23rd day. We went all night, except for a while during which we stopped in the boat itself, and at eight o’clock [in the morning] we arrived near the village of the Passasimas. During the night we passed on our right the village of the Nototemnes, who are already Christians in San José and who were living almost in the middle of the tule swamps. On the left hand we passed the Tauquimnes and Yatchicomnes and on the same side live the Passasimas previously mentioned. A little to the northeast of these are the Mokelumnes. Some of the Passasimas came out to greet us in peace. This is not strange because they have been many times in the mission [San José] and several of them have been baptized. After breakfast we went on foot to visit some of their houses, where I baptized four heathen sixty or seventy years of age. Then, having commended them to God and having pointed out the necessity that they consider being made Christians, we returned to the boat, accompanied by the Indians. Here they told us again the story of how, on the other side of the Sierra Nevada (from which we were perhaps ten leagues distant) there were white men. But no definite conclusions could be reached, as was set forth on May 20.
At four o’clock in the afternoon we embarked, returning by the same way we had come. In a short distance 113 heathen Indians were waiting for us, Yatchicomnes and Mokelumnes. Half of them were painted and armed as for war. We approached, and after we had talked to them they put down their weapons and begged for peace. These heathen live mostly on solid ground and they could be visited on horseback if this became necessary. They penetrate to the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and state that the whiteness one sees is rock and not snow. However, it is most probable that the Sierra has both snow and white rock which resembles it. At six o’clock we bade them farewell, giving them some wheat, etc. They promised us that they would come and make a visit to the mission. During yesterday and the previous night we must have covered eleven or twelve leagues toward the south and southeast. We traveled hard all night, going north and northwest.[33]
24th day. At dawn we found ourselves on approximately the same parallel as that where we were at the start of the trip of the 22nd. At eight o’clock we arrived at the place called “Los Meganos”[34] opposite the Julpunes. Here we ate breakfast. At noon we started out to meet the Commandant in the Strait of the Chupcanes [Carquinez Strait], which we reached at six o’clock in the afternoon. There we met the gentleman mentioned, he having got there in the morning. The region traversed this afternoon is the mouth of the San Joaquin, and it must be crossed at high tide because it contains a shoal on which boats run aground. The difference noticed between the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin is that the latter carries a smaller volume of water, although in some places it is wider. All that we have passed is nothing but pure tule swamp, without a tree under which the wanderer will find shade or a stick of wood with which to warm himself. On the other hand, the Sacramento, when it is not flooded, has dry land on both banks, with groves of trees as before described, and seems to carry a greater volume of water. We covered during the preceding night and during the day twenty leagues north, northwest, and west.
25th day. At dawn of this day of the Pentecost Mass was sung and thereafter again the Praefacio so that during the next two days Mass should not be lacking. We set out at nine o’clock with a headwind. It was quite hard navigating through the whole strait, which will be about two leagues long and one half, more or less, wide. After leaving the strait the sea was fair and at three o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at a place called Olegario Point near Angel Island. Here we stopped after having traveled some ten leagues toward the southwest.
26th day. At two o’clock in the morning, before the tide had finished going out, we passed the narrow entrance of the harbor, arriving almost by dawn at the beach of the Presidio. After having said Mass at the latter place we returned to the Mission of Our Father San Francisco with all good fortune, thanks to the Lord, to whom be the Glory forever and ever, Amen.
Fr. Narciso Duran
(rubric)
Luís Argüello’s Report
The second report of the expedition to the delta is a document whose title page states that it is a letter to the Governor, Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, and “incorporates” a diary of the expedition, which was “in company with Frays Narciso Duran and Ramón Abella.” The account is signed by Luís Antonio Argüello and was undoubtedly written by him. The style indicates that the letter incorporates a revision or abstract of Argüello’s diary rather than an actual copy of it (see the introduction to the letter).
The existence of two accounts of the same expedition is unusual—indeed, unique. Despite personal controversies the two narratives complement each other. Each brings out detail omitted by the other.
Luís Antonio Argüello to Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola
San Francisco, May 26, 1817