“We arrived at this port of Monterey on the sixteenth of December, 1602, at seven o’clock in the evening.”—(Sebastián Vizcaíno)
At first thought it would seem that Vizcaíno must have been in error about finding buffalo at Monterey, but investigation shows that in 1530 those animals “ranged through what is now New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.”—(Handbook of American Indians.) Oregon is not so far away but that scattering herds may have wandered as far as Monterey, and that Vizcaíno actually saw them there. It has been suggested, also, that he may have mistaken the tracks of the great elk for those of buffalo. In calling the Indians “white,” he was, no doubt, speaking comparatively. According to the diaries of the Spaniards, the natives of different sections varied considerably in complexion. What he meant by “chestnuts” can only be conjectured, since that tree is not indigenous to Monterey, but it is possible that the nut of the wild buck-eye, which resembles the chestnut in size and shape, may have been mistaken for it by the Spaniards.
Vizcaíno named the port in honor of Gaspar de Zúñiga, Count of Monterey, at that time Viceroy of Mexico. The word itself, whose literal meaning is “the King’s wood,” or “the King’s mountain,” since monte may be used in either sense, was formerly spelled Monterrey, Monterey, or Monte Rey.
When Father Serra arrived at Monterey in 1770, he decided to make it the headquarters of all the California missions, and it was there that the rest of his life was spent, excepting the periods of absence required in visiting the other missions, and in one visit to Mexico. Very shortly after the landing of the party in a little cove at the edge of the present town, it was decided that not enough arable land existed at that point for the support of the mission, so the religious establishment was removed to Carmel Bay, while the Presidio and its chapel remained at Monterey.
The Mission San Carlos Borroméo (St. Charles Borroméo), was founded June 3, 1770, near the shore of the charming little bay of Carmel, about seven miles from Monterey. This church, now in an excellent state of repair, through the efforts of the late Father Ángelo Casanova, is distinguished above all the others, “for under its altar lies buried all that is mortal of the remains of its venerable founder, Junípero Serra.”
MISSION OF SAN CARLOS BORROMÉO, FOUNDED IN 1770.