All that is set forth in this account is what I have observed, witnessed, measured, and sounded during these days when, on orders from your Excellency, I went out to explore the interior of this port of San Francisco. For the record I am composing this account in this new port of San Francisco under the shelter of the Island of Los Angeles, today September 7, 1755.
It is clear that Cañizares, starting from what is now called Angel Island, crossed the Bay south of Point Richmond and proceeded northward between Point San Pablo and Point San Pedro into San Pablo Bay (Bahia de Guadelupe or Redonda). He explored Petaluma Creek (Estero de Nuestra Señora de la Merced) and the sloughs near Mare Island. Except for the southwest he found this bay surrounded by arid, treeless hills, thus agreeing with the opinion of the explorers by land. Just before entering Carquinez Strait, he saw a large rancheria. Although this village is not shown on the 1776 map it appears on the 1781 map at the southwest side of the western mouth of the strait. It is no doubt the same site described by Font.
One league, or perhaps three miles, from the entrance Cañizares encountered what he regarded as a spacious inlet or cove. Wagner (1937) and Cutter (1950) both state that this was Southampton Bay, opposite Port Costa (Puerto de la Asumpta). Cutter (p. 13) also claims that it has been filled with mud since 1775 and largely obliterated, but gives no evidence in support of the opinion. Cañizares describes Army Point, near Benicia (Puerto de los Evangelistas on the maps), and then gives an account of Suisun Bay which he says contained numerous islands filled with tules. Toward the upper end of these, on the maps, is shown fresh water. After attempting to penetrate the rivers, and running aground on sand bars, Cañizares returned to Angel Island before embarking for a reconnaissance of the southern area of the Bay. His description of the lower delta region is too confusing to be of value. He evidently did not fully understand the relations of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers at their junction.
Cutter (1950, p. 113) states, regarding vegetation, that Cañizares found the north shore of the Bay covered with trees and the south shore arid and dry. Cañizares says the vegetated shore was "east" and the arid shore was "west." Both maps depict trees on both shores, but with the heavier concentration on the south side. The 1781 map uses for "Bosques de buenas Maderas" the symbol "Q." The latter appears at the southeast end of San Francisco Bay, in the vicinity of Oakland and Alameda, on the south side of the rivers at the head of Suisun Bay, and on the north side, well above Suisun Bay. Small groups of trees appear on both maps at each entrance of Carquinez Strait, in the vicinity of Pinole and of Martinez. There is no real evidence that there were trees on the north side of Carquinez Strait.
Although the data in the letter are scanty, the distribution of Indian population indicated by Crespi and Font is substantially confirmed. The text of the letter mentions only one rancheria, the one at or near Pinole or Selby, to which Cañizares (on the strength of four visits) ascribes a population of 400. This is the exact value given by Font, and seems to constitute very reliable evidence. Other villages are shown on the 1776 map, under the symbol "q." as "Rancherias de Indios Amigos," one on the north side of Southampton Bay, one near Martinez, one apparently near Bay Point (or Port Chicago), and one somewhere near Pittsburg. The same number of symbols (here "O") is shown on the 1781 map, but those on the south side of the strait are displaced several miles to the west. We can be reasonably sure therefore that Cañizares found four rancherias, including the one described in the letter, three on the south shore, one on the north. In view of the vague placement on the maps it is scarcely worth while to insist upon the precise location. As far as population is concerned, what information can be derived from Cañizares lends support to the conclusions based upon Crespi and Font.
EXPLORATORY AND PUNITIVE EXPEDITIONS, 1776-1811
After the return of Anza to Monterey in 1776 the San Francisco Presidio was founded. After this a joint expedition was sent out under José Joaquin Moraga and Francisco Quiros. The latter was to proceed by water and the former by land to a junction near the mouths of the rivers. The plan, however, miscarried, and Moraga went off on the earliest and the least known exploration of the main San Joaquin River. Meanwhile Quiros, with José Cañizares and Father Pedro Cambon, sailed up the Bay to a point quite close to that described by Cañizares in his first trip. The only account we have of this journey is contained in Palóu's New California (1926, IV: 127-130). No details of ecological interest are given and there is no mention of natives. For a detailed discussion of the exploration, reference may be made to Cutter (1950, pp. 24-26).
One further document requires mention at this point: The Historical, Political and Natural Description of California, by Pedro Fages, as translated by Herbert I. Priestley (1937). Written in 1775, this little volume has become a classic for its thorough and sympathetic description of the Indians of California by one who was in a position to write on the subject. Unfortunately, however, Fages discusses the Indians of the San Francisco Mission area and of the Central Valley of the interior, but he does not specifically refer to the natives of the East Bay. Hence his essay must be passed over with this brief citation.
Following the series of explorations which culminated in the Anza Expedition of 1776, little further official notice was taken of the East Bay counties until approximately 1794. There is an item in the Bancroft Library Transcript series (hereafter designated Bancroft Transcripts, or Bancroft Trans.), consisting of a letter from Fages to Moraga, January 23, 1783 (Prov. Rec., III: 83), noting that the latter had pursued the "indios gentiles Serranos" who had killed 18 head of livestock belonging to the Mission of San José. It is probable that many other unrecorded punitive expeditions were being undertaken throughout the two decades from 1775 to 1795.
In 1793 there was activity along the coast, in the course of which Lieutenant Francisco Eliza spent approximately two weeks exploring the Bay, but the documents available (Cutter, 1950, p. 29; Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, Ramo Historia, Vol. 71, Expediente on Matute and the Bodega Settlement, and Account by Eliza, dated November 4, 1793, at San Blas) include no details of topography, vegetation, or ethnography worth recording.