The Beginnings of San Francisco - Chapters I-III



CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1769

In the beginning of the year 1769, Don Jose de Galvez, visitador general 
of Spain and member of the council of the Indies, sent an expedition under 
command of Don Gaspar de Portola to take possession of and fortify the 
ports of San Diego and Monterey in Alta California. The expedition 
consisted of two sea and two land divisions with the rendezvous at San 
Diego Bay. By the first of July, 1769, the divisions were assembled at San 
Diego and on the 14th, the march to Monterey began. On the last day of 
September, the command reached Monterey Bay, but failing to recognize it 
from the description furnished them, passed on and discovered the bay of 
San Francisco. The expedition then returned to San Diego, and in the 
spring of 1770, another attempt was made and Monterey was reached on May 
24th. This time they recognized the bay and on June 3, 1770, the presidio 
and mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey  were founded with 
appropriate ceremonies.[1] 

In a previous work I stated that Jose Francisco Ortega, sergeant and 
pathfinder of the expedition, was the discoverer of the Golden Gate and of 
the Straits of Carquines.(*) As commander of the expedition, Portola is 
entitled to the credit for whatever the expedition accomplished, but it is 
nowhere claimed that Don Gaspar was the first white man to look upon the 
waters of the great bay. From the summit of the Montara mountains, Portola 
sighted the high headland of Point Reyes and recognized what was then 
called the Port of San Francisco, afterwards known as the ensenada or gulf 
of the Farallones. He descended the mountain on the north and camped at 
its foot, in the San Pedro Valley, while he sent his scouts forward to 
explore the coast up to Point Reyes[2], giving them three days for the 
reconnaissance. The scouts returned late at night of the third day and 
reported that they could not reach Point Reyes because some immense 
esteros (esteros inmensos) intervened which extended far into the land. 
The day following the departure of the scouts, some soldiers received 
permission to go into the mountains to hunt for deer. These returning 
after nightfall, reported that on the other side of the mountain there was 
a great estero or arm of the sea. 

(* Loma Alta, the high bill north of Yerba Buena cove)

The question of actual discovery of the bay lies between the party of 
hunters and the scouts. Let us first consider the claims of the hunters. 
Costanso, engineer officer, cartographer, and diarist of the expedition, 
says in his diary, under date of November 2d, that the hunters set out in 
the morning after mass and did not return until after nightfall. They 
reported that from the mountains north of the camp they had seen an 
immense arm of the sea or estuary which thrust itself into the land as far 
as the eye could reach, inclining to the southeast (que se metia por la 
tierra adentro cuanto alcanzaba la vista tirando para el sudeste). These 
hunters of the deer, whose names are not given, probably saw the bay of 
San Francisco about noon of Thursday, November 2, 1769. 

Under date of Wednesday, November 1, 1769, Father Crespi, priest and 
diarist of the expedition, writes: "In this little valley of the Punta de 
las Almejas del Angel de la Guarda, we celebrated mass, * * * and after 
this the sergeant (Ortega) with his party started for a three days' 
exploration." 

His entry for the next day, November 2d, notes the report of the hunters 
concerning the great estero, and says: "We conjectured also from said news 
that the explorers would not be able to reach the opposite shore which is 
seen to the north (the Marin coast) and would therefore be unable to 
inspect the point which we believed to be that of Los Reyes, because it 
was impossible within the period of three days to make the circuit 
necessary to go around the estero whose extension was so magnified to us 
by the hunters." 

Costanso, moreover, under date of November 1, says: "Our comandante 
ordered the explorers to examine the country to a certain distance, 
allowing them three days for such examination." He also says in his entry 
of the next day, that in view of the report of the hunters the explorers 
could not in three days "descabezar" (behead) an estero of such great 
extent as that described. 

From San Pedro Valley, Crespi's "Vallecito de la Punta de las Almejas del 
Angel de la Guarda," to Point Lobos is, as the crow flies, thirteen miles. 
From Point Lobos to Telegraph hill(*) is six miles. According to Crespi, 
Ortega started immediately after mass--say at eight o'clock in the morning 
of Wednesday, November 1st. He would travel at the rate of one league per 
hour, at least, and five hours of travel would bring him to Point Lobos 
where his further progress towards Point Reyes would be arrested by the 
waters of the Golden Gate.

(* Loma Alta, the high bill north of Yerba Buena cove) 

He had been given three days' time to explore the coast up to Punta de los 
Reyes, say twenty leagues distant. Here in half a day's journey, with only 
five of the twenty leagues accomplished, he had come to the end of the 
land, with the objective point of his order still in the distance before 
him. What was he to do? Return to the commander and report that he could 
not get through? Certainly not until he had satisfied himself that the 
terms of the order were impossible of execution without boats to carry him 
over the water. Ortega was thirty-five years old and had served for 
fourteen years as a soldier on the frontier; he was the explorer and 
pathfinder of the expedition and upon his experience, sagacity, and 
courage his commander depended. He had exhausted but one-half of the first 
of his three days. Perhaps it was possible for him to descabezar this body 
of water that impeded his progress? It was clearly his duty to try, and I 
do not think there can be any doubt as to what Ortega would do. The 
language of both Costanso and Crespi indicates that Ortega connected the 
water which had barred his progress with the estero seen by the hunters. A 
ride of half or three-quarters of an hour would bring him to the mesa, 
back of Fort Point, whence the central and northern portions of the bay 
and the Alameda and Contra Costa shores would be in full view, while a 
further ride of three-quarters of an hour would carry him to Telegraph 
hill, from the summit of which the greater part of the bay of San 
Francisco would spread before him. On this theory then, Ortega would, by 
two or half past two o'clock of the afternoon of November 1st, have seen 
that part of the bay lying north of Yerba Buena island, and by or before 
four o'clock the greater part of the whole. 

I am of the opinion therefore, that Jose Francisco Ortega was the actual 
discoverer of the bay of San Francisco, and that he saw it some twenty 
hours before the hunters of the deer. 

The second day of Ortega's expedition was probably spent in exploring the 
shore of the bay and the third in his return, by the route of his coming, 
to the camp at San Pedro.[3] 

That the commander realized the impossibility of reaching Punta de los 
Reyes by proceeding up the ocean shore is shown by the fact that the day 
after Ortega's return he took up his march for the south end of San 
Francisco Bay and made an attempt to reach Point Reyes by the contra 
costa. 



CHAPTER II. EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1770-1775

Portola established the presidio and mission of San Carlos Borromeo de 
Monterey, June 3, 1770, and dispatched a messenger to the City of Mexico 
to the Marques de Croix, Viceroy of New Spain, announcing the addition of 
a new province to the realms of His Most Catholic Majesty, Don Carlos III. 
For more than two hundred years Spain had claimed the Pacific coast of 
North America up to forty-two degrees but had done nothing to maintain her 
right by settlement. Now, in the foundation of Monterey, Alta California 
was brought under the flag of Spain and all nations were notified that she 
would protect her land from invasion and insult. The news of Portola's 
success was received with joy and steps were at once taken to found on the 
shores of the great bay so recently discovered an establishment which, it 
was thought, would develop into a great commercial city. Portola had been 
ordered to establish three missions: one at San Diego, one at Monterey, 
and one at some intermediate point, to be named for the good doctor 
serafico, San Buenaventura.[4] It was now resolved to found five more 
missions in the new province and the guardian of the college of San 
Fernando was asked to furnish ten additional missionaries. The five 
missions proposed were San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, San 
Francisco, and Santa Clara. 

On November 12, 1770, the viceroy instructed Don Pedro Fages, comandante 
of California, to explore the port of San Francisco for the purpose of 
establishing a presidio and mission there, since a place so important 
ought not to remain exposed to foreign occupation. This order was received 
by Fages some six months later. Fages had but nineteen men at Monterey, 
while at San Diego, Rivera had twenty-two. This was the entire military 
force in California. Two missions: San Diego and Monterey, had been 
founded, but the establishment of San Buenaventura had been delayed by 
lack of troops. Rivera was ordered to send a portion of his force to Fages 
in order that the latter might make the reconnaissance of San Francisco, 
but the Indians at San Diego were manifesting a hostile disposition and 
Rivera would not divide his force. So it was not until March 1772 that 
Fages found himself able to obey the order to explore the port of San 
Francisco.(*) On the 22d of March 1772, Fages left the presidio of 
Monterey with a guard of twelve soldiers, Father Juan Crespi, two 
servants, and a pack train, and taking a northeasterly course camped the 
first night on the bank of the Salinas river. The next morning they 
crossed the plains of Santa Delfina (Salinas valley), passed over the 
Gavilan mountains by the canon of Gavilan creek, and descended into the 
San Benito valley, camping on the bank of the Arroyo de San Benito on the 
21st, the day of St. Benedict, giving the stream the name it now bears. 
The beautiful valley they called San Pascual Baílon. The next day they 
crossed the Pajaro river and entered the San Bernardino valley, naming it 
for Saint Bernardine of Siena, and camped for the night on an arroyo which 
they called Las Llagas de Nuestro Padre San Francisco--The Wounds of Our 
Father St. Francis. Ancient San Bernardino is now a part of the Santa 
Clara valley, but the Arroyo de Las Llagas still retains the name Fages 
gave it. The next day they passed into the upper Santa Clara valley, then 
called the Llano de Los Robles--the Plain of the Oaks--and keeping to the 
right of the great estero camped on an arroyo near the southeastern point 
of the bay. On Wednesday March 25th, they camped on San Leandro creek, 
called by them San Salvador de Horta. Thursday the 26th they were on the 
site of Alameda, then covered with a forest of oaks, and called the San 
Antonio creek, Arroyo del Bosque--Creek of the Grove. Looking across to 
the Golden Gate they named it La Bocana de la Ensenada de los Farallones--
The Entrance to the Gulf of the Farallones. On Friday they looked from the 
Berkeley hills through the Golden Gate to the broad Pacific. The next two 
days they followed the shore of San Pablo bay, hoping to get to the high 
sierra they saw to the north of La Bocana and reach Point Reyes near 
which, they believed, was the real port they were seeking. This they could 
not do because of an estero, quarter of a league wide, deep, and 
impassable without boats. To the mountain of the north (Tamalpais) they 
gave the name La Sierra de Nuestro Padre San Francisco, as it seemed to be 
the guardian of his port. On the opposite bank of that estero we call 
Carquines strait, they saw many rancherias whose Indians called to them, 
and seeing that the strangers were passing on, crossed the strait on their 
tule rafts and presented the travelers with their wild eatables. 

(* Fages had made a brief trip to the bay of San Francisco in November, 
1770, and explored the contra Costa to the Carquines straits)

Following up the estero, they camped March 30th on an arroyo near the 
present Martinez and the next day passed on to the site of Antioch. They 
tasted the waters of Carquines strait and Suisun bay and found them fresh, 
then climbing the hills they looked upon the great valley with its rivers 
dividing themselves into many branches, all of which united to form one 
great river before entering La Bahia Redonda. To this mighty river "the 
largest that has been discovered in New Spain" Fages gave the name of San 
Francisco. Satisfied that it was impossible to reach Point Reyes by this 
route with his present equipment, Fages returned to Monterey and made his 
report to the viceroy.[5] 

On August 17, 1773, Bucareli ordered Rivera, who had succeeded Fages, to 
make a further exploration of the port of San Francisco and of the great 
river that emptied into it, and on the 23d of November 1774, Rivera with 
Father Palou and an escort of sixteen soldiers with forty days' provision, 
left Monterey and took his way to the famous port. Keeping to the west of 
the bay they found themselves at 11.30 a. m. of November 28th on a deep 
arroyo through which ran about two bueyes(*) of water, its banks well 
covered with poplars, willows, laurels, and other trees, while some 
hundred paces below the ford stood a great redwood (madera colorada), seen 
for more than a league before reaching the arroyo, and which from a 
distance looked like a tower. They camped on the north bank of the stream 
and believing it to be a good place for a mission erected a cross near the 
ford. Palou writes, "In this same place the first expedition (Portola) 
arrived, and was the limit it reached, and where it stopped the 7, 8, 9, 
and 10th days of December, '69, while the explorers were looking for the 
port of San Francisco." They were on the Arroyo de San Francisco, or as it 
is now called, the San Francisquito creek, and the great redwood described 
is the famous palo alto (high tree) of Stanford University. 

(* A Buey de Agua is the unit of the old Mexican system. It is the amount 
of water that will pass through an orifice one vara (2.75 ft.) square. I 
am supplied with this definition by Mr. Charles F. Lummis of Los Angeles.)

On March 30th they passed through the Canada de San Andres and gave it 
that name, it being the day of St. Andrew, though it had been previously 
named by Portola the Canada de San Francisco. It now belongs to the Spring 
Valley Water Company and in it are the company's principal reservoirs. On 
December 4th, Rivera and Palou planted a cross on Point Lobos at a place 
"that had not, up to this time, been trodden by Spaniard or other 
Christian," and where it could be seen from the beach. The weather was bad 
and Rivera returned to Monterey without further exploration. 

In March 1775 an expedition for exploring the northern coast sailed from 
San Blas under command of Don Bruno de Heceta, consisting of the frigate 
Santiago in charge of the commander-in-chief, the packet boat San Carlos 
under Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, lieutenant of frigate, and the schooner 
Sonora under Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Cuadra, lieutenant of 
frigate. To Lieutenant Ayala was assigned the survey of the bay of San 
Francisco, while the Santiago and Sonora sailed for the north. Bodega 
discovered the bay that bears his name and Heceta discovered the Columbia 
river. Sailing with the squadron was a supply ship, the San Antonio, under 
Lieutenant Fernando Quiros, bound for San Diego. 

For forty days Ayala faced contrary winds steadily driven southward to 
latitude 180 degrees 40', and it was not until June 11th that he reached 
Cape San Lucas. From now on his progress was steady if slow, and on the 
29th he cast anchor in Monterey bay, 101 days from San Blas. Here he 
unloaded the cargo of stores brought for the Monterey presidio, made some 
needed repairs, took on ballast and wood and water, and prepared for the 
expedition to San Francisco bay. He also constructed on the Rio Carmelo, a 
cayuco--a canoe or dugout--from the trunk of a redwood tree, to assist in 
the survey. 

On July 27th the San Carlos sailed for San Francisco bay, beginning the 
voyage with a novena to their seraphic father, Saint Francis. Owing to 
contrary winds progress was slow and it was not until August 5th that they 
approached the entrance to the port. At eight in the morning of that day 
the launch was lowered, and Don Jose Canizares, sailing master, with a 
crew of ten men, was sent in to make a reconnaissance and select an 
anchorage for the ship. At nine the tide was running out so strongly that 
the ship was driven to sea, but at eleven o'clock the tide turned and it 
drew near the coast, the captain approaching the entrance with caution, 
taking frequent soundings. At sunset the launch was seen coming from the 
port but the flood tide was too strong and she was forced back. Night was 
now coming on; an anchorage must be found and the San Carlos stood in 
through the unknown passage. Rock cliffs lined the narrow strait and the 
inrushing tide dashing against rock pinnacles bore the little ship onward. 
In mid-channel a sixty fathom line with a twenty pound lead failed to find 
bottom. Swiftly ran the tide and as day darkened into night the San Carlos 
sailed through the uncharted narrows, passed its inner portal, and opened 
the Golden Gate to the commerce of the world. Skirting the northern shore, 
the first ship cast anchor in the waters of San Francisco bay at half past 
ten o'clock on the night of August 5, 1775, in twenty-two fathoms, off 
what is now Sausalito.[6] 

At six the next morning the launch came across from the opposite shore and 
the mate(*) explained his failure to come to the ship when he saw her 
approaching by saying that the tide was so strong that it drove him back 
in spite of all his efforts. Richardson's bay was then explored by the 
mate in the launch, but was not considered safe because of the character 
of its bottom and the fact that it was exposed to the southeast winds. 
Ayala named it Ensenada del Carmelita because of a rock in it that 
resembled a friar of that order. From a ranchería in Richardson's bay the 
Indians came, and with friendly gestures invited the boat's crew to visit 
them, but they, having no orders to do so, kept at a distance from the 
beach, and at nine o'clock returned to the ship. From Belvidere point the 
Indians cried out to the sailors on the ship who, having no interpreter, 
could not understand them. At three o'clock in the afternoon an attempt 
was made to move the vessel to a safer anchorage but the tide was running 
too swiftly and they anchored off Point Tiburon in fifteen fathoms, 
dropping two anchors which however did not prevent the ship from drifting. 

(* Piloto: sailing master, or mate)

Meanwhile the Indians on shore near the vessel were keeping up their 
solicitations and on the seventh the commander sent the chaplain, Fray 
Vicente Santa María, with the mate and a boat's crew of armed men, in the 
launch, to pay them a visit. He furnished them with beads and other 
trinkets for the Indians and charged them to take every precaution against 
treachery. They were hospitably received by the natives and entertained at 
their ranchería with pinole,(*) bread made from their corn or seeds, and 
tomales of the same. They were much pleased with their reception and found 
that the Indians could repeat the Spanish words with facility.

(* Pinole: a meal made from parched corn or acorns) 

Explorations by use of the launch were continued and on the twelfth they 
made an examination of the large island near them which they named Isla de 
Los Angeles. Here they found good anchorage, and near at hand, wood and 
water. Another island near by they named Isla de Alcatraces because of the 
number of pelicans on it.(*) This was steep and barren and without 
shelter, even for a launch.

(* Bancroft says (Hist. Cal. i, p. 702): "The name, 'Isla del Alcatraz' is 
used by Borica in 1797. I mention this fact because it has often been 
stated that the original and correct form was Alcatraces, in the plural." 
Comment is unnecessary. See Ayala's map.)

On the thirteenth Ayala moved his ship to the anchorage of Isla de Los 
Angeles, or Angel island, as it is now called, which I presume was 
Hospital Cove where the United States Quarantine station now is. Here, 
protected from the wind and the strong currents, he made his ship secure 
with anchors fore and aft, lowered the yards and sent down the top masts. 
This done he sent the launch with Canizares and an armed force of men and 
provisions for eight days, to continue the survey into San Pablo and 
Suisun bays. Canizares returned on the twenty-first and the launch was 
sent with fresh men under the second mate, Juan Bautista Aguirre, to look 
for a party Rivera had promised to send by land from Monterey, and, if he 
failed to find them, to explore the southeastern portion of the bay. 
Aguirre did not find the Monterey expedition for the good reason that 
Rivera had sent none, and when sent again on the thirty-first, with the 
cayuco, he found neither the Monterey expedition nor that of Colonel Anza, 
for which Ayala was looking.(*) Meanwhile on the twenty-third fifteen 
Indians came off to the ship on two of their tule rafts or canoes and were 
taken on board, entertained and given food. On the twenty-eighth Canizares 
resumed his exploration of San Pablo and Suisun bays and returned 
September 1st. The next few days he spent in surveying the southerly part 
of San Francisco bay and in making his report to the commander. His 
descriptions of the bay are excellent and the soundings shown on his map 
compare with those of the Coast Survey, allowing for the shallowing of the 
last sixty years. San Pablo bay he calls Bahia Redonda, though he says it 
is not round but in the shape of an isosceles triangle. This appears on 
his map as Bahia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. He visited an Indian 
rancheria at the entrance to Carquines strait and found the natives polite 
and modest, not disposed to beg although they accepted some presents of 
beads and old clothes, and responded by giving the Spaniards some 
excellent fish, pinole, and seeds. These Indians had rafts or canoes made 
of tule and so well constructed and woven that they won the admiration of 
the sailing-master. Four men in them with double bladed oars could make 
greater speed than the launch. Passing through Carquines strait, to which 
he gives no name, Canizares describes Southampton bay which he calls 
Puerto de la Asumpta, having examined it August 15th, the festival day of 
the Assumption of the Virgin. Suisun bay is described as a large port into 
which some rivers come and take the saltiness from the water which there 
becomes sweet as in a lake.(**) One river coming from the east-northeast 
(east--the San Joaquin) is about two hundred and fifty varas wide; the 
other, which has many branches, comes from the northeast through tulares 
and swamps, in very low land, and there are but two fathoms of water in 
their channels and sand bars with but half a fathom at their mouths. 

(* Anza did not start from Tubac until October 23d)
(** Font's "Puerto Dulce")

Canizares also mentions another island, to which no name is given, about 
two leagues to the southeast of Angel island. This is Yerba Buena. The 
tide flats of the Alameda coast with poles driven into the mud for the 
fishing stations of the Indians; the Presidio anchorage, Yerba Buena cove, 
Mission bay and Islais creek are all described, as well as the hills and 
groves of oak and redwood. A ranchería on the Alameda shore, seemed to be 
a good place for a mission, though he only viewed the site from a 
distance. 

To Point Lobos was given the name Punta del Angel de la Garda. Fort Point 
was called Punta de San Jose. Lime Point was Punta de San Carlos, and 
Point Benito, Punta de Santiago. Point San Pedro was called Punta de 
Langosta (Locust Point), Point Richmond, Punta de San Antonio, and Point 
Avisadero, Punta de Concha. Mission bay was named Ensenada de los Llorones 
(The Weepers) because, it is said, the sailors saw some Indians weeping on 
the beach. Islais creek was called Estero Seco; the cove between Tiburon 
and Belvidere was Ensenada del Santo Evangelio; Mare island, Isla Plana, 
and Suisun bay Junta de los Quatro Evangelistas--The meeting of the four 
Evangelists. Of all the names given by Ayala there only remain to us Angel 
and Alcatraz islands. Point San Jose transferred its name to the next 
point east, while the point to which it was originally given became known 
as the Punta del Cantil Blanco, the name given it by Anza, and is now 
called Fort Point. 

On the 7th of September Ayala had completed his survey and at eight in the 
morning he weighed anchor and leaving the shelter of Hospital Cove sailed 
for Monterey, but the wind failing, the current swept him on to a rock 
near Point Cavallo, injuring his rudder and compelling him to put into 
Horseshoe bay for repairs. While thus detained he employed the time in 
examining the entrance to the bay. He sailed on the eighteenth and arrived 
at Monterey the next day. He had spent forty-four days in the bay of San 
Francisco. 

Meanwhile Don Bruno de Heceta had returned to Monterey from his northern 
trip August 29th and learning that the land expedition for San Francisco 
promised by Rivera had not been sent, organized a party to go to the 
assistance of Ayala and help in the survey of the port. On the 14th of 
September he set out, with a guard of nine soldiers and accompanied by 
Fathers Palou and Campa, three sailors, and a carpenter, and carrying on a 
mule, a small canoe. They followed the route taken by Rivera in 1774, and 
on the twenty-second arrived at the beach below the Cliff House rocks 
where they found the wreck of Ayala's cayuco cast ashore. At the foot of 
the cross erected on the hill at Point Lobos by Rivera in 1774, they found 
letters from Padre Santa María directing them to go a league inland and 
light a fire on the beach to attract the notice of the San Carlos anchored 
at Angel Island. When this was done and there was no answer to the signal, 
Heceta retraced his steps as far as Lake Merced where he encamped 
September 24th, the day of Our Lady of Mercy, and gave to the lake the 
name it bears to-day: La Laguna de la Merced. Concluding that the San 
Carlos had finished her survey, Heceta left for Monterey where he arrived 
October 1st. 



CHAPTER III. EL CAMINO DEL DIABLO, 1774

While Don Jose de Galvez was organizing the expedition for the conquest of 
California, there was in the far-off frontier presidio of Tubac, a gallant 
soldier, Juan Bautista de Anza, by name, who manifested the liveliest 
interest in the undertaking. He petitioned the visitador-general for 
permission to make a journey overland from Sonora by way of the Rios Gila 
and Colorado to meet the expedition of Portola at Monterey bay.[24] He 
proposed to pay the entire cost of the journey and only asked to be 
allowed to take with him twenty soldiers whom he himself should name. It 
was represented that with the reduction of California a road of 
communication could be opened between Sonora and the new foundations by 
which the latter could be succored more surely and quickly than by the 
uncertain sea voyage. Anza's request was refused. The visitador-general 
did not consider such an expedition necessary at that time and the opening 
of such a road was believed to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. 
Not only were the two great rivers, the Gila and the Colorado, to be 
crossed, but between them and Sonora lay vast, inhospitable deserts.(*)

(* Palou: Noticias, iii, 154) 

The expedition led into California by Portola founded the presidios of 
Monterey and San Diego, and under their protection, the missions San 
Diego, Monterey, San Antonio, San Gabriel, and San Luis Obispo. The life 
of the new establishments was precarious in the extreme. All supplies were 
brought in by sea from La Paz or San Blas, and the ships were sometimes 
many months on the voyage. The only ships the government had at that time 
on the western coasts of New Spain were a few small, poorly constructed, 
ill found boats built at San Blas for carrying dispatches and supplies to 
the missions. In addition to the ordinary perils of the sea, dread scurvy, 
that decimator of early navigators, made the arrivals irregular and 
uncertain and the unfortunate colonists were in constant danger of 
starvation. 

Anza now renewed his request for permission to take an expedition overland 
to Monterey, alleging that by the road he would open supplies could be 
taken to the new colony in less time and with much more certainty than by 
sea. Again he offered to conduct an expedition at his own expense. The 
difficulty of maintaining the new foundations caused the viceroy, Don 
Antonio Bucareli y Ursúa, to lay the matter before the king, and while 
awaiting his reply he consulted the president of the California missions, 
Fray Junípero Serra, to ascertain his views. Fray Junípero gave 
enthusiastic support to the application and suggested a similar expedition 
from Santa Fe, in New Mexico. The reply of the king not only approved 
Captain Anza 's proposal but directed the viceroy to provide him from the 
royal treasury with all that was necessary to make his expedition a 
success. Anza's preparations were soon made and on the 8th of January 
1774, he set out from Tubac on his long and hazardous journey. The 
expedition consisted of the comandante with an escort of twenty soldiers, 
Fray Juan Diaz and Fray Francisco Garces, of the College of Santa Cruz de 
Queretero, the necessary guides and muleteers, thirty-four persons in all, 
one hundred and forty saddle and pack animals, and sixty-five head of beef 
cattle. Just as Anza was starting a war party of Apaches descended upon 
him, killed some of his escort and ran off a large number of his horses. 
Not having sufficient stock to replace these he was obliged to make a 
detour of about one hundred and twenty-five miles southwest to the Piman 
pueblos of the Altar river to get pack and saddle animals. Starting 
January 8th he was on the 9th at Aribac (Arivaca) where, he says, the gold 
and silver mines were worked up to the year 1767, when they were abandoned 
because of the Apaches. On the 13th he was at Saric, on the Altar river, a 
place of great fertility of soil but one most harried by Apaches. He notes 
that the distance from Saric to Arizona or Las Bolas is seven or eight 
leagues to the northeast.[7] On the 17th he was at the presidio of Altar 
and on the 20th reached the mission of La Purisima Concepcion del Caborca. 
The only animals he could obtain, however, were a few worn out mules, and 
with this insufficient equipment he left the mission of Caborca, January 
22d, crossed the Rio del Altar, and struck across the forbidding 
Papaguería,(*) a wide and desolate desert reaching from the Rio del Altar 
to the junction of the Rios Gila and Colorado. In five days of travel, 
moving as rapidly as he could push his decrepit outfit he reached the 
ruined mission of Sonoitac on what is now the boundary line between 
Arizona and Sonora. For the next two days the route was easy through the 
dry arroyo of the Sonoyta river, which is described by Dr. W. J McGee as a 
channel broad enough for the Ohio and deep enough for the Schuylkill but 
dust-dry from bank to bank. A march of twenty-three miles brought the 
expedition to the sink of the Sonoyta and here the brief existence of the 
river is ended. This is ancient Carrizal of Father Kino and may be seen on 
his map (1702) and on that of Venegas (1757). From here on to the junction 
of the Gila and Colorado, distant one hundred and twenty miles, the 
country contains not one permanent inhabitant and but two known watering 
places. The trail is well known and has long been traveled. It is the 
dreaded Camino del Diablo, whose terrible length is lined with the graves 
of its victims. Over this dreadful road came, in 1540, Captain Melchior 
Diaz of Coronado's army to die amid the sandy wastes of the Colorado. 
Later it formed the highway of that untiring traveler and missionary 
Eusibio Francisco Kino.[8] During the gold excitement in California this 
trail was used to a limited extent by Americans who braved the terrors of 
the desert rather than risk encountering the hostile Apaches by a more 
northerly route. So great was the mortality, however, among the travelers 
that the route was soon abandoned. It is said that during a period of 
eight years four hundred travelers perished of thirst between Altar and 
Yuma. 

(* Papaguería, The land of the Papagos)

From Carrizal the trail stretches across the Tule desert with the nearest 
water forty-five miles distant and but a scanty supply then. Dividing his 
expedition into two parts Anza marched with the first division at noon of 
January 30th, leaving the second division, which consisted of the pack 
trains, under charge of a corporal and seven soldiers, to follow later. He 
made about sixteen miles and encamped for the night in what he calls a 
bajio (flat place) without either water or pasture. This bajio was a low 
lying place in the Tule desert called Las Playas. It is bordered by a 
fringe of mesquite and greasewood and in certain seasons a little water 
may be found there. Resuming his march at seven thirty o'clock the next 
morning an hour's travel brought him to the mal pais, a vast, sloping 
sheet of black lava reaching from the Sierra Pinto on the north to the 
Sierra Pinecate on the south, and which, Anza says, grew neither grass nor 
tree, small shrub nor larger one. Passing the lava beds, the division 
reached the Tule mountains and the Tinajas del Cerro de la Cabeza Prieta--
The Tanks of the Blackhead Butte--having traveled about sixteen miles. 
Anza gave to the tinajas the name of La Empinada--the Elevated. It is the 
Agua Escondida--Hidden water--of Father Kino or his Agua de la Luna; it is 
situated in longitude one hundred and thirteen degrees, forty-five 
minutes, about five miles north of the boundary line and consists of 
several tanks high up a rocky canon reached only after a hard climb. These 
tanks hold, when filled by the rains, about five thousand gallons.(*)

(* A tinaja or tank is a pocket in the rock where water may be found after 
local storms)

Anza found but a scanty supply of water in La Empinada, and leaving it for 
his pack-train pushed on eight miles into the Lechuguilla desert,(*) and 
camped for the night without water and with little pasture for the 
animals. Resuming his march at eight o'clock in the morning after the 
second night without water, Anza remarks that the ground they passed over 
gave forth a hollow sound under the tramping of the horses as if there 
were dungeons beneath the road.(**) A march of twelve miles brought the 
division to Las Tinajas Altas--the High Tanks. Here was water in plenty 
and pasture nearby. These tinajas have been known since the time of the 
earliest Christian explorers and were probably known to the Papagos 
centuries before.(***) They are set in the side of a natural semi-circular 
area on the east side of the Gila mountains, about three and a half miles 
north of the boundary line, and consist of a number of tanks worn in the 
solid rock by the waters of a narrow rocky valley several hundred feet 
above, which during the rains come tumbling through the narrow gorge and 
fill the tanks. There are seven large tanks and a number of small ones; 
but with exception of the lowest tank, which can be approached by animals, 
they are very difficult of access. They range one above another and can 
only be reached by climbing several hundred feet up the steep side of a 
ravine. The water, surrounded and protected by overhanging walls, is 
deliciously cool and palatable. The tanks will hold from fifteen to twenty 
thousand gallons.[9] 

(* This desert lies between the Tule mountains and the Gila range. It 
takes its name from a plant of the Agave family called Lechuguilla--Little 
Lettuce. Costanso writing of the Indians of San Diego, says: "They wear no 
clothing save a girdle, woven like a very fine net with a fiber which they 
obtain from a plant called lechuguilla. Anza notes the Indians of San 
Jacinto mountains wearing this girdle, also a headdress of the same. The 
illustrations in Venega's Noticias show the Indian women of Lower 
california wearing the netting in that manner.)
(** Captain Gaillard of the Boundary Commission informs me that he noticed 
the same peculiarity in that locality caused by the horizontal 
stratifications and separation of the underlying layers of rock)
(*** Prof. Herbert E. Bolton identifies La Tinaja of Father Kino with a 
tank east of the Gila range, about fifteen miles south of the Gila river)

Anza remained here until the morning of the third day to rest his command 
and let his packtrain come up, the mules being in bad condition and barely 
able to travel. In honor of the day, which was the Feast of the 
Purification of St. Mary, Anza named the aguage La Purificacion. 

He resumed his march February 4th, and crossed the Gila range by the 
Tinaja pass. His next day's march was thirteen miles and he stopped at 
some wells named by him Los Pozos de en Medio--the Half-way Wells. The 
next day he followed the same general direction, north-northwest, keeping 
close to the base of the Gila mountains to avoid a range of high and 
almost impassable sand-hills extending in a northwesterly direction from 
below the boundary line, in longitude one hundred and fourteen degrees, 
twenty minutes, to the Gila river. A march of eighteen and a half miles 
brought him to his next watering place, a spring off the road--perhaps in 
the Telegraph pass of the Gila mountains. Neither this well nor that of 
the preceding camp is known to-day. Anza says from its being out of the 
road they inferred it was the one named by the Jesuit fathers La Agua 
Escondida--the Hidden water. The Agua Escondida shown on Father Kino's map 
is east of the Gila range. 

At this last camp he found a Papago Indian awaiting him with a message 
from Palma, chief of the Yumas. Anza had met Palma at the presidio of 
Altar just before starting to cross the Papaguería and had notified him 
that he would pass through his territory. The Yuma chief now sent to warn 
Anza of an intention among the Indians of the river to murder him and his 
company and seize his outfit. Palma, the messenger said, had vainly 
endeavored to dissuade the Indians from attempting such an act which, as 
he told them, would bring down upon the tribe the vengeance of the 
Spaniards.[10] They were, however, bent upon mischief and he advised Anza 
to be on his guard and approach the junction of the rivers with caution. 
Anza did not consider the matter serious, but sent the Papago to ask Palma 
to meet the expedition, that they might confer in regard to the 
conspiracy, and at two o'clock the following afternoon resumed his march 
for the rivers, distant twelve leagues(*) (31.2 miles). He made about one-
half of this distance and halted for the night where there was some feed 
for the animals, but no water. Starting at sunrise the next morning he met 
his messenger returning with an under-chief of the Yumas, Palma being 
absent. This under-chief was unarmed and was accompanied by eight warriors 
armed with bows and arrows, and all, like himself, entirely naked. In his 
hand he carried a lighted brand with which, Anza tells us, he warmed 
himself by applying it to the stomach or hindquarters.(**)

(* The league was 5000 varas--2.604 miles. A vara is 33 inches.)
(** Melchior Diaz, who reached the Colorado river in the fall of 1540, 
named it the Rio del Tizon--River of the Firebrand--because of this custom)

The chief informed Anza that Palma had taken vigorous measures for the 
protection of the Spaniards by expelling from his jurisdiction those who 
were trying to make trouble, and all was now quiet and peaceful; that 
Palma had been sent for and would soon meet him with a hearty welcome. 
Resuming his march Anza reached the Rio Gila at three in the afternoon 
accompanied by two hundred Yuma braves who had come out to meet him and 
who escorted him with shouts and laughter and other demonstrations of joy. 
At five o'clock Palma arrived with a body of sixty Indians and the white 
and red chieftains embraced each other with affection before the company. 
Captain Anza entertained his visitors with some refreshments while at 
Palma's request he permitted the Indians, most of whom had never before 
seen a white man, to examine the dress and equipment of the men. Palma, 
noting the posted guards with swords drawn and horses ready, asked why 
this was done and said the men should betake themselves to rest and 
liberty, relying on the friendship of the Yumas. Anza informed him that 
soldiers were ever on guard; that even in the presidio the men were on 
guard as if in the face of the enemy. 

After bestowing a decoration on the chief, Anza, in the name of the king 
confirmed him in his command of the Yumas, giving him a brief account of 
the authority of the king who, in his turn, was responsible to God the 
ruler of all. After this Palma took Anza's staff and made a long harangue 
to his people, explaining the nature of the honor done him and of his 
responsibility to the king, and then ordered them to their huts for the 
night. In the morning a short journey down the river brought them to the 
ford of the Gila and the house of Palma where, in the presence of six 
hundred of his people, the chief received and entertained the white men 
with generous hospitality. 

The first stage of the long journey is completed. In one month Anza has 
traveled one hundred and thirty-eight leagues (three hundred and fifty-
nine miles) of desert, with a worn and decrepit outfit. So far he has 
braved the known danger, traveled the known trail. He is now to face the 
unknown. Desolate as was the land through which he has come, he has now to 
encounter deserts as dreadful, fierce savages warring against each other 
and hostile to the invader, and without guides, wander amid sandy wastes 
in search of water. 



CHAPTER IV. THE PASSAGE OF THE COLORADO DESERT, 1774

Anza reached the junction of the Rios Gila and Colorado, February 7, 1774. 
Giving up the following day to rest and to the enjoyment of the 
hospitality of the Yumas, he began the second stage of his journey 
February 9th, by the passage of the Rio Colorado, the first crossing into 
Alta California by white men. The river had been crossed by Meichior Diaz 
in 1540, Father Kino in 1701, and by Father Garces, one of the two priests 
now with Anza, in 1771, but all these had crossed into Lower California. 
Palma guided the expedition to a ford where, with the assistance of the 
Indians, they made a safe passage. In celebration of this event, and of 
its being accomplished for the first time by the king's arms, the 
comandante fired a salvo and set off some rockets which pleased the 
Indians very much by their flight through the air, though the sound of the 
guns frightened them so that they threw themselves on the ground. Anza 
crossed the river above its junction with the Gila, and notes in his diary 
that it is the season of the greatest drouth and he found it only three 
and a half feet deep and five hundred and seventy feet wide. He gives an 
excellent description of the river and its surroundings, the San Dionisio 
of Father Kino, a Yuma ranchería,(*) now the town of Yuma, Arizona; the 
Purple hills ten miles to the north-northwest, through whose gorges the 
Colorado emerges into the open valley; the large peak to the northwest, 
which he named Cabeza del Gigante--Giant's Head--now called Castle Dome; a 
lesser peak fifteen miles to the north, which, on account of its shape, he 
named La Campana--The Bell--now called Chimney Peak. He also notes that 
below the junction of the Gila and Colorado the united river is 
constrained to a narrow strait about 100 varas (275 feet) wide between 
bluffs of moderate height. To this he gave the name of Puerto de la 
Concepcion. Here was established in 1780, on the bluffs of the California 
side, the mission of La Purisima Concepcion, the site of the present Fort 
Yuma.

(* Ranchería--an Indian village or town)

Having safely transferred his baggage across the river Anza camped for the 
night, being much troubled by the multitude of naked Indians in the camp. 
He presented them with an ox, and trinkets and tobacco, hoping to get rid 
of them, but they remained to sleep with their new friends. Anza describes 
the Yumas as tall and robust, lighter in color than the Pimas, with faces 
which, though naturally good, they had disfigured with paint. Their ears 
were bored with from three to five holes in each of which they wore a 
ring. They also pierced the cartilage of the nose and through it passed a 
bunch of feathers or a stick a palm (eight and a half inches) in length, 
and as thick as a large quill. They went naked for they considered it 
womanly to be covered. They dressed their hair with clay and over it threw 
a powder that had a luster like silver, sleeping seated so as not to 
disturb this headdress. Their arms were bows and arrows of poor quality, 
staves four varas (eleven feet) long, and clubs. The women were large like 
the men, and Anza observes that their faces were about as he has seen 
other Indian women; he saw none that were horribly ugly nor did he see any 
specially handsome. Their dress consisted of a sort of petticoat down to 
the knee divided into two parts, that in front being the shorter. 

Anza estimated the Yuma nation as numbering thirty-five hundred souls. 
Their lands were rich bottom lands capable of high cultivation. Indeed he 
saw wheat growing without irrigation so good that the best lands in Sonora 
could not equal it, and he was astonished at the abundance of maize, 
beans, calabashes, and melons they grew. He also notes that dams could be 
made and the water carried for a long distance for irrigation. All these 
descriptions are interesting in view of the reclamation work being done at 
this point by the United States Government and by private corporations. 

On the following morning, February 10th, Anza resumed his march taking his 
way down the Colorado, which here flows almost due west, accompanied by 
about six hundred Yumas who, with somewhat troublesome kindness, insisted 
on driving the horses, pack mules, and cattle, each beast being surrounded 
by five or six Indians. The march was a weary one, for the road, though 
mostly level, was but a twisting corkscrew of a trail through a chaparral 
of mesquite and other brush that filled the river bottom and made it 
difficult for the animals. After four leagues of travel the expedition 
reached Pilot Knob, to which Anza gave the name of Cerro de San Pablo. 
Here the river takes a turn to the south, and traveling another league 
further the expedition halted for the night at the Ranchería de San Pablo, 
a Yuman village on the river-bank. This was the site of the second 
Colorado mission, San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner, established in the 
fall of 1780, and destroyed, together with its sister mission La Purisima 
Concepcion, on July 17, 1781, by this same Palma and his Indians. The next 
day's march carried them six leagues further down the river in a 
southwesterly direction to a lake in the flood plain of the river which 
the commander called Laguna de las Cojas. Here the jurisdiction of the 
Yumas ended and that of the Cojat nation began. I find no record of any 
tribe of that name, but Anza's description fits that of the Cajuenche, a 
tribe inhabiting the lower Colorado below Yuma. The next day's travel of 
four and a half leagues to the south and west and away from the river, 
brought the command to a large laguna, two and a half miles in length, but 
narrow, some five and a half feet in depth, and well stocked with fish. 
This lake, to which Anza gave the name of Laguna de Santa Olalla, was left 
from the overflow of the river. It was probably located on the Rio 
Padrones, about twelve miles south of the boundary line and eight miles 
west of the river. 

Anza had now reached the end of the known land. The Cajuenches, or, as he 
calls them, the Cojats, received him with the same friendly welcome given 
by their relatives, the Yumas, but their jurisdiction was confined to the 
flood plain of the river, and to the west ranged the fierce Comeya, into 
whose territory no Cajuenche or Yuma would venture. The expedition must 
cross the Colorado desert without guides and find the water-holes as best 
it could. 

Among Anza's train was a Christian Indian, Sebastian Tarabel, by name, a 
native of the mission of Santa Gertrudes in Lower California. He was one 
of five Indians of that mission who had accompanied Portola on his march 
to Monterey in 1769. Sebastian had found the country so well suited to his 
taste that he had brought his wife from Lower California and settled at 
the mission of San Gabriel. Becoming tired of life at the mission he had 
run away, taking with him his wife and his brother, and had struck out 
across the San Jacinto mountains and the Colorado desert for the pueblos 
of the Yumas. Lost amid the sand-hills of the desert, his wife and his 
brother perished, but he, rescued by the Yumas, had been taken by Palma to 
the presidio of Altar, where he joined the expedition of Anza as guide. 
These sand-hills of the Colorado desert reach from a point about thirty-
five miles north of the boundary line to some ten or twelve miles below 
it, the tract varying in width from ten to thirty miles. They are greatly 
dreaded, because their similarity of appearance is most bewildering and 
the constantly shifting sand quickly obliterates any trail made through 
them. It was to avoid these that the detour to the southwest into Lower 
California was made. 

The Indian, Sebastian, was of no help to Anza in his present need. Palma 
had accompanied them to Santa Olalla, but here he left them, saying he 
could go no further, for the expedition would now pass into the land of 
his enemies. He said that by the time Anza returned the Colorado would be 
in flood but he would be prepared with rafts and would take the Spaniards 
over in safety. With tears in his eyes he said good-bye (a Dios) to his 
friend, and the expedition plunged into the unknown desert. 

Anza had induced some Cajuenches to go with him the first day's journey, 
and traveling seven leagues to the west-northwest, the Indians guided the 
party to an arroyo containing some thick and brackish water and a little 
carrizo (reed grass) which Anza named Los Pozos del Carrizal. The arroyo 
was the Alamo river and the place was one now known as Gardner's Lagoon. 
Two of the Cajuenches remained in the camp, the rest returning to Santa 
Olalla. Resuming his march the next morning, February 14th, Anza was 
accompanied a short league by the two Cajuenches who then left him, saying 
they dared go no further, but that the expedition could safely reach the 
next watering place (aguage) near the sierra to the west. In the same 
arroyo, near some carrizo, Anza dug for water and finding a little halted 
to rest the animals. These wells he called Los Pozos de en Medio (the Half-
way Wells). The next morning he began his march in a westerly direction 
towards the sierra. After traveling a league he came to a pool of very 
brackish water, thence another league through sand-hills brought him to 
another pot hole containing very little water, but somewhat better than 
the last. Here the exhausted condition of the mules compelled him to leave 
half his baggage, and placing it in charge of a guard he pushed on. He was 
soon in the midst of thickly clustered sand-hills where the trail became 
entirely obliterated. Finding himself in a dangerous situation, Anza 
consulted the two priests and suggested that since the animals were too 
weak to carry through all the baggage, they return half of it and half of 
the troops to the rancheria of the Yumas, and with the other half, without 
encumbrance, make a rapid journey to Northern California. Father Diaz 
agreed to the plan but Garces objected. He did not see the necessity for 
it and did not think it wise to divide the force. Realizing the danger 
Anza related to him the fate of previous expeditions in like 
circumstances, but Garces remained of the same opinion and Anza, having a 
high opinion of Garces' experience and skill as a traveler, resumed the 
march. For some time they held to the westerly course among the sand-hills 
and then came to one larger and higher, which neither the horses in their 
weakened condition nor the laden mules could surmount. Forced to abandon 
the route to the sierra in the west, which appeared to be about five 
leagues distant,(*) Anza turned to the south towards another sierra nearer 
than the first, close to which, Garces said, was a large ranchería called 
San Jacome, where he had been two years before. Anza notified the leader 
of the pack-train, which was following, of the change of direction and 
with the advance guard pushed on for San Jacome. The sun had set when they 
reached the sierra and having passed it they found neither tracks, paths, 
nor other indications of habitation. Some of the soldiers were now on 
foot, their horses having given out, and Anza halted while the priests 
with two soldiers went in search of the stopping-place (paraje). Returning 
unsuccessful late in the night, Garces begged for another chance, and Anza 
giving him the only soldiers whose horses could carry them sent him on his 
quest.

(* Probably Signal mountain; about forty miles away)

Garces returned without having found San Jacome and Anza resolved to go 
back to the last aguage, realizing that if water and pasture were not 
found the next day the expedition would be exposed to total loss. 

All through the night he waited for the pack-train, horse-herd, and cattle 
to come up, and at daybreak began his return. At sunrise he met the train 
and at two in the afternoon, worn out with hunger and thirst, and having 
lost a large number of animals, they reached the well where they had left 
the baggage. In memory of their sufferings and in the fear that this 
miscarriage would defeat the object of the expedition, Anza named the 
paraje La Poza de las Angustias--the Well of the Afflictions. Sending the 
cattle on to the Pozos de en Medio that they might find some carrizo to 
eat, Anza rested until noon of the following day. He realized how hopeless 
was the attempt to cross the desert with his animals in such condition and 
he determined to return to the river, give his men and animals a rest, 
entrust his baggage and useless animals to the care of Palma, and with his 
escort mounted on the strongest horses and taking only the most necessary 
supplies, make a dash for Monterey. With this intent and without 
consultation with the padres, Anza began his retreat. 

Leaving the Poza de las Angustias after midday of February 17th, Anza took 
the trail to the Pozos de en Medio, the pack-mules carrying half loads. 
Most of the soldiers were now on foot but to the comandante's words of 
encouragement they responded that if all the horses failed they would make 
the whole journey on foot, could the object of the expedition be thus 
attained. Anza commended their faithfulness and promised to remember and 
reward them as far as was in his power for their concern for the king's 
service.(*)

(* On October 1, 1786, Don Pedro Fages, governor of California, ordered 
that Juan Ignacio Valencia, a soldier of Anza's first expedition, be paid 
one escudo (about $2.00) per month additional pay from October 8, 1774, to 
June 10, 1788, for his services on that trip. (Spanish Archives of 
California, Provincial State Papers MSS. VIII, 142))

On the morning of the nineteenth Anza reached the Laguna de Santa Olalla 
and the half laden pack-train arrived at eleven o'clock on the night of 
the twentieth, but it was not until the twenty-third that he got in all 
his baggage. He was received by Palma as one returned from the dead. The 
Yuma chief made known his grief at the hardships of his friend and the 
loss of his caballerías.(*) Garces volunteered to visit the rancherías of 
the lower Colorado in hopes of obtaining some information regarding the 
route across the desert, and to this the comandante agreed, charging him 
to return within four or five days. Anza then proceeded to explore the 
mind of Palma to ascertain if he were worthy of confidence, and satisfied 
on this point, he communicated to the chief his intention of leaving with 
him a portion of his baggage and animals, and some of his people, to await 
the return of the expedition from Monterey which, Anza said, would be in a 
little more than a month. To this Palma heartily agreed, promising to keep 
all in safety until Anza's return, and that the mules might succeed in 
reaching the ranchería he offered to transport the baggage on the 
shoulders of his people. This, however, Anza would not permit. Having 
completed the arrangement with Palma, Anza communlcated it to the 
individuals of the expedition, and with one voice they approved of the 
plan. The soldiers repeated the statement that they were eager to 
undertake the journey and again declared their willingness, should all the 
horses be lost, to march on foot so long as their strength lasted. 

(* Caballería, riding beast. Anza uses the expression to mean both riding 
and pack-animals.)

Several days passed in rest and recreation. The Yuma, Cajuenche, and 
Quiquima Indians thronged the camp and were much entertained by the music 
of a violin played by one of the soldiers. The women learned to dance in 
the Spanish fashion, and both sexes learned to salute the Spaniards with 
"Ave Maria"; "viva Dios y el Rey"; pronouncing the Spanish words with 
fluency. 

On the first of March Garces returned without having learned anything 
concerning the route they must take, and the next day the expedition again 
essayed the passage of the desert, leaving behind the greater part of the 
baggage, three soldiers, three muleteers, and one of Anza's servants, with 
the surplus cattle and caballerías. They now kept down the plain of the 
Colorado to avoid the sand-hills and shorten the journey across the desert 
to the sierra. For two days they continued down the river among the 
rancherías of the Cajuenches, and then, on March 4th, turned to the west-
northwest towards the Cocopa mountains, guided by a Cajuenche Indian. 
After a journey of six or seven leagues the guide proposed that they camp 
for the night, assuring the commander that they would reach the aguage by 
noon the following day. To this proposition Anza assented with reluctance 
as there was in the place neither water nor pasture. Starting at daybreak 
the next morning the march was continued in a direction varying between 
north and west to avoid the sand-hills, and after a journey of twelve and 
a half leagues (thirty-two and a half miles) they reached some pot holes 
containing a scanty supply of water and a little pasture. To these wells 
Anza gave the name San Eusebio. On the day's journey they came upon what 
appeared to be an arm of the sea (brazo del mar) which Anza thought must 
come from the Gulf of California, thirty leagues distant. He tasted the 
water and found it salty and he found stranded there a large quantity of 
fish of the kind that belong to the sea. The little water of the wells of 
San Eusebio was soon exhausted and one half of the beasts had none. To add 
to their misfortunes they discovered that the rascally guide had run off 
during the night leaving them to the peril of the desert without knowledge 
of the location of water. Suffering from thirst Anza sent a corporal and 
five men to search for the aguage, and at two in the afternoon moved the 
train over the track of the explorers. After three leagues of travel they 
met two of the soldiers who guided them to some springs in the hills where 
there was water but very little grass for the beasts. Anza named the wells 
Santo Tomas and here they remained the night of March 6th. I cannot locate 
this spring but it is in the Cocopa mountains about ten miles below the 
boundary line. On the seventh Anza again sent out the scouts, following on 
their trail in the afternoon, and camped for the night where there was 
some pasturage for the animals but no water. They were, however, cheered 
by information the scouts obtained from some Indians of the certainty of 
reaching the long-looked for aguage early the next day. Starting at seven 
in the morning, a march of one and a quarter leagues brought them to the 
wells which on being opened distilled an abundant supply of most beautiful 
water. To these wells Anza gave the name of Pozos de Santa Rosa de las 
Lajas (the Wells of Santa Rosa of the Flat Rocks).(*) Anza's native 
Californian and guide, Sebastian Tarabel, recognized in these wells one of 
the stopping places of his former journey, and they all rejoiced in the 
thought that now their expedition would not fail. This aguage, Anza says, 
was but eighteen leagues from Santa Olalla (it was twenty) and could have 
been made in two forced marches, though it had taken six days and thirty-
five leagues of travel to reach it. At 2.30 in the afternoon Anza resumed 
his march and traveling almost due north made four leagues and camped for 
the night in the desert without water and with but little pasture for the 
animals. At daybreak the next morning they took their way again to the 
north across some dangerous sand-hills, with the men on foot leading their 
horses, and after traveling seven leagues, arrived at one in the afternoon 
at a large cienega or marsh--the sink of the San Felipe river--at the base 
of the San Jacinto mountains, the western wall of the desert. Anza gave to 
the aguage the name of San Sebastian del Peregrino. He had, in the face of 
great peril, without guides, and with much suffering, accomplished the 
passage of the Colorado desert. 

(* These wells are now known as the Yuha springs and are located in the 
northwest corner of section eight, township seventeen south, range eleven 
east, San Bernardino base and meridian, four miles north of the boundary 
line. The water is about two feet below the surface of a dry wash.)



CHAPTER V. EL CAMINO REAL, 1774

Anza found the water of the Cienega de San Sebastian(*) very alkaline and 
the grass so affected by it that the animals were made sick. At the 
cienega was a small ranchería of hill Indians (Indios Serranos), a most 
miserable, half-starved lot, ugly and entirely naked, living on mescal and 
seeds, with such game as they could kill with their bows and arrows. They 
also used the boomerang, throwing it with great dexterity and skill. These 
Indians have been identified with the Comeya who formerly occupied the 
country from the head of the Gulf of California to the Sierra Madre and 
from the Pacific to the lands of the Yumas. They were as fierce and 
treacherous as they were cowardly, and were the only Indians that Anza met 
on his long march whom he could not convert into friends. There was war 
between the Comeya and the Yuma, and two of the latter tribe whom Anza had 
brought with him notified the comandante that they and all who accompanied 
them would have their throats cut. Anza told the Comeya Indians that the 
war between them and the Yumas had ceased and that the tribes were now 
friends. This statement was apparently accepted and with the breaking of 
arrows the former enemies embraced and assured the comandante that their 
future excursions into each other's territory would be but pleasure trips. 

(* The Cienega de San Sebastian is on the San Felipe river near where the 
Carrizo creek joins it, in Section 2, township 12 south, range 9 east. It 
is a little below sea level and the water, while abundant, is brackish.It 
must not be inferred that a "river" in Southern California is necessarily 
a stream of water visible to the naked eye. Frequently the flow is 
underground, except in times of freshet.)

Remaining at the cienega until three o'clock the next afternoon, March 11, 
1774, Anza resumed his journey, and turning his back on the Colorado 
desert passed into the San Jacinto mountains by the broad dry canada(*) of 
the San Felipe river. His animals were very weak from the purging caused 
by the alkaline grass and water of San Sebastian, and two of them died. He 
advanced only one and a half leagues, then halted for the night where 
there were some mesquite trees, whose leaves furnished scanty forage for 
the beasts. In this place were four or five families of Serranos who 
informed him that the sea was distant three days' journey to the west, and 
that some of their relatives near it had seen people like the Spaniards 
who lived at a distance of five or six days' journey. The sea, Anza 
inferred, was the Philippine Ocean, and the people were those who lived at 
the Puerto de San Diego. 

(* Canada: a dale or glen between mountains: a valley)

Before daybreak the next morning the march was resumed up the gently 
ascending canada of the San Felipe, in a west-northwest direction, and 
turning into the canon(*) of Coyote creek they camped where there was 
running water of good quality and better grass than they had seen since 
they had leftthe Pimería.(**) At this aguage they found some sixty 
Serranos who scattered at the approach of the Spaniards. Anza sent the 
native Californian after them to induce them to return. Tarabel succeeded 
in bringing them back, and Anza rewarded them with presents of trinkets 
and tobacco; but the pack-mules coming up and scenting the water, set up a 
terrific braying which put the Indians to precipitate flight. Anza named 
the aguage San Gregorio and remained in camp the next day to give his sick 
animals rest. The expedition resumed its march before dawn on March 13th, 
continuing up the canon of Coyote creek and camping at the head of Borega 
valley. Here the Coyote, coming through a narrow canon where its flow had 
been forced to the surface, again sinks to its underground channel. Anza 
notes the good grass and vines and trees which promised improvement 
further on. He named the aguage Santa Caterina. 

(* A canon is a narrow valley with more or less precipitous sides, a 
defile or ravine)
(** Pimería: the country of the Pima Indians. It extends, roughly 
speaking, from the Sonora river to the Gila east of the one hundred and 
twelfth meridian. Anza left the Pimería and passed into the Papaguería 
when he crossed the Altar river at the mission of Caborca, January 22d.)

Starting two hours before daybreak the next morning, they continued up the 
canon, which now began to narrow and rise sharply. For four leagues they 
followed the canon of the Coyote, then turning into Horse canon a sharp 
climb of two leagues brought them to a bajio and the summit of the San 
Jacinto mountains, where they found good grass and water. Anza says: "This 
paraje is a pass and I named it El Puerto Real de San Carlos (the Royal 
Pass of San Carlos). From it may be discovered some very beautiful plains, 
green and flowery, and the sierra nevada with pines, oaks, and other trees 
proper to cold countries. In it the waters are divided, some running to 
the Gulf and others to the Philippine Ocean. Thus is it verified that the 
cordillera we are now in is connected with that of Baja California." This 
bajio is Vandeventer flat, at the base of Lookout mountain, and its 
altitude is about four thousand, seven hundred feet. I have been somewhat 
particular in tracing Anza's route across the Sierra Madre of California, 
of which the San Jacinto mountains form a part, because Bancroft, in his 
History of California, identifies the pass of San Carlos with the San 
Gorgonio pass, the route followed by the Southern Pacific railroad, and 
all subsequent writers have accepted the statement and confirmed the 
error.[11] 

The Indians met on this day's march were of the same appearance and 
language as those of San Sebastian, but were more impudent in manner and 
speech. Their harangues were accompanied by movement of hands and feet so 
violent that Anza called them Danzantes (Dancers). They were great thieves 
and Anza says they could steal with their feet as dexterously as with 
their hands. 

That night it rained and snowed, and it was not until the next afternoon 
that the expedition started, taking its way over the divide between 
Vandeventer flat and Hemet valley, an elevation of four thousand nine 
hundred and eighty-five feet, and camped at a beautiful lake in Hemet 
valley which Anza named Laguna del Principe. In crossing the divide he 
says he found a fair vein of silver ore. The next three days he traveled 
down the Hemet valley, the San Jacinto river, camping on March 19th on the 
border of a large and beautiful lake, covered with white geese, which he 
named Laguna de San Antonio de Bucareli. This was San Jacinto lake. He is 
enthusiastic in his description of the beautiful river, the trees, and the 
flowers. The river he named San Jose, and the San Jacinto valley he called 
La Valle Ameno de San Jose (The pleasant valley of San Jose). Into this 
pleasant valley comes the north fork of the San Jacinto river, a bounding, 
precipitous stream of such crystalline beauty that they named the gorge 
down which it runs La Canada del Paraiso--the Vale of Paradise. 

The next day they reached the Santa Ana river, so named by Portola, July 
28, 1769, but finding the river full were unable to cross. Passing down 
the river for half a league they looked in vain for a ford, and at four 
o'clock halted to make a bridge. This they finished at nightfall and 
rested for the night. Crossing the Santa Ana the next morning on the 
little bridge, the expedition traveled seven leagues in a west-northwest 
direction along the base of the Sierra Madre and camped for the night in a 
fertile valley thickly studded with poplars, willows, and alders, on the 
bank of a clear stream coming down from the sierra, which Anza named 
Arroyo de los Osos (Bear creek), having seen and chased several of those 
animals. The stream was San Antonio creek and the location of the camp was 
a little north and east of the site of the present town of Pomona. A march 
of eight leagues the next day brought them at sunset, March 22d, to the 
mission of San Gabriel where they were received by the padres with 
demonstrations of joy, the ringing of bells, and the singing of the Te 
Deum. 

Tears of joy filled the eyes of those exiles from home as they looked upon 
these intrepid men and realized how near Sonora really was to them. As 
they heard the story of the expedition, wonder filled their hearts at the 
marvelous journey made by such a handful of men. Anza found the mission on 
very short rations, the priests and soldiers of the guard being allowed 
but three corn cakes per day which they eked out by wild herbs, each one 
seeking for himself; and of this scanty ration of corn they had but one 
month's supply. Nevertheless, the father superior of the mission offered 
to supply Anza with food until an expedition could be sent to San Diego, 
where, the father superior had been informed, a ship, the Nueva Galicia, 
had arrived. Giving his men two days' rest, Anza dispatched four soldiers 
with seven mules to San Diego, forty leagues distant, with a request to 
the captain of the ship and to the comandante of the port for provisions 
and for horses to enable him to continue his march to Monterey.(*) The 
soldiers returned April 5th, bringing six fanegas (**) of maize, half 
damaged, one sack of dried meat, not edible, one sack of flour and two 
fanegas of beans which could not be taken because his troops did not carry 
pots in which to boil them. The horses asked for could not be supplied. As 
the provisions would last the expedition but sixteen days, Anza sent the 
two priests, with most of the soldiers, back to the Rio Colorado to await 
his return, and, with an escort of six soldiers, began the last lap of his 
journey, one hundred and twenty leagues, to Monterey. 

(* On March 24th, Anza stood god-father to an Indian baby baptized by the 
padres, and gave him his name--Juan Bautista)
(** Fanega: about 1.6 bushels)

Starting at nine o'clock in the morning of April 10th, he reached the Rio 
de la Porciúncula (Los Angeles river),(*) passed up the river into the San 
Fernando valley over the Santa Susana mountains, and camped on the Rio de 
Triunfo, a march of fourteen leagues. The next day's march of sixteen 
leagues brought him to the Rio de la Carpentería and the first ranchería 
of the Santa Barbara channel. This was the Rio de la Asuncion of Portola 
and the site of the future mission of San Buenaventura. He also made 
sixteen leagues the next day along the Santa Barbara channel and stopped 
at the Rancherías de Mescaltitan. The next day's march was fifteen leagues 
to the Ranchería de los Pedernales. On the fourteenth he passed Point 
Concepcion and camped on the Rio de Santa Rosa (now the Santa Inez) near 
its mouth. He speaks well of the channel Indians, describes their houses, 
round, like the half of an orange, their well built boats in which they 
venture out to the channel islands on fishing expeditions, their tools of 
flint, their manufacture of baskets and dishes of stone. He thinks the 
estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 previously made of the channel Indians, too 
large. The country is beautiful and fertile and refreshing to eyes 
accustomed to the lands bordering on the Gulf of California where there is 
nothing seen of trees and herbs, while here the sea waves break upon 
shores as fertile as they are flowery. 

(* Portola crossed the Los Angeles river on the 2d of August, 1769, the 
day of the Feast of Porciúncula and named it in honor of the day Rio de 
Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Porciúncula. It is to this incident the 
city of Los Angeles owes its name which is in full Nuestra Senora La Reina 
de los Angeles de Porciúncula--Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of 
Porciúncula.)

A march of twelve leagues the next day brought Anza to the mission of San 
Luis Obispo, where his arrival gladdened the hearts of the missionaries. 
His route the next day was over the Cuesta pass of the Sierra de Santa 
Lucía into the Salinas valley, down the Salinas river to the Rio del 
Nacimiento where he camped after a march of thirteen leagues. The next 
morning he reached the mission of San Antonio and, pausing for a brief 
rest, pushed on into the Salinas valley(*) by the Arroyo Seco, named by 
Portola, La Canada del Palo Caido--the Valley of the Fallen Tree--and 
camped on the site where, in 1791, was established the mission of Nuestro 
Senora de la Soledad. The next day, April 18th, a march of thirteen 
leagues brought him to the presidio of Monterey. He was joyfully received 
by Don Pedro Fages, comandante of California, but found the garrison in a 
sad plight and much nearer to starvation than were the people of San 
Gabriel. All rejoiced in the success of his journey, for now that a road 
was opened to Sonora, they would no longer be dependent for supplies on 
the uncertain arrival of ships. The father superior and priests of the 
mission of San Carlos Boromeo de Monterey, in the valley of the Carmelo, 
distant one league from the presidio, called on the successful explorer 
and extended their congratulations and bade him welcome. Anza returned the 
visit the following day, and on Friday, April 22, 1774, set out on his 
return trip, taking with him six of Fages' soldiers to show them the road 
to the Rios Gila and Colorado. On the sixth day's march while traveling 
along the Santa Barbara channel, he met the father president of the 
California mission, Fray Junípero Serra, who was returning from a visit to 
the city of Mexico, whence he had been to procure the recall of Fages. At 
Junípero's request, Anza spent with him the rest of the day and the night 
and gave him an account of his journey. 

(* The Salinas river was named by Portola September 26, 1769, Rio de San 
Elizario. Later when the presidio of Monterey had been established the 
river came to be called Rio de Monterey.)

On reaching San Gabriel Anza sums up his observations concerning the 
people and the country of the new foundations. He confirms the reports of 
Captains Don Gaspar de Portola and Don Miguel Costanso concerning the 
mildness and docility of the gentile nations and says that, were food 
abundant, the conversions to Christianity would be greatly increased; that 
the scarcity of food among many of the missions was due more to lack of 
seed than any sterility of soil; that the lands produce most abundantly 
wheat, barley, peas, beans, and other vegetables. 

On May 3d he left San Gabriel for the Rio Colorado, returning by the same 
route he had come, save that in crossing the Colorado desert he avoided 
the long detour of his coming, and by a forced march of twenty-two leagues 
from San Sebastian, reached Santa Olalla on the morning of May 9th. On his 
journey eastward to the Laguna de San Antonio Bucareli (San Jacinto lake) 
May 4th, he saw to the north of it, in the cordillera nevada, a good pass 
which he thought might be a direct route from Sonora to Monterey. He was 
looking into the opening of San Timoteo canon and the San Gorgonio pass. 
After a rest of a few hours Anza continued his march up the valley of the 
Colorado and halted in the land of the Yumas who received him with 
extravagant demonstrations of joy, for they had heard reports that the 
expedition had been destroyed by the Serranos and Anza and all his men 
killed. The Yumas informed Anza that on receipt of the report the soldiers 
he had left in care of Captain Palma had fled to the Rio del Altar in 
spite of the remonstrances of the Yuma chief. 

The following day, May 10th, Anza reached the junction of the Colorado and 
Gila, where Palma met him with much affection and informed him that Padre 
Garces was encamped on the other side of the river, and he, Palma, had 
delivered to him the cattle and provisions Anza had left in his care. By 
three o'clock in the afternoon Palma had a raft prepared and ferried the 
party over the river, which, Anza notes, was six hundred varas (sixteen 
hundred and fifty feet) wide. The passage of the river was safeguarded by 
five hundred Yumas swimming beside the raft. At five o'clock he reached 
the camp where he found Garces and the troops he had sent back from San 
Gabriel. Sending the soldiers brought from Monterey back to their 
presidio, Anza resumed his march May 15th, after praising Palma for his 
fidelity and rewarding him by giving him his staff (baton), four oxen, and 
some articles of dress. He enjoined him to keep the peace with his 
neighbors and requested him to send to Altar any Spaniard who might come 
within his jurisdiction. He then took his way up the Rio Gila, past the 
pueblos of the Papagos, Cocomaricopas, and the Pimas Gilenos, to all of 
whom he announced the cessation of wars warning them to keep the peace and 
report to the Spanish presidios any infraction of it. Leaving the river at 
the eastern extremity of the Gila Bend, he passed up the valley of the 
Santa Cruz river and arrived at the Pima pueblo of Tucson on May 25th. 
Here he found dispatches requesting him to hasten his return as there was 
danger of an Apache raid. Starting before dawn the next morning he made a 
forced march of twenty leagues and arrived at sunrise of the second day, 
May 27th, at his own presidio of Tubac, and the end of his journey, for 
the accomplishment of which he gives praise to the Lord of Armies. 

Anza had conquered the desert and had overcome the natural barriers 
between a paternal government and its feeble establishments in distant 
California. He had realized his cherished dream and had opened the King's 
Highway. He had secured for Spain the friendship of the powerful tribes of 
the great river, a friendship without which, he says, the river could not 
be passed. He was now to establish a presidio and mission worthy of the 
serafic patron and father, Saint Francis, to found a city that, in the 
fullness of time, was to dominate the great ocean and take its place with 
the mighty ones of earth.