Honoring Argentina’s French hero and his Hawaiian pirate crew in California

Dr. Roger W. Anderson, Independent Scholar, Monterey, CA (USA)

Prior to the U.S. seizing today’s California in 1848, it was the Spanish colony Alta California (1776–1822), followed by the Mexican province of the same name (1822–1846). Monterey (one r, not two) served as the capital of both, roughly 6,000 miles from Madrid and 2,000 miles from the older city of Monterrey (two r’s) in Mexico. In 1845, this city on the picturesque California coast ceased being a colonial capital when the last governor of (Mexican) Alta California, Pío Pico, moved the capital from Monterey to Los Angeles, if only for the last three years of its Mexican control.

During the Spanish era, Monterey was populated by Spaniards, Mexicans, and mestizos, known collectively as gente de razón, or people capable of reason. Nonetheless, most were illiterate, cattle-raising Catholics. Their entertainment took the form of the notoriously gruesome bull-and-grizzly-bear fights on Sundays after attending Mass.

Monterey’s economy revolved around cattle and leather exports, particularly to industrializing cities on the East Coast, where leather was used for machinery belts. The Spanish had imported horses to California, but many escaped captivity. Wild horses became so numerous that one observer noted, “The men usually catch one in the morning, throw a saddle and bridle upon him, and use him for the day, let him go at night, catching another the next day” (Uhrowczik, 2001, p. 19).

Simultaneously, the Catholic mission system was decimating California’s 300,000 Indigenous people, who belonged to 500 autonomous tribes. To be Christianized, they were forced into 21 missions, where they endured disease and slavery-like conditions. These missions were established by Saint Junípero Serra, who administered them from the Carmel Mission on the Monterey Peninsula.

This far-flung corner of Spain’s empire was left vulnerable. The Russians, arriving from Alaska and settling in northern California, caused the greatest concern. Yet it was pirates who burned the city—Hawaiian pirates, led by a French captain and contracted by Argentina.

Captain Hippolyte Bouchard

Born in Provence, France, Bouchard was a soldier during Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and attempt to retake Haiti following the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Remaining in the Americas, Bouchard joined independence movements in South America, becoming a captain in the navy of the “United Provinces of Río de la Plata,” which later became Argentina. It is unclear why Bouchard left France, but it is clear that he hated the Spanish.

A consummate hothead, Bouchard was removed from his navy position but joined the cavalry of San Martín, who would become the “liberator of Chile.” Instrumental in key battles against the Spanish, Bouchard was awarded citizenship and married into the Buenos Aires aristocracy. Yet he soon left his aristocratic life to again command a ship, this one named La Argentina.

The government in Buenos Aires attacked Spanish ships and weakened Spain’s geostrategic positions by using privateers. Privateers were essentially legally contracted pirates: a ship-owning company would assemble a crew and obtain from a government “a letter of marque,” entitling the ship to seize ships sponsored by enemy governments. Any booty acquired was taken to courts for adjudication and redistribution among the crew, investors, and the government. Privateering was so lucrative in that era that historians have noted the British navy’s difficulties in recruiting sailors away from privateering (p. 36).

Possessing one such letter of marque, Bouchard became a pirate when this letter expired without renewal in October 1818. For unknown reasons, Bouchard chose to circumnavigate the earth and attack Spanish vessels in multiple oceans. Speculation exists that he dreamt of seizing islands in the Philippines for himself.

Attacking Monterey

Having reached Hawaii from Asia, Bouchard learned from an Englishman about Monterey and its vulnerable location. Bouchard plotted a surprise attack. He assembled a crew made up mostly of Native Hawaiians. On two ships, they arrived in Monterey Bay in October 1818. When the Spanish guarding the bay demanded their identification in Spanish, Bouchard’s crew replied in English, feigning incomprehension.

Unbeknownst to Bouchard, Alta California’s governor had previously heard rumors of an impending attack. For this reason, Monterey’s denizens had already buried their valuables when Bouchard’s marauding Hawaiian pirates, wearing traditional Polynesian clothing and brandishing spears, landed to pilfer the town. They seized only livestock and clothing from the homes of fleeing Californios.

Spanish silver peso, imported into China via the Philippines; the Ming dynasty’s Single Whip Reform simplified the tax system, requiring payment to be made exclusively in silver (Castro Adobe State Historic Park, Watsonville)

Ultimately, they set fire to the town. Monterey’s adobe homes, belonging to upper-class families, proved more fire-resistant than did wooden ones. Several of these adobes remain today.

After Monterey, Bouchard raided the California coastal cities of Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and San Juan Capistrano.

Governor de Solá was the Basque-born twelfth and final Spanish governor of Alta California (1768–1822) but also the first of Mexico’s 15 governors of Alta California (1822–1846). Loyal to Californios above Spain or Mexico, he successfully countered Bouchard’s raids. The attacks resulted in minimal civilian casualties.

Bouchard’s Murder and Legacy

From California, Bouchard sailed to newly independent Peru and joined its navy. For his service to Peru, he was awarded land in the country’s south, where he established a sugar plantation. Bouchard had abandoned his wife and two daughters in Buenos Aires, never having met his youngest, despite naming a vessel after her. Abusive to his plantation slaves, Bouchard was stabbed to death in 1837 at the age of 57. His body was repatriated to Buenos Aires, where he is today remembered as a national hero.

Oddly, the flag of Argentina has flown over the Presidio of Monterey since the 1980s. The flag was requested by Argentinian military personnel who were studying in Monterey. The presence of this foreign flag on American soil, in the publicly accessible portion of a U.S. Army base, remains a topic of debate.

Sources: Uhrowczik, P. (2001). The Burning of Monterey. Cyril Books, Los Gatos.

All photos taken by the author.