Part 3

Let us anticipate their arrival and ascertain the fate of the other divisions of the expedition. For more than a century and a half the placid waters of San Diego bay had lain undisturbed by any craft more formidable than the tule rafts (balsas de enea) of the natives, when on the 11th of April, 1769, a silent ship slowly entered the bay and dropped her anchor not far from the point where now the ferry boat for Coronado leaves the slip. It was the San Antonio, the first arrival at the rendezvous. No attempt was made to land, for they were alone and dread scurvy had them in its grip. Two had died, and most of the ship's company were sick. On the 29th, the San Carlos arrived, 110 days from La Paz, with her company in even worse condition. All were sick, some had died, and only four sailors remained on their feet, aided in working the ship by such of the soldiers as were able to help. She had been driven far out of her course; had found herself short of water, and had to put into the island of Cedros to supply herself, and it was with the greatest difficulty she reached the bay of San Diego. The first thing to be done was to find good water and to minister to the sick. For this purpose there landed, on May 1st, Don Pedro Fages, Don Miguel Costanso, and Don Jorge Estorace, with twenty-five men-soldiers, sailors, etc., all who were able to do duty, and, proceeding up the shore, found, by direction of some Indians, a river of good mountain water at a distance of three leagues to the northeast. Moving their ships as near as they could, they prepared on the beach a camp, which they surrounded with a parapet of earth and fascines, and mounted two cannon. Within they made two large hospital tents from the sails and awnings of the ships, and set up the tents of the officers and priests. Then they transferred the sick. The labor was immense, for all were sick, and the list of those able to perform duty daily grew smaller. The difficulties of their situation were very great. Nearly all the medicines and food had been consumed during the long voyage, and Don Pedro Prat, the surgeon, himself sick with scurvy, sought in the fields with a thousand anxieties some healing herbs, of which he himself was in as sore need as the others. The cold made itself felt with vigor at night and the sun burned them by day--alternations which made the sick suffer cruelly, two or three of them dying every day, until the whole sea expedition which had been composed of more than ninety men, found itself reduced to eight soldiers and as many sailors in a state to attend to the safeguarding of the ships, the working of the launches, the custody of the camp, and the care of the sick.

There was no news whatever of the land divisions. The neighborhood of the fort was diligently searched for tracks of a horse herd, but none were discovered. They did not know what to think of this delay. At length, on the 14th of May, the Indians gave notice to some soldiers on the beach that from the direction of the south men mounted on horses and armed as they, were coming. It was the first land division under Rivera, fifty days from Velicata, without the loss of a man or having a sick one; but they were on half rations; they had only three sacks of flour left and were issuing two tortillas[12] per day to each man. Great was the rejoicing in the camp of the sick over the arrival of Rivera's force. It was now resolved to remove the camp near to the river. This was done, and a new camp established on a hill in what is now known as "Old Town," where a stockade was made and the cannon mounted. The surgeon, Pedro Prat, devoted himself to the sick, but the deaths continued, until of the ninety and more who had sailed from La Paz, two-thirds were laid under the sand of Punta de los Muertos[13]. It was now thought best to send one of the packets to San Blas to inform the viceroy and the visitador of the state of the expedition, and it was feared that if this were longer delayed, the ship would be unable to put to sea for lack of mariners. The San Antonio was selected for this purpose, and was prepared for sea, but as she was about to sail, the camp was thrown into an ecstasy of joy by the arrival of Portola and the second division, sound in body, and with 163 mules laden with provisions. The governor promptly informed himself of the condition of affairs, and desirous that the senor visitador's orders concerning the sea expedition should be carried out, offered to Captain Vila of the San Carlos sixteen men of his command to work the ship, that he might pursue the voyage to Monterey. As Vila had lost all his ship's officers, boatswain, storekeeper, coxswain of the launch, and there was not a sailor among the men offered by Portola, he declined to go to sea under such conditions. All the available sailors were therefore placed on board the San Antonio, and she sailed for San Blas, June 8th, with eight men only for a crew.

The governor now proceeded to organize his force for the march to Monterey. He determined to move at once, lest the advancing season should expose them to the danger of having the passes of the sierra closed by snow, as even at San Diego those who came by sea reported the sierras covered with snow on their arrival in April.

On the 14th of July, Portola began his march to Monterey, distant one hundred and fifty-nine leagues. His force consisted of Sergeant Ortega, with twenty-seven soldados de cuera under Rivera, Fages with six Catalan volunteers--all that could travel, Ensign Costanso, the priests, Crespi and Gomez, seven muleteers, fifteen Christian Indians from the missions of Lower California, and two servants--sixty-four in all. Both Fages and Costanso were sick with scurvy, but joined the command notwithstanding. The personnel of this expedition contains some of the best known names in California. Portola, the first governor; Rivera, comandante of California from 1773 to 1777, killed in the Yuma revolt on the Colorado in 1781; Fages, first comandante of California, 1769-1773, governor, 1782-1790; Ortega, pathfinder, explorer, discoverer of the Golden Gate and of Carquines Strait[14]; lieutenant and brevet captain, comandante of the presidio of San Diego, of Santa Barbara, and of Monterey; founder of the presidio of Santa Barbara and of the missions of San Juan Capistrano and San Buenaventura. Among the rank and file were men whose names are not less known: Pedro Amador, who gave his name to Amador county; Juan Bautista Alvarado, grandfather of Governor Alvarado; Jose Raimundo Carrillo, later alferez, lieutenant, and captain, comandante of the presidio of Monterey, of Santa Barbara, and of San Diego, and founder of the great Carrillo family; Jose Antonio Yorba, sergeant of Catalonia volunteers, founder of the family of that name and grantee of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana; Pablo de Cota, Jose Ignacio Oliveras, Jose Maria Soberanes, and others.

At San Diego, Portola left the sick under the care of the faithful surgeon, Prat, and a guard of ten cuera soldiers; Captain Vila of the San Carlos, with a few seamen; Frays Junipero Serra, Juan Vizcaino, and Fernando Parron, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a few Lower California Indians, some forty persons in all. The governor also left with them a sufficient number of horses and mules and about sixty loads[15] of provisions. On July 16th, two days after the Portola expedition started, Junipero founded, with appropriate ceremonies, the mission of San Diego de Alcala, the first mission established in Alta California. The deaths continued, and before Portola's return in January, eight soldiers, four sailors, one servant, and eight Indians died, leaving but about twenty persons at the camp.

We will now follow the governor. Relying somewhat on the supply ship, San Jose, which was to meet him at Monterey, but which, as we have seen, was lost at sea, and also on the supplies to be brought by the San Antonio, the governor, knowing the uncertainties of a sea voyage, took with him one hundred mules loaded with provisions, sufficient, he concluded, to last him for six months.

On the march the following order was observed. Sergeant Ortega, with six or eight soldiers, went in advance, laid out the route, selected the camping place, and cleared the way of hostile Indians by whom he was frequently surrounded. At the head of the column rode the comandante, with Fages, Costanso, the two priests, and an escort of six Catalonia volunteers; next came the sappers and miners, composed of Indians, with spades, mattocks, crowbars, axes, and other implements used by pioneers; these were followed by the main body divided into four bands of pack-animals, each with its muleteers and a guard of presidial soldiers. The last was the rear guard, commanded by Captain Rivera, convoying the spare horses and mules (caballada y mulada).

The presidial soldiers were provided with two kinds of arms, offensive and defensive. The defensive consisted of the cuera (leather jacket) and the adarga (shield)[16]. The first, being made in the form of a coat without sleeves, was composed of six or seven thicknesses of dressed deer skins impervious to the Indian arrows, except at very short range. The adarga was of two thicknesses of raw bulls-hide, borne on the left arm, and so managed by the trooper as to defend himself and his horse against the arrows and spears of the Indians; in addition, they used a species of apron of leather, fastened to the pommel of the saddle, with a fall to each side of the horse down to the stirrup, wide enough to cover the thigh and a leg of the horseman, and protect him when riding through the brush. This apron was called the armas. Their offensive arms were the lance, which they managed with great dexterity on horseback, the broadsword, and a short musket, carried in a case. Costanso, who was an officer of the regular army, bears testimony to the unceasing labor of the presidial soldiers of California on this march, and says they were men capable of enduring much fatigue, obedient, resolute, and

## active; "and it is not too much to say that they are the best horsemen

in the world, and among the best soldiers who gain their bread in the service of the king."[17]

It must be understood that the marches of these troops with such a train through an unknown country and by unused paths, could not be long ones. It was necessary to explore the land one day for the march of the next, and the camp for the day was sometimes regulated by the distance to be traveled to the next place where water, fuel, and pastures could be had. The distance made was from two to four leagues[18], and the command rested every four days, more or less, according to the fatigue caused by the roughness of the road, the toil of the pioneers, the wandering off of the beasts, or the necessities of the sick. Costanso says that one of their greatest difficulties was in the control of their caballada (horse-herd), without which the journey could not be made. In a country they do not know, horses frighten themselves by night in the most incredible manner. To stampede them, it is enough for them to discover a coyote or fox. The flight of a bird, the dust flung by the wind-any of these are capable of terrifying them and causing them to run many leagues, precipitating themselves over barrancas and precipices, without any human effort availing to restrain them. Afterwards it costs immense toil to gather them again, and those that are not killed or crippled, remain of no service for some time. In the form and manner stated, the Spaniards made their marches, traversing immense lands, which grew more fertile and pleasing as they progressed northward.

The expedition followed practically the route which afterwards became the Camino Real. Its fourth jornada (day's journey) brought it to the pretty valley where later was established the mission of San Luis Rey. They called it San Juan Capistrano, but that name was afterwards transferred to a mission forty miles north of this place. The command rested here, July 19th. Resuming the march on the 20th, the sierra (San Onofre), whose base they were skirting, drew so near the sea that it seemed to threaten their advance, but by keeping close to the shore, they held their way, and on the 24th they encamped on a fine stream of water running through a mesa at the foot of a sierra, whence looking across the sea, they could descry Santa Catalina Island. This was San Juan Capistrano, and here they rested on the 25th. On the 28th they reached the Santa Ana river, near the present town of that name; a violent shock of earthquake which they experienced caused them to name the river Jesus de los Temblores[19]. July 30th and 31st they were in the San Gabriel valley, which they called San Miguel, and on August 1st they rested near the site of the present city of Los Angeles. The stop this day, in addition to the needed rest and the necessity for exploration, was to give opportunity for the soldiers and people of the expedition to gain the great indulgence of Porciuncula.[20] The priests said mass and the sacrament was administered. In the afternoon the soldiers went to hunt and brought in an antelope (barrendo), with which the land seemed to abound. The next day they crossed the Los Angeles river by the site of the present city, and named it Rio de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles de Porciuncula[21]. Passing up the river, they went through the canon and came into the San Fernando valley, which they called Valle de Santa Catalina de los Encinos--Valley of St. Catherine of the Oaks. Five days they spent in the valley, and crossing the Santa Susana mountains, perhaps by the Tapo canon, they came to the Santa Clara river near the site of Camulos, and there rested, August 9th. Portola named the river Santa Clara, which name it still bears, in honor of the saint, whose day, August 12th, was observed by them. Five days, by easy jornadas, they traveled down the river, and arrived on the 14th at the first rancheria[22] of the Channel Indians. It being the vespers of the feast of La Asuncion de Nuestra Senora, Portola named the village La Asuncion. It contained about thirty large, well-constructed houses of clay and rushes, and each house held three or four families. These Indians were of good size, well-formed, active, industrious, and very skillful in constructing boats, wooden bowls, and other articles. Portola thought this pueblo must be the one named by Cabrillo, Pueblo de Canoas (Pueblo of the Boats). This was the site selected for the mission of San Buenaventura, founded March 31, 1782. The natives received them kindly, gave them an abundance of food, and showed them their well-made boats, twenty-four feet long, made of pine boards tied together with cords and covered with asphaltum, and capable of carrying ten men each. The next four days they followed the beach and camped, on August 18th, at a large laguna, called by them La Laguna de la Concepcion. This was the site of the future presidio and mission of Santa Barbara. Everywhere were large populous rancherias of the Indians, and everywhere they were received in the most hospitable manner and provided with more food than they could eat. The next stop was three leagues beyond, on the shore of a large lagoon and marsh, containing a good-sized island on which was a large rancheria, while four others lined the banks of the lagoon. Portola gave to this group the name In Mediaciones de las Rancherias de Mescaltitan--The Contiguous Rancherias of Mescaltitan. The name of Mescaltitan is still attached to the island, though the marsh is mostly drained and contains some of the finest walnut groves in California. On the 28th, they turned Point Concepcion and camped just north at a place called by them Paraje de los Pedernales. Point Pedernales, about five miles beyond, preserves the name. On the 30th they crossed a large river, which they named the Santa Rosa, in honor of that saint, whose day it was. This is now the Santa Inez, so called from the mission of that name, established on its bank in 1804. Passing northward along the beach, a sharp spur of the sierra jutting out at Point Sal turned them inland through the little pass followed by the Southern Pacific Coast Line, and they came, on September 10th, to a large lake in the northwest corner of Santa Barbara county, to which was given the name of Laguna Larga, now known as Guadalupe Lake. Three leagues beyond, they camped at a lake named by Costanso, Laguna Redonda, but which the soldiers called El Oso Flaco--The Thin Bear--and it is still known by that name. Here Sergeant Ortega was taken ill, and ten of the soldiers complained of sore feet. They rested on the 3d, and on the 4th reached the mouth of the San Luis canon. Here they were hospitably received by the chief of a large rancheria, whose appearance caused the soldiers to apply to him the name of "El Buchon," he having a large tumor hanging from his neck. Father Crespi did not approve of the name which the soldiers applied to the chief, his rancheria, and to the canon leading up to San Luis Obispo, and he named the village San Ladislao. As in so many cases the good father was unable to make the name he gave stick, the saint has been ignored, but Point Buchon, just above Point Harford and Mount Buchon, otherwise known as Bald Knob, bear witness to the staying qualities of the tumor on the chief's neck. Passing up the narrow canon of San Luis creek, they camped at or near the site of the mission and city of San Luis Obispo. From here, instead of proceeding over the Sierra de Santa Lucia by the Cuesta pass into the upper Salinas valley, whence the march to Monterey would have been easy, they turned to the west and followed the Canada de los Osos to the sea at Morro Bay, which they called El Estero de San Serafin. The Canada de los Osos[23], still so called, they named because of a fight with some very fierce bears, one of which they succeeded in killing after it had received nine balls. Another wounded the mules, and the hunters with difficulty saved their lives.

The travelers now marched up the coast until, on the 13th, they came to a point where further progress was disputed by the Sierra de Santa Lucia. This was where a spur from the sierra terminating in Mount Mars, blocks the passage by the beach and presents a bold front, rising three thousand feet from the water. Camping at the foot of the sierra, Portola sent out the explorers under Rivera to find a passage through the mountains. During the 14th and 15th, the pioneers labored to open a way into the sierra through San Carpoforo canon, and on the 16th the command moved up the steep and narrow gulch, with inaccessible mountains on either side. It is impossible to follow their route through this rugged mountain range with any degree of accuracy. Their progress was slow and painful. On the 20th, they toiled up an exceedingly high ridge to the north, and from its summit the Spaniards looked upon a boundless sea of mountains, "presenting," writes Crespi, "a sad prospect to us poor travelers worn out with the fatigue of the journey." The cold was beginning to be severe, and many of the men were suffering from scurvy and unfit for service, which increased the hardship for all; yet they did not falter but pressed bravely on, and on the 26th emerged from the mountains by the Arroyo Seco, which they named the Canada del Palo Caido[24] (Valley of the Fallen Tree), and camped on the Salinas river, which they christened Rio de San Elizario. From now on the march is an easy one down the Salinas valley to the sea.

On the last day of September, the command halted near the mouth of the Salinas river, within sound of the ocean, though they could not see it. They were persuaded that they were not far from the desired port of Monterey and that the mountain range they had crossed was unquestionably that of the Santa Lucia, described by Torquemada in his history of the voyage of Vizcaino, and shown on the chart of the pilot Cabrera Bueno. The governor ordered the explorers to go out and ascertain on what part of the coast they were. On the morrow, Rivera, with eight soldiers, explored the coast to the southward, marching along the shore of the very port they were seeking, while Portola, with Costanso, Crespi, and five soldiers, climbed a hill from whose top they saw a great ensenada, the northern point of which extended a long way into the sea, and bore northwest at a distance of eight maritime leagues, while on the south a hill ran out into the sea in the form of a point, and appeared to be wooded with pines. They recognized the one on the north as the Punta de Ano Nuevo and that on the south as Punta de Pinos, while between the two lay the great ensenada[25], with its dreary sand dunes. This was as laid down in the coast pilot (derretero) of Cabrera Bueno, but where was the famous port of Monterey?

They thought that perhaps they had passed Monterey in the great circuit they had made through the mountain ranges. For three days the search was continued. Rivera reported that south of the Point of Pines and between it and another point to the south (Point Carmelo) was a small ensenada, where a stream of water came down from the mountains and emptied into an estero; that beyond this the coast was so high and impenetrable they were obliged to turn back, and he believed that it was the same sierra which compelled them to leave the coast on the 16th of September.

Much perplexed by these reports, the governor called a council of officers to deliberate as to the best course to pursue. On Wednesday, October 4th, the council met and after hearing mass, the commander laid the matter before them. He set forth the shortness of their store of provisions, the seventeen men on the sick list, unfit for duty, the excessive burden of labor imposed on the rest in sentinel duty, care of the animals, and continual explorations, and to the lateness of the season. In view of these circumstances, and of the fact that the port of Monterey could not be found where it was said to be, each person present was called upon to express freely his opinion.