Argonauts of California

The California Chamber of Commerce paints the state as a land of sunshine and white sandy beaches. But there are also many rugged cliffs, heavy fog cover, stormy seas, treacherous tides, powerful currents, and underwater hazards such as rocks and shoals. The early Spanish explorers were faced with all of these elements, known and unknown.

This book outlines a few of the little known events from California's history. It is not a history book, but rather a book about a short segment in the development of the state prior to 1860. It has been claimed by many that San Francisco Bay is one of the world's most beautiful harbors, but why did it take over two hundred years after the discovery of California for Spanish and English sailing ships to finally enter the Golden Gate? In fact it was not sailors that first saw this excellent anchorage, but rather Spanish soldiers on a land expedition that had traveled north from San Diego. There is a story of a pirate with a black-hulled sailing vessel that left Argentina, sailed across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, finally reached California and immediately began to burn and loot the capital.

History books tell how gold was discovered on one sunny Sunday morning in January, 1848, but knowledgeable people knew about gold deposits many years before. Both the American and Mexican governments had tried to keep it a secret.

A United States Marine officer pretended to be a crippled Cuban businessman on his way to China while, in fact, he was an American spy traversing Mexico. He was attempting to coordinate military action in California while serving as the personal messenger of the American president. There is a story about General Kearny, who led an American army westward only to be defeated by a handful of Mexican caballeros at the Battle of San Pasqual. The general and his men were surrounded for several days and resorted to eating their mules before being rescued by U.S. Navy sailors and Marines from San Diego.

These are only a few of the exciting events that took place in early California in what wasthen a far-off and relatively silent part of the world. These stories and many others will be told in the pages of this book. Events are never quite as portrayed in the official history books, and this volume is intended to give some background, color, and alternative interpretation to the events that shaped California's history.