Part 4

The situation of the command was becoming very grave. The food supply was almost gone. They had killed a mule, but only the Indians and the Catalonians would eat it. The commander called a council of officers, on December 6th, and told them the condition of affairs. They had not found the port they had come in search of, he said, and had no hope of finding it or the vessel that should have succored them; they had but fourteen half sacks of flour left; winter was upon them, the cold was becoming excessive, and snow was beginning to fall in the mountains. He invited free discussion, but postponed the decision until the next day, that all might have time for reflection. On December 7th, after hearing mass, the junta again met. Some were for remaining where they were until the provisions were entirely consumed, and then retreat, relying on the mules for food during the journey to San Diego; others thought it better to divide the party, one-half to remain and the other return to San Diego. Both projects were carefully discussed, and both presented difficulties. The prevailing sentiment seemed to favor a return, and the governor announced his determination. They would return to San Diego at once, he said, for if the snow should close the mountain passes, the whole expedition would be lost.

A violent storm arose in the afternoon, which lasted until the night of December 9th, delaying the march.

On Sunday, December 10th, they began the retreat from Monterey. Before leaving Carmelo Bay, they set up a large cross on a little hill on the shore of the ensenadita, and on it, cut into the wood, the legend: "Dig; at the foot you will find a writing." A message was put into a bottle and buried at the foot of the cross. It gave the facts of the expedition, its commander, date of starting, the dates of entering the channel of Santa Barbara, of passing Point Concepcion, of the passage of the Santa Lucia mountains, of the sight of Punta de Pinos, of Point Reyes, etc.

"The expedition desired to reach Point Reyes, but some esteros intervened which ran far inland, which required a long journey to go around, and other difficulties (the chief of which was the want of provisions), made it necessary for us to return, believing that the Port of Monterey might perhaps be near the Sierra de Santa Lucia, and thinking that we might have passed it without observing it. We left the estero of San Francisco on our return on the 11th of November. We passed the Punta de Ano Nuevo on the 19th of said month, and reached the second time this Port and Ensenada de Pinos on the 27th of the same."

It states that from that day to this they have made diligent search for the port of Monterey, but in vain, and now, despairing of finding it, their provisions nearly gone, they return to San Diego. Then follows the latitude at various points as observed by Costanso. It requests the commanders of the San Jose or San Antonio, if they, or either of them, should be informed of the contents of the letter and the condition of the expedition, to sail down the coast as near the land as possible, that the expedition might sight and obtain succor from them.

The march that day was across the Point of Pines, one league and a half, and they camped on the shore of Monterey Bay, where they erected another cross with an inscription announcing their departure. On the 11th, they ascended the Salinas and began to retrace the route of their coming. They killed many geese, which relieved their necessities somewhat, and on the 21st were clear of the Santa Lucia mountains. The hungry soldiers stole flour, and to prevent further theft, the comandante divided the remainder among them. On the 28th the command was stuck fast in a mudhole near San Luis Obispo, and were unable to say mass, though it was a feast day. On January 3d, they passed Point Concepcion. Here, among the Channel Indians, food was abundant, their severe trials were over, and the health of the command improved daily. Instead of following up the Santa Clara river, they crossed the Santa Susana mountains, into the San Fernando valley, and followed down the Los Angeles river, crossed the Santa Ana, January 18th, and reached San Diego, January 24, 1770, with the command in good health and without the loss of a man, "with the merit of having been compelled to eat the flesh of male and female mules, and with not having found the Port of Monterey, which we judged to have been filled up by the great sand dunes which were in the place where we had expected to find it."

Portola found a joyful welcome at the little camp at San Diego. Many had died, and Junipero and Father Parron were just recovering from scurvy. No tidings were yet received from the San Antonio. The commander made a careful inventory of supplies, and reserved enough to march to Velicata in case the San Antonio did not appear when the remainder should be exhausted. This, he calculated, would be a little after the middle of March, and the 20th of that month was fixed as the date of departure, very much to the disappointment of the priests. On February 11th Rivera was sent to Velicata with a guard of nineteen or twenty soldiers, to bring up the cattle and supplies that had been left there.

After sundown of the day before that appointed for the departure, a sail appeared in the distance. It was the San Antonio, just in time to prevent the abandonment of San Diego. She brought abundant supplies, and Portola prepared for a second expedition in search of the Port of Monterey. Captain Vila of the San Carlos declared, when the details of the search were related to him, that the place where they erected the second cross was the long-lost Port of Monterey.

On April 16th the San Antonio sailed for Monterey, carrying Junipero, Costanso, Prat, and a cargo of stores for the new mission. On the 17th, Portola set out by land with Fages, twelve Catalan volunteers, seven soldados de cuera, Crespi, two muleteers, and five natives. At San Diego was left Vila with his mate and five sailors on the San Carlos, Fathers Parron and Gomez, with Sergeant Ortega and eight soldados de cuera as guard, and Rivera arrived in July with over eighty mules laden with supplies, and one hundred and sixty head of cattle.

Portola followed the same route that he took on the retreat from Monterey, and on May 24th arrived at the Ensenada Grande under Punta de Pinos, near the cross they had erected, December 10th. Selecting a place for the camp, Portola took Fages, Crespi, and a soldier for guard, and went to the cross to see if any vessel had visited the spot. They found around the cross a ring of arrows stuck in the ground, some of which were decked with feathers; others had fish and meat attached to them, while at the foot of the cross was a small pile of shell-fish. As Portola, Fages, and Crespi walked along the beach and looked out over the bay and noted its calm and placid waters, with its swimming seals and spouting whales, they broke forth with one voice, "This is the Port of Monterey which we have sought. It is exactly as reported by Sebastian Vizcaino and Cabrera Bueno."

Remembering the good water at the camp on the Rio del Carmelo, Portola ordered the expedition to Carmelo Bay by direct line, while he, with Fages and Crespi, proceeded around the Point of Pines. They found it well covered with pine trees, many of them large enough for masts of a ship. They also came upon a grove of cypress at a point beyond (Cypress Point), and arrived at camp after a walk of four good leagues. Here they awaited the arrival of the San Antonio.

On May 31st the paquebot was sighted near Point Pinos. 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.

DATA REGARDING DON GASPAR DE PORTOLA AFTER HE LEFT CALIFORNIA

By E. J. Molera

Portola and Costanso sailed, on July 9, 1770, for Mexico, to give to the viceroy an account of their discoveries. Costanso remained in the capital and took part in several engineering works, among others, the map of the Valley of Mexico and its drainage. Diligent search instituted by the writer in Mexico and Spain regarding Portola's further history, has so far discovered little beyond the fact that the commander's return to the capital was followed by promotion from Captain to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Spanish Army, and his appointment as Governor of Puebla, February 23, 1777.

In the municipal archives of the city of Puebla, on page 33 of the folio covering the years 1776-1783, is the following description of Portola's taking possession of the office as Governor of that city and state:

"Possession of Governor Portola."

"In the session (meeting of February 23d, 1777), the council saw a royal title of Political and Military Governor of this city granted by his Majesty to Senor Don Gaspar de Portola, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Army, and also a superior order of his Excellency the Viceroy, Governor, and Captain General of this New Spain, in which is stated that said title has been forwarded."

"The President of the Council, standing and uncovered, took the title in his hand and kissed it and put it over his head, being a letter from the king, our master, and said that he would obey and he did obey its contents and in its provisions it was ordered that Lieutenant-Colonel Don Gaspar de Portola be given possession of said office, and for that purpose, said noble corporation went out with the heralds to bring him to this hail of sessions, and when he was in, a notary-public having certified to his identity, he swore to use faithfully and well the office of Governor, doing justice, punishing, and not burdening the poor with excessive taxes; to keep and cause to be kept, the rights, privileges, royal decrees and ordinances, etc."

"Having signed the oath, the president gave him the cane of Royal justice, by which the act of possession was completed."

In the same volume many decrees and ordinances are signed by Portola as Governor of Puebla.

That in the year 1779, Portola was still Governor of Puebla is proved by two original manuscripts in possession of the writer. One is a circular official notice to all the head authorities of Mexico, announcing the death of Viceroy Frey Don Antonio Bucareli y Ursua, and shown herewith; the other is a letter of Don Gaspar de Portola, dated April 17th, 1779.

Letter from the Viceroy of New Spain to Don Julian de Arriaga, Giving an Account of the arrival at San Blas of the Packet Boat San Carlos, Returning from the Survey of the Port of San Francisco. Document Obtained from the Archives of the Indies, Seville.

"My Dear Sir:"

"By courier sent to me from San Blas, I have just learned that the royal packet-boat San Carlos, under command of Lieutenant of the frigate Don Juan Manual Ayala, which with provisions and goods sailed for the harbor of Monterey, thence to the port of San Francisco, anchoring on the 6th inst. at San Blas."

"In the copies which I send herewith, of the extensive examination made by this officer and his pilot, Don Jose Canizares, your Excellency will see, in detail, all that was found advantageous, and the news obtained gives knowledge of all that that vast port contains and the facilities that is has to invernate vessels. The docility and gentle manners of the heathen that live in its vicinity inspire hopes in the utility of the plan, on which I had previously determined, of colonizing this land."