Monico the Indian was one of the most noted Indians in early San Francisco history. He had apparently lived in San Francisco forever as he was already around 85 years old in the late 1830s. Being in San Francisco for so many years, he had learned Spanish, English and I think even French. He had a tremendous amount of knowledge about San Francisco before the rest of the world discovered and invaded it. Monico absolutely insisted that his elders had told him that the San Francisco Bay once exited to the ocean at Monterey and that there was no exit to the ocean from San Francisco. It turns out that more than 100 years later scientific explorations have substantiated this claim. Monico was right on the mark. But was this just an intuitive guess by him or his ancestors or did his ancestors actually live here during that period. At that time in the 1830s and later he expressed this belief far and wide and many people were quite mystified by him. Numerous people questioned him thoroughly about this legend of the San Francisco Bay being closed. Two of those people I know of who questioned him endlessly about his background and the legend were Eugene Duflot de Mofras, a Frenchmen, in about 1841 and Also Commodore Charles Wilkes also in about 1841. There were probably many others too. Basically, Wilkes was on an extensive scientific expedition for the U.S. government so he must have taken and recorded careful records but I haven't been able to find anything yet about Monico's background. I'd love to know about Monico's forefathers and when they came to San Francisco and what kind of Indian history there might have been before the rest of the world came here. So if anyone knows anything, let me know. -- Remove * to email

-- Harry Murphy (harrymurphy@my-deja.com*), November 21, 2001