The March Of Portola And The Discovery Of The Bay Of San Francisco
By Zoeth S. Eldredge
"Serene, indifferent of fate,
Thou sittest at the Western Gate;
Upon thy heights so lately won,
Still slant the banners of the sun;
Thou seest the white seas strike their tents,
O warder of two continents,
And scornful of the peace that flies,
Thy angry winds and sullen skies,
Thou drawest all things, small or great,
To thee beside the Western Gate."
Table of Contents
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Introduction
The March of Portola and Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco
Data regarding Portola after he left California
Letter of the Viceroy of New Spain to Don Julian de Arriaga
Causes that led to the Expedition of the San Carlos
Log of the San Carlos
Report of the Commander of the San Carlos
Description of the Bay of San Francisco
Report of the Pilot of the San Carlos
Introduction
In the annals of adventure, there are no more thrilling narratives of
heroic perseverance in the performance of duty than the record of
Spanish exploration in America. To those of us who have come into
possession of the fair land opened up by them, the story of their
travels and adventures have the most profound interest. The account of
the expedition of Portola has never been properly presented. Many
writers have touched on it, and H. H. Bancroft, in his History of
California, gives a brief digest of Crespi's diary. Most writers on
California history have drawn on Palou's Vida del V. P. F. Junipero
Serra and Noticias de la Nueva California, and without looking further,
have accepted the ecclesiastical narrative. We have endeavored in this
sketch to give, in a clear and concise form, the conditions which
preceded and led up to the occupation of California.
The importance of California in relation to the control of the Pacific
was early recognized by the great European powers, some of whom had but
small respect for the Bull of Pope Alexander VI dividing the New World
between Spain and Portugal. England, France, and Russia sent repeated
expeditions into the Pacific. In 1646 the British Admiralty sent two
ships to look in Hudson's Bay for a northwest passage to the South Sea,
one of which bore the significant name of California. The voyage of
Francis Drake, 1577-1580, was a private venture, but at Drake's Bay he
proclaimed the sovereignty of Elizabeth, and named the country New
Albion. Two hundred years later (1792-1793) Captain George Vancouver
explored the coast of California down to thirty degrees of north
latitude (Ensenada de Todos Santos), which, he says, "is the
southernmost limit of New Albion, as discovered by Sir Francis Drake, or
New California, as the Spaniards frequently call it." Even after the
occupation and settlement by the Spaniards, so feeble were their
establishments that, as Vancouver reports to the Admiralty, it would
take but a small force to wrest from Spain this most valuable
possession. But though the growing feebleness of Spain presaged the time
when her hold upon America would be loosened, the standard of individual
heroism was not lowered, and the achievements of Portola and of Anza
rank with those of De Soto and Coronado. The California explorer did
not, it is true, have to fight his way through hordes of fierce natives.
The California Indians, as a rule, received the white adventurers
gladly, and entertained them with such hospitality as they had to offer,
but the Indians north of the Santa Barbara Channel were but a poor lot.
In a country abounding in game of all kinds, a sea swarming with fish, a
soil capable of growing every character of foodstuff, these miserable
natives lived in a chronic state of starvation.
As in heroic qualities, so also in skill and judgment, Portola upholds
the best traditions of Spain. The success of an expedition depends upon
the character of the leader. Panfilo de Narvaez landed on the coast of
Florida in April, 1528, with a well-equipped army of three hundred men
and forty horses, just half the force he sailed with from Spain the
previous June, and of the three hundred men whom he led into Florida,
only four lived to reach civilization - the rest perished. That is but
one example of incompetent leadership. When Portola organized his
expedition for the march from San Diego Bay to Monterey, many of his
soldiers were ill from scurvy, and at one time on the march the sick
list numbered nineteen men, including the governor and Rivera, his chief
officer. Sixteen men had to be carried, and to three, in extremis, the
viaticum was administered; but he brought them all through, and returned
to San Diego without the loss of a man.
There are two full diaries of this expedition, one by Father Crespi and
the other by Alferez Costanso. There is, besides, a diary of Junipero
Serra of the march from Velicata to San Diego Bay, a translation of
which is printed in Out West magazine (Los Angeles), March-July, 1902.
It is of small value to the student of history. There is a diary by
Portola, quoted by Bancroft, and a Fragmento by Ortega, also used by
Bancroft. These we have not seen. There are letters from Francisco
Palou, Juan Crespi and Miguel Costanso, printed in Out West for January
1902. The diary of Father Crespi is printed in Palou's Noticias de la
Nueva California. Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, re-printed San
Francisco, 1874. The diary of Miguel Costanso is in the Sutro library.
It has never been printed. It is prefaced by an historical narrative, a
poor translation of which was published by Dalrymple, London, 1790, and
a better one by Chas. F. Lummis in Out West, June-July, 1901. In
Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, Vol. II,
Part 1, Los Angeles, 1891, a number of documents of the Sutro collection
are printed, with translations by George Butler Griffin. These relate to
the explorations of the California coast by ships from the Philippines,
the two voyages of Vizcaino, with some letters of Junipero Serra, and
diaries of the voyage of the Santiago to the northern coast in 1774.
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