aground for a time at San Diego, sailed north with the effects of the colony. Lying at anchor in Monterey, she broke her cables in a gale on the afternoon of December 21st, and was driven on the beach about two miles above the town, where she soon went to pieces. Three men lost their lives.[1]
There is a popular tradition that the Natalia was the same vessel on which Napoleon had escaped from Elba, in 1815. This statement is repeated by almost every writer who has mentioned the colony. No one presents any evidence in its support, but I am not able to prove its inaccuracy.[2]
The Morelos, with Padrés and the rest of the colonists, 120 in number, also had a narrow escape from shipwreck in a gale off Point Concepcion, according to the statement of Antonio Coronel; but she arrived safely at Monterey on September 25th, and the new-comers were as warmly welcomed at the capital as
- ↑ Record of day, hour, and place in Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., lxxix. 73-4. Janssens, Vida, MS., 41-4, gives a vivid description of the disaster and the efforts of the Montereyans to rescue the officers and crew. In these efforts a negro servant of Joaquin Gomez particularly distinguished himself, saving several lives by his own exertions. A part of the cargo was washed ashore, and much of it was stolen despite the efforts of a guard. The cook and two sailors were drowned, and the mate Cuevas was badly hurt. Híjar, Cal. en 1836, MS., 123-8, also gives some details. Many newspaper writers, perhaps following Taylor in Pacific Monthly, xi. 648-9, have stated since 1860 that parts of the wreck were still visible, having furnished building-material for over 30 years to the people of Monterey. One piece of newspaper eloquence, in 1878, when the timbers were still visible, merits quotation. 'The company, like the brig Natalia which brought them here, was wrecked, and the ribs of its records, like those of the old brig, can only be seen in the ebb of the tide of the present back to the beginning of the history of Sonoma County.' Sac. Record-Union, June 25, 1878.
- ↑ Híjar says that a French captain who visited the coast in 1846 declared the identity, and I think it likely that the tradition has no better foundation.
S. Juan Bautista. Serrano says some of the colonists endured great hardships on the way north, and that he and others determined to quit the colony and look out for themselves. Híjar also tells us that the colonists made firm friends of the neophytes as they passed along, by kind treatment and by sympathy for their sufferings under missionary tyranny. Moreover, Araujo, in a letter of Sept. 18th to Híjar, the director, says: 'I have already predisposed them (the neophytes] in our favor, explaining to them as well as I could how philosophically we are armed,' etc. Guerra, Doc., MS., vi. 154. Pico, Acontecimientos, MS., 25, recalls the arrival at Purísima, whence he helped convey them to S. Luis. Oct. 20th, Lieut-col. Gutierrez informs Figueroa that some of the colonists had done good service in quelling Indian disturbances. They were thanked in the name of the govt. St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., MS., ii. 281.
