The king having been warned of the advance of the Russians upon the northern coasts of California, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to take effective measures to guard that part of his dominions from danger of invasion and insult. While the viceroy was casting about to find a person of sufficient importance and ability to organize and carry out so great an undertaking, Don José de Galvez, visitador-general of the kingdom and member of the Council of the Indies, offered his services and volunteered to go to Lower California and effect the organization and equipment of the expedition. His services were eagerly accepted, and Galvez set out from the City of Mexico, April 9, 1768, for San Blas, on the coast of New Galicia. Before arriving at that port, he was overtaken by a courier from the viceroy bringing orders just received from the court directing that a maritime expedition should be at once dispatched to Monterey and that port fortified. Convening the Junta at San Blas on the 16th of May, 1768, the señor visitador laid before them the situation and the wishes of the king. He stated that on the exterior or occidental coasts of the Californias, Spain claimed from Cape San Lucas on the south to the Rio de los Reyes[7] in 43 degrees, though the only portion occupied was from Cape San Lucas up to 30° 30'.[8] The civilized or Christian portion of the community (gente de razon—people of reason) did not, he said, number more than four hundred souls, including the families of the soldiers of the garrison of Loreto and those of the miners in the south; that if foreigners of any nation were to establish themselves in the celebrated ports of San Diego and Monterey, they might fortify themselves there before the government could receive notice of it. In all the Sea of the South that washes the shores of New Spain there were no other vessels than the two packet-boats recently built in San Blas, the San Carlos and the San Antonio, and two others of small tonnage which served the Jesuit missionaries in their communications between California and the coast of Sonora. In these few ships consisted all the maritime forces which could have been opposed to foreign invasion. All this Galvez laid before the Junta, there being present the commandant of the department and the army officers and pilots who chanced to be there. It was resolved to send an expedition by sea in the San Carlos and San Antonio, and orders were made to prepare the ships, while Galvez proceeded to the peninsula to attend to the gathering of supplies and provisions. All the missions of Lower California were laid under contribution of vestments and sacred vessels for the new missions to be established, also dried fruits, wine, oil, riding horses and mule herd; for Galvez had decided to supplement the maritime expedition by one by land, lest the infinite risks and dangers attending a long sea-voyage should render the attempt abortive. The governor, Don Gaspar de Portolá, volunteered to lead the expedition, and he was named commander-in-chief. Don Fernando de Rivera y Moncado, captain of the presidio of Loreto, was appointed second in command. The troops were composed of forty cavalrymen from the presidio of Loreto in Lower California, under Rivera, and twenty-five infantrymen of the compania franca of Catalonia, under Lieutenant Don Pedro Fages. To the presidial troops were joined thirty Christian Indians from the missions, armed with bows and arrows. These were intended for the land expedition. The mission of Santa Maria, the northernmost mission on the peninsula, was the rendezvous of the land forces, and from Loreto four lighters loaded with provisions for the land expedition were sent up the gulf to the bay of San Luis Gonzaga, the nearest point to the mission of Santa Maria, whither also went by land the troops, muleteers, and vaqueros, with the herd of every sort. Finding insufficient pasturage for the cattle at Santa Maria, they advanced to Velicatá, some thirty miles distant, and here was assembled the land expedition. In addition to the officers named, Don Miguel Costansó, ensign of royal engineers, was ordered to join the expedition as cosmographer and diarist, and Don Pedro Prat was appointed physician. To minister to the soldiers and take charge of the missions to be established in the new land, the following missionary priests, all of the college of San Fernando in Mexico, were named to accompany the expedition. Fray Junípero Serra, appointed president of the missions of Alta California, Fray Juan Crespi, Fray Fernando Parron, Fray Juan Vizcaino, and Fray Francisco Gomez.
On the 6th of January, 1769, at the port of La Paz, the San Carlos was loaded and ready for sea. The venerable Father Junípero Serra sang mass aboard her, and with other devotional exercises blessed the ship and the standards. The visitador named the Señor San José patron of the expedition, and in a fervent exhortation, kindled the spirits of those about to sail. These were Don Pedro Fages, with his twenty-five Catalans of the 1st batallion 2d regiment, Voluntarios de Cataluna, Alférez Miguel Costansó, Surgeon Don Pedro Prat, and Padre Fernando Parron. The ship was commanded by Don Vicente Vila, lieutenant of the royal navy; the mate was Don Jorge Estorace, and twenty-three sailors, two boys, four cooks, and two blacksmiths made up the rest of the ship's company—sixty-two in all. They embarked on the night of January 9th and sailed on the 10th. Galvez appointed Fages gefe de las armas—chief of the military expedition at sea, and instructed him to retain command of the soldiers on land until the arrival of the governor at Monterey[9]. On the 15th of February, Father Junípero performed like offices for the San Antonio, and she sailed the same day under command of Don Juan Perez, "of the navigation of the Philippines," carrying Frays Vizcaino and Gomez, some carpenters, blacksmiths, and cooks, that, with the sailors, made some ninety persons, all told, on both ships. The rendezvous was San Diego bay, where all were to meet.
The land expedition was divided into two parts. The first division, under Rivera, started from Velicatá March 24th, and the second, under command of the governor, started May 15th. With Rivera were Padre Crespi, Pilotin (Mate) Jose Cañizares. Twenty-five soldados de cuera[10], three muleteers, and eleven Christian Indians—forty-two men. With the governor marched Junípero Serra, fifteen soldados de cuera, under Sergeant Jose Francisco de Ortega, two servants, muleteers and Indians—forty-four in all. The previous day, May 14, 1769, being Easter Sunday, Junípero established the Mission of San Fernando with Fray Miguel de la Campa as Minister. For the succor and relief of the forces, both sea and land, Galvez built, at San Blas, a ship which he named in honor of the protector of the expedition, the San Jose, and loading her with supplies and provisions, sent her with orders to meet the expedition at Monterey. She was lost at sea.
There is very little of interest in this march of some two hundred miles through a barren country to the bay of San Diego. Junípero's diary lies before me[11]; it is a dreary recital of small incidents of the march, the Indians they met, the barrancas they crossed, with pious comments, etc.; no course, no distances traveled, or other like information necessary to an understanding of the route and country. As a diarist, he is not to be compared with Crespi. On June 20th they came first in sight of the sea at the Ensenada de Todos Santos; thence their journey was by the sea until they came to the rendezvous. As they drew near to San Diego, their Indian allies began to desert, evidently in fear of the Diegueños, whom they began to meet in numbers and who proved a rascally lot. They thronged the camp and became a perfect nuisance with their begging and stealing. They begged from Junípero his robe and from the governor his cuera, waistcoat, breeches, and all he had on. One of them succeeding in inducing Junípero to take off his spectacles to show them to him and as soon as he got them in his hands made off with them, causing the priest a thousand difficulties to recover them. On the 27th of June Sergeant Ortega, with his scouts, pushed on to San Diego and announced to the anxious camp the proximity of the governor. Rivera sent ten of his soldiers with fresh horses back with Ortega, and Portolá, in advance of his command, reached the camp June 29th, and the entire division arrived, June 30th, in good order and condition, forty-six days from Velicatá.
Let us anticipate their arrival and ascertain the fate of the other divisions of the expedition. For more than a century and a half the placid waters of San Diego bay had lain undisturbed by any craft more formidable than the tule rafts (balsas de enea) of the natives, when on the 11th of April, 1769, a silent ship slowly entered the bay and dropped her anchor not far from the point where now the ferry boat for Coronado leaves the slip. It was the San Antonio, the first arrival at the rendezvous. No attempt was made to land, for they were alone and dread scurvy had them in its grip. Two had died, and most of the ship's company were sick. On the 29th, the San Carlos arrived, 110 days from La Paz, with her company in even worse condition. All were sick, some had died, and only four sailors remained on their feet, aided in working the ship by such of the soldiers as were able to help. She had been driven far out of her course; had found herself short of water, and had to put into the island of Cedros to supply herself, and it was with the greatest difficulty she reached the bay of San Diego. The first thing to be done was to find good water and to minister to the sick. For this purpose there landed, on May 1st, Don Pedro Fages, Don Miguel Costansó, and Don Jorge Estorace, with twenty-five men-soldiers, sailors, etc., all who were able to do duty, and, proceeding up the shore, found, by direction of some Indians, a river of good mountain water at a distance of three leagues to the northeast. Moving their ships as near as they could, they prepared on the beach a camp, which they surrounded with a parapet of earth and fascines, and mounted two cannon. Within they made two large hospital tents from the sails and awnings of the ships, and set up the tents of the officers and priests. Then they transferred the sick. The labor was immense, for all were sick, and the list of those able to perform duty daily grew smaller. The difficulties of their situation were very great. Nearly all the medicines and food had been consumed during the long voyage, and Don Pedro Prat, the surgeon, himself sick with scurvy, sought in the fields with a thousand anxieties some healing herbs, of which he himself was in as sore need as the others. The cold made itself felt with vigor at night and the sun burned them by day—alternations which made the sick suffer cruelly, two or three of them dying every day, until the whole sea expedition which had been composed of more than ninety men, found itself reduced to eight soldiers and as many sailors in a state to attend to the safeguarding of the ships, the working of the launches, the custody of the camp, and the care of the sick.
There was no news whatever of the land divisions. The neighborhood of the fort was diligently searched for tracks of a horse herd, but none were discovered. They did not know what to think of this delay. At length, on the 14th of May, the Indians gave notice to some soldiers on the beach that from the direction of the south men mounted on horses and armed as they, were coming. It was the first land division under Rivera, fifty days from Velicatá, without the loss of a man or having a sick one; but they were on half rations; they had only three sacks of flour left and were issuing two tortillas[12] per day to each man. Great was the rejoicing in the camp of the sick over the arrival of Rivera's force. It was now resolved to remove the camp near to the river. This was done, and a new camp established on a hill in what is now known as "Old Town," where a stockade was made and the cannon mounted. The surgeon, Pedro Prat, devoted himself to the sick, but the deaths continued, until of the ninety and more who had sailed from La Paz, two-thirds were laid under the sand of Punta de los Muertos[13]. It was now thought best to send one of the packets to San Blas to inform the viceroy and the visitador of the state of the expedition, and it was feared that if this were longer delayed, the ship would be unable to put to sea for lack of mariners. The San Antonio was selected for this purpose, and was prepared for sea, but as she was about to sail, the camp was thrown into an ecstasy of joy by the arrival of Portolá and the second division, sound in body, and with 163 mules laden with provisions. The governor promptly informed himself of the condition of affairs, and desirous that the señor visitador's orders concerning the sea expedition should be carried out, offered to Captain Vila of the San Carlos sixteen men of his command to work the ship, that he might pursue the voyage to Monterey. As Vila had lost all his ship's officers, boatswain, storekeeper, coxswain of the launch, and there was not a sailor among the men offered by Portolá, he declined to go to sea under such conditions. All the available sailors were therefore placed on board the San Antonio, and she sailed for San Blas, June 8th, with eight men only for a crew.
The governor now proceeded to organize his force for the march to Monterey. He determined to move at once, lest the advancing season should expose them to the danger of having the passes of the sierra closed by snow, as even at San Diego those who came by sea reported the sierras covered with snow on their arrival in April.
On the 14th of July, Portolá began his march to Monterey, distant one hundred and fifty-nine leagues. His force consisted of Sergeant Ortega, with twenty-seven soldados de cuera under Rivera, Fages with six Catalan volunteers—all that could travel, Ensign Costansó, the priests, Crespi and Gomez, seven muleteers, fifteen Christian Indians from the missions of Lower California, and two servants—sixty-four in all. Both Fages and Costansó were sick with scurvy, but joined the command notwithstanding. The personnel of this expedition contains some of the best known names in California. Portolá, the first governor; Rivera, comandante of California from 1773 to 1777, killed in the Yuma revolt on the Colorado in 1781; Fages, first comandante of California, 1769-1773, governor, 1782-1790; Ortega, pathfinder, explorer, discoverer of the Golden Gate and of Carquines Strait[14]; lieutenant and brevet captain, comandante of the presidio of San Diego, of Santa Barbara, and of Monterey; founder of the presidio of Santa Barbara and of the missions of San Juan Capistrano and San Buenaventura. Among the rank and file were men whose names are not less known: Pedro Amador, who gave his name to Amador county; Juan Bautista Alvarado, grandfather of Governor Alvarado; José Raimundo Carrillo, later alférez, lieutenant, and captain, comandante of the presidio of Monterey, of Santa Barbara, and of San Diego, and founder of the great Carrillo family; José Antonio Yorba, sergeant of Catalonia volunteers, founder of the family of that name and grantee of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana; Pablo de Cota, José Ignacio Oliveras, José Maria Soberanes, and others.
At San Diego, Portolá left the sick under the care of the faithful surgeon, Prat, and a guard of ten cuera soldiers; Captain Vila of the San Carlos, with a few seamen; Frays Junípero Serra, Juan Vizcaino, and Fernando Parron, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a few Lower California Indians, some forty persons in all. The governor also left with them a sufficient number of horses and mules and about sixty loads[15] of provisions. On July 16th, two days after the Portolá expedition started, Junípero founded, with appropriate ceremonies, the mission of San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission established in Alta California. The deaths continued, and before Portolá's return in January, eight soldiers, four sailors, one servant, and eight Indians died, leaving but about twenty persons at the camp.
We will now follow the governor. Relying somewhat on the supply ship, San Jose, which was to meet him at Monterey, but which, as we have seen, was lost at sea, and also on the supplies to be brought by the San Antonio, the governor, knowing the uncertainties of a sea voyage, took with him one hundred mules loaded with provisions, sufficient, he concluded, to last him for six months.