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CHAPTER FOURTEEN John B. Charbonneau
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117 Baptiste had not seen the last of Mission San Luis Rey. General Kearny was mistaken when he believed he was being sent ahead to California to assume command of a defeated enemy. The Mexicans still held everything between San Diego and Santa Barbara, and his men would have to fight every inch of the way. The Mormon Battalion was sent back to the deserted mission with orders to clean it up, garrison it as a military post and hold it against the enemy if need be. In July, 1847, when U.S. forces finally took California, the mission was made headquarters of the Indian subagency for the southern military district, with Baptiste’s friend Captain Hunter in charge. The battalion’s commanders also recognized Baptiste’s ability to be more than a guide. On November 24, acting military governor Richard B. Mason sent Colonel J. D. Stevenson, commander of the district, a blank appointment for “alcalde,” or justice of the peace, of the sub-agency, leaving a blank to be filled in with Baptiste’s name or any other name. Baptiste got the job, most likely on the recommendation of Hunter.1 John B. Charbonneau CHAPTER FOURTEEN Chapter Fourteen 118 It seemed like pleasant duty. The cleaned-up mission, complete with two large vineyards and a reservoir for bathing and washing , lay in a fertile valley near the present city of Oceanside, about fifty miles north of San Diego. But problems came with Baptiste’s job. Under the orders of Colonel Mason, as relayed by Lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman, (later to become famous for his merciless march through Georgia as a Union general in the Civil War) Baptiste was to help Hunter take protective charge of the Indians living at the mission, “draw them gradually to habits of order” and prevent them from “leading an idle, thriftless life.” The Indians were paid twelve and one-half cents per day, presumably in addition to their board. The payment was seldom in cash, but generally in goods from a store and liquor shop three doors away from the mission church. If they ran up a bill exceeding the amount they had coming for their work, they would be required to work it off. Records showed that by far the greater part of purchases at the store was for brandy, whiskey or wine. Essentially, the laborers were being paid in liquor.2 It was part of Baptiste’s day’s work on April 24, 1848, to sentence a Luiseno Indian named Fulgencio to work off a debt of $51.37 and one-half cent to liquor store proprietor Jose Antonio Pico at the rate of his twelve and one-half cent daily wages. Such treatment made the Indians restive, and Baptiste was accused of being involved in a planned insurrection. He denied the charge in a statement that he gave under the name “John B. Charbonneau of St. Louis.” In letters written in Spanish and English as alcalde, he was signing himself “J. B. Charbonneau.” He resigned after less than a year, saying his Indian blood made it impossible for him to be impartial. Colonel Stevenson said that Baptiste had served diligently but “being a half-breed Indian of the U.S. is regarded by the people as favoring Indians more than he should do, and hence there is much complaint against him.”3 Hunter also offered to resign, but was given a six months’ leave [52.205.218.160] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 07:36 GMT) John B. Charbonneau 119 of absence instead, beginning December 17, 1848. His leave came in hectic times. Eleven months earlier, a carpenter named James W. Marshall had found gold nuggets in a mill race on the American River in northern California, setting off the gold rush of 1849. Baptiste, very likely accompanied by Hunter, joined it and was reunited with his old companion Jim Beckwourth. The fabled mountain man had set out across country from Stockton in the unlikely role of clothing salesman and set up shop in Sonora, a thriving tent city of nearly 2,000 in the midst of the richest diggings . 4 Riding into Murderer’s Bar on theAmerican River’s North Fork, Beckwourth found his old friend Baptiste keeping house there and moved in with him until the rainy season came. In addition to going partners in a mining venture, the pair may have run the house as a sort of hotel. Traveler James Haley White, who claimed to have...