ISLA GUADALUPE THROUGH TIME
In the News~
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.”
April 11, 1868 [DAC]: “The exports to Guadalupe Island per schooner Summer Cloud embrace a value of $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 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.”
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.”
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 Poerter, 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.”
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.”
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.”
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 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.”
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.”
December 9, 1888 [SF Chronicle]: “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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
June 18, 1910 [The Leavenworth (Kansas) Post]: “Leaving a woman and child on Guadalupe Island, 150 miles off San Quintin, Lower California, A. Marcomson of Los Angeles and a companion, the latter the husband of the woman, arrived in San Quintin last Wednesday after passing six days in an open boat. This information was brought by steamer from Ensenada, Lower California, yesterday. The party of four was shipwrecked. The two men, in a small boat, started for San Quintin to obtain help. A relief party has set out for Guadalupe Island, which is uninhabited, save for the woman and child.”
