By 1856, the California Gold Rush was over, and most people had not struck it rich. The violence continued, however, with one French consul describing the country as giving “the most revolting examples of disorders and crimes. Every day the newspapers mention murders and frightful assassinations” (Nasatir 1945: 116).
It is unknown how profitable this period was for Boban financially, but the young adventurer certainly had acquired valuable knowledge about the native peoples of California. He apparently had also acquired a working knowledge of Spanish. In 1850 the northern part of California became part of the United States, with Baja California still a part of Mexico. In both Californias, however, the predominant language continued to be Spanish.
Probably by late 1856, Boban began making his way south toward Mexico City, perhaps stopping for a while in the northern part of Baja California, where he again wrote about the native peoples’ habits that he observed, in particular their fishing practices and pearl-diving enterprises. In an unpublished manuscript about the natural resources of Mexico, which he compiled in the early 1890s, he wrote about Baja California pearls. “Forty years ago in Los Angeles, where we lived at that time, we often saw people from California and from Sonora who came to offer pearls, which they brought from the coast of Baja California” (HSA: B2253, Box 14).12 Boban often writes these memoirs in the first person singular, although in many instances he crosses out the “I” and writes “we.” It is unclear whether he does this out of a sense of modesty or is actually talking about traveling companions—his father or someone else.
Boban continues writing about the pearl industry quoting from a French-published source “Notes Statistiques sur la Basse Californie” by Édouard Guillemin about the quality of pearls from La Paz, at the southern end of Baja California. He wrote that they have a “very nice finish, and that black pearls are unusual; the pink pearl, a local variety, is even more rare” (HSA: B2253, Box 14).13
In the nineteenth century pearls were an extremely valuable commodity in Mexico. In a publication about the industry, the gemologist George Kunz, who was vice president of Tiffany & Co., quoted from an 1859 report that by 1857 (the year Boban left California), 95,000 tons of oysters had been removed from the Sea of Cortés, between Baja California and the mainland of Mexico. The Baja California pearl yield was “2770 pounds of pearls, worth $5,540,000 (Kunz and Stevenson 1908: 246).
Whether he sailed from California to Acapulco or traveled south overland, Boban arrived in Mexico City in the spring of 1857. The city was the capital of the still struggling republic, which after gaining independence from Spain had recently lost California—a significant portion of its territory—to the United States. The country had developed a liberal constitution in 1857 but was about to enter three years of civil war before the constitution would be ratified and Benito Juárez declared president.
“Eugenio” Boban’s first carta de seguridad, a sort of visa, dated 1 April 1857, is in the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) in Mexico City. The document states “For the term of a year [the bearer] may live and travel in the territory of the Republic observing the regulations of 1 May 1828” (AGN: Movimiento Marítima, Vol. 201, Exp. 135, foja 24). The security letter lacks the usual descriptive information such as height, weight, hair color, complexion, and so forth; although presumably the original document that Boban would have carried was complete in those details. The young man is listed as being twenty-two years old, although he was actually twenty-three. Interestingly, there are a variety of documents relating to Boban that give conflicting information about his age. This is also true of the census data documenting his family in Angers and Paris. The security letter may be the first of many indications that Boban had a habit of losing years, perhaps out of vanity.
After wandering for four years through California, his arrival in Mexico City would mark the beginning of a new life and career. He had traveled thousands of miles from Paris. He had learned to live with many nationalities, some prone to violence in search of gold. Yet he seems to have come to the realization that the New World offered great riches, despite its hardships.
He brought with him to Mexico an appreciation for the struggles of native peoples, who had taught him many things about their lives and customs. Boban also brought a basic knowledge of Spanish, which would provide considerable aid in reinventing himself as a student and dealer of all things Mexican.
Notes
1. French conscription laws decreed that all twenty-year-old males undertake military service (Baker 2001: 194).
2. After Napoleon III’s coup in 1851, disenchanted revolutionaries emigrated, many free of charge, under the auspices of a huge lottery supervised by the Prefect of Paris.
3. J’ai habité la Californie pendant 4 années, à partir de 1853 et pendant deux de ces années je n’ai fait que parcourir le pays en tous sens; cette vie errante au milieu des Indiens m’a permis d’étudier leurs moeurs. (Our transcriptions are, as far as possible, accurate to the original with regard to spelling, grammar, or missing words. In many cases we are working with handwritten material, which is sometimes hard to decipher. Some of the errors in grammar and punctuation are Boban’s, and some may be ours.)
4. Les Indiens, nomads et chasseurs, vivent ordinairement en petits groups (Rancherias); ils choisissent toujours pour établir leur rancherias un mamelon d’ou la vue s’etend au loin, et situé à proximité des grands ravins afin d’avoir facilement de l’eau. Leurs cases ou abris sont formées avec des branches d’arbres (chamisos) fichées en terre et réunies à l’autre extrémité en forme de cloche; la base en est circulaire; au centre se trouve un petit feu qui dure nuit et jour. Ils se couchent tous pêle-mêle, les pieds vers le feu. Les Indiens ne font jamais de grands feux pour plusieurs raisons: le manque de bois, par suite du déboisement, le désir de ne pas effrayer le gibier et celui de ne point offrir un point de mire à leurs ennemis.
5. Qui leur donnerent la chasse, brulerent leurs belles forêts et bouleversérent le sol. Certes rien n’est plus étrange que de voir l’homme qui se prétend civilisé, prendre un si grand plaisir à tout brûler et à tout détruire, et si les Indiens ont dans leur langue le mot “sauvage” que de fois ils ont pu l’appliquer avec raison aux Européens.
6. Les Indiens vivent de chasse et de pêche. Un jour que je regardais l’un d’eux pêcher sur les bords du Sacramento et que je cherchais inutilement à me rendre compte du genre d’appât dont il se servait pour amorcer sa ligne, je le vis se baisser et arracher de son talon des fragments de peau (l’Indien a souvent les talons fendilles); l’appât était excellent, le poisson en paraissait très friand et la pêche était fructueuse.
7. Les jours de chasse l’Indien part bien avant le jour, a son retour il jette le gibier sur le sol devant sa femme qui est chargée de tout faire, car elle est la plus mal partagée.
8. Puis il va se baigner au Temascalli, sorte de bain de vapeur en usage chez les Azteques et aujourd’hui encore chez les Mexicains