The Russians Come to San Francisco, 1816:

Accounts by Captain Otto von Kotzebue, Adelbert von Chamisso, and Louis Choris

In 1816, Otto von Kotzebue, accompanied by his botanist Adelbert Chamisso and artist-illustrator Louis Choris, entered San Francisco Bay  in his vessel Rurik for the purpose of reconnoitering for his employer, the Russian government. The Russians were sizing up the prospects for colonization and trade in northern California. They had already established Fort Ross in the north, and were looking to expand southward into San Francisco Bay and beyond.

In Kotzebue’s writings we can feel the contempt of the civilized Western adventurer for both the Spanish conquerors (excepting the Presidio horsemen) and the vanquished, converted Native Americans. Kotzebue also describes the Californios’ notorious bull and bear fights which, according to another early visitor to the Bay Area, “were the everlasting topic of conversation with the Californians, who indeed have very little else to talk about.”

From the Diary of Otto von Kotzebue

“Little Light”

“Precisely at ten we entered the Mission Dolores, where we already found several hundred half-naked Indians kneeling, who, though they understand neither Spanish nor Latin, are never permitted after their conversion to absent themselves from mass. As the missionaries do not trouble themselves to learn the language of the Indians, I cannot conceive in what manner they have been instructed in the Christian religion; and there is probably but little light in the heads and hearts of these poor creatures, who can do nothing but imitate the external ceremonies which they observe by the eye.”

“Out of Tune”

“I was surprised at observing, that those who were not baptized were not suffered to rise from their knees during the whole ceremony; they were afterwards indemnified for this exertion by the church music, which seemed to afford them much pleasure, and which was probably the only part they comprehended during the whole service. The orchestra consisted of a cello, a violin, and two flutes; these instruments were played by little half-naked Indians, and were very often out of tune.”

“The Great Mortality”

“From the church we went to dinner, where there was an abundance of dishes, and wine, which is made by the missionaries themselves. After dinner they showed us the habitations of the Indians, consisting of long, low houses, built of brick, and forming several streets. The uncleanliness in these barracks baffles description, and this is perhaps the cause of the great mortality; for of 1000 Indians at San Francisco, 300 die every year. The Indian girls, of whom 400 are in the mission, live separate from the men, likewise in such barracks. Both sexes are obliged to labor hard. The men cultivate the ground; the harvest is delivered to the missionaries and stored in magazines, from which the Indians receive only so much as is necessary for their support. It also serves for the maintenance of the soldiers at the Presidio.”

Adelbert von Chamisso

Otto von Kotzebue was accompanied on his expedition by two men without a country. Louis Charles Adelbert von Chamisso, the naturalist for the voyage, was an expatriated Frenchman whose family fled to Germany after the loss of his family estate in the French Revolution. Entirely self-educated, he became a serious student of languages and botany. He was brought on the Rurik voyage to study and classify the flora of the new world; and it is to Chamisso that we owe the unusual scientific term for the California poppy, Eschschlozia California, named for his friend, the surgeon aboad the Rurik.

Among his other works, Chamisso was famous for his novella, The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl, a story about a man who sold his shadow to the devil.

From the Diary of Adelbert von Chamisso

“The best understanding does not exist between the missions and the Presidio. The fathers consider themselves as the first in this country, and the Presidios merely sent for its protection. A soldier, who constantly carries and often uses arms, unwillingly bears the government of the church. The Presidio, living only on their pay [which at one point was seven years in arrears], depend for the supply of their wants upon the missions.”

“Melancholy feelings attend our offering a few words on the Spanish settlements on this coast. With an avaricious thirst for possession, Spain extends her territory here, merely because she envies others the room. She maintains her presidios at great expense, and tries, by a prohibition of all trade, to force ready money back to its source. But a little liberty would make California the granary and market of the northern coasts of these seas.”

Louis Choris

Louis Choris was a native of Russia whose family originally came from Germany. Only twenty years old when he signed aboard the Rurik, his job was to aid future explorers by making sketches of the lands and people visited by the ship. Some of the earliest images of the San Francisco region and its inhabitants come from Choris’s hand. Still craving adventure, Choris returned to the new world some years after the Rurik voyage, but was murdered by bandits on his way to Vera Cruz, Mexico.

From Port of San Francisco and Its Inhabitants by Louis Choris

Choris’s account of the Native Americans in the Mission Dolores differed substantially from the negative reports by Kotzebue and Chamisso — a vivid instance of the variance of perception on the part of different people viewing the same scene.

“The Indian Village at Mission Dolores is inhabited by fifteen hundred Indians; they are given protection, clothing, and an abundance of food. In return, they cultivate the land for the community. Corn, wheat, beans, peas, and potatoes — in a word, all kinds of produce — are to be found in the general warehouse. By authority of the superior, a general cooking of food takes place, at a given hour each day, in the large square in the middle of the village; each family comes there for its ration which is apportioned with regard to the number of its members. They are also given a certain quantity of raw provisions. Two or three families occupy the same house. In their free time, the Indians work in the gardens that are given them; they raise therein onions, garlic, cantaloupes, watermelons, pumpkins, and fruit trees. The products belong to them and they can dispose of them as they see fit.”

Louis Choris’s sketch of Native Americans in a canoe navigating the San Francisco Bay

Choris’s portrait of three Ohlones wearing ceremonial headdresses

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