ISLA GUADALUPE THROUGH TIME

For sale, Guadalupe Island Company stock
National Association of Wool Manufacturers Bulletin, Volume 5, 1875

• January 8, 1839 Guadalupe Island granted to Jose Castro

• 1860 [?] Guadalupe Island granted to Feliciano Ruiz de Esparza by Jose Castro

• January 27, 1873 Guadalupe Island Company incorporated; William M. Landrum, President; Arthur Rodgers, Secretary

• 1887 Mexican International Company

• 1893-1898+ Martin [Mariano] Garcia, concessionnaire of the island of Guadalupe Island; J. M. Soto, his agent

• 1910 Alfred Marcuson [Marcussen; Marousen; Marcomson] of Los Angeles, has a concession to take the goats off the island.

• October 22, 1922 President Obregon issued a proclamation declaring Guadalupe Island a reservation.

In the News~

1807: “The discovery was made of a huge rock bearing the names of Samuel Chapman and others; below these was an American flag and the statement that Chapman had visited the island in 1807 and left the following year.” [Gordon, P. R. Filming the Sea Elephant in The Wide World Magazine 43:258 (485-491), October 1919]

1825 Capt. Benjamin Morrell writes: “...we arrived at the island of Guadalopue, in lat. 28° 56' N., long. 117° 41' W. March 27th.— This island, which is situated about one hundred and eighty miles from the shore, on the western coast of North America, in the same latitude as New Orleans, is about twenty miles in circumference, and uninhabited. From unerring indications, there is no doubt that it has once been volcanic; it is very barren on its south end, but in the northern part there are several fertile valleys, and the mountains contain vegetation. Wood and water may be had here from a small cove on the north-east side of the island, and goat's flesh may be obtained for the trouble of shooting the animal.

The island is high, with bluff shores on the north and west sides, and may be seen from the mast-head, in clear weather, at the distance of fifteen leagues. The shores are free from dangers one-fourth of a mile from the island. The only anchorage is on the south-east side, in a small cove, formed by a few rocky islets that lie off in that direction. Here vessels may anchor in seven fathoms of water, sheltered from all winds, excepting from the south-east to east-north-east, which seldom blow here. We lay here three days, during which time we took a number of fur seals... ” [Morrell, Capt. Benjamin. A Narrative of Four Voyages, to the South sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Antarctic Ocean. From the year 1822 to 1831. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841]

January 9, 1839: “Isla Guadalupe was ceded from the Mexican Government in a murky business deal to Jose Castro and Florencio Ferrano, both Mexican citizens, on January 8th, 1839. They received not just Guadalupe island but all the smaller islands in the region as well. They owned the rights to the entire region then covered in a healthy cloud forest, with declining seal populations.” [1] [Juan Batista Alvadaro was governor of Alta California 1836-1842].

1845: “By 1845 Jose Castro had sold 50% of his stake in the islands for the princely sum of $500 in gold. The transaction and ownership title remained murky by even standards of the 1800’s.” [2]

1850: “In November 1850, U.S. Army Lt. George H. Derby passed Guadalupe Island on his expedition in the U.S. Transport Invincible. He described it thus:

"This island is about 15 miles length and 5 in width. It is rocky + mountainous but capped with vegetation and is reputed to be thickly inhabited by wild goats of unusual size. Water is found upon the eastern shore and the Island is frequently visited by small vessels engaged in the capture of the sea elephant numbers of which animals are found upon its coast."

May 13, 1857 [SDU]: “Guano. —Twelve tons of guano from Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, arrived in San Francisco on Friday last. The Town Talk says: "This island has been the cynosure of a number of speculators in this city, who have been active in endeavoring to obtain a lease thereof from the Mexican Government. It is situated near a group on which a large number of seals have from time to immemorial congregated. The article is of superior quality, but the deposit is not very large. There are several such islands on the Pacific and Gulf Coast of Lower California, one of which is said to be quite extensive, and valued at a large sum. The Tiburon Island opposite the valley of the Hermosillo and the Cerros Islands are bountifully supplied with guano, but rain, it is said, has ruined it as a fertilizer. Some twenty or thirty men, we learn, have been left on Guadalupe Island by the getters of this expedition, ostensibly to dig guano, kill goats and seals, etc., but we suspect their object in remaining is mainly to contest the rights of rival claimants.”

March 29, 1859 [Letter: John Xantus to Spencer Fullerton Baird]: “My dear Sir, As I informed you in my letter from S. Francisco of the 13th inst—I left that place the following day in the German barque Wilhelm Kirchner. We had a fair wind, and made the Guadalupe island on the 17th, the 4th day out. We passed outside the island and to my good look we got becalmed just a few 100 yards off the island. We had a dead calm the whole day, so the whole night, & as there was no prospect for a breeze, the Captain of the bark landed a boat on my request. We were several hours on the island & had a good hunt. The island is of the shape of a ham, thus: and guarded on the north end by 3 immense Rocks, & by 5 perpendicular ones on the south side. All those Rocks were covered by countless birds, seals, & sea elefants, & there were inumerable turtles on the beach.—The island is 15 miles long from N to S, and 8 miles wide at the widest part. The island has a fine cove, were vessel of any size might anchor, but the entrance cannot be effected with Eastern gales, which blow continuously from July to November, as the entrance is not protected from E.—The cove on the S point of the island is only by small boats accessible, as it is entirely covered with sunken rocks, and there are very high rollers which can be heard at a great distance like thunder of cannons.—The whole island is of a volcanic formation, rising up to the height of 2500 feet, and covered entirely with gigantic cactacea if innumerable genera & species, and some acacias. Along the cove there are groves of high heavy timber, and some tall palms [The native palm, Erythea brandegeei, is named for T.S. Brandegee, who collected in Baja California, largely under the auspices of the California Academy of Sciences, at the turn of the century] as there is a fine spring (designated on the other side by) discharging copious water into the sea. I noticed but a few land birds; a jay [Aphelocoma corulescens, Scrub Jay], a guiraca [Grosbeak species], 2 species of swallows, and some small parus like birds [Parus inornatus, Plain Titmouse], all unknown to me. I noticed also a Caprimulgus [now Phalaenoptilus nuttallii, Poorwill], the fish crow [Corvus assifragus, Fish Crow, does not occur in Baja California], the Zonotrichia leucophrys [now Zonotrichia leucophrys, White-crowned Sparrow], & the Emberiza grammaca [now Chondestes grammacus, Lark Sparrow], to a Buzzard [Cathartes aura, Turkey Vulture] much like the B. Swainsonii [Buteo swainsonii, Swainson's Hawk].—Of mammals we noted two specimens of a dark colored Lepus with extremely long ears, but considerably smaller to the L. Californ. There are plenty white rats likewise [rats are not native and likely came in with a ship], which build their particular nests on the Cerus giganteus; and we saw many tracks of mice, but we could not see the latt. The island is well wooded & well watered, there are fine places for a tide gauge also, and in addition there are about 10 thousand goats on the island, which would furnish abundantly fresh meat, as it coast [sic] only bullet and powder.—As the island is not inhabited, & far from land, naturally it is the randervous of the milliards of sea fowls during the breeding season; and I believe it would be a good station for some new branches of Natural History. The evening on the 18th sprang up a fine breeze again, we set sails, & made Cape San Lucas on the 22nd morning...”

1860s: “Saturnina [Carranza] married Felisciano Ruiz D'Esparza, who became secretary to General Castro, governor of Lower California, and when, later, the governor was killed, succeeded to the governorship. Affairs were progressing nicely when a revolution set in; the governor was banished to Mexico, and Mr. Carranza's property was confiscated and he and his family were also banished. They all embarked on a vessel and eft port, but when three days out on the Pacific they set out for the island of Guadalupe, where they concluded to land and await developments. The island was uninhabited by people except Mr. Carranza and his family, and was a desert waste with thousands of wild goats roaming over its expanse. There began a Robinson Crusoe life which continued for one year and eleven months before they were rescued. They subsisted on goat's flesh and milk, a native date and the pulp of a species of palm out of which they made bread. After a time their clothes wore out, and the father fashioned clothing for his children, his wife and himself, out of the hides of the goats that they would trap by building a stockade with runways up to the top, where the goats would go in search of date fruit placed inside of the stockade as bait. Once they would jump inside, it was impossible for them to get out. Many of the hides were spotted with black and white and made very beautiful clothing. Shoes were also made out of the hides and tied on with thongs. In the end they sighted a passing schooner, and started a big fire. The smoke attracted the attention of the sailors; and they were rescued and taken to the port of San Quintin, and from there came back to San Diego. There the father died, and after his death his widow and the rest of the family came to the northern part of Santa Barbara County...” [Annie L. Morrison and John H. Haydon. History of San Luis Obispo County, 1917 ( p. 397)]

April 11, 1868 [DAC]: “The exports to Guadalupe Island per schooner Summer Cloud embrace a value of $183.”

April 14, 1868 [SF Market Review]: “The Summer Cloud, for Guadalupe Island, lumber, nails etc., valued at $183.”

May 18, 1868 [SDU]: “The little schooner Summer Cloud is now in this harbor on her way to Guadalupe Island. I learn that a carpenter is going down on her to put up something else. Guadalupe is the same island on which the unfortunate Feliciano Esparga spent about two years with his family after being driven out of Lower California by the celebrated Matias Moreno. The island is supposed to contain forty or fifty thousand goats, and rumor says there is a coal mine there, etc. It is a very desolate island, almost inaccessible even in cal weather, but has plenty of water holes and feed. The distance from the nearest land is about eighty miles, and its length is about forty.”

October 17, 1868 [Marysville Daily Appeal]: “Dried goat's flesh is an article of shipment now from Guadalupe Island to San Francisco.”

August 19, 1870 [DAC]: “The sloop Dolphin left San Diego last week to visit Guadalupe Island, to which she makes regular trips every fortnight. The goat killers are hard at it on the island. The Dolphin brought up 1,400 goat skins and 1,400 pounds of tallow on her last trip.”

May 13, 1871 [San Diego Union]: “Expedition to Guadalupe Island. It is claimed that the parties now engaged in killing goats on Guadalupe Island are trespassers, and A. G. Gasson has contracted with Capt. Ames to dispossess them—peaceably, if he can; forcibly if not, if he must. He takes with him twenty men, well armed, to drive the interlopers off. The sloop, Hattie Porter sails tomorrow with the party. Mr. Gasson expects to be absent about two weeks, and will bring back a cargo of last year's goat skins.”

May 16, 1871 [Marysville Daily Appeal]: “The sloop, Hattie Porter, Captain Garson, and twenty armed men, sailed for Guadalupe Island yesterday to drive off parties now engaged in butchering goats on the island.”

May 17, 1871 [San Francisco Chronicle]: “An expedition has sailed from San Diego for Guadalupe Island to drive off parties engaged in butchering goats thereon.”

May 20, 1871 [Weekly Alta California]: “The sloop Hattie Porter, Captain Gasson, and twenty armed men, sailed for Guadalupe Island yesterday, to drive off parties engaged in butchering goats on the islands —intending to disperse them peaceably or forcibly. ”

May 26, 1871 [San Diego Union]: “From Guadaluoe—The sloop Hattie Porter, is due today from Guadalupe Island, with a cargo of hides, tallow, etc. ”

June 7, 1871 [DAC]: “San Diego, June 6th.—The sloop, Hattie Porter, from Guadalupe Island, reports heavy weather and dead calms. The men were seven days on short allowance of one pint of water and a potato each per day.”

June 7, 1871 [San Francisco Bulletin]: “San Diego, June 6th.—Arrived, the sloop, Hattie Porter, from Guadalupe Island. She reports heavy heavy weather and dead calms. The men were seven days on short allowance of one pint of water and a potato each per day. The vessel sailed for Guadalupe Island on the 13th of last month, with an armed party under the command of Captain Gasson to dispossess certain persons who have been slaughtering goats there. On landing, Gasson, however, found the party prepared to resist, and a compromise was agreed to.”

January 11, 1872 [SDU]: “The Flirt — Captain Clancey sailed yesterday morning for Guadalupe Island on the sloop Flirt, accompanied by seven men.”

January 25, 1872 [SDU]: “Goat Hinting.—The killing of goats for their hides and tallow is made a profitable business at Guadalupe Island, where the animals exist in vast numbers in a wild state. Formerly they were hunted and shot. At present, according to the San Diego Daily Union, they are driven into a large enclosure where the work of slaughter is pursued with greater ease and expedition. This year 10,000 will be killed.”

April 22, 1872 [SDU]: “From San Diego. San Diego, April 21st. Fears are entertained for the safety of the schooner Hattie Porter, which sailed for Guadalupe Island over three weeks since and has not been heard from. Heavy weather is reported off the island for several weeks.”

May 2, 1872 [San Diego Union]: “Off for the Island. Captain Clancey embarked on his little sloop, the Flirt, on Tuesday for Guadalupe Island. He will return in about ten days, where we may expect to hear some intelligence of the schooner, Hattie Porter.”

May 16, 1872 [SF Chronicle]: “The sloop Flirt, Captain Clancey, returned from Guadalupe Island yesterday. The Captain reports that the Hattie Porter has not been at the island. She left Ensenada for Guadalupe Island over six weeks ago, since which time she has not been heard from; and as there were several heavy storms about the time that she sailed, her owner, Mr. Hensley, is of the opinion that she is lost. There were three men aboard — Daton, the Captain, and two men whose names we have been unable to learn. Mr. Hensley offers one hundred dollars to any one that will report her safe or brings her in, or will give the wreck to any one that finds it. We hear the Flirt started out in search yesterday, and one or two other boats are going.”

June 13, 1872 [San Diego Union]: “A Long Trip—The Hattie Porter heard from—Probably safety of the schooner. The sloop Emma Hayne arrived yesterday morning after a 143 days run from Cerros [Cedros] Island. The Captain brought Mr. Charles Hensley a letter from Captain Layton of the Hattie Porter which explains the long absence of the vessel. The communication was dated at Cerros Island April 30th, 1872, and states that after leaving Ensenada about three months since, the schooner encountered a gale which drove her to Guadalupe Island, but owing to the severity of the storm the Captain was unable to anchor, but was instead compelled to beat out to sea. As it was his desire to make a landing at Guadalupe Island he stood off and on for some time, the fury of the gale continuing, until finally owing to disablement of the schooner by having her center board carried away, he was compelled to run down to Cerros Island, for the purpose of ballasting with rock. Here he met Captain Wilson, who assisted him as much as possible, giving him provisions and furnishing planks for repairing the vessel. In all probability the schooner will reach here in a couple of days as she sailed for San Diego the same day as the Emma Hayne. Her crew has, no doubt, suffered considerably, but there is no danger of starvation, as the vessel is abundantly supplied with abalone meat and rice. We expect that the Captain will have quite a yarn to spin on his arrival, as his cruise has been one of unquestionable severity.”

June 29, 1872 [San Diego Union]: “The little sloop Flirt arrived from Guadalupe Island yesterday morning after a four day run. The season thus far has been very wet on the island, and the killing of goats will be delayed in consequence fully one month. An unusually large number will be killed this year, as preparations have been made which will expedite matters so that they can be slaughtered very rapidly. A large enclosure has been made, with nearly miles of post and rail fence. Inside of this immense corral all of the springs of the Island are situated, and as soon as it begins to get dry the goats naturally find their way to water. Captain Clancey thinks that he will kill fully ten thousand this year. The hide and tallow from the number of goats will pay a good interest.”

October 21, 1872 [SDU]: “Arrived, the sloop Flirt, from Guadalupe Island. Captain Clancey reports heavy rains on the island this summer, so that very few goats came in. Only 3,000 skins were taken during the season.”

January 27, 1873 [SDU]: “Incorporation.—Articles of Incorporation of the Guadalupe Island Company, whose principal business is that of agriculture and stock raising, were filed in the office of the Secretary of State Saturday. Capital, $500,000, in shares of $50 each. Directors—Geo. W. Dent, Henry Delafield, Cassins C. Palmer, Wm. M. Landrum and James M. Rodgers. The principal place of business will be in San Francisco.”

February 8, 1873 [Pacific Rural Press]: “Guadalupe Island Company. Notice is hereby given to the Stockholders of the Guadalupe Island Company that a special meeting will be held at its office, 306 Pine Street, on February 22nd, 1873, at 3 o'clock P.M., for the purpose of adopting By Laws. By order of Wm. M. Landrum, President. Arthur Rodgers, Secretary.”

February 22, 1873

February 27, 1873 [San Diego Union]: “Guadalupe Island. The Washington Chronicle states that a private letter has recently been received by Col. H, G. Otis, of that city, informing him that Mr. Wm. M. Landrum, of the firm Landrum and Rodgers, of Santa Cruz County—importers and breeders of Angora goats—has just concluded, on behalf of himself and other capitalists, negotiations for the island of Guadalupe, in the Pacific off the coast of Lower California and about two hundred miles south of San Diego, and ninety from the mainland. The island is twenty-six miles long, averages ten miles in width, has good timber and water upon it, and 20,000 goats of the short-haired species, well suited for breeding to Angora rams. The purchasers have formed a joint stock company, which is incorporated, with Landrum as President, who will in a few days send to the island, from his ranch in Santa Cruz county, one hundred pure breed Angora rams. George W. Dent is one of the trustees of the company, and takes one-tenth of the stock—1,000 shares. The old man says: "This is the finest goat ranch in the world, I reckon." There have been 32,000 goats slaughtered on this island within the last three or four years, and the hides and tallow and dried flesh have formed quite an item in the shipping business of this port.”

February 27, 1873 [San Diego Union]: “Guadalupe Island. The Washington Chronicle states that a private letter has recently been received by Col. H, G. Otis, of that city, informing him that Mr. Wm. M. Landrum, of the firm Landrum and Rodgers, of Santa Cruz County—importers and breeders of Angora goats—has just concluded, on behalf of himself and other capitalists, negotiations for the island of Guadalupe, in the Pacific off the coast of Lower California and about two hundred miles south of San Diego, and ninety from the mainland. The island is twenty-six miles long, averages ten miles in width, has good timber and water upon it, and 20,000 goats of the short-haired species, well suited for breeding to Angora rams. The purchasers have formed a joint stock company, which is incorporated, with Landrum as President, who will in a few days send to the island, from his ranch in Santa Cruz county, one hundred pure breed Angora rams. George W. Dent is one of the trustees of the company, and takes one-tenth of the stock—1,000 shares. The old man says: "This is the finest goat ranch in the world, I reckon." There have been 32,000 goats slaughtered on this island within the last three or four years, and the hides and tallow and dried flesh have formed quite an item in the shipping business of this port.”

March 11, 1873 [San Francisco Bulletin]: “Controversy over land at the Guadalupe Island. Herman S. Widmann brought an action in the Fourth District Court against Moses C. Howell and John Stidger, to recover damages, The complaint alleges that on May 1, 1871, Howell deeded to H. G. Widmann, Phillip H. Newman, Frederick Muller and Valentine Struble and undivided one-fourth interest in the Guadalupe Island, lying off the coast of Lower California, the improvements and stock thereon, for $3,750. O.T. Ames and H. H. Hubbard claimed to own the remaining one-forth. That the purchase was made upon the representation of Howell and Stidger, who agreed to out the buyers in peaceable possession. Widmann and his co-partners hired men, purchased provisions, materials and machinery at a cost of $1,614.23 which they took to the Island. But Howell and Stidger failed to give possession to the property and which occasioned a loss of time worth at least $500. Widmann bought the interests of his partners and brought suit to recover the aggregate sum of $1,624,22, damages and interest. Howell in answer denies that he ever pretended to own any interest in the island, but that Ames was indebted to him in the sum of $400, to secure which he gave a mortgage on a fourth interest in the Island which was the interest sold. Howell admits that he entered into a certain agreement with plaintiff and others and he supposed they intended to proceed to the Island to engage in the business of killing goats and shipping their skins to San Francisco. He denies that he made any false representations or that he agreed to put any person in possession. He says that Muller visited the Island in company with Ames, where he remained five or six days, and that he expressed himself satisfied with the representations made by Ames, and upon the report of Muller the sale was made. Stidger puts in a separate answer to the same effect. A jury in the case was empaneled this morning and the trial set for hearing this afternoon.”

March 12, 1873 [DAC]: “Guadalupe Island. An action was commenced some time ago in the Fourth District Court by Hermann S. Widmann, against Moses C. Howell and John Stidger to recover $5,694.22 damages. On the 1st of May, 1871, it is alleged that Howell deeded to Widmann, Phillip H. Newman, Frederick Muller, and Valentine Struble, an undivided one-fourth interest in Guadalupe Island, lying off the Coast of California, with the improvements and stock thereon, for $3,700, promising to give them possession. Widmann and his copartners hired men and purchased provisions, machinery, etc., at a cost of $1,614.22., which they took to the Island. But the defendant failed to give them possession of the property. Howell, in answer, denies that he ever had, or pretended to own any interest in the Island, but that O. T. Ames, who owned a fourth interest in the Island, gave him a mortgage on the same to secure the payment of $100. He denies that he agreed to put any person in possession. A jury was impanelled to try the case, yesterday, after which a recess was taken until two o'clock. When the case was again called it was announced that the matter had been compromised and settled, and the action was dismissed.”

March 12, 1873 [San Diego Union]: “Guadalupe Island. An Angora Goat Farm. Among the passengers of the Orizaba which arrived here yesterday was Capt. John G. Clancey, a gentleman who is well and favorably known in this city. Capt. Clancey is associated with Guadalupe Island the Company, a company recently incorporated to carry on the business of agriculture, stock raising and the improvement of the breed of domestic animals (more particularly Angora goats) on the island which name it bears. The company has a capital stock of $500,000, in shares of $40 each. Guadalupe Island is situated off the coast of Lower California, at a distance of about two hundred miles south of this city. It has an area of about 166,400 acres, being twenty-six miles long and ten miles broad. Nearly 4,000 acres of the island is a dense forest of white cedar, valuable for fence rails, telegraph poles and railroad ties. It has also a pine forest of some seven hundred acres, much of the timber in which will make ship spars. The remainder of the island is excellent pasture land. The island is of a mountainous character, the highest point—Mount Augusta—being 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. It is well watered by innumerable springs of fresh water. At present Guadalupe Island is the pasture ground of a vast flock of goats. Of the common breed, numbering, according to the best estimates, about 20,000 head. The progenitors of these flocks of goats are supposed to have been placed on the island by the Jesuit Fathers sixty or seventy years ago. Of late years some thirty-two thousand head have been killed for their hides and tallow. Capt. Clancey has himself killed one-quarter that number. It is for the improvement of the goats—to make them fleece-bearing—that the Guadalupe Island Company has been organized. This is proposed to be done by a judicious crossing with the fine-fleeced Angora goat. The animals on the island are just that variety of the common goat which is susceptible of improvement. The hair is short but straight. Such a fleece improves in length and fineness with every cross. Common goats having crisp curly hair improve very little in crossing with Angoras. To inaugurate the era of improvement in the Guadalupe Island goats, Capt. Clancey has brought with him the first installment of Angora bucks, fifty in number. The flock is in excellent condition and will be shipped off to the island as soon as possible. Four of these bucks are imported animals, valued at $250 each. The remainder have been bred from the Angora bucks of Messrs. Landrum and Rodgers of Watsonville. Santa Cruz county, who have profitably devoted their time and capital to the improvement of goats, and are valued at $100 per head. Several of the bucks are hornless, being of the progeny of the celebrated hornless buck Costamboul, imported to this state by Messrs. Landrum, Butterfield & Son in 1858. The Guadalupe Island Company have purchased a flock of high grade fleece-bearing ewes, numbering nine hundred, which, with their offspring—aggregating over ten thousand head—will be transported to the island in the fall of the year. A further shipment of fifty bucks will also be made, making in all 1,000 full grown thoroughbred goats and about 1,500 kids. The bucks of the common goats will all be slaughtered, and the same policy will be followed with half-breed bucks. It is thus expected that in the course of four or five years the flocks on Guadalupe Island will be so far improved that they will be all high grade fleece-bearing animals. Guadalupe Island was granted in 1839 to Don Jose Castro and Don Florencia Serrano, and has been purchased by the Guadalupe Island Company. At present, that Company has but two men on the island. They are engaged in fencing land and in constructing corrals. Mr. William M. Landrum, the President of the Company, is thoroughly conversant with the breeding of Angora goats and their improvement of the common stock. He has on his rancho some of the finest stock of the former breed in the State. With such a man at the head of the enterprise, it can scarcely do otherwise than succeed. Capt. Clancey will not remain on the island, but will return at once to San Francisco for the second installment of bucks.”

March 12, 1873 [San Francisco Chronicle]: “Buying an Island. The Lawsuit About the Guadalupe Island, near Lower California, Settled. The suit of Herman S. Widman against Moses C. Howell and John Stidger, to recover damages for breach of contract, came up for trial in the Fourth District Court yesterday. The plaintiff alleged that in May, 1871, the defendants sold to him and others one-fourth of the Guadalupe Island, near the west coast of Lower California, with the live stock and improvements thereon, for $3,750, the defendants agreeing to put the purchasers in peaceful possession of the property. Widman and his partners in the enterprise purchased provisions, machinery, etc., at a cost of $1,614.22 and took them to the island, intending to begin operations there. But, it is alleged, the defendants failed and refused to give possession, and the purchasers were thereby subjected to a further loss of $600. Widman brought suit to recover the aggregate of the sums above named—$5, 604.22, having bought his partners' interests. The defendants denied that they ever pretended to own any interest in the island, or that they made any false representations to the plaintiff. When the case came up in Court and a jury had been impaneled, it was suggested that there was a possibility that the case could be satisfactorily settled without a trial, and the principals and attorneys being allowed time to consult, it was announced that they had agreed upon a compromise, and the suit was dismissed on stipulation and payment of the jury and Sheriff.”

April 5, 1873 [Pacific Rural Press]: “San Diego Union, March 20: The Angora Goat.— The experiment about to be attempted by the Guadalupe Island Company to improve the common goat stock at present on the island by the introduction of pure blooded Angora bucks, has an important bearing upon the wool interests of the Pacific Coast. The men at the head of the enterprise — Messrs. Landrum of Watsonville, Santa Cruz county, and others, have demonstrated beyond question the feasibility of improving the grade of the common goat by judicious crossing with the Angora species, so as to make it like the latter fleece-bearing. The Angora goat, which is a native of Asia Minor, takes kindly to the herbage and climate of Southern California. The effort made to acclimatize the Angora goat in the Northern States have not been very successful, and the number there at present is limited. In this State they multiply at the rate of over 100 percent per annum, while the mortality after the first year of all goats under ten years of age does not exceed one percent per annum. Guadalupe Island, upon which the experiment of improving the common stock is about to be inaugurated on an extensive scale, is possessed of a climate similar in every respect to that of Asia Minor — the home of the Angora. The island has now 20,000 common goats grazing upon it. Selecting only 5,000 ewes wherewith to enter upon the experiment, it is calculated that at the end of ten years the number of graded ewes will have increased to 75,000, valued at $10 each, or an aggregate of $750,000. The amount to be derived from the sale of wethers and old ewes during that decade is estimated at $643,040. The quantity of wool or mohair to be sheared during that time will sum up to nearly 1,000,000 pounds, valued at about $900,000, being nearly an aggregate revenue, including the value of stock, of $2,300,000. The experiment will be watched with interest.”

April 10, 1873 [Daily Union and American]: “Nothing is truly Californian unless ti is very big. The latest "big thing" is the enterprise of converting Guadalupe Island, lying off the coast of Lower California, into one Angora goat ranch. The island has an area of 166,400 acres, and is the property of an incorporated company. It is mountainous, well-watered, and at present tenanted by an immense flock of wild goats, embracing, it is estimated, 200,000 head, the descendants of some goats placed on the island by the Jesuit Fathers 60 or 70 years ago. Of late years some 32,000 head have been killed for their skins and tallow. It is for the improvement of these goats—to make them fleece-bearing—the the Guadalupe Island Company has been organized. This is proposed to be done by judicious crossing with the fine fleeced Angora goat. The first installment of Angora bucks, 50 in number, has arrived at San Diego, and is perhaps already on the island. Four of these bucks are imported animals, valued at $250 each. The remainder are valued at $100 per head.”

April 19, 1873 [The Arizona Sentinel (Yuma)]: “The latest "big thing" is the enterprise of converting Guadalupe Island, lying off the coast of Lower California, into one Angora goat ranch. The island has an area of 165,400 acres and is the property of an incorporated company. It is mountainous, well-watered and at present tenanted by an immense flock of wild goats, embracing, it is estimated, 200,000 head, the descendants of some goats placed on the island by the Jesuit Fathers sixty or seventy years ago. Of late years some 32,000 have been killed for their skins and tallow. It is for the improvement of these goats —to make them fleece-bearing—that the Guadalupe Island Company has been organized. This is proposed to be done by a judicious crossing of fine Angora goat. The first installment of Angora bucks, fifty in number, has arrived at San Diego, and is perhaps already on the island. Four of these bucks are imported animals, valued at $250 each. The remainder are valued at $100 per head. the San Diego World gives the following particulars: The Guadalupe Island Company have purchased a flock of high grade fleece-bearing ewes, numbering 900, which, with their offspring—aggregating over 2,000 head—will be transported to the island in the fall of the year. A further shipment of fifty bucks will also be made. The bucks of the common goats will be slaughtered, and the same policy will be followed with the half breed bucks. It is thus expected that in the course of four or five years the flocks on Guadalupe Island will be so far improved that they will be all high grade fleece-bearing animals. Sac. Record.”

February 14, 1874 [Red Bluff Independent]: “...The most extensive enterprise in the way of Angora goat-raising in this country is probably that of the Guadalupe Island Company of California, which owns an entire island in the Pacific southwest of San Diego, comprising some 160,000 acres of grazing land, upon which the 20,000 or more goats subsist and thrive the year round without prepared food or artificial shelter. The leader of this colossal enterprise is William M. Landrum, "the pioneer goat man of the Pacific." they are not a grass-eating animal, and when kept on such in small enclosures soon become unhealthy. They are a browsing animal, and cannot stand being high fed with grain and grass.”

March 13, 1874 [LAH]: “Mr. James M. Rodgers, of the Guadalupe Island Company, sailed for the island yesterday afternoon in the schooner Louisa Harker. He visits the island to make an inspection of affairs there, upon which he will report to the company. As our readers are aware, the object of the corporation is the propagation of the Angora goat. Thousands of wild goats are found upon the island, and it is proposed to cross them with the Angora, bringing the stock in time to nearly full blood. Guadalupe Island is, however, valuable aside from the main purpose of its owners. The timber shipments thence will one day be important. The island is about 200 miles below San Diego, off the coast of Lower California, in 29 deg. north latitude; it is about two days sail from this port. It is thirty-two miles long, and its greatest width is twelve miles. The north end of the island is mountainous, the highest peak rising 3,000 feet above the sea. Considerable forests of sugar pine, cedar, palm and sycamore timber are found in this section. There are many copious springs, and good grass for grazing. Some fine valleys are found on the island, which could be cultivated. The island has two good bays, the largest on the south, being known as Baker's Bay; it is formed by a deep indentation in the shore, protected in front by a long rocky ledge; the entrance is from the east, and the largest ships can safely anchor within. On the west Jack's Bay affords 25 fathoms of water 600 yards from the shore. —[San Diego Union.]”

March 26, 1874 [San Diego Union]: “The schooner Louisa Harker, Captain Place, arrived from a cruise on the Lower Coast yesterday forenoon. The schooner sailed for Guadalupe Island on the 19th instant, Mr. J.M. Rodgers, of the firm of Landrum and Rodgers, Watsonville, going down to the island on a tour of inspection. Mr. Rodgers informs us that the weather was so exceedingly stormy that they were unable to effect a landing, although several attempts were made, and were finally obliged to return. The sea was so rough that the safety of the vessel was more than once endangered.”

April 7, 1874 [Daily National Republic]: “From Lower California. The Late Storm on the Pacific—Guadalupe Island, Its Bays, Harbors, Timer and Flocks. A private letter received in this city from Southern California contains the following intelligence: A gentleman who arrived at Watsonville, March 25, from a sea voyage along the coast, reports that the schooner Louisa Harker, on which he was a passenger, encountered a terrific gale off San Diego—"the worst storm that has visited that part of the coast for ten years"—lasting four days. The vessel put into Esparza Bay, Guadalupe Island, (lying two hundred miles southwest of San Diego,) the water in the bay being a smooth eddy, where she lay to for four days to escape the gale and heavy sea, she in the meantime having sprung a leak, her captain was compelled to return to San Diego for repairs. [This must have been the same storm that jeopardized the safety of the steamer Colima, as reported in The Republican's dispatches eight or ten days ago.] Mr Rodgers, the gentleman referred to, reported to the president of the Guadalupe Island Wool Growing [sic] Company (which owns that island) some encouraging facts that more than confirm the company's previous estimate of the value of their landed property for pastoral purposes. He believes the island to be worth double the sum—$300,000—at which it was estimated when purchased in January 1873. He sailed along side the island its full length, twenty-six miles, and could see, even from the deck of the schooner, a luxuriant carpet of living green—the grass growing "thick and beautiful from one end to the other", the land smoother than the hills at the north of the Pajaro Valley, on the main land, and showing better grazing, "more than double as good as reported previously." The company's men, who are permanently stationed on the island, were doing well. They report that they had taken, up to October last, 700 pelts from old goats of the common stock, and would get as many more before the heavy rains stopped operations. Another man, (not connected with the company,) who arrived from Guadalupe, reports that the young Angora goats were "shining white all over the island, the prettiest sight he ever saw." He asserts, after having seen all the Pacific coast islands, the "there is no other island that will compare in any way with Guadalupe. Her harbors are excellent, she has unlimited range for stock, and more timber than any of the other islands." These statements are fully borne out by other disinterested persons who have recently visited the island. Mr. Rodgers reports that he saw from the vessel's deck more grass than the large flocks already there can eat off in many years. He saw and learned enough to satisfy him that the owners of this splendid pastoral domain "have the bed rock for millions of dollars" if they but "push things," (as Grant said to Sheridan at Five Forks,) and utilize to proper advantage the abundant grass that covers the face of the island. This course is to be pursued. Mr. Landrum, the president of the company, who was to leave for the island about April 6, means business. His motto is, "Push things." He will, upon his return in May, bring a full report of the results of the kidding and shearing season.”

June 1, 1874 [Daily National Republican]: “Guadalupe Island lies in 29º north latitude, about 190 miles, in a southwesterly direction, from San Diego, the run to this port being made by schooner in from 50 to 75 hours. A nearer port is that of San Quentin, 90 miles distant on the peninsular coast. The island is 26 miles long, average 10 miles in width, and embraces an area of 166,000 acres. Its general trend is north and south. The northern end is mountainous, the highest peak, Mount Augusta, rising 3,900 feet above the sea level. On this end there is considerable sugar and pine timber, with palm and some sycamore trees; an abundance of copious springs, good grasses, and other vegetation. Forests cover some 4,500 acres of the island. The timber is mostly white cedar and pine, and is valuable here for building fencing, railroad ties, telegraph poles, wharf and bridge material, and for fuel. The west side of the island is broken into numerous deep canyons filled with growing palms. On the east side there is a two-story frame house, (sure sign of los Americanos,) built by one of the former claimants some years ago, and at the other points there are old stone houses of the low-roofed, Spanish model. The south end is flatter, but still hilly, and is without running water, though water is found in the rocky fissures after rains. In other parts of the island, besides the numerous living springs, water may be had by excavating from three to ten feet... The southern extremity terminates in Whaler's Bay, formed by a deep indentation of the island shore, protected in front by a long rocky ledge, with two buttes at either end—a capital breakwater. The entrance is from the east, and within may safely anchor the largest ship that floats, sheltered from all winds. Jack's Bay, on the southwest side, has, at the distance of 600 yards from the shore, 25 fathoms of water. These bays are the occasional resort of whaling and other vessels.”

August 20, 1874 [SDU]: “From Guadalupe Island—Landrum's Adventures. San Diego, August 19th. The schooner Esther, Captain Wilson, arrived at 11 o'clock last night from Guadalupe Island, bringing up William M. Landrum, of Watsonville, who went down on the Louisa Harker a few weeks ago, with a cargo of Angora goats. She landed him, and then, according to the commander's account, a sudden gale sprang up and drove her out to sea. She was compelled to return to this port with the goats. Landrum gives another statement of how he was left in the lurch by the Harker. He says the schooner was not brought to her proper anchorage, and so drifted away; that there was no wind at all, it being perfectly calm. This turn of affairs interfered with the object of his trip, but he made the best of the circumstances, and explored the island thoroughly while there. He says he was agreeably surprised with the island, pasturage being exceedingly abundant, even to the tops of the mountains, and the grass was three feet high.”

August 20, 1874 [SDU]: “From Guadalupe Island—Landrum's Adventures. San Diego, August 19th. The schooner Esther, Captain Wilson, arrived at 11 o'clock last night from Guadalupe Island, bringing up William M. Landrum, of Watsonville, who went down on the Louisa Harker a few weeks ago, with a cargo of Angora goats. She landed him, and then, according to the commander's account, a sudden gale sprang up and drove her out to sea. She was compelled to return to this port with the goats. Landrum gives another statement of how he was left in the lurch by the Harker. He says the schooner was not brought to her proper anchorage, and so drifted away; that there was no wind at all, it being perfectly calm. This turn of affairs interfered with the object of his trip, but he made the best of the circumstances, and explored the island thoroughly while there. He says he was agreeably surprised with the island, pasturage being exceedingly abundant, even to the tops of the mountains, and the grass was three feet high.”

August 23, 1874 [San Diego Union]: “A ride over Guadalupe. From notes taken by Mr. Wm. M. Landrum during his recent twelve days' sojourn on Guadalupe Island, we have gathered some very interesting facts relative to its physical aspect, resources, etc. Mr. Landrum took the saddle soon after his arrival and rode all over the island, jotting down his observations by the way. We now condense the information obtained in an interview with him for the benefit of the readers of The Union. From Jack's Bay, on the west, where he landed, a deep canyon leads up into the island, along which a pack trail brings the traveler out upon a ridge which runs on to a valley some three-quarters of a mile wide and three miles long. Passing out of this valley on the northwest a bluff about 300 feet in height is ascended, when you come to Spring Valley.

This valley lies north and south, and is about a mile wide and five miles long, forming a semi-circle on the west side. About half of its area is covered with beautiful cedar trees, remarkably symmetrical in form, each tree appearing as if set out and trimmed by the hand of man for ornamentation. Throughout this valley (as in all the valleys) there is a very heavy growth of alfileria. There are numerous springs extending along the whole length of the valley on each side, whence its name. In Spring valley the wild goats are slaughtered, and the Company has its corrals, hide-houses and other appliances here. In the cedar grove is the house where the employees live. On the west side of Spring valley another bluff rises abruptly nearly 1000 feet, whence there is a grand slope continuing westerly for five or six miles, mostly covered with cedar timber, and as luxuriant a growth of alfileria as the eyes ever beheld. This slope runs north a little beyond Spring valley, and south for a distance of eight or nine miles. Between the timber and the beach the country is very rocky and is cut up with deep canyons which run out to the sea. These canyons are so deep that they must be followed up for two or three miles before they can be crossed. They are full of alfileria and other grasses, and the growth of feed runs down enarly to the water's edge. In nearly all of these deep canyons palm trees are found in abundance; the palms are from 18 to 20 feet high; and bear a small nut about the size of a pigeon's egg, which the goats on the island are very fond of.

A Palm Forest. Going north from the north point of the cedars for a distance of about two miles we have a barely level cobble stone bench inclining to the west, about a mile wide, covered with sage brush, alfileria and some grasses. On the west of this bench is a very steep buff, between 3,500 and 4,000 feet in height, which runs down to the water's edge; it is covered with palms, growing all the way down near the sea. At the foot of the bluff there is a stretch of some three thousand acres on which the growth of palms is so close that it may be called a palm forest. From the south end of the cedar bet above referred to, there is a scattering growth if cedars for a mile or more, when we come to a descending ridge of perhaps a mile of barren land. Here has been at some time a dense pine forest over which a hurricane has swept, leaving nothing but stumps and roots. The road over this desolate track leads the traveler to one of the most lovely little spots on the island.

Here is a forest of live oak and pine three-quarters of a mile wide, inclining to the west. Going to the east of this forest about half a mile we enter a small valley at the head of the peninsula which forms Esparza bay. The valley forms a basin on the ridge embracing an area of about fifty acres of fine soil, surrounding by a growth of beautiful pines and oaks. The pines are from three to five feet in diameter and 100 to 150 feet in height, with spreading limbs beginning within 6 to 10 feet from the ground. From this point one can look north or south far out to sea. A living spring of sparkling water bubbles up near the edge of this little spot, and sitting here you can listen to the music of thousands of wild canaries, with which this island abounds. Here stands the old stone house erected by Governor Esparza, of Lower California, who retired hither from the mainland at the time of the revolution and made his home on the island, whence he was never to return. It was to this point that the Angora goats were taken when they were introduced on the island about a year ago to breed up the plebeian stock. Resting here Mr. Landrum saw large bands of goats among which the silver-fleeced Angoras—some of the imported bucks—could be seen strutting beneath the lofty pines like monarchs, their little white scions playing around their black mothers, looking as proud as if they knew the premium on their silvery coats.

A Forest of Spars. Progressing further east, Mr. Landrum followed down a descent on the peninsula through a dense forest of pine and live oak timber, about three-quarters of a mile in extent, passing a beautiful spring of cold, soft water, where about a thousand goats were watering. here he came to a depressed valley three-quarters of a mile wide by about three miles long, covered so densely with pine timber that the eye could not penetrate it. These trees [paper fold...] a meter and from 150 to 200 feet high, as straight as arrows. Here can be procured the flag-staffs and ship's spars for the world. The trees need but to be cut and barked, and they can be slid down to the water's edge by merely giving them a start from the incline or bluff. Beyond this spar forest there are two miles of open land to the east point of the peninsula. This peninsula is perhaps five miles long, and forms Esparza bay, on its south, named after the Governor, who landed there when he came to the island.

Timber. At least three-fourths of the northern half of the island is timbered. The timber belt is dense, extending at least twelve miles in length, with scattered timber from four to six miles further, passing beyond jack's bay (a beautiful harbor except in a northwest gale of wind.)

"Deep Valley." Proceeding from the south point of the timber belt we have low rolling hills and wide sloping plains, gradually descending into a deep valley which extends across the island from Jack's bay to the east beach—about six miles at this point. This is called "Deep Valley." Extending south from this valley there is on the west side a range of high peaks and rises with lower hills and valleys sloping gradually to the east beach. From Deep Valley south, the first peak that rises is called "Deep Valley Peak;" it is the highest peak on the south end of the island, overlooking Jacky's bay; next is the "Dome," which overlooks Jack's bay on the northwest and the fur seal rookery on the southeast; and then there is a long high ridge that runs down to Whalers' bay, from the summit of which can be seen the whole bay and surrounding country. A very little work would make a wagon road from Esparza bay through Spring valley to the water's edge at Jack's bay; whence there is a high bluff beach nearly all the way down to Whalers' bay. At this bay there is a gradual incline nearly to the water. A vessel has over two miles to lay in the lee in Whalers' bay, with good anchorage at all times. Going north from Whalers' bay there is a gravel bench for six miles to a fine anchorage, at which point a good frame house has been erected for the winter quarters of the herders. Mount Augusta...Grasses...Water—Mineral Springs...—Timber...Geological appearance...The Climate...Animals...The Goats...Relics of the Past...”

August 26, 1874 [SDU]: “The dry alfileria on Guadalupe Island would cut for hay at an average of two tons to the acre.”

September 5, 1874 [Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel]: “A Modern Crusoe. Mr. Landrum, of Landrum and Rodgers, returned a few days ago from a trip to Guadalupe Island, where he was compelled to enact the role of Robinson Crusoe for a few days. The schooner that he embarked from concluded not to land any more goats after seeing the proprietor safely ashore but dropped off, leaving Mr. Landrum to explore the recesses of his island. Mr. L. says he enjoyed his visit very much. His principle trouble and one that distracted him more than anything else, was being deprived of the news of the day, he could not keep up with the Beecher narrative.”

October 22, 1874 [Russian River Flag]: “...The mohair business on this coast is in its infancy, the same as all business ventures once were... We have made it convenient to study the Angora question during the past few years, and have made the acquaintance of a number of breeders, and all seem to possess unbounded faith in the business... The Guadalupe Island Company, for instance, propose to breed entirely for mohair; no goats are to be brought away from there...”

December 21, 1874 [SDU]: “The schooner San Diego, from Santa Cruz, arrived last evening. She will take on board several hundred Angora goats for Landrum & Rodgers, of Watsonville, and proceed to Guadalupe Island.”

January 16, 1875 [Mariposa Gazette]: “The Watsonville Pajaronian, learns that E. R. Marsh, of San Francisco, has recently invested $27,000 in Angora goats; also William Hall, of San Jose, lately purchased a lot at $11,480; and C. S. Abbott, Flint, Bixby & Co., and B. Boswell have bought all the stock of the Guadalupe Island Company, except about 300 shares, and the stock held by Landrum & Rodgers. Those men represent several million dollars, and mean business in goat raising.”

January 28, 1875 [Marysville Daily Appeal]: “C. S. Abbott, Flint, Bixby & Co., and B. Boswell, have purchased most of the stock of the Guadalupe Island Company, and propose going extensively into the business of goat raising.”

January 30, 1875

January 30, 1875 [Arizona Weekly Citizen]: “We have seen nothing that looked so encouraging for the breeders of Angora goats as the following which we find in The Watsonville Pajaronian of the 7th instant: We learn that E. R. Marsh, of San Francisco, has recently invested $27,000 in Angora goats, also William Hall, of San Jose lately purchased a lot at $11,480, and C. S. Abbott, Flint, Bixby & Co., and B. Boswell have bought up all the stock of the Guadalupe Island Company, except about three hundred shares, and the stock held by Landrum & Rodgers. These men represent several million of dollars and mean business in goat raising.”

January 31, 1875 [Marysville Daily Appeal]: “The schooner San Diego returned from Guadalupe Island on Thursday, bringing H. G. Otis, President of the Guadalupe Island Company, who has been exploring that island for the past four or five weeks. He is very enthusiastic over its resources.”

February 12, 1875 [San Francisco Examiner]: “Marine News. San Diego, February 11.—The schooner San Diego returned last evening from her third trip to Guadalupe Island, having taken hence 858 Angora goats.”

May 21, 1875 [San Diego Union]: “The schooner Coso arrived last evening from Guadalupe Island to W. W. Stewart & Co., bringing up passengers Dr. Palmer, of the Smithsonian Institution, Master Harry Stewart, and two of the men employed on the island. Dr. Palmer has been engaged in collecting specimens of natural history for several weeks past. There has been some sickness among the men on the island, the supply of flour having given out some weeks ago, and an exclusively meat diet having proved unwholesome. The schooner left the men all the flour she could spare, and more will be forwarded immediately.”

June 16, 1875 [LAH]: “Mr. Benjamin Flint, formerly a partner with Col. W. W. Hollister in the sheep business, is now in Santa Barbara, on his way down to Guadalupe Island on the coast of Lower California. It is Mr. Flint's intention to stock Guadalupe Island with pure Cashmere, or Thibet [sic] goats, and he has forty-one of the very finest breed on the way there. Fifty thoroughbred of the same character were put on the island some months ago. The results of this enterprise is going to have a very important bearing upon the future of this coast.”

June 17, 1875 [San Diego Union]: “More Angora goats were brought down on the steamer, for Guadalupe Island.”

June 22, 1875 [LAH]: “Mr. Benj. Flint, who arrived by the last steamer, brought down the flock of Angora goats for Guadalupe Island, mentioned a day or two ago. He says that the work of killing the wild bucks on the island will be continued steadily.”

June 22, 1875 [LAH]: “More Angora goats were brought down on the steamer for Guadalupe Island.”

June 28, 1875 [SDU]: “At San Diego, June 26th, the schooner Susie sailed for Guadalupe Island, with Benjamin Flint, thirteen men, supplies and some Angora goats for Guadalupe Island. The company propose to make was on all the wild male goats on the island, after having stocked it with tame Angora bucks.”

July 8, 1875 [San Diego Union]: “The schooner Susie came up yesterday from Guadalupe Island.”

August 12, 1876 [Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel]: “Angora Goats. Messrs. Landrum & Rodgers have on their fince place near Watsonville, 150 ewes and 100 bucks. Their best ewes shear five to seven pounds and the bucks six to eight pounds. Their prize buck, Herculese, sheared last year ten pounds of mohair. A yearling buck, last year, sheared eight pounds. The mohair was thirteen inches long on the belly, and running down to nine inches on the hock. He took the first prize at the California and Oregon State Fairs ...They occupy, with Flint, Bixby & Co., C. S. Abbott, and B. Boswell, the Guadalupe Island and have thereon 1,000 head of high grades and pure breeds, and 5,000 to 8,000 low grades, and over 30,000 common goats. Their last year's fleece sold in New York for ninety, sixty, forty and twenty-five cents, and the poorest culls for twenty cents...”

December 15, 1876 [SBMP]: “Among papers recently presented to the San Diego Society of Natural History was a paper on the Falconidae and Ornithology of Guadalupe Island.”

January 11, 1877 [SBMP]: “Chambers's Edinburg Journal, in an article on the distribution of animals throughout the world, says that snakes are found in the whole globe except New Zealand and a few of the tropical islands of the Pacific... that of Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, on an expedition made to it two years ago. Not a snake was, or has ever been seen on the island—nor a carnivorous animal...”

January 15, 1877 [SBMP]: “One hundred and eighty-two shares of stock—par value, $50 each—in the Guadalupe Island Company of Lower California, are offered for sale at a bargain. No assessments to pay. Apply at the Press office.”

July 9, 1877 [SBMP]: “Guadalupe Island: A Goat Kingdom in the Pacific. Late on a sun-flooded December day near the end of the year 1874 I set sail for the island of Guadalupe in a staunch little sixty-ton schooner, commanded by a "melancholy Dane," manned by three sailors, (one of them the cook), and laden with goats—goats on the deck, in the hold, goats forward and aft, goats everywhere, almost, save in "the cabin," the cook's galley, and the small spaces reserved for the sailors to work in. There were 300 grade Angoras aboard, besides hay, water, and supplies for the island. We sailed out of San Diego's land-locked harbor right gallantly before a spanking breeze, just as the setting sun was gilding the tops of the low hills, and gleaming in semi-tropical splendor from the glassy surface of the beautiful bay and from the lighthouse windows on Point Loma, and under bellying sails rode out into might and the Pacific. We were bound not for the Isle of the Golden Fleece, that mythical concern which venturous Jason and his fifty-four companions sought in the "Argo" in the legendary long ago, but for a real, tangible, solid island, which, as it produces the shining fleece famed in commerce, may well wear the name of the Isle of the Silver Fleece. Not a man on board—not even the skipper himself—had ever visited the island; but he sailed by chart directly south half west over a placid sea, and at nine o'clock on the morning of the second day we sighted, sixty miles away, the distant peaks on the north end of the island, which is distant 210 miles from San Diego, in latitude 28 north, and longitude 118 west, (Mexican waters). When the cry of "Land Ho!" came from the man at the wheel, the schooner was heading right for the harbor in Esparza Bay, showing how well our course had been taken. The little ship lazily kept her course all that day—for the wind was light and slowly crept over the smooth surface of the sea. Sometimes we were well-nigh becalmed. I lay relaxed on hay bales, basking in the magnificent Winter sunshine, and enjoying to the utmost the dolce far niente. Towards evening we neared the island shore, but as the captain thought it unsafe to take his vessel into an unknown harbor in the night, he stood off twenty or thirty miles to sea and waited for morning.

Next day we made the anchorage in Esparza Bay without difficulty, and the little ship was run right up under the very brow of the lofty mountain that here rises almost straight from the sea, and anchored near the beach in deep water, with a good bottom. We had made the island in seventy-one hours from San Diego. As we sailed in, all eyes were strained landward to catch a glimpse of man or beast; but no living thing was then seen save myriads of sea-fowl and small birds skimming the surface of the deep. The skipper blew his bugle horn, and I fired my rifle repeatedly, hoping to "raise the natives," (who consist solely of the few men kept there by the owners of the island,) and bring them down from their mountain fastness 4,000 feet up and five miles away in Spring Valley; but we only succeeded in smoking them out, for, just before nightfall, we saw, far away on a mountain peak, a little column of smoke slowly ascending—the signal of the islanders that our sail had been sighted.

Then we landed and took observations. Before we had touched foot on the beach numbers of a mean bird of prey sometimes improperly called the "Guadalupe vulture," but which in reality is the Caracara eagle of Mexico and South America (Poliborus thaurus) scented our approach and collected on the beach, clamorous for prey or provender. I know of no more detestable bird thank this in all the ornithological kingdom. They are so mean that dozens of them will combine and tear their own kind to pieces when caught hurt or sick.

Reconnoitering. I sent a green fellow, whom we had brought along as a laborer, ashore with directions to find the trail, follow it up the mountain to headquarters, and bring down the men; but he soon returned declaring that his way had been blocked by boulders. With eyes sticking out on his cheeks, he excitedly declared that "neither man, horse, nor goat could go up that canyon." Lost. I saw that the fellow had simply missed the pack trail and tried to go up the bed of the gorge instead of along its flank, where the path runs, and resolved to take upon myself the task of finding the island people. But it was now too dark to proceed, and so the night watch was posted, the goats fed and watered with the last of their supplies, and I lay down on deck, under the stars, to wait for a new day, while the old salts turned in below.

On an Exploration. Next morning bright and early I went ashore in a boat, and, armed with my rifle and provisioned with a pocketful of sea-biscuit (to provide against the contingency of getting lost), I started to climb the rugged mountain side, bound to find headquarters or exhaust every cracker in the attempt. The trail was struck and followed, according to Landrum's very clear description, without difficulty. Soon the first sign of goat life greeted me. Looking up the mountain in front, I saw sharp against the sky, perched on a great rock, a solitary wild goat standing motionless as a statue and watching me. Presently another, then another, and finally a fourth, successively appeared, all looking at the intruder in an inquiring way—for the goat has more curiosity in him, according to size and weight, than any known animal. He is almost equal to a woman in that respect. Solitude! solitude everywhere. In an hour from the time of leaving the beach my search was rewarded with success. Voices! and men—objects! and human ones: these greeted my ears and eyes. Bearing straight down on me, at an angle of something less than forty-five degrees, I saw two most extraordinary-looking human beings on foot, one leading a burro and the other a sorry-looking California horse, while another burro was driven before and a shepherd dog followed. I never had the fortune to see Mr. Robinson Crusoe, except in my mind's eye, but I can conceive of no spectacle more nearly resembling the original Crusoe than those two men presented who confronted me in the sagebrush of that island mountain on the last day of the year 1874. They got away with all my previous ideas of oddity—and I have looked upon the bushwhackers who in war times had their habit on the Devil's Fork of Guyandotte in the mountain wilds of West Virginia, the most primitive region I penetrated before sailing for the "Isle of the Silver Fleece." These Guadalupe fellows filled me with many and curious sensations. When the singular cavalcade got near enough to hail, I sang out "Hallo! how are you boys? How far is it to the next house?" "The next house is a hay-stack!" came in reply. (Shake.) "What vessel is that?" pointing to the little craft lying at anchor away below. "The San Diego, Captain Joachumsen, from San Diego, with goats and provisions for the island." "Good!!... Any letters?" "Si señor, una carta por el hombre viejo mismo. (I bore a letter from William M. Landrum, the boss goat man, to Walter Young, the mayor domo.) "Do you want anything to eat? "Not just now; but our commissary is down to bed rock—nothing left but flour, beans, and wild-goat meat." "So?—well, we've brought you a fresh supply."

The men, whom I found to be intelligent fellows—one an Englishman, the other a Yankee, and both old sailors—were delighted to see somebody from God's country, and informed me that every day since the 10th of the preceding August (since when they had been looking for relief) they had gone to Point Lookout to watch for the expected sail. They were beginning to fear they had been abandoned for the Winter, and had given up counting on the arrival of a vessel before Spring.

Debarking. We descended the mountain without delay, and after some maneuvering to manage the timid skipper, who stood in great dread of the rocks that lift their heads out of the water on either side of the anchorage—which is, however safe—we commenced the work of landing our precious fleecy freight. For this task we had but one small boat, no more capacious than a Western river skiff. The "melancholy Dane" proposed to dump the goats into the sea and make them swim ashore, but, considering the damage and danger to the Angora from water, and especially salt water, this proposition was vetoed forthwith. The work of debarking the band in the single boat was then commenced. A line was passed from the ship to the shore, made fast, and by it the boat was hauled rapidly to and fro, carrying a dozen goats and two men at each trip—one man to keep them from jumping overboard and another to manage the boat. This operation was kept up all day, and at 10 o'clock on the morning of January 1st we saw the last goat on land. The debarkation had been tedious and laborious, not less than forty-nine trips having been made between the vessel and the shore; but the debarkation was a success: not an animal had been lost. Several got overboard, but proved good swimmers and were rescued by the sailors. The band was by this time suffering for water and feed. There was not a spear of grass on the sandy beach where they had to be held till the unloading was completed, and no fresh water short of Spring Valley, five miles away. Before noon the vaqueros had packed their animals with supplies for the camp, and were hurrying up the mountain, driving the band before them. Sanford carried a couple of tender kids which had dropped in the melee. After a parting lunch with the kind-hearted but nervous navigator, I bade him goodbye and a "Happy New Year!" leaving him to return to San Diego for another cargo of goats, and took a boat for the shore. Landing, I started up the trail, rifle in hand, with Charley Stewart, a young San Diego adventurer, along. Full of the spirit of discovery, Charley named the first valley he came to, New Year's Valley. Scaling the toilsome heights, we kept on, urging forward straggling goats that had dropped, exhausted, behind the band. At dark, very tired, we reached Headquarters in Spring Valley.

The ranch house is a dirt-roofed domicile of primitive and strictly original style and construction, standing in the midst of a fine grove of cedars, surrounded by a brush fence, with a cook house of "shakes" and several strong springs of fine water nearby. The inhabitants of this romantic retreat of these seekers after the Silver Fleece are, besides the modern Argonauts, themselves, the burros, mustang cavallo [caballo/horse], dog, chickens, cats, eagles, and numberless little singing birds that fly and jump about everywhere, even on the mess-table and the heads of the fellows around the festive board. The peculiar inside arrangements, adornments and accoutrements of this island casa were enough to take the eye of an artist, or any other man. The sides of the house were built of logs to a height of four or five feet, then the structure was covered with poles and thatched with broad palm leaves, and the whole covered with earth banked up so as to make the roof slope from the ridge-pole to the ground like a wedge-tent. At one end was the fireplace, with a mantle piece above it—one of the real old-time kind, such as I have not seen since boyhood in the Buckeye State—big enough to take in back-logs "as is" back logs. Arranged along the sides were bunks as in the Winter camp of an army. Above them hung in racks a formidable array of fire arms—a veritable arsenal, powerful enough to hold the fort against all the buccaneers, privateers, mutineers or muleteers that will ever be likely to lay siege to the isle. Tables, stools, water-jug and candle-sticks constituted the furniture; army blankets and goat skins the drapery of the couches. Concisely speaking, the Guadalupe ranch house was "way up."”

PART II CONTINUED FROM ABOVE. July 14, 1877 [SBMP]: It was discovered, after we reached camp, that one of the pack-asses, a wise and cunning old burro, loaded with miscellaneous freight consisting of blankets, coats, tea, tobacco, and a priceless bundle of old Harpers' Weeklies, had disappeared from the pack-train while ascending the mountain, and was non est. It was a disaster, and the youth whose soul had been filled with horror at the sights he saw in Esparza Bay Canyon was compelled to sleep on goat skins that night. Five days afterwards the old jack was found, his pack still on his back all right, but his withers not unwrung. The goats were not too tired to exercise their irrepressible curiosity and climbing propensities by going over the top of the shebang, which they did, to the last goat, who traversed the roof ridge and peered down the chimney—and—still he was not happy. The band was watered and corralled, and the following day put upon their range.

The Island. Guadalupe Island may be described as a great pile in the ocean, apparently a volcanic upheaval — a mountain from eight to twelve miles wide and twenty-five or thirty miles long, its surface marked and seamed by high sharp ridges, sugarloaf peaks, deep canyons, bold bluffs and one broad basin (Spring Valley), with a main ridge running from the northern point far towards the southern end, where the land slopes down to the sea. The surface is stony — sandstone, scoria, or lave cropping out everywhere, with a rich red, loamy soil, the wash of ages, packed between, out of which springs a rich growth of herbage. Splendid cedar and pine groves are numerous in the northern and central parts; majestic live oak and hemlock trees grow on the west side, and the canyons are lined with thousands of beautiful broad-leaved palm trees of the species Brahea edulis, bearing fruit. The trees (which are all old, the young shoots being eaten out as fast as they come up,) are from thirty to forty feet high and twelve to fifteen inches in diameter of trunk. The fruit clusters are three to four feet in length, each weighing forty or fifty pounds. The fruit is eaten by goats, jacks, birds, mice, and even by men. These splendid palm trees give the canyons and slopes where they grow a decidedly tropical look.

Fine springs of sweet water flow out of the bluffs into the main valley. Mount Augusta, in the central part, looms up over all, 5000 feet above the sea. Such is the surface of the isle. The shore is indented by Esparza Bay at the north and on the east side, and on the southerly by Whaler's Bay and by Jack's Bay on the west side — all anchorages safe enough in any ordinary weather. Esparza Bay took its name from a former Lieutenant Governor of Lower California, who, about the year 1857, was deposed by one of the periodical revolutions in that Mexican territory, and sought refuge, with his family and secretary, on Guadalupe Island. I saw the ruins of one of his houses, his garden spot, and the rude trough which was once the vat where he tanned goat skins for shoe leather.

The Goats. The common goats are of the smooth-haired English kind, with a sprinkling of the shaggy Mexican species. They were introduced upon the island many years ago, and have multiplied and been slaughtered from time to time in large numbers for their pelts and tallow. The cast range—more than 160,000 acres, covered not only with rich grasses but numberless pungent and aromatic shrubs, of which these browsing animals are peculiarly fond—supports a very numerous goat life, and the native stock is estimated to number many thousands. Much shooting has made them wild, and they are as good hunting as the antelope or the rare chamois. When a band of them that may have ventured down from their usual mountain range into Spring Valley for grass or water—they like to drink once in two or three weeks!—is fired upon by a hunter, the whole band swiftly makes off together, the goats speedily putting themselves out of danger by climbing inaccessible heights, from which they audaciously look back upon their pursuers.

The common goats are the main reliance of the islanders for meat food. And it is good, as I can testify of my own personal knowledge. The flesh of ewes and kids is sweet, tender, and of gamey flavor. No man, not even an epicure, need suffer for food so long as he can get goat meat such as the Guadalupe Island grows. It would go off at the Arlington—as venison. The manner of catching the wild goats is curious and interesting. In Spring valley several miles of wing fences have been constructed of brush and poles, so arranged as to make funnel-shaped enclosures, the small ends terminating in corrals near headquarters. Into the broad mouths of these fence-tunnels the goats are carefully driven by a line of men and dogs, and gradually urged forward into corrals, where they are confined till the old bucks have been slaughtered, the young ones castrated, and the ewes and kids marked, when they are allowed to go at large again.

The tenacity of life exhibited by these goats is something remarkable. I was told of one that got caught and disabled between some rocks, where it remained nine days without food or water, and then had to be killed. Two of our party went out once afternoon to shoot a goat for the larder. They soon started a band on the flat near the head of Esparza Bay Canyon. One of the gunners let fly with his Sharpe, and missed, over-shooting his game, which was below him. The other hunter fired simultaneously, aiming true at one which he took for an ewe, but was surprised and incensed to see that his goat didn't tumble over at once, but continued to move off sidewise with the band, keeping his head turned towards the gunner. That rifleman (it was Sanford) "cussed" like a pirate then and there. Hastily crowding another cartridge into his gun, Sanford let loose again, and this time brought down his game, striking the animal fair in the end of the nose, the ball passing into the brain. On examining the body it was found that the first shot had gone clear through it just back of the shoulders, yet the tough goat did not fall! When Sanford discovered that he had shot a lusty old buck instead of a tender ewe, his chagrin was deep; he made the air fairly blue with cuss-words. He whipped his knife out, took off the skin in a jiffy, and throwing it across his shoulder, started for camp, leaving the buck-steaks for the eagles.

The Valuable Mohair Goat, (Capra Angoraensis) was introduced in 1873 by the Guadalupe Island Company, very soon after it had bought the Island. In March of that year, the company's first president, Landrum, known as one of the leading goat men of the Pacific Coast, sent the first installment of Angoras to the island, consisting of 50 splendid thoroughbred bucks selected from is fine band in Santa Cruz County. The plan was to slaughter off the old bucks of the plebeian stock, make wethers of the young ones, and preserve the ewes for breeding purposes, crossing them with the pure Angora bucks for the amelioration of the race. The scheme is a sound and a grand one, having a broad foundation to build upon, and if it can be carried out success must be the ultimate result; for that the island is well adapted to the raising of mohair goats has been fully demonstrated. The bucks first put on were, twenty months afterwards, when I saw them, looking magnificent, carrying splendid fleeces of shining mohair sweeping the ground—as royal-looking a band of "golden hoofs," I doubt not, as can be found in their native Asia Minor. (Will the "bloody Rooshans" eat up all the goats of Angora on their raid through European Turkey?) One of these bucks showed a fleece from which a specimen 17 inches long was cut with a pocket knife. The goats thrive and have no enemies on the island save the pestiferous little caracara eagles before alluded to, which sometimes combine to the number of a dozen or twenty and pounce upon a new-born kid and tear it to pieces right before its mother's eyes within a minute after it sees the light. There is not a wild animal of any kind save the native goats there, and not a reptile, great or small. The work of breeding up, and not back, is the only problem. This has been made difficult of satisfactory accomplishment everywhere on the island by reason of the great number of common bucks running wild, and which it is not easy to get rid of. The territory is too big and mountainous to handle easily, and the lords of the native flocks hide themselves away in the deep canyons, refusing to surrender their dominion; so that, at the time of my visit, though thousands had been sot, or corralled and butchered, large numbers were still running at large in the mountains, beyond the reach of the goat-chasers. But the result of the cross of the Angora buck upon the common ewe is good wherever it has been tried. The progeny invariably take on the livery of the nobler race, and the improvement in fleece is steady and rapid, the coat growing finer with each successive crossing. Half-breed kids of coal-black mothers come into the world shining white.

An Irrespressible Conflict.

September 14, 1878 [Pacific Rural Press]: “Goat Speculation.—Index, Sept. 5: A party of Salinaites, consisting of Wm. Spicer, Jas. Caskins, A. I. Abbott, Jim Johnson and three others whose names we have not learned, sailed from Monterey yesterday in a 15-ton schooner bound for Guadalupe Island, which lies about 150 miles a little south of west of San Diego. The island, which is 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, is owned by Messrs. Abbott, Boswell & Flint, and has upon it some 60,000 Angora goats, also owned by the same parties. About one-third of the goats are high grade with fine fleeces, and the remainder are of an inferior kind. Spicer and his six companions have taken a lease of the island and the goats for one year, with the privilege of renewing the lease for a term of years, if they so desire. They will shear the high-grade goats and kill the inferior ones for their pelts. The owners of the island furnish the schooner and are to receive five-twelfth of the proceeds of the enterprise, leaving exactly one-twelfth of the profits to each of the lessees.”

February 4, 1879 [San Francisco Bulletin]: “Guadalupe Island....The island is under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Government, and is owned by Messrs. Flint, Boswell & Abbott, the last named member of the firm being Hon. C. S. Abbott of Salinas City...The island is overrun with mice, there being one, it is said, to every square inch of surface. As an offset to the mice, there are thousands of cats which have multiplied from tame cats turned loose there at some former period of time, and are as wild as they make them. Except for goats, cats and mice are the only animals found on the island. The party counted fourteen different kinds of birds, but saw no centipedes, tarantulas, snakes or other reptiles, and observed only one spider during their stay of four months...”

March 31, 1879. Agreement between the Guadalupe Island Company and Moses M. Staples original manuscript

July 26, 1879 [San Diego Union]: “Guadalupe Island Company vs Russell. Set for trial Aug. 5, at 10 A.M.”

November 27, 1879 [San Diego Union]: “Schooner Ellen, Joe Burges, master, arrived in the bay yesterday afternoon from a trip to Guadalupe Islands and the lower coast. She experienced some very rough weather during the late gales, but no accident occurred to either crew or vessel.”

June 1, 1880 [San Diego Union]: “Capt. Niles, who went on a cruise with the Annie Heron some three months ago, returned to San Diego on Sunday night by stage. It seems that after leaving Guadalupe Island with his cargo of sea skins, a heavy gale came on, blowing away his mainsail. He ran the schooner before the wind, reaching Magdalena Bay in eight days, where he waited until the steamer Newborn came along, bound up. Capt. Niles transferred the Heron's cargo to the steamer, and went on to San Francisco, where he sold the skins to good advantage, netting $1,950 for the cargo; having accomplished which, he returned here overland, as stated.”

August 23, 1880 [Sacramento Daily Union]: “Arrested for Barratry. San Diego, August 21st.—United States Marshal J. D. Dunlap arrested Captain J. M. Niles of this place for running away with the sloop Annie Heron, and left with his prisoner for San Francisco this morning.”

August 25, 1880 [San Diego Union]: “James M. Niles, Captain of the sloop Annie Heron, was recently arrested by Marshal Dunlap. The vessel is owned by Thomas J. Higgins, and it is charged that Niles entered into a contract with Higgins to proceed on a voyage to Guadalupe Island for the purpose of obtaining seal skins; that he obtained a large cargo of skins at the island, which he placed on board another vessel bound for this port, and on their arrival sold them. It is further charged that he then ran the sloop into Magdalena Bay and dismantled her. He waived examination before Commissioner O'Beirne yesterday and will today furnish bonds to the amount of $1000.”

June 24, 1881. State of Maine. Certificate of Organization of a Corporation: Western Land and Livestock Company [Bancroft Library]

July 29, 1881. Letter from Thomas Flint to S. W. Hale [Bancroft Library]

March 18, 1882. Letter from J. W. Hale to B. P. Flint [Bancroft Library]

May 9, 1882 [New York Herald]: “The Island of Guadalupe. The Mexican Government Declares It Will Not Allow Any One To Take Possessions Without Title. New York, May 8, 1882. To the Editor of the Herald:—Will you kindly publish in your columns for the benefit of the public the notice as to the alleged claim to the ownership of the Island of Guadalupe, on the west coast of Lower California, which we have the honor to enclose herewith? Olcott & Mestrie. Attorneys for the Consul General of Mexico to the United States. Consulate General of the Republic of Mexico for the United States of America, New York, May 6, 1882.

Notice is hereby given to whom it may concern that, there having appeared in various newspapers published in the United States a public notice to the effect that a company has been organized in conformity with the laws of the State of Maine, under the name of The Western Land and Live Stock Company, with its headquarters at No. 258 Washington street, Boston, Massachusetts, and for the purpose of tilling land, raising stock and fishing for seals; and further, that the company referred to have purchased the island of Guadalupe, situated on the coast of Lower California, and that the title to the island referred to was originally acquired from the Mexican government, and that 10,000 shares of the stock of said company are for sale; and, there being no proof on file in the proper office of the government of Mexico of any such transfer of ownership to the said island of Guadalupe from the government of Mexico, at any time, to any company, to any corporation or to any private individual, these presents will make known, through the undersigned, hereunto duly authorized, that the government of Mexico will not allow any one to take possession of the said island of Guadalupe, or permit anyone to take any of the products of the said island, without first obtaining a perfect legal title thereunto, the validity of which shall first be passed upon by the Department of the Public Works of the government of the Republic of Mexico. For the government of Mexico.—Juan N. Navarro

May 12, 1882 [Boston Herald]: “The Island of Guadalupe. A Counter Statement by Treasurer Cushman. To the Editor of the Herald: The treasurer of the Western Land and Livestock Company, in reply to the notification by the Mexican consul general, published in the New York Herald of the 8th inst., whereby he warns the people of the United States that the Mexican government will not allow any corporation or individual to take possession of the island of Guadalupe, or take therefrom any of the products of the said island, submits the following statement:

"On the 22nd day of August, 1881, the Guadalupe Island Company, a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of California, in pursuance of a vote of the stock holders of said company, conveyed to the said Western Land and Livestock company, by deed now on file in the Boston office of said company, the island of Guadalupe together with all and singular the structures and personal estate thereon. In the said deed it is cited that the said island was ceded among others by the Mexican government to Jose Castro and Florence Serrano, by decree of concession dated January 8, 1839...”

February 24, 1883 [San Francisco Examiner]: “The Mexican gunboat Juarez met with a very heavy storm on her recent trip from Guadalupe Island. A fearful gale prevailed. During the storm one of the ship's guns broke loose and crashed through the bulwarks, carrying away the rails.”

1884: “...But since the beginning of 1884 a small band of some forty Lower California soldiers has been stationed there by the Mexican Government, to prevent the wholesale slaughter of the goats, of which there are many thousands still on the island, notwithstanding the fact that for some two or three years prior to 1884 many a cargo of goat skins and tallow had been taken to San Diego...” [Hemsley, G. Guadalupe Island in The West American Scientist 2:14 (21-24), 1886]

April 23, 1884 [San Diego Union]: “The Mexican gunboat Domocrata arrived in port Monday night from Mazatlan. She will take a cargo of provisions to Guadalupe Island, situated some two hundred miles below here, where the Mexican Government has established a station.”

May 24, 1884 [Pacific Rural Press]: “Pacific Coast Palms... Another species is Erythea edulis, Watson, native of Guadalupe Island off the coast of Lower California. It is a smaller palm, having an abundance of palatable fruit, single clusters of which weigh sometimes 40 and even 50 pounds. This island species has been introduced into cultivation in several places...”

January 31, 1885. Meeting of the Stockholders of Western Land and Livestock Company [Bancroft Library]

March 28, 1885 [San Diego Union]: “Professor Dunn will start on a voyage to the Guadalupe Island on the sloop Brisk in a few days.”

April 3, 1885 [San Diego Union]: “Captain Porter arrived from San Francisco yesterday. He will sail Mr. Higgins' sloop Brisk to the Guadalupe Island with Dr. Green and Professor Dunn. It is 260 miles to the island and they expect to spend six weeks there in the pursuit of science. The island is well watered and well wooded and has a custom House. A few Mexican soldiers are quartered there to prevent seal fishing.”

June 7, 1885 [LAT]: “...Another unfortunate scheme [of ex-governor Haile of New Hampshire] was the purchase of an island near San Francisco, with the idea of starting a mammoth sheep or cattle ranch. This probably refers to Guadalupe Island, one hundred miles off the coast of Lower California, which Haile bought for $100,000.”

July 1, 1885 [San Diego Union]: “At the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco last week Rev. M. Green delivered the first of a series of lectures on the islands off the coast of Lower California, where he had been sent by the Academy to take scientific researches. He stated that Guadalupe Island, 100 miles from the mainland of San Diego, is several miles in extent, in the shape of a large table land, 3,000 feet high. Goats are quite numerous, while the island is literally overrun by cats and mice. No one seems to know how the one lone donkey got there. It contains some timber, the highest trees being fifty feet in height. A few fruit trees still exist, but are fast dying out. The island is said to be the summit of a submarine mountain chain. It will be remembered that Rev. Green set out from San Diego on this expedition to the Guadalupe Islands and was accompanied by Prof. Dunn, of San Luis Rey.”

October 1, 1885 [San Diego Union]: “The sloop Lou, Capt. Jean, arrived in the harbor yesterday. She hails from Guadalupe Island and comes in ballast.”

January 19, 1887 [San Diego Union]: “The yacht Dawn, Captain Dill, will sail this afternoon at 2 o'clock for Guadalupe Island with mail for the steamer Ranger...”

January 19, 1887 [San Diego Union]: “The sloop Cora, Captain S. C. Smith, left this port six days ago for a hunting and fishing cruise to Guadalupe Island and the Gulf of California. She is of about twelve tons burthen and carried one seaman besides the Captain. The sailor's name was Benjamin Bosworth. He had lived in San Diego many years, and for a long time had followed whaling on the coast. His long experience rendered him a competent mariner, and the two men sailed away on their long, lonely voyage in the little vessel with that bravery which seems to the land-lubber almost miraculous. The voyage was prosperous and calm until Saturday evening, when the north wind began to ruffle the water. It gradually increased until about 6 o'clock, the waves dashing the boat about, hurling it here and there like the wind blows a straw. Both men were on deck. Suddenly a gust of the gale dashed the sloop about, and the bottom of the mainsail whirled over to the lower side. In its course, one of its ropes caught Bosworth's neck, and in an instant he was jerked into the sea and dragged along behind the flying boat. Captain Smith, at the risk of allowing the the sloop to go to the bottom of the ocean, threw aside the tiller and jumped to catch the drowning man. He grabbed Bosworth by the arm and exerted his full strength to pull him into the boat, but to no purpose. For a long time he held on determinedly, but at length a heavy swell dragged the body from his benumbed and stiffened hands and dashed it out of sight. The sloop was brought about, and all that night, the wind having moderated, Captain Smith tacked back and forth, shouting and showing lights, hoping that the man might have "come to" and be floating, for he was a noted swimmer. But when morning came the Captain turned the bow of his vessel toward Point Loma, and for two days and two nights he, without rest or sleep, guided her in the face of a stiff breeze, until yesterday he arrived in port, nearly work out. Bosworth is said to have a daughter in Oregon and a son in Massachusetts.”

March 10, 1887 [San Diego Union]: “The Carlos Pacheco left Ensenada Friday evening for Guadalupe Island with five passengers. These she left to join the colony established by the Mexican International Company on the island. She was anchored at the island for two days.”

June 30, 1887 [Coronado Mercury]: “The contract between the International Company and the Mexican Government calls for four to eight round trips per month by mail steamers from San Diego to Ensenada, touching four times at San Quintin and once at Guadalupe Island. The company gets $150 per trip and is credited with 50 per cent of the duties on merchandise brought by the steamers. They may sail under a foreign flag one year.”

August 11, 1887 [LAT]: “The steamer Carlos Pacheco, which sailed south from here last week, ostensibly in search of smugglers, arrived today from Guadalupe Island, 240 miles southwest of here, whither she went on official business for the Mexican Government, carrying soldiers to relieve the garrison stationed there.”

January 31, 1888 [Cleveland Leader]: “...Early the following morning we made Guadalupe Island, 180 miles south and west of Ensenada, quite out of the usual course of the coast steamers, but the International Company, of Mexico, who own the line of steamers, also own the island, and the City of Topeka came to bring supplies to the soldiers and colonists who live here...never have I seen anything so strange and curious. There is a narrow canyon running from the tableland down to the beach, and at the mouth of this we land our little boat; one of the seamen wades out and carries me bodily in his arms that I may run no risk of getting wet. Here in a defile of rocks is a garrison of Mexican soldiers, sent here by the government to guard the goats and seal from marauders; the colonists live in the valley higher up. There are about thirty soldiers here with their families, who live in wretched little thatched cottages with barely the actual necessities of life, to say nothing of the comforts. The walls of the huts are built of loose stone piled up about ten feet high; the roof is thatched with palm leaves, which are brought from the top of the mountains eight miles away. When they told me it took a man eight days to bring down a load I didn't wonder they had no more of them. The garrison was at breakfast when we arrived so that I had an opportunity of seeing something of the domesticity of camp life, which was very primitive, indeed. Their entire bill of fare, month after month, consists of goats' meat and milk, with tortillas—cakes made of ground corn—and coffee; sugar they had, sometimes, when the supplies had not given out. There was no furniture in any of the huts, except a table and chairs. No tablecloths, no anything save meat and coffee on a bare board, still some of the women were well dressed, and in European clothing, sported considerable jewelry, and one or two were quite bright and and pretty. Their food was cooked over little fires, out of doors, and they slept on the ground floor, rolled up in their blankets. Fortunately the climate is so mild they do not suffer from this. The soldiers are very pompous, strutting around in their uniforms, but so small of stature that they seemed like children's toy soldiers. They are very hospitable, and invited us to breakfast, but we had no appetite; however, we must, whether or no, drink with them. The one swallow of fiery mescal which I took, not to seem unsocial, burns into my very vitals yet. Ugh! the vile stuff, how can the women drink it, for they do almost as much as the men. The sailors tell me years ago, during a revolution in Mexico, Governor Esparza ran away and a whaler brought him and his family to this island, which was entirely uninhabited, and they lived here seven years before a ship came to take them off. Meantime the Governor himself had disappeared; he went hunting one day and never came back. It is supposed he fell over the rocks and was killed. His family were rescued, and were glad enough to return to civilization...”

September 5, 1888 [LAT]: “Goat Skins and Copal. [San Diego Sun.] Capt. Behen, of the sloop Liberty, who arrived from Guadalupe Island Friday evening with a cargo of goat skins, believes he has struck a bonanza. The island is now stocked with thousands of wild goats, which are valuable for their skins, meat and tallow. The Captain states that there is a forest of trees, covering an area of several miles, from which copal may be obtained in paying quantities. Copal is imported largely in the East, is used by painters in making fine varnishes, and the best grade brings a high figure. Guadalupe Island belongs to Mexico, and is situated about 240 miles south of San Diego. Capt. Behen has a concession from the Mexican government granting him the privilege of using and developing the resources of the island for a term of five years, and while he has heretofore turned his attention to the importing of goat skins, which are valued at 50 cents each, he will now take steps toward laying in quantities of copal.”

December 8, 1888 [Sacramento Bee]: “Fourteen months ago four men and a boy were sent to Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, to kill goats. There were supposed to be 200,000 animals on the island, and last week a small steamer was sent from San Diego to collect the pelts.”

December 8, 1888 [San Diego Union]: “The Carlos Pacheco arrived yesterday afternoon from Guadalupe Island and Lower California ports. She is taking a cargo here and will await orders to return south.”

April 27, 1889 [San Diego Union]: “The steamer Carlos Pacheco arrived from Guadalupe Island this morning, bringing a cargo of goat skins and tallow. She will return in about a month, when the goat-killing season will re-open. Captain Nelson of the Pacheco reports the island now has about 50,000 wild goats and that it is proposed to largely develop the trade in their product.”

December 16, 1889 [San Diego Union]: “Guadalupe Island, which has been considered worthless except for raising wild goats, has been found to contain a large grove of copal trees, which will be of value to the International Company.”

February 21, 1891 [SF Chronicle]: “On a Desert Island. Seven Seamen Left to Their Fate. The Men Rescued by a Passing Schooner—A Law-Defying Shipmaster. San Diego, February 20.—About two months ago Captain Bartells, an aged shipmaster, was arrested for assault and battery upon another seaman and in Justice Sloan's court, on the day of the trial, he created a sensation by assaulting the complaining witness while on the stand and badly injuring him. Upon being fined for contempt of court he finished the performance by cursing the Judge and other officials. He was admitted to bail and that night boarded his vessel and departed for pastures new, leaving his bondsmen to suffer. Before he left here Captain Bartells gathered seven men, named Jillison, Anderson, Smith, Hortz, Reddy, McCoy and Johnson, to go down to Guadalupe Island and kill wild goats for their hides and tallow. Bartells was to do the transportation, sell the product, furnish the provisions and divide, at stated intervals, the proceeds. They had been there since last September and everything went all right until December 1st. A few days prior to that day the vessel arrived at Guadalupe from San Pedro, where Bartells had disposed of about 1,000 goat skins and a large quantity of lard, estimated in value at $700. The vessel was again loaded with skins and tallow, and late in the afternoon of November 30th the money for the last sale and all previous sales was to have been divided according to the contract. Bartells feigned sickness and proposed to put the settlement off until the following morning. The men agreed and went ashore for the night. On going to the beach the next day they were horrified to find that no vessel was in sight. Bartells had sailed away during the night and taken with him not only the money, but all the provisions. The men were out of flour, sugar, coffee and salt. They had but a pound or so of sea biscuits left and after two days these were exhausted. Having no cartridges, powder or lead, they were compelled to resort to all sorts of means to capture goats for meat, and their bread for two months and five days consisted of palm seeds pounded into flour and backed without salt. Water was scarce, and vile at that. On the 5th of this month the schooner Ellen, returning from a shell-gathering cruise, was compelled to put under the shelter of the island on account of bad weather, and the men, more dead than alive, managed to attract the attention of the captain and were taken on board the vessel and cared for. After an uneventful trip the schooner has arrived at San Diego, and if Bartells ever makes his appearance again, the men say they will put him where his temper and dishonest propensities will be curbed for some time.”

February 23, 1891 [Helena Independent]: “San Diego, Cala., Feb. 22.—The schooner Ellen has arrived here, bringing Larry TIllison, William Reddy and five others, who since November 30 have been living on Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, subsisting on such fish, wild goats or carrion birds as they could catch. The men were employed in killing wild goats and preparing the skins, which were taken to market by Oscar Bartells in a small sloop. The men allege that in November Bartells disposed of a cargo of skins valued at $700. After again loading the vessel he agreed to make a division of the profits. Instead of doing so he put to sea at night, leaving them almost entirely without provisions and without ammunition. The men were reduced to mere skeletons. Reddy is not expected to recover. The whereabouts of Bartells is not know.”

April 8, 1891 [San Diego Union]: “Smugglers at Guadalupe. The Mexican government apprehends a party stealing goat hides. The steamer Manuel Dublan, which was a day overdue, arrived from Ensenada last evening. The cause of the delay was learned to be that the steamer had been sent with a number of soldiers to Guadalupe Island to arrest a party of men whom it was learned had been for some time past killing goats on the island without permission from Governor Torres or authority from the Mexican government. These same persons some time since sold in San Diego about 800 goat hides, which were intended for the tannery at Ensenada. The party was found to consist of five men, who, being caught in the act, were arrested and brought to Ensenada and taken before the judiciary there for trial. Complaints of their depredations had been made to the general government in the City of Mexico, and it was under instructions from that quarter that Governor Torres acted. The vessel which had landed the party of goat hunters at the island was not found there at the time of the arrest. Permits had previously been granted to other companies and individuals by the Mexican government, but the men who were apprehended Monday were in no manner connected with any of these prior arrangements.”

June 4, 1891 [LAT]: “Skipper Grosse's Adventure. He Hunts for Island Goats and Is Taken for a Wild Man. [San Diego Union.] Skipper Grosse of the schooner Emma, which is now running between Ensenada and the lower ports of Mexico, met with a shivering adventure while lately anchored at Guadalupe Island. The Lower Californian related that the skipper and Capt. Behen had secured several wild goats in the northern part of the island, and descended the steep hill to the beach in the belief that would be the shortest and easiest way around to the landing. But shortly they discovered that the beach was not continuous, being irregularly paneled by sheer walls of rock that cut into the surf. Skipper Gross objected to returning and pulling the heavy goats back over the brush grown hills. He relieved Capt. Behen by offering to swim around the cliff, and in that way he would get a small boat and return. So the skipper husked and emerged as a Greek god for the plunge. When out of sight and sound of the Captain, a cramp seized him at the foot of this sixty-foot cliff. It was climb up or drown, and how he got up that steep smooth bank, his work fingers and toes testify. Nor was the worst over, as the living statue discovered. There was no easy way down to the beach, for the bleak cliff appeared practically endless. What with picking cactus pins from beneath his toes, the skipper had a tedious journey. At length a defile in the cliff revealed the Emma, and the crew in camp. The lost one hallooed, but when they located the apparition it was to quickly seize their arms. The skipper shrieked that he was not a wild man from anywhere, and so he was peacefully rescued and reclothed. Without losing a moment he pulled off the small boat to rescue the Captain, who trudged into camp just after the skipper had left. The hero of the adventure kept his bunk four days following to recover from "the effects of the sunburns he had received during his three hours' picnic among the crags and peaks of Guadalupe Island.”

July 22, 1891 [San Diego Union]: “In jail at Ensenada. Recent arrivals from Ensenada say that the schooner Jessie D, which was arrested for trespass and for acting as a transport for the goat hunters who were taken from Guadalupe Island some months ago, is still held in the Bay of Todos Santos in default of $1,000 bonds. The men arrested at the time are still in jail at Ensenada, and unless their employers at San Francisco do something for them they are likely to remain there for some time to come.”

July 25, 1891 [Los Angeles Daily Herald: “Guadalupe Island to be settled. Washington, July 24.—The bureau of American republics has information that the department of public works in Mexico, has granted to Romulo Villarasau, a concession for the colonization of the island of Guadalupe, in the Pacific ocean. The contract is to run for twenty years.”

March 5, 1892 [LAT]: “The Citrus Fair... Seeds of the Guadalupe Island pine are being shown on the branch. They are about the size of a cherry. The tree itself is large...”

October 22, 1892 [LAT/classified ads]: “Personal~ A gentleman intends visiting Guadalupe Island: object, natural history research; a proposition from suitable party to accompany him, sharing expenses, would be considered. Address by mail, Dr. E. F. F., 321-1/2 W. Fourth St., Los Angeles.” [horticulturist Emanuele Francesco Franceschi ]

March 9, 1893 [San Diego Union]: “Señor Don Mariano Garcia, owner of the Coronado islands, Guadalupe Island and several million acres of land in Mexico, is at the Hotel del Coronado. He will remain in San Diego some time, arranging business affairs with parties here and in San Francisco and Los Angeles.”

June 8, 1893 [San Diego Union]: “J. M. Soto will leave today for San Francisco, where, in the interests of Mariano Garcia, the Mexican capitalist, he will complete arrangements with Thebaud & Co., whereby the latter are to be given the right to obtain goat skins on Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California.”

March 27, 1894 [San Diego Union]: “An amended complaint in intervention in the case of Mariano Garcia vs. Peter Gunn et al. was filed in the county clerk's office yesterday. The action relates to the ownership of 4,400 goat skins procured on Guadalupe Island, and the intervenor prays for a decree giving him the interests of Messrs. Thebaud and Ashton in the skins, and for $1,320.”

June 15, 1894 [San Diego Union]: “The case of Mariano Garcia vs. Peter Gunn et al. has been set for trial on June 20 in department two of the superior court. The action is brought to recover $1,760.80 claimed to be due the plaintiff as concessionaire of Guadalupe island, for the goat skins alleged to have been secured on the island by the defendants.”

July 20, 1894 [San Francisco Chronicle]: “San Diego, July 19.—Seven days ago the sloop Alcalde left San Diego bound for Guadalupe Island, 300 miles south, off the coast of Lower California, with a party comprising J. M. Soto, Dr. L. B. Cummings and H. Camacho. Captain E. J. Teall was in charge of the vessel, and his only assistant was the mate, A. R. Holbrook. The Alcalde was under charter for twenty-five days by Soto and Cummings, who expected to remain at the island for that length of time and bring back on the vessel a cargo of goat skins. The Alcalde encountered a stiff breeze after crossing the bar and made good time past Coronados. On Friday evening, however, a gale sprang up and carried the vessel before it. The sea began running high and tremendous waves dashed over the sloop. The skipper and his mate managed to reef sail, but it did little good. The vessel was in constant danger of being swamped. To keep her head to wind the sea anchor and ropes were thrown out and the passengers, every one of them suffering from sea sickness, were compelled to bale the boat for their lives. Now and then a lurch of the vessel would wrench the pail from a bailer's hands, leaving him sprawling on the deck. The rudder was broken and seams in the deck opened. The water ran as through a sieve into the bunks below. Fortunately the vessel did not spring a leak, and after a day and two nights of fearful anxiety last Sunday morning dawned clear, with the sea considerably moderated. Captain Teall was of the opinion that the Alcalde's prow could be turned homeward, and there was no dissenting voice. Owing to the swell and broken rudder oars had to be used for a day. After that a good breeze and the repaired rudder brought the vessel safely home. The Alcalde had nearly two tons of provisions in her old, intended for the use of nine men who are procuring goat skins on the island. The men went down several months ago and have probably been out of provisions for some time. However, if necessity required, they could subsist on goat's flesh. Soto is making arrangements to forward supplies as soon as possible.”

July 26, 1894 [San Diego Union]: “A week ago yesterday the sloop Alcalde left San Diego bound for Guadalupe Island...Incidentally, Dr. Cummings meant to take a look over the island with a view of converting it into a hog ranch, a favorable proposition having been made by Mr. Soto as agent for Mariano Garcia, the concessionaire...”

September 14, 1894 [SFChronicle]: “Too Much of One Diet. Goats' Flesh the Main Food of Island Laborers. San Diego, September 13.—The schooner Chromo, Captain Gerald, arrived from Guadalupe Island to-day, having on board eight men who have been killing and skinning goats for some months past. The Chromo's cargo consisted of 1250 goat skins. She left the island on the 3rd inst. The eight men, all Mexicans, had a hard experience before the Chromo reached them, having lived for twenty-four days on goat's meat and the fruit of the black palm. They were ravenous for a change of diet, and when the Chromo's boat reached the strand of the desert island the men jumped aboard and grabbed the flour and other provisions that were brought from the schooner. They said that fish were not easy to catch. J. M. Soto, agent for Martin Garcia, the concessionnaire of the island, started two months ago in the schooner Alcalde with provisions for the men on the island, but a terrible storm was encountered in which Soto narrowly escaped with his life. He managed to get back to this port after being blown 400 miles out of his course, and he then delegated the voyage to Captain Gerald. The returned Crusoes say that about 15,000 goats are now on the island.”

November 15, 1894 [San Diego Union]: “The case of Ores Wells vs. J. M. Soto, to recover $40.50 alleged to be due as wages for labor performed on Guadalupe Island, was tried before Judge Paterbaugh yesterday and judgment rendered for for the plaintiff.”

June 16, 1895, [SFCall]: “Savage Encounter of Two Men With Goat-Killers on the Island. Three Assailants Kept at Bay Ten Days Until Outside Help Arrives. San Diego, Cal., June 15.—J. M. Soto and Thomas Hardy have arrived from Guadalupe Island, off Lower California, in the junk Acme, with particulars of a savage encounter on the lonesome island with three goat killers—Antonio Felix, a Basque and an American. Soto holds the concession from the Mexican Government and contracted with Felix to kill goats for skins. Three months ago he went down to see how business was progressing. He found that Felix and party had moved camp and were entering into the goat business for themselves. Soto demanded an accounting, and Felix responded with threats, saying he would be glad to shoot Soto as he would a goat. Hardly had Felix left and joined Soto, and together they prepared to defend themselves from Felix and the Basque, who were joined by an adventurer from a sealing schooner hovering around the island. Felix and companions ran out of food, and attacked Soto one night, demanding food at the point of pistols. They got pork and flour, and the next night attempted a raid. Soto and Hardy met them with a volley, which killed no one. As Felix and partners had only starvation ahead of them they were rendered desperate, while Soto and Hardy, not knowing when the schooner would return, determined to hold on to the food at all hazards. They prepared a pitfall at the door of the cabin and lay in wait. Felix, the basque and the American made another onslaught, and fell into the trap, the American being nearly killed by the fall. Soto and Hardy covered the party with rifles and made them swear to cease depredations, yielding to their entreaties not to be imprisoned. Hardly had Felix become free before he viciously attacked Soto, and would have killed him had not Hardy got in an opportune blow on the head that laid him out. For ten days following both sides were kept on the alert, fearing surprise and slaughter, and when the junk appeared Felix and his companions tried to steal it and leave the others to starve or eat goat. But the skipper turned it over to Soto, and he and Hardy managed to get away from the island, arriving at Ensenada, where the state of affairs was made known to the authorities. Orders have been issued to a force of soldiers to proceed to the island to capture Felix and his companions. Soto says the island is made the prey of marauding American sealers and land pirates. It is probable that the Mexican Government will station an armed force there.”

June 20, 1895, [SFCall]: “Guadalupe Brigands. Indemnity for Outrages May Be Demanded of Mexico. Scoffed at the Flag. An Ensenada Justice Tries to Capture an American Vessel. Soto Arrives at San Diego. An Order for the Arrest of Desperado Feliz and His Followers Secured. San Diego, Cal., June 19. J. M. Soto, the concessionnaire of Guadalupe Island, returned today via Ensenada, where he made authorities acquainted with affairs on the island and secured orders for the arrest of Antonio Feliz and seven men who kept Soto and his two companions in a state of siege thirty days, stealing provisions, threatening to kill them on sight and taking possession of Soto's property. When the junk Acme arrived at the island with provisions and to bring Soto home, Feliz and two men boarded her and attempted to take command by force of arms. Soto had ordered a flag hoisted, and called Feliz's attention to the stars and stripes. Feliz retorted that he "didn't care for that rag," and said threatened starvation on the island forced him to take possession. The mate of the vessel drew Feliz aside and told him his act was piracy, and that he would be shot in Mexico or hanged in the United States. This scared Feliz and he withdrew. Food for fifteen days was left with him. The authorities at Ensenada issued an order to Feliz as Justice of the Peace to arrest Feliz as a pirate and robber and bring himself and men into court. Soto objected to this, and secured an order to arrest the men. He has prepared claims which will be sent to Washington demanding satisfaction from Mexico for the acts of its redoubtable Justice on Guadalupe Island.”

June 27, 1895 [San Diego Union]: BIG LONG STORY

August 31, 1895 [San Diego Union]: “San Diego, Aug. 29, 1895. To the Union: I have seen in the Union of the 28th the statement that judgment has been rendered for the full amount of $63.90, in favor of the plaintiff in the case of V. Bruschi vs. J. M. Soto for supplies furnished to Soto's goat killers on Guadalupe Island. This is incorrect. The judgment is rendered for provisions supplied to Antonio Feliz's family from December, 1894 to July 1, 1895, alleged to have been ordered by Soto on March 6, 1895. The books of Brushci are in evidence and are at Judge Bryan's office. Please rectify that mistake, because such a statement is very damaging to the owner of the island, and to me individually. J. M. Soto”

September 24, 1895 [LAT]: “The schooner Acme arrived from Guadalupe Island on Sunday with 2260 goat skins.”

September 26, 1895 [San Diego Union]: “The Goat Skin Case. Peter Gunn may Keep the Pelts He Procured at Guadalupe. The case of Mariano Garcia vs. Peter Gunn and others, which has been in the superior court for some time, was decided yesterday by Judge Puterbaugh in favor of the defendant. The action was brought to recover possession of 4,056 goat skins alleged to have been taken without permission fro Guadalupe Island in Mexico, on June 15, 1893, on which island Garcia claims to hold a concession. The goat skins have been stored pending the trial of the case, and now the court directs that they be returned to Gunn and his associates, or if that is not practicable, the defendants are to have and recover the value of the skins at 30 cents each, with special damages of $1.”

October 17, 1896 [LAT/SD]: “The junk Acme has returned from Guadalupe Island with 3000 goat skins.”

February 4, 1897 [San Diego Union]: “Col. H. G. Otis returned fro Guadalupe Island on Tuesday in the schooner San Diego. He has been "roughing it" on the Island for three or four weeks, but has enjoyed his trip.”

March 25, 1898 [LAT]: “San Diego. The guano poaching [in Mexico] has been carried on probably for years. It is said that the genius who first discovered and developed the business was Oscar Bartels, a pirate. Bartels, a Russian Fin, has acquired a reputation from La Paz to Alaska as the prize pirate of the coast. He raided Guadalupe Island and marooned a lot of goat-skinners there, leaving them with scant provisions and robbing them of their pelts. He stole boats from various ports and sold them to others. He made excursions to the South Seas and had a number of romantic adventures. He stole the schooner Star of Freedom from San Francisco Bay, sailed her down the coast and was wrecked near La Paz, being captured and serving a number of years at La Paz and Ensenada. This man saw, with a pirate’s keen vision, the money to be made in guano poaching. He operated awhile, until the taste for something stronger than guano led him to Alaska, where he is reported to have killed an Indian woman and sold whiskey to her male relatives contrary to law. Others took up the guano business…”

October 15, 1898 [LAT]: “Rare Birds Brought From Guadalupe Island. San Diego, Oct. 14.—Four of the most rare birds known to ornithologists were brought up from Guadalupe Island the other day by Harry Drent, a goat-killer of the schooner Fancine [Francine]. They are called the Guadalupe carcar [caracara] and are the size of a small eagle. So far as known the only living birds of that species are on Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, and are very few in number. Drent in telling how he captured the birds said:

"I winged the first bird with a shotgun and fastened him near a big boulder. I knew from experience with birds in South Africa that the other birds would come near the captive. I laid a snare in the shape of a lariat and in that manner caught three more birds. I saw only three other birds of this variety on the whole island. I noticed where they went and found that they were nesting on a cliff. I let myself down several hundred feet with a rope and secured two eggs. They are worth $500 each. The birds I consider very valuable. I shall offer them to the Smithsonian Institution."

September 30, 1901 [LAT]: “Lost Their Hides. The schooner Freia, which some weeks ago took to Guadalupe Island a party of prospectors who have obtained a Mexican concession of complete right to the island, is expected to return here soon. The party found the schooner Lou at the island loading goat hides, and asserted their rights as concessionaires. The schooner sailed as quickly as possible for this port with the hides already aboard, and left about 900, valued at approximately $400, in the hands of the Mexican owners of the island. The Freia loaded them on board and they for a part of her return cargo.”

October 17, 1901 [San Diego Union]: “Will import a million goats. Mexican Company Has Secured Control of the Guadalupe Islands. E. Carazo and three other men who went to the Guadalupe Islands some three months ago, in the interest of a company with headquarters in the City of Mexico, and which has secured a concession to the islands for a term of fifteen years, were passengers on the schooner Freia, which arrived in port yesterday from the islands. The Freia brought 820 goat skins which had been left on the isalnd by four hunters who had killed 3,500 goats, but were unable to take away all the hides on one trip with their vessel. Mr. Carazo says he is well satisfied with the result of his trip, and will recommend to his company that the island be stocked with a Million Mexican goats. They will be imported from the state of Guanajuato, but before the animals are taken to the islands it will be necessary to develop more water. This can be done by opening the springs of which there are ten or more on the island. The company that has secured control of these islands will prohibit the further illegal killing of the seals, and will establish at least a dozen families there to take charge of the animals.”

December 5, 1901 [San Diego Evening Tribune]: “The schooner Freia, Capt. Burke, sailed this morning for the lower coast with a party of prospectors who are looking for copper and iron locations.”

July 20, 1902 [LAT]: “Col. T. C. Brooks of Pomona, who has had a varied experience as prospector, mine owner, capitalist and mining expert, is a conspicuous figure on Catalina. Col. Brooks was once the owner of Guadalupe Island."

April 8, 1910 [LAH]: “The power schooner May returned today from Guadalupe Island in command of her owner, Captain Marousen of Long Beach. Marousen held a lease from the Mexican government on the island with "Jap" Brady of Downey, to whom he has sold his concession. The island is about 200 miles southeast [west] of Ensenada and is about eighteen miles long and five miles wide at the broadest point with an area about the same as Catalina. There are said to be at least 80,000 wild goats on the island. Brady plans to kill off the goats and restock the island with sheep.”

May 1, 1910 [LAH]: “The power schooner May, Captain Edrington, is loading supplies today for Guadalupe Island, 150 miles south of Ensenada, and will sail Monday with twenty-five hands. The party expects to slaughter 10,000 goats on the island and bring back the dried meat, pelts and tallow. Two hundred cases for the tallow are being taken down, and the product will be returned to a Los Angeles soap factory. The expedition is being outfitted by a A. Marcussen of Anaheim, who owns the concession on the island granted by the Mexican government. He recently made a deal to sell the concession to parties who intended to kill off the goats and stock the island with sheep, but the sale fell through.”

June 4, 1910 [San Diego Evening Tribune]: “Angeleno wins death battle of six days. A. Marcuson of Los Angeles wrecked off Guadalupe Island, rows 150 miles in search of assistance. Forced to leave family at island. Mrs. Marcuson and child are left behind while husband and companion make dash for nearest port. According to a story told yesterday by the crew of the steamer San Diego which arrived from the south yesterday, A. Marcuson, of Los Angeles, with a male companion, arrived at San Quintin, Lower California, last Wednesday after a six days' battle with wind and wave. Marcuson, his wife and child and Marcuson's friend were wrecked on the rocks off Guadalupe Island 150 miles from San Quintin. Realizing that death would be their portion unless something was done, the two men, after making the woman and child as comfortable as possible, set out in an open boat to row to San Quintin. Immediately on their arrival a relief party was dispatched from San Quintin and it is believed the survivors are all in a place of safety now. The party of four survived the wreck of the schooner May, which went on the rocks off Guadalupe Island about ten days ago. In the little fourteen-ton vessel they had gone from San Pedro to the island, where they expected to land. The heavy fogs of the last two weeks caused the schooner to lose its course and instead of making the cove at which the party expected to land, it was dashed on the rocks on the west side of the island. The members of the party narrowly escaped with their lives. They had no time to save any of the food or other supplies from the wrecked schooner and succeeded in reaching the island in a small dory only after severe hardship. When word of the shipwreck reached Ensenada a relief party was organized and left that port Thursday night for San Quintin, where they will man the gasoline schooner Santa Barbara and start at once for Guadalupe Island. The party took a supply of gasoline from Ensenada and is expected to reach the island by Sunday night. Guadalupe Island is uninhabited. It is out of the track of all coastal vessels, and save for a prospecting or hunting party is visited only at long intervals. The nearest point of the mainland which is the most desolate part of the Mexican coast, is more than 100 miles to the east. The island is infested by an immense herd of wild goats, said to be on an excellent breed. Marcuson, who owned the wrecked schooner and is leader of the party, was granted a concession from the Mexican government to develop the breed of the Guadalupe goats and take them off the island. It was for this purpose that the Los Angeles party went to the island, Marcuson intending to land with other members and establish themselves there.

June 4, 1910 [SF Chronicle]: “Woman and child on barren island. Rescue party on the way to save shipwrecked party. San Diego, June 3.—Leaving a woman and child on Guadalupe Island, 150 miles off San Quintin, Lower California, A. Marcuson of Los Angeles, and a companion, the latter the husband of the woman, arrived in San Quintin last Wednesday after having been at the mercy of the wind and waves for six days in an open boat, and with little food and water. This is the report brought by the steamer San Diego, which arrived here today from Ensenada, Lower California. The party of four were on the schooner May, bound from San Pedro to Guadalupe Island. In a heavy fog ten days ago the vessel went ashore on the island. Those on board barely escaped with their lives and had no chance to save food or other supplies. The two men then took the schooner's small boat and started for San Quintin to obtain help. When the news of the wreck and the pitiful plight of the woman and child who were left on the island reached Ensenada, a relief party was organized and left that place yesterday for San Quintin, where they will man the gasoline schooner Santa Barbara and proceed to Guadalupe Island. The latter is uninhabited, and the fate of the woman and child is unknown.”

June 20, 1910 [LAT]: “Mr. and Mrs. Pat Sumner, their two-year-old child, and A. Marcuson, members of the crew of the small schooner May, shipwrecked off Guadalupe Island three weeks ago, reached San Diego Yesterday evening, on their way to their hime in Los Angeles. They tell harrowing tales of their experience while marooned on the island. With scarcely any food the Sumners and Marcuson remained on the island while a Mexican deck-hand and a small boy rowed to San Quintin. They were six days crossing the channel in the small boat. A launch was fitted up at San Quintin with which a rescuing party went to the aid of those shipwrecked. From San Quintin they made the trip overland to Ensenada, coming to San Diego by boat.”

October 13, 1910 [LAH]: “The launch Virginia has been chartered by A. Marcussen of Anaheim to take supplies to Guadalupe Island off the coast of lower California. Marcussen has a concession from the Mexican government and has the island stocked with goats.”

April 9, 1911 [LAT]: “Excursion, ten days' voyage to Guadalupe Island; want a few more to join party on business and pleasure trip; expenses reasonable; will sail about April 12. For full information call at 536 I. W. Hellman Bldg.”

July 13, 1913 [LAT]: “Daring. Sea elephants are rare game. Motion pictures of animals now almost extinct. Ocean-to-Ocean Motion Picture Company off for Guadalupe Island in peculiar outing which may mean rare specimens of sea denizens of which little is known. Equipped for a sea hunt that may mean rare motion pictures never before exhibited, the N.C. Parkhurst Ocean-to-Ocean Motion Picture Company will leave tomorrow for Guadalupe Island in Lower California. The goal of the expedition is the home of a colony of sea elephants in the outer waters of the island. Specimens of the sea elephant are to be captured and brought back to Los Angeles for exhibition purposes. The yacht Nora of San Pedro has been chartered and Capt. Charles E. Davis will be in charge. Several local sports will take the trip and enjoy some of the thrills with the "movies." Fishing and hunting will be enjoyed on this unique vacation trip. The island of Guadalupe is seldom disturbed by hunters and the cavalcade of sportsmen will invade the recesses of "No Man's Land." The company is prepared to remain three weeks on the island. Dramatic scenes will be depicted in this country so seldom visited by man. The first pictures ever made of the sea elephants, animals now almost extinct, should be of especial interest. About 5000 feet of film will be made under the personal supervision of Parkhurst. This elephant home is the only one in the world known to science. Government charts of the sea and of the islands near where the elephants are found are now in the possession of Parkhurst. These charts were made by government engineers who have recently returned from the San Miguel Islands, where a search was made for the body of the explorer Cabrillo. Sea lions and other animals will also be photographed and a graflex machine will be used to advantage. Snap shots will be made, if possible, of the shy animals as they dart about in the clear waters. The habits of these animals can be studied from the pictures and it is expected that much will be learned from the observations of the men in charge of the expedition.”

July 19, 1913 [LAT]: “After sea elephant pictures. The launch Nora left Wednesday night [July 16, 1913] for Guadalupe Island, which is said to shelter the last herd of sea elephants existence. She took a moving picture concern which will endeavor to secure pictures of the herd as well as features. Newspaper correspondents swelled the party to eighteen. The trip will take two weeks.”

July 30, 1913 [San Pedro News Pilot]: “Launch Nora seized by customs officials. Sea Elephant Expedition ends in confiscation of Al Hyder's craft upon return from Guadalupe Island. Seizure by the United States customs officials of the launch Nora, Capt. Al Hyder, at San Pedro Sunday, marked the return of the Ocean to Ocean Motion Picture Cp. expedition to Guadalupe Island, off the west coast of Mexico, where the first moving pictures of sea elephants, an almost extinct species of giant seal, were obtained. The Nora was seized on the allegation that she had put into San Pedro last Wednesday after she had cruised to Guadalupe Island, and after lying in the harbor a few hours had again out out to sea without taking out clearance papers. N. K. Parkhurst, manager of the moving picture company who commanded the expedition, declared that there had been no intention to violate the law. He stated that the Nora had put into San Pedro harbor because of the ill health of several of those on board. The expedition was remarkably successful in the taking of pictures of sea elephants. These immense animals are found only on the shores of Guadalupe Island, which is one of the least frequented spots in the world. They pass past of their time swimming close in toward the shore and part of it in basking on the sands. The grown sea elephants are from fifteen to twenty feet long and their weight is estimated at from 2000 to 4000 pounds. Mrs. Hyder accompanied the party and is probably the first American woman to see the elephants.”

October 7, 1913 [San Pedro Daily News]: “Sea elephant brought in. With what is said to be the only sea elephant in captivity in an immense crate on the after deck, the launch Nora this afternoon came in from some strenuous experiences at Guadalupe Island. The bull cub elephant captured is about ten feet long and weighs about a ton, is brown in color, and covered with coarse hair. He has big brown eyes and has ot yet become accustomed to the society of humans, as he roars his displeasure whenever approached. The capture was made last Saturday. A lasso was thrown over it and then began a fight to subdue it, which lasted six hours. Wickersham states that he saw at least 150, old and young, and that the old ones were 25 to 30 feet long.”

April 16, 1915 [LAH]: “Schooner Admiral Ashore on Island. San Diego, April 16.—The auxiliary schooner Admiral is beached at Guadalupe Island with little hope of salvage, according to word brought today by Captain T. J. Keeney of the schooner Flyer. The Admiral was in the service of the Guadalupe Island Company. President J. D. Hand of the company; W. B. Rowland, state veterinarian, and A. B. Pratt, meat buyer, returned on the Flyer from the island. No lives were lost on the Admiral.”

May 11, 1915 [LAH]: “Brings Record of Wreck in 1807. Captain C. C. Bruce, who was marooned on the Guadalupe Island with other members of his crew when his schooner Admiral was wrecked today arrived in Los Angeles bringing records found on the island of an experience similar to his when the crew of the ship David Christy were marooned Sept. 9, 1807, and rescued a year later. Bruce was rescued after a month on the island.”

July 7, 1922 [San Diego Union]: “Scientists to visit Guadalupe Island. Arrangements have been completed, it was said yesterday, for the scientific expedition to Guadalupe islands, which will start Sunday. The purpose of the trip was announced recently in The Union. The scientists will make the trip to the islands on the Mexican gunboat Tecate, which has been loaned by the Mexican government. The party will be under the direction of Carlos Chesta Terron, biologist of the department of fisheries of the Mexican government, and A. W. Anthony, director of the San Diego Museum of Natural History.”

September 5, 1931 [Madera Tribune]: “Seven Found Stranded on Pacific Isle. Two Women and Five Men Are Saved by Coast Guard. Wore Robinson Crusoe Clothes. They Had Been Living on Shell Fish and Sea Gull Eggs. San Pedro, Sept. 5—Five men and two women, isolated on a destitute. barren Guadalupe Island while trying to commercialize wild goats found there, were rescued today by a Coast Guard cutter, which is bringing them to the mainland. they had been living on shell fish and sea gull eggs. They were wearing Robinson Crusoe-like garments.”

Four months ago the above party left San Diego to hunt for treasures on wild Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Lower California. They became stranded, ran out of food and were in a bad way when discovered by the cutter Tamora, and returned to the mainland. Left to right: William Bradshaw, Gee YIng, Mrs. J. A. Woodcock, J. A. Woodcock and Orville Lindsay.

September 6, 1931 [San Bernardino Sun]: “Quest Closed by Castaway Island Party. Half-Starved Searchers Who Had Sought Riches Upon Isolated Pacific Isle Are Rescued. Coast Guard Goes to Aid. Seven Persons Give Up Plan to Reap Golden Harvest Out of Fleece From Wild Goats. San Pedro, Sept. 5.—A modern quest for the golden fleece was at an end today. The United States Coast Guard dropped its pursuit of rum craft long enough to go on an errand of mercy to the barren Guadalupe Island, 130 miles south of San Diego, off the coast of Mexico, where seven persons were slowly dying of starvation. The small group, last remnant of more than a score who went to the island several months ago expecting to make a fortune out of hides of wild goats which overrun the hilly country, was taken from the island today by the cutter Tamaroa, and were to be landed here at San Diego. Only Scant Supply of Food Remained. For long, weary months the party, composed of Mr. and Mrs. William Watson of Los Angeles, their daughter; J. A. Woodcock, Orval Lindsay, a man named Bradshaw and a Chinese cook, had sought to keep alive with the scant supplies left them when the remainder of the party put off for the Mexican coast. When supplies ran low, goat meat, sea gull eggs and fish became the staple diet of the seven until the providential arrival of Capt. G. Allan Hancock, Los Angeles millionaire, on his palatial yacht, Valero III. Captain Hancock, who had taken a scientific party to the Galapagos Islands to capture specimens of the elephant seal, gave the small party what supplies he could spare when they refused to leave the island, still hoping for the return of the party's leader. Clothing of Group Hangs in Tatters. Last Saturday, a Coast Guard cutter commanded by Capt. Charles Lucas stopped at the island, and there learned of the plight of the seven. The clothing of the party was in tatters. The women had attempted to garb themselves in crude garments of leaves. Because of the small size of his craft, Captain Lucas was unable to take the party aboard, and before he could return to port, Mrs. J. A. Woodcock, wife of one of the stranded party, had secured the aid of Admiral Billard of the Coast Guard, who ordered the Tamaroa to go to their aid. Although Guadalupe Island was reputed to be the hiding place of much pirate gold, the party sought the more lowly goat hides, and meat which they planned to can and sell in Mexico. Goats, left there by seal trappers in the last century, have so multiplied that they overrun the island. There is hardly a vestige of vegetation left, even the leaves being chewed from the limbs as high as the animals can reach. Because of the denuding of the small island, water has grown more scarce as the years went by, until even fishermen seeking to replenish their supply have given it a wide berth. The original party of 20 was composed largely of Mexican laborers. They revolted at the poor food and water, and with a member of the party returned to the mainland in their only boat. The one American, whose name was not learned, was to seek aid in the United States, but help never appeared. Guadalupe Island has been the scene of many expeditions, in search of gold and also to slaughter the goats. A party of four men and women was rescued last December when it was found near starvation by a United States destroyer which touched at the lonely islet.”