Dawn and the Dons/THE ANZA TRAIL
CHAPTER VIII
THE ANZA TRAIL
WITH Mission and Presidio established, attention was turned to colonization, the necessity for which was imperative if California was to be held against rival encroachment. But the difficulties of colonization proved not only great, but for a time, seemingly insurmountable.
Colonization meant men and women; it meant live stock, particularly horses, cattle and sheep; it meant agricultural implements, rude though they were in that day; it meant seed for the production of food; in brief, it meant all those things that make for permanence in the settlement of a new land.
Now the only immediately available means by which these essentials could be transported to Monterey, the seat of the new colony, were sailboats of such limited tonnage, so few in number, and of such uncertainty because of scurvy, storms and sailing time consumed, that reliance upon them was speedily seen to be entirely out of the question. As Chapman expressed it, “The ships were too small and frail, and the perils of the sea too great for families of colonists or herds of domestic animals to be sent out in them.” The suggested plan of marching overland from the southern end of Lower California—the most accessible point by boat from the mainland of Mexico—was not feasible. Father Serra, when informed of the plan, pointed out that the supply trains necessary would require so many mules and muleteers that it would be impossible for the accompanying families of colonists and their domestic animals to find food and water along the arid and desolate route in the weary months of march before reaching San Diego. Moreover, there remained the problem of getting these mule trains, muleteers, colonists, live stock and supplies from Mexico to Lower California by boat, the same sea problem already described. Again quoting Chapman, “The short voyage across the stormy gulf to Baja California was only slightly less difficult. Writing in August, 1771, Father Verger said that five boats had already been lost that year in attempting to reach the peninsula. A sixth left San Blas on February second, and did not reach Loreto until August twentythird, having meanwhile been blown nearly to Panama.” That same year the San Antonio required sixty-eight days to get as far as San Diego, by which time practically the entire crew was down with scurvy.
So slow was the progress of colonization that in 1773, three years after the establishment of the Mission and Presidio of Monterey, the total white population of California, mainly centered at Monterey, was less than a hundred, and the total of domestic animals of all kinds Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/94 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/95 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/96 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/97 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/98 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/99 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/100