Spanish and Indian place names of California: Their Meaning and Their Romance

by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

An absurd theory advanced by certain persons that the name was derived from that of Sir Francis Drake is wholly unworthy of consideration. The resemblance between the two names must be regarded as purely a co-incidence, and any connection between “El Pirata” (the pirate) Drake, as the Spaniards usually called him, and the name of the gentle St. Francis must be taken in the light of a jest.

Portolá, then, although he was indubitably the discoverer of the bay as we know it,—the inner harbor,—found the name already applied to the outer ensenada by his predecessor, Cermeñón.

It is held by some persons that Portolá cannot in all fairness be considered the actual discoverer of the bay, since it is most probable that Lieutenant Ortega or perhaps some member of a hunting party which was sent out actually laid physical eyes upon it first, and it is even thought possible that Portolá never saw it at all, but remained in camp all the time during their stay on its shores. Even granting these facts, the question remains whether he, as the commander of the party making the expedition which resulted in the discovery, is not still entitled to the fame which has generally been granted to him.

A parallel might be drawn between the case of Portolá and that of Columbus. When the famous expedition of 1492 drew near to the shores of the new world, it was not the great admiral, but a common sailor, Rodrigo de Triana by name, who first raised the thrilling cry of “land! land!”; yet, nevertheless, the world justly awards the honor and glory of the discovery to Christopher Columbus, the leader and the soul of the party, whose splendid imagination and unconquerable resolution made it possible.

Although the Portolá party made a partial examination at this time of the shores of what they called the “great arm of the sea,” and Captain Fages returned for further explorations in 1770, and again in 1772, when he stood on the present site of Berkeley and looked out through the Golden Gate, the mission was not established until 1776. Father Palou was its founder, and he states in his Life of Serra that the presidio was established with solemn religious services, September 17, 1776, on the day of the “impressions of the stigmata of St. Francis,” but on account of a delay in receiving orders, the founding of the mission did not take place until October 9. On that day a procession was held with the image of St. Francis, and mass was celebrated by Father Palou himself.

So they prayed and sang their hymns, in the year of ’76, while their hearts beat high with the zeal of the missionary, and, happily, no echo of the roll of drums and boom of minute guns came to them across the untrodden miles of mountain and plain, of forest and prairie, that separated them from the alien race on the other rim of the continent, for whom they were all unconsciously preparing the way to the possession of a great principality.

No natives were present at this mass, for the reason that in the month of August they had been driven on their tule rafts to the islands of the bay and the opposite shores, by their enemies, the Salsonas, who lived about seven leagues to the southeast, and who had set fire to their rancherías and killed and wounded many of their people, the Spaniards not being able to prevent it.

The first settlement was three-fold, including the mission of San Francisco de Asís, on the Laguna de los Dolores (the lagoon of sorrows), the presidio, and the pueblo, separated from one another by about a league. The Pueblo was at first known as Yerba Buena, in reference to the profuse growth of that vine about the locality. The change of the name is ascribed by General Sherman, in his Memoirs, to jealousy of the town of Benicia, which was at first called Francisca, in honor of General Vallejo’s wife, and was thought to bear too marked a resemblance to the name of the great patron, San Francisco. General Vallejo himself states that the change was made as a matter of convenience, to bring the three points of the triangle, church, town, and presidio, all under one name. Whatever the reason for the change, it is a matter of congratulation that it occurred, for the name of the venerable saint carries a dignity more commensurate to a noble city than the poetic, but less impressive Yerba Buena.