The Exploring Party Returned On Monday, December 4th, At Night.
They
were tired out with their travels over the rough mountain trails, and
they reported that no port of Monterey existed south of their camp; that
the mountains belonged to the Sierra de Santa Lucia, and that there was
no passage along the shore.
Vizcaino had said that Monterey was just north of the Sierra de Santa
Lucia. "It is all that can be desired for commodiousness and as a
station for ships making the voyage to the Philippines, sailing whence
they make a landfall on this coast. This port is sheltered from all
winds * * * and is thickly settled with people, whom I found to be of
gentle disposition, peaceable, and docile; * * * they have flax like
that of Castile, and hemp, and cotton,"[36] etc.
The commander knew not what to think. What should be a great port,
protected from all winds, was but an ensenada; what should be the Rio
Carmelo was but an arroyo; what should be great lakes were but
lagunillas; "and where, too, were the people, so intelligent and docile,
who raised flax and hemp and cotton?" Costanso says that in their entire
journey, they found no country so thinly populated, nor any people more
wild and savage than the few natives whom they met here. It is not
strange that Portola failed to recognize, in the broad ensenada,
Vizcaino's Famoso Puerte de Monterey.
The situation of the command was becoming very grave. The food supply
was almost gone.
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