The Soldiers Made
Signals, To Which The Ship Replied With Her Guns, And Before Night Had
Dropped Her Anchor In Monterey Bay, Which Was Pronounced By The Sailors
To Be A Most Famous Port.
On the 3d of June, 1770, under a shelter of branches near the oak where,
in 1602, Vizcaino's Carmelite
Friars had celebrated mass, Don Gaspar de
Portola, with his officers, soldiers, and people of the land expedition,
Fray Junipero Serra and Fray Juan Crespi, Don Juan Perez, captain of the
San Antonio, Don Miguel del Pino, his second in command, together with
the crew, assembled to establish a presidio and mission. The father
president chanted the mass and preached from the Gospel, while the
musical deficiency was made good by repeated discharges from the guns of
the San Antonio and volleys from the muskets of the soldiers. At the
conclusion of the religious ceremonies, Don Gaspar de Portola, governor
of the Californias, took possession of the country in the name of his
majesty Don Carlos III, King of Spain, and the presidio and mission of
San Carlos de Borromeo de Monterey were founded and established, the
first presidio and second mission in California.
In accord with the orders of the visitador-general, Portola now
delivered to Lieutenant Fages, as comandante of California, the command
of the new establishments, sailed on the San Antonio, July 9th, for San
Blas, and California knew him no more.
[1] Sierra de Santa Lucia.
[2] Audiencia, the highest judicial body.
[3] The system of encomienda conferred feudal rights upon the
discoverers.
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