sir, the obtainment of a true history of the California history . . . . . I am convinced your intimate knowledge, high attainments and unprejudiced judgment would have enabled you to give me my desire to obtain this knowledge.’
Thwarted in his ambition to pick Hartnell’s brains, Farnham turned to other sources for his writings, or his ravings, on the California scene. His description of Graham shows the sort of influence under which Farnham fell. It was well known that the trapper had been deported from Tennessee for crimes committed there, and in California his reputation among old-timers was of the worst. Really a drunk, a bully, possibly an assasin, Graham received an accolade from Farnham, his fellow countryman:
‘A bold, open-handed man, nver concealing for an instant either his love or hatred, but with the frankness and generosity of those great souls, rough-hewn but majestically honest, who belong to the valley states. He told the governor his sins from time to time, and demanded in the authoritative tone of an elder brother, that he should redeem his pledges. The good old man did not remember that a Spaniard would have lost his nationality had he done so. A Spaniard tell the truth! A Spaniard ever grateful for services rendered him!’
Unfortunately Farnham’s account of the Graham affair was widely read in the States, and it encouraged racial prejudice, heaping kindling on the conflagration already started in California.
In contrast to Farnham’s incendiarisms are the peacemaking efforts of another American, Thomas Oliver Larkin, resident in California since 1832. He had come from Massachusetts to join his half brother, Captain Cooper, in coastal trade. His home became an American outpost after his marriage to the Widow Holmes, first woman from the States to live in California, and first to bear a yanqui child. Mr. Larkin cherished his citizenship. He never became a Mexican by naturalization, but remained the ideal American, well disposed to all nationalities. With great industry and good nature he attended to the needs of fellow countrymen involved in the Graham affair, aiding the naval captain, French Forrest, in gathering dispositions, feeding from his own kitchen all Americans being held for questioning in Monterey, offering to stand bail for several; and finally, from Alvarado’s account, welcoming those who returned exonerated from trial in Mexico. He even kept a few in his own home for months on end, which infuriated the fire-eating Californians of his acquaintance.
Larking received calumny from both sides for his humane, impartial attitude. Americans, influenced by the Farnham type of propaganda, resented Larkin’s continuing friendship with “dastardly Spaniards,” while the native Californians felt he was going too far in offering the hospitality of his home to such uncouth creatures as they believed Americans to be (excepting the Larkin family, Alfred Robinson, and a very few others).
The French Captain Rosamel was not allowed to remain long in error about the Graham affair. Calling to deliver Forbes’s book, he found Hartnell at home. Straightway he learned the true circumstances, and was reassured that no French lives had been lost, indeed that the few Frenchmen called up for questioning had quickly been released. The gentlemanly Rosamel apologized for his warlike entry into Monterey Bay and, with other officers of the Danaide, started on the round of gaiety offered to every visiting Frenchman from the time of La Perouse to Petit-Thouars and Pierre Laplace in recent years.
The American Captain Phelps of the Alert, in harbor at the same time as the Danaide, looked on the love feast with a jaundiced eye. He later announced in Fore and Aft that “the Frenchman was much disappointed not to fire on the town.” Incidentally, he confessed that French naval officers won all the ladies away from the Americans, paying such ardent court, even in church, that the padre protested.
Some time in November, a British man-o-war called the Curacao (Captain Jones) arrived in Monterey to effect a settlement of British claims. It was rumored that total conpensation amounted to $24,000. But skeptical old Bancroft says: “If they received one half of the sum the exile had proved a brilliant speculation for the Englishman!” Those of Graham’s men, British and American, who could get their papers in order below the border trickled back into Alta California. Only a few incorrigibles were forbidden the country, and interest in the whole affair died a natural death as more significant events occurred in quick succession.
In August 1840, Thomas Larkin received a warning from his friend Francis Johnson, supercargo on the Don Quixote, writing from Honolulu. The great and powerful Hudson’s Bay Company was hatching a plan, said Johnson, to monopolize the trade in all the north Pacific, and even then was loading a specially built vessel in England with a multitude of goods to be sold at very low prices, the intention being to undercut free-lancing traders like himself, Larkin, Cooper, and Spence, on the west coast and among the Sandwich Islands.
Larkin did not pay much attention to Johnson’s letter, other than to pass it around without comment. He still was occupied with the settlement of American claims in connection with the Graham affair. But all his friends became highly excited on New Year’s Day, 1841, when the Columbia of the Hudson’s Bay Company sailed grandly into Monterey harbor. She carried a large, assorted cargo Larkin’s vecinos felt themselves forewarned of a dastardly scheme, and this is the explanation of an introductory remark in the journal kept by the chief factor of that company.
Sir James Douglas requested the services of David Spence, to act as his interpreter in conferences with Governor Alvarado. To his diary he confessed: “There was something wrong, some lurking suspicion of fancied encroachments or mediated deception” which caused Spence “to receive us with a sort of reserved courtesy that made us feel rather uncomfortable.”
Since Douglas’ aims seemed modest, he soon allayed suspicion. During an audience with the Governor, he declared that company personnel engaged in trade on the California coast would at all times observe the Mexican law, even beccome Mexican citizens, and sail under Mexican colors, if in that way certain commercial restrictions could be avoided. He asked to bring to California a party not exceeding thirty persons, to hunt beaver, and requested some land in or near San Francisco for Hudson’s Bay Company needs.
Governor Alvarado called on William Hartnell to help in composition of his reply. After a polite preamble, all the company’s requests were approved with one reservation; the thirty British beaver hunters must be reduced to half that number, “the Company to fill in the balance with native ones, so they might learn this trade.” Only in case ineptitude be shown by los hijos del pais could more Britishers be brought in.
And so after years of friendly but not intimate relations with California, the Hudson’s Bay Company established a foothold. Sir James Douglas spent three weeks in Monterey, attending bailes and meriendas with Spence and Hartnell. He kept a journal, never published or even completed, which contains a vivid, accurate account of California’s social and commercial life in the early ’40s.
Accompanying Sir James as passengers on the Columbia were thirty-six men. Some professed to be trappers, and others planned to drive a herd of California cattle overland to the Hudson’s Bay Company establishment on the Columbia River. Douglas confided to his diary: “We have also other objects of a political nature in view, which may or may not succeed.”
With a dozen of his party, the chief factor made the trip overland from Monterey to San Francisco where land had been granted to the company according to his request. He mentions being sumptuously entertained on the way by Senor Hartnell at his Rancho del Alisal on El Camino Real. Douglas introduced his host to a convivial fellow, “a gentleman of high confidence in the Hudson’s Bay Company Service.” This was William Glen Rae, who became a real friend to William Hartnell. Following conferences among the three Britishers, an annoucement came from Alisal that Rae would remain in California as ranking company officials. As his aide he chose another Scot named James Alexander Forbes (the man often confused with the author of a history of California).
The speech of Rae and Forbes smacked of the old country, and induced nostalgia in their host Rae was not long away from home, and Forbes, after many years in Spanish-speaking countries, retained a broad Scottish burr. Since 1836 he had acted as agent for the Hudson’s Bay Company with headquarters at San Jose, where he also engaged in general trade and ranching. Rae was young for his responsible position, only twenty-six, but with the aid of his more experienced compatriots, Forbes and Hartnell, he established and maintained excellent relationships with the Mexican officials.
There was one man with whose authority he many times collided, and finally he called upon Governor Alvarado to settle his dispute with “Captain” John Augustus Sutter. This German-Swiss adventurer, soon to become world-famous when gold was discovered upon his property, even now was extending his “empire” out from the Sacramento Valley to include the Russian settlement at Ross. He resented the intrusion of the Hudson’s Bay Company trappers within the confines of his New Helvetia and ran them off wherever he found them. To Alvarado, Rae complained on November 1, 1841 (translation form the Spanish):
‘Captain Sutter is determined to opposed the permission your Excellency was pleased to grant the Coy. to send a party to trap in California. In the full confidence that your Excellency’s authority to J. F. Douglas would not be disputed – the Hudson’s Bay Coy. have sent a party at a very heavy expense to trap in California who I expect to arrive every hour . . . . I take the liberty to request that your Excellency will forward me an order to Capt. Sutter not to interfere with the Hudson Bay Company’s trappers.
Officials of the company received a shock when Sutter bought outright the Russian properties at Ross. Several years back, these had been offered to the British concern but turned down because the status quo seemed so satisfactory. As the Russians continued to lose money and interest in theri California colony, the Hudson’s Bay Company trappers roved at will in the overgrown wilderness which once had been an extension of the czar’s vast empire. It seemed unnecessary to assume a heavy financial burden in order to acquire hunting privileges they already enjoyed.
Sutter’s landholding in the wilderness went unnoticed for a while, until he actually ordered the company trappers off “his” property. This was too much, thought Rae. But he found Alvarado uninterested in what was happening so far away, and the sale could not be disputed. Sutter was acting within his rights.
William Hartnell had known for several years that Russia planned to relinquish her hold on California. Early in 1837 Khlebnikov had written to tell him of von Wrangell’s return to St. Petersburg and subsequent appointment to His Majesty’s navy as a rear admiral. The baron himself had come to Monterey in December 1835, in a final attempt to secure trade and hunting privileges for the Russians along the California coast. He had been bitterly disappointed to find Figueroa dead and California in a state of near anarchy which dashed his hopes of prosperous interchange for years to come. From Doctor Kouprianov, von Wrangell’s successor as governor of Russian America and manager of the Russian-American Fur Company, Hartnell heard in time that “His Majesty, the Emperor of all the Russias, has decided to abandon the settlement of Ross.” The Czar’s Monterey representative was offered first choice to buy “some of the stores belonging to the Company.” Not being in a position to do this himself, Don Guillermo referred the opportunity to Captain Cooper, who long had engaged in trade with his Russian neighbours.
Presently the site of Fort Ross and adjacent ranchos were offered for sale to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Finally, on December 19, 1841, Governor Alvarado received a letter in Spanish from the Russian governor saying:
‘On my last visit to Monterey [from Ross, where the governor had stopped on a final inspection tour] I had the honor to inform you that my intentions were to sell Ross, with its goods and chattels, to some private individuals in California. Your answer was that there were no objections on your part. I take pleasure now in advising you that Ross has been sold to Capt. J. Sutter, naturalized Mexican citizen. [And though] the Russian-American Company is absolutely confident of the payment by Mr. Sutter . . . his settlement on the Sacramento River, called New Helvetia, set up y permit from the Government of California and legalized by proper documents, remains as security, with all its goods and chattels. Also, all the settlements on Bodega and the Ranchos Khlebnikov and Tschernikh, which Mr. Sutter wishes to keep intact in his possession, will serve as further security.’
Though the sale was valid, the Captain could not police the wilderness that composed the greater part of his “empire.” Sutter’s men and Hudson’s Bay Company trappers continued for years on their separate paths, sniping at each other from time to time. No serious consequences attended such guerilla warfare.
In 1842 the Hudson’s Bay Company agent, James Alexander Forbes, received an appointment from Mexico City to act as British vice-consul in Monterey. This was the identical office which William Hartnell had filled for so many years, without official sanction. No acknowledgment was made at this time, or any other time, of Hartnell’s unselfish service. That the slight was intentional is indicated by Cousin Robert Wyllie:
‘I much regret that any misrepresentation should have prevented you from obtaining the appointment of H. M. Vice Consul for California, for which I consider you were so well qualified. Of Mr. Forbes I know nothing, but I presume he also is a capable man.’
It could further be presumed that, because of Forbes recognized affiliation with the Hudson’s Bay Company, power politics dictated the decision. At any rate, says Wyllie to comfort his disappointed cousin, “Your present situation of Vista to the Customhouse may be more profitable, if not more honourable to your, that the Vice Consulship, for which I do not suppose that more than 200 pounds, or at most 300 pounds a year, will be allowed.”
Since Hartnell often served as interpreter to important people entering Monterey harbor, he was first to interview Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, commanding the United States fleet in the Pacific. Don Guillermo asked the American what he meant by firing on the town and lowering the Mexican flag to the dust (on October 19, 1842). Jones explained his conviction, from secret orders and circumstantial evidence, that a state of war already existed between the United States and Mexico, and that California soon would be ceded to England. It was to save the Californians from such a fate that he “captured” their capital.
Without a struggle, capital officials signed articles of capitulation, and the Stars and Stripes waved languidly over Monterey during the queer, rudderless interlude before Jones discovered and acknowledged his mistake. Alvarado retired to his country place at Alisal, leaving Don Manuel Jimeno as acting governor to await the arrival of Don Manuel Micheltorena, even now on his way up the coast to relieve Alvarado of the supreme command. Mexico City never had approved Don Juan’s seizure of power in 1837, or his subsequent contests with his own uncles, Carillo and Vallejo. Senora Jimeno says, in her Ocurrencias:
‘When Micheltorena first came to California Alvarado showed no inclination to give up the Government; he did not definitely say so but you could see he did not want to. However, after Jones took over Monterey, he became willing – even happy to shed the responsibility.’
Hartnell did not join the Alvarados and his own family at Alisal but remained in town with the Jimenos. He continued his task of interpretation, even helping the Commodore to compose a formal apology and dispatch it by courier to General Micheltorena lingering in Los Angeles. The next month, after a fiesta had been given by Micheltorena as a sign of forgiveness to the impulsive American, Hartnell accpeted a paid position from Jones, at $5 a day, to act as his interpreter in court. The Commodore had as his original purpose in coming to Monterey the order to settle peacefully all claims of American citizens dating back to the Graham affair.
[Transcription of Susanna Bryant Dakin's 1949 history of Alta California,
The Lives of William Hartnell, pages 245 - 255]
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