19th day. We set forth at five o’clock in the morning and traveled until twelve o’clock noon. The river keeps on in the same way with its windings, covered with tules, but now one meets land that is a little higher but still bare of trees. We ran upon two or three village sites, the people from which have already been made Christians at the mission of San José
.[33] We set out again at two o’clock in the afternoon, and after a league’s travel found three heathen women seventy years of age, with one husband and one boy, who were San José Christians. They had quite a few fish. This place is known as being good for fishing, and here, as along all the river, are many signs of beaver, although I have never seen more than the signs. This afternoon, already, the river has turned to the east, with an occasional bend to the southwest. We went about three leagues and slept in the land of the Bolbones. Still there are ponds and tule swamps, although it is said that white men have pastured horses only about half a league away.[34]
20th day. We set out at sunrise with the intention of saying Mass at Pescadero in order to have dry land [for the service]. However after a mile from the start the boats ran aground. Here we sounded the river, which is seen clearly to be running and which appears to me to carry about as much water as the river at the ranch at Monterey.[35] The depth which it had [i.e., we had observed] on the two preceding days was due to the low level of the land. From here to the mouth found on the 22nd, which will be about nine or ten leagues, can be traversed by boats only with much difficulty.
We turned back to the place from which we had set out, where we celebrated Mass. After four hours, when the water had risen due to the backing up caused by the reversal of the tide, we again undertook the same course. As I have said, the river contains very little water and there are numerous trees. We were desirous of following this pathway because the Indians said this river had two arms, one of which went on to join the Río Grande, which we left on the 18th. As has been said we did reach it on the 22nd.
We went about two leagues with some effort and halted at the village of Pescadero, called also of the Bolbones. The San José Christians who were there on a visit presented themselves. From the villages of the vicinity Father Fray Buenaventura[36] baptized six ill and decrepit heathen women and the baby boy of a neophyte. In this spot, which is also an island, the day was passed. On the shore where we landed there are several oak trees on each side, and the land promises well for wheat, pasturage, or even corn by dry farming.[37] There are certain trees which are said to be mangroves, but in time of high water the area will be impassable.[38]
21st day. We sent four guides on tule rafts to see whether the boats could get through. They encountered some difficulty, although they were optimistic that it was possible [to pass]. We set out at one o’clock at noon and cruised until nightfall in a direction northeast, one-quarter east. The stream bed is full of logs and the boats grounded two or three times. The stream is inadequate for travel by boat. We journeyed about three or four leagues and stopped at a high spot which had a number of oak trees but was entirely surrounded by tule swamps. A league from the starting point we passed out of the slough called Pescadero. We left it on the right hand and took the [channel] on the left hand, which trends to the northeast and [with] the opening which we left behind forms an island. For an Indian went past with a boat and turned off and met us in the big river [Braso Grande], he going upward and we downward. Although some of the soldiers said that it [the channel] emptied into White Lake [Laguna del Blanco][39] I conclude that this is not true, but that White Lake discharges into the Río Grande. Furthermore, from horseback, in the tules, one cannot see well, so I base my opinion on what an Indian said. The matter could not be settled because the boats ran aground.[40]
22nd day. We set out from the place of the oak trees at about seven o’clock in the evening. We went to the southeast with some turns to the east. We traveled four or five leagues, two of them still in low water. The river bank was populated with oaks and other trees, and once the boats ran aground. At the end of the two leagues the water increases threefold in volume and the river divides into two channels. One of these is that which we left behind in the evening of the 18th. [The other] is better because it carries much more water. [Both branches] go to unite with each other in the middle of the tule swamps, where we slept on the day mentioned.[41] We kept on cruising up the river with the tripled volume of water. The water is clear and both banks are covered with oak trees. At three leagues we encountered the Río Grande. Here we observed the junction of the rivers; it has about 5 varas depth in the center and a width of about 100. The river water is pure, because it was low tide and it is known that the tide exercises little influence because the land is already high. This place lies about on the parallel of the Pueblo [San José], according to those who have come by land, and is distant from the Pueblo some 25 or 26 leagues from east to west, although it may be a little below this latitude. Here it is evident from the quantity of water that several rivers have united, for there is no ford and there would always be required a pontoon or boat to cross the stream. At this place there are many oak trees on the opposite, or eastern, shore. There is no tule, and only in great floods does the river overflow, for the western bank is the lower. Here it is necessary to take soundings in order to cross from one side to the other.
Four or five leagues higher up, where there is the village of Christians, the river unites with the watercourse which we left behind yesterday.[42] It seems to me that in this plain there are islands and that it would not be difficult to have the horses and cattle cross by swimming and the people by boats, because the river falls very gently. This would be much easier than at the Strait of Carquinez, which is the only other possible place we have seen. All the tule swamp is impassable.
Just here the river separates by way of two openings: one is that which we followed this morning; the other is closer to the mainland of the opposite shore. We are going to follow down the latter because it is the most direct. Here a cross was made with a chisel in an oak tree, about four inches wide and correspondingly long, about four varas high and in the point between the openings. Father Fray Ramón named the river San Juan Capistrano.[43] If anyone comes back to explore, he should follow upstream. On the return trip he should not take the entrance to the left, which is the one we have just come from, because the river is full of logs. The other one, even if it contains no logs, runs in the middle of the tule swamps, and in that region nothing can be accomplished[44] unless it be salmon fishing and beaver [trapping], although I have already said elsewhere that I saw only their traces.
Here we stopped to eat, and at one o’clock in the afternoon we turned back and went around the entrance which, as has been said, leads, isolated, through numerous islands, all of which we have traversed since the 17th. The largest of these are the most deeply submerged. We cruised to the northwest, one-quarter north, for some five leagues, for downstream the boats travel considerably faster, and came upon a village called “Los Coyboses.”[45] Seventy persons of all ages and sexes presented themselves. The village may hold nearly 180 persons but a message had been sent to them that we were coming, and it was evident that the rest had hidden themselves. They seem to be docile people. Father Fray Buenaventura baptized a sick boy and two women, one of them decrepit, the other very ill, for there are already from here a few Christians in the mission of San José. The bank of the river still has some oak trees, but from here downward the tule swamps begin again. We halted a league below the village, on a high spot along the river, where we slept.