With reference to numbers of natives it should be remembered that Crespi had seen Indian rancherias ranging in size from insignificant to the semi-cities of the Santa Barbara Channel. Hence a "large village" to him must have meant a really sizable place. If we ascribe 100 inhabitants to an ordinary village and 200 to a "large" or "good" village, we get a total of 1,900 persons.
On the return trip through the interior hills Crespi notes three villages near Walnut Creek and numerous villages in the vicinity of Livermore Valley. If we allow "numerous" to be half a dozen, there is a total of nine villages. The size was likely to be smaller than on the Bay shore, say 50 persons. Then the total population represented would be 400-500. For those portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties visited a population of at least 2,400 is therefore indicated. Since Crespi probably did not see all the villages, the actual value was no doubt considerably greater.
THE ANZA-FONT EXPEDITION
Attention should be directed now to the Anza expedition, which reached the East Bay in late March, 1776. The three accounts will be considered collectively for present purposes and will be designated A (Anza's Diary), F1 (Font's Short Diary), and F2 (Font's Complete Diary). Since this expedition was—with all deference to the efforts of Fray Crespi—much more carefully and exhaustively recorded than the Fages trip of 1772, it merits extended citation and analysis.
If Bolton's reconstruction is correct (1930, III: 133, 263; IV: 352), the Anza expedition, having come down the peninsula from San Francisco, halted for the evening March 30, 1776, near Agnew, between Alviso and Santa Clara. The following day, March 31, they crossed the Coyote River about two miles south of Warm Springs and moved north and northwest as far as San Lorenzo Creek.
They remained close to the hills, apparently, for Anza (A) says, "The road runs close to a small range completely bare of trees, for none are seen except some which grow in the canyons." After leaving Coyote Creek, Anza (A) encountered an arroyo, "which has plenty of trees and has water in abundance ... ," probably Mission Creek or Alameda Creek. Thereafter they crossed four arroyos "with little water," the last one of which was San Lorenzo Creek. Font (F2) states that after having passed a "salty lagoon" (north of Irvington) they crossed five arroyos.
During the day the party saw six villages, says Anza (A), most of whose habitants had fled. On the other hand, about 40 "heathen" were met along the road. Font (F2) is much more informative than Anza. All along the plain they saw "occasional Indians." Those whom they met before reaching the "first arroyo" (probably Alameda Creek near Niles)
... appear to be very poor and miserable, for they have not even firewood by which to keep warm, and they go about naked ... and eat grass and herbs and some roots like medium-sized onions, which they call amole, and in which those plains greatly abound. One Indian who carried his provisions on the end of a pole invited us to eat some of them.
On or near Alameda Creek they met "about thirty Indians" (Anza says 40), who greeted them peaceably. Font here notes that "their language is distinct from all those we had formerly heard and is very ugly; and with the gobbling which they made, all speaking together, it was very disagreeable to the ears." Font also comments in another place on the language: "The Indians whom we saw along here are totally distinct in language from the previous ones." Since the Spaniards had been in Costanoan territory for many days, they must have encountered a sharp dialectic boundary at the southeastern corner of San Francisco Bay. Both Anza and Font (F2) describe the incidents of this encounter in graphic terms.
Two leagues beyond the creek (somewhere near Alvarado) a village without people was seen. Then: