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Chapter 1: Ancient Days
drainage divide, with homesteads dispersed
throughout. As such, each territory included
several ecological zones (riverbed, meadows
and mountains)
with various resources for
hunting, gathering, fishing and trading. One of
the larger villages, Cosoy, was located at what
would become Old Town in San Diego.
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All together, 20,000 to 30,000 Native
Americans were living in San Diego County
when the Spanish arrived to establish missions
in 1769.
THE YEARS TO COME
When they arrived after long and arduous land
and sea journeys, the Spaniards were sick,
starved and dehydrated. The native people
who met them were friendly and hospitable.
Father Junípero Serra described them as "fine
in stature and carriage, affable and gay. They
brought fish and mollusks to us, going out in
their canoes just to fish for our benefit.”
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As the historian H.C. Hopkins commented:
Had the Indians been other than kind
and helpful, that sick little party who
arrived in 1769 could never have
survived. History should never overlook
the fact that the little hospital on the
beach of San Diego Bay was
furnished with water from the San Diego
River, brought to those parched and
dying lips by the hands of the
friendly Indians.
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The Spanish settlement, however, was not
good for the native population. Natives built
the Spanish missions and pueblos, usually
against their will. They carried the tiles on their
backs for the Spanish irrigation systems. They
died of disease and abuse. By the ti
me the
Mexicans transferred the missions to civilian
authority in 1833 and the native people were
free to go their own way, their numbers had
Luiseño huts (or ramadas) at Cabrillo Celebration 1892
The San Diego Historical
Society