doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

he published in 1832 told some remarkable stories. According to this veracious chronicler,
the form of the Presidio was "nearly circular, and it is surrounded by a wall about 20
feet in height, which forms the back sides of the houses. There are about 250 houses
erected in this manner, from one to two stories high, built of freestone and neatly finished.
There is also a large church, one nunnery, and a very neat little court-house. This
town contains about 1,500 inhabitants, principally natives of the coast." Does the reader
care for more? Well, it seems that while here, he and seven Spanish companions had a
desperate hand-to-hand conflict with fifty mounted Indian warriors of whom they killed
seventeen, while on a hunting expedition. Notwithstanding the gallant captain's evident
weakness for drawing a long bow, his statement that a whale boat was built during his
stay here is perhaps entitled to belief.
In December, 1826, the American explorer and trapper, Jedediah S. Smith, and
party, who had crossed the desert, following down the Colorado river and reached San
Gabriel, were brought to San Diego to be dealt with by Governor Echeandía. They had
a somewhat unfriendly reception, but were allowed to secure supplies and depart. The
accounts of this visit do not seem to include anything of interest regarding the town or
people of San Diego.
The next visitor was the French Captain Duhaut-Cilly, who came in 1827 and
liked the harbor better than the town. He writes that the port is "without doubt the best in
all California," safer than that of San Francisco even, and that this is due to natural advantages
rather than to artificial improvements. He continues: "A sad place is the Presidio
of San Diego, the saddest of all that we had visited in California, except San Pedro.
It is built on the slope of an arid hill and has no regular form. It is a shapeless mass
of houses, all the more gloomy because of the dark color of the bricks of which they are
rudely constructed. Under the presidio on a sandy plain are seen thirty or forty scattered
houses of poor appearance and a few gardens badly cultivated."
The American, James O. Pattie, claimed to have spent the greater part of the
year 1828 in the Presidio prison, and afterward published a narrative in which he described
only his prison, thus: "My prison was a cell eight or ten feet square, with walls
and floors of stone. A door with iron bars an inch square like the bars of window sashes,
and it grated on its iron hinges as it opened to receive me. Over the external front of
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this prison was inscribed in capital letters Destinacion de la Cattivo."
The episode of the Pattie party in 1828 is a most interesting one and not as well
known as it deserves to be. These eight Americans occupied a prison on Presidio hill for
several months, and the leader died there. The feeling of the Californians was not particularly
hostile to Americans, perhaps rather less so than to Spaniards; but all foreigners
were regarded with suspicion and kept under as strict a surveillance as the inefficient
administration of the time could contrive. The earlier visits of sea rovers on the
coast were now being followed up by incursions of trappers and semi-military parties
from the interior. Many books had appeared giving glowing accounts of the country, and
the mysterious ichor in the blood of the American pioneer which still draws him ever toward
the setting sun was full of potency. The Californians had just cause for alarm, as
events soon proved. Some acts of violence and injustice resulted, at other places, notably
the arrest and deportation to Tepic of a large number of foreigners at Monterey and
other places in 1840. But on the whole, considering the volatile temperament of the rul-