doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

and was sustained by Serra when the matter came to his attention at Monterey. An excommunication
was a very serious thing, in those days, even with the military, and Rivera
was finally obliged to submit and return the Indian to Fuster.
Four Pamo chiefs concerned in this uprising, named Aaaran, Aalcuirin, Aachil,
and Taguagui, were convicted but pardoned upon promise of good behavior. Two years
later, at the time of an Indian scare, when it was reported that the hill tribes were making
arrows with the intention of again attacking the whites, Commandant Ortega sent a
message of warning, and Aaaran defiantly invited him to send his soldiers into the hills
Page 181
[View of Old San Diego]
to be slain. Eight soldiers went forth, surprised the savages at Pamo, killed two of them,
burned a few more, and flogged the rest. The four chiefs were taken to San Diego for
trial, along with 80 bows, 1500 arrows, and a large number of clubs. The men were
condemned to death and executed by shooting on the 11th day of April, 1778--the first
public execution in California. It turned out that this first execution was illegal, Ortega
having no right to inflict the death penalty without the approval of the governor.
After this, matters seem to have been quiet for several years. On October 30,
1824, an Indian was executed by shooting, his offense not being disclosed by the records.
Two years later, Lieutenant Ybarra, with a small force of Mazatlan men, had a
battle with the Indians and lost three men, while killing twenty-eight of the foe. After the
barbarous custom of the time, he sent in twenty pairs of ears. On April 23rd of this year,
an Indian who was an accomplice to the killing of three soldiers and a neophyte was
publicly executed. There was also a battle between the Indians of San Felipe Valley
and gentiles from the surrounding rancherías, in which eighteen of the hill Indians were
killed and their ears cut off.
The troubles and petty wars with the Indians during these years were chiefly due
to their raids on the missions and ranchos for the purpose of stealing horses and cattle.
Occasionally
Page 182
some of their number who had been at the missions returned to their old haunts and led
these raids. The rancheros got together after such a raid, and went into the hills in parties
of ten or twelve, well armed, to punish the thieves and recover the live stock. They
were usually successful in recovering the stolen property, but often had fierce fights in
which as many as eight or ten of the Indians were killed, as well as an occasional ranchero.
After the secularization of the missions, the condition of the Indians became very
miserable, and while large numbers of them continued to live in rancherías and to practice
the rude arts which they had learned of the missionaries, others were forced by
want, and doubtless also led by inclination, to get their living by joining in these raids.
When Alfred Robinson was here in January, 1832, they were in a miserable condition
and daily reports were received of robberies and murders. From February to June of the
following year there was much excitement due to rumors of a plot on the part of the Indians
to unite and seize the mission property. A corporal was sent with a small force to