At San Diego, Portola 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 Junipero 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 Portola expedition started,
Junipero founded, with appropriate ceremonies, the mission of San Diego
de Alcala, the first mission established in Alta California. The deaths
continued, and before Portola'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.
On the march the following order was observed. Sergeant Ortega, with six
or eight soldiers, went in advance, laid out the route, selected the
camping place, and cleared the way of hostile Indians by whom he was
frequently surrounded. At the head of the column rode the comandante,
with Fages, Costanso, the two priests, and an escort of six Catalonia
volunteers; next came the sappers and miners, composed of Indians, with
spades, mattocks, crowbars, axes, and other implements used by pioneers;
these were followed by the main body divided into four bands of
pack-animals, each with its muleteers and a guard of presidial soldiers.
The last was the rear guard, commanded by Captain Rivera, convoying the
spare horses and mules (caballada y mulada).
The presidial soldiers were provided with two kinds of arms, offensive
and defensive. The defensive consisted of the cuera (leather jacket) and
the adarga (shield)[16]. The first, being made in the form of a coat
without sleeves, was composed of six or seven thicknesses of dressed
deer skins impervious to the Indian arrows, except at very short range.
The adarga was of two thicknesses of raw bulls-hide, borne on the left
arm, and so managed by the trooper as to defend himself and his horse
against the arrows and spears of the Indians; in addition, they used a
species of apron of leather, fastened to the pommel of the saddle, with
a fall to each side of the horse down to the stirrup, wide enough to
cover the thigh and a leg of the horseman, and protect him when riding
through the brush. This apron was called the armas. Their offensive arms
were the lance, which they managed with great dexterity on horseback,
the broadsword, and a short musket, carried in a case. Costanso, who was
an officer of the regular army, bears testimony to the unceasing labor
of the presidial soldiers of California on this march, and says they
were men capable of enduring much fatigue, obedient, resolute, and
active; "and it is not too much to say that they are the best horsemen
in the world, and among the best soldiers who gain their bread in the
service of the king."[17]
It must be understood that the marches of these troops with such a train
through an unknown country and by unused paths, could not be long ones.
It was necessary to explore the land one day for the march of the next,
and the camp for the day was sometimes regulated by the distance to be
traveled to the next place where water, fuel, and pastures could be had.
The distance made was from two to four leagues[18], and the command
rested every four days, more or less, according to the fatigue caused
by the roughness of the road, the toil of the pioneers, the wandering
off of the beasts, or the necessities of the sick. Costanso says that
one of their greatest difficulties was in the control of their caballada
(horse-herd), without which the journey could not be made. In a country
they do not know, horses frighten themselves by night in the most
incredible manner. To stampede them, it is enough for them to discover a
coyote or fox. The flight of a bird, the dust flung by the wind-any of
these are capable of terrifying them and causing them to run many
leagues, precipitating themselves over barrancas and precipices, without
any human effort availing to restrain them. Afterwards it costs immense
toil to gather them again, and those that are not killed or crippled,
remain of no service for some time. In the form and manner stated, the
Spaniards made their marches, traversing immense lands, which grew more
fertile and pleasing as they progressed northward.
The expedition followed practically the route which afterwards became
the Camino Real. Its fourth jornada (day's journey) brought it to the
pretty valley where later was established the mission of San Luis Rey.
They called it San Juan Capistrano, but that name was afterwards
transferred to a mission forty miles north of this place. The command
rested here, July 19th. Resuming the march on the 20th, the sierra (San
Onofre), whose base they were skirting, drew so near the sea that it
seemed to threaten their advance, but by keeping close to the shore,
they held their way, and on the 24th they encamped on a fine stream of
water running through a mesa at the foot of a sierra, whence looking
across the sea, they could descry Santa Catalina Island. This was San
Juan Capistrano, and here they rested on the 25th. On the 28th they
reached the Santa Ana river, near the present town of that name; a
violent shock of earthquake which they experienced caused them to name
the river Jesus de los Temblores[19]. July 30th and 31st they were in
the San Gabriel valley, which they called San Miguel, and on August 1st
they rested near the site of the present city of Los Angeles.
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