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 Jose 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 senor 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 30deg. 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.
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