PRE-PORTOLA SPANISH CONTACTS WITH THE CHUMASH

Our history lessons tell about Spanish contact with the Chumash by the Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo expedition of 1542, the Sebastian Vizcaino voyage of 1602, the Portola expeditions of 1769 and 1770 and the de Anza expedition a few years later. But when you dig deeper into this poorly recorded early period of contact, what emerges is a fuzzy portrait of periodic contact with the Spanish and other Europeans. Word of these contacts and a collective memory that something strange, exotic and excitingly different lay somewhere out to sea - beyond the horizon - must have been known by every coastal Chumash for a period of 200 years before settlement by the peoples of New Spain occurred. It must have been a time of exciting rumors and speculation. There must have been a sense that something was about to happen. Certainly, the effects of small pox, typhoid fever and venereal diseases must have taken a heavy toll on the indigenous people long before the event of the mission period of settlement..

Prior to colonization, Manila galleons used the Japanese and the California currents as the quickest route to Mexico. (They took the “trade wind” route, just north of the Equator, back to Manila.) That route took those vessels through the Santa Barbara Channel. Manila galleons came to Mexico at least every few years. Those ships needed to stop along the coast of California to make repairs, and to take on water and other provisions. Yet, those contacts have largely gone unreported - I suppose because they were not “voyages of discovery”. One petroglyph from Jalama Bay (CA-SBr-609) appears to show a three-masted ship with ratlines. The early vessels of discovery up the coast from New Spain were undecked and two masted. So, the petroglyph probably represents a Manila galleon.

Francis Drake, the English pirate, wintered over in California in 1578-79, presumably, according to his recorded latitude, in Drakes Bay. The discovery in the Goleta Slough of three cannon and one anchor, which fit the description of items left behind by Drake, suggests that he may have had a stay of many months in Chumash territory.

The first recorded stop by a Manila galleon occurred in 1587, when a ship commanded by Pedro de Unamuno stopped in Morro Bay. He had a violent encounter with the Indians. Another contact occurred in 1595 when Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno stopped in San Luis Obispo Bay. Indeed, the 1602 Vizcaino voyage had as its objective the mapping of ports along the Alta California coast suitable as respites for Manila galleons.

Hints of other ships are recorded. One shipwreck, believed to be a Manila galleon, is recorded off of the northwest coast of San Miguel Island. Another shipwreck occurred off the north coast of Santa Catalina Island, just outside of Chumash territory. The Spanish attempted salvage of the vessel’s cargo in 1601 and 1603. The Indians told Vizcaino about a shipwreck, perhaps the same one, during his visit of 1602. The salvage attempts imply that at least part of the crew manage to sail a small boat on to Baja California. Finally, an old sailor told a Bancroft historian that in 1872 he opened a Spanish grave on Santa Cruz Island that was marked by a wooden headboard dated 1660. Evidence of other wrecks of galleons are recorded elsewhere along the California/Oregon coast. Bits and pieces of Chinese blue wear continue to wash up on the beach at Drakes Bay north of San Francisco.

All of this is evidence of a silent history of frequent contacts with the Indians of California and the Chumash prior to Spanish settlement. It was the beginning of worlds in collision - a collective event that the Chumash would not survive.

Mike Kuhn

11-25-04