[KIP, Bishop William Ingraham]. MS narrative of Kip's 1854 visit to San Diego while en route to San Francisco to become the first Episcopal Bishop of California, along with a copy of A California Pilgrimage
Item #2220
12-page holograph document on double-sheets assembled as a small sewn booklet, with cover reading, "Bishop Kip's Letter from California | Stay at San Diego | No. 5 |1854". [c. 1854]. Either executed by an amanuensis at Kip's dictation, or is a fair copy from a Kip original. This appears to be the manuscript of one of Kip's California letters, as published in The Spirit of Missions around 1855. These articles were later drawn on for Kip's autobiography Early Days of My Episcopate (New York: T. Whittaker, 1892). The content of this superb narrative provides an intimate portrait of Californios who though defeated and still making a large adjustment to the American presence nonetheless retain their friendly and hospitable ways. ôWhen we landed from the Golden Gate, the usually quiet Plaza of San Diego presented an unaccustomed scene. Instead of four or five houses, with a solitary individual moving here and there, nearly a thousand people were scattered about the beachàIt was my good fortune to recognize, in the U.S. Collector at the Plaza, Mr. Blucker, an old New Yorker, who promptly took any necessary steps for our comfort. Our baggage was placed in his storehouse, while he at once mounted his horse, and rode up to San Diego, where he chartered a large wagon to take us thither, and returned towards evening with an invitation from Don Juan Bandini, for our party to partake of his hospitalityà Until the coming of the Americans, indeed, these people led a life of ease and quiet, in the midst of the fullest abundance of everything they could desire. Kind-hearted and hospitable, their houses were always open to strangers, who were worthy of their confidences. Their lives were spent indeed in idleness for in this climate and with this soil, but little was demanded of them. The Indian population furnished them with their servants, and their time was passed in those amusements which their fathers had brought with them from old Spain. Then came our countrymen, who robbed their ranchos, seized their lands and drove them to the wall. At the very time Don Juan was showing this unbounded hospitality to a party of American strangers who had no claim upon him, several of whom could not even speak his language, his son arrived one morning from one of his ranchos on the other side of the line, ninety miles distant, having ridden in on a single horse, in one night, to announce to his father that Walker's company of filibusters had killed the cattle, driven off the horses, and perfectly stripped the rancho. And this is not by any means the first time he has been thus plunderedàö Accompanying the manuscript is a Nov. 11, 1930 invoice showing its purchase by Arthur Ellis from Chicago bookseller Morris H. Briggs. Also included, Louis C. Sanford, A California Pilgrimage: Being an Account of the Observance of the Sixty-Fifth Anniversary of Bishop Kip's First Missionary Journey through the San Joaquin Valley together with Bishop Kip's Own Story of the Event Commemorated, 1921, 169/250 copies, printed by Bruce Brough in San Francisco. Boards in cloth back, without dust jacket. Arthur Ellis' copy inscribed to him by J. Gregg Payne in 1927. Cracking to cover sheet along fold with chip missing, otherwise this fragile item is very good or better. Book with a touch of foxing to spine and fore-edge; otherwise near fine. |
