The Beginnings of San Francisco - Chapter VI



CHAPTER VI. THE FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1775-1776

The fame of Anza's achievement spread throught New Spain. He received the 
plaudits of his countrymen and was honored by his king. Promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant-colonel, he was authorized to raise and equip a company 
of thirty soldiers for the establishment of a strong presidio and mission 
on the bay of San Francisco. Of the company, ten were to be experienced 
men from the Sonora presidios and twenty were to be new recruits. All must 
be married men with families and at the end of their ten year enlistment 
were to be given land and turned into settlers. In addition to the 
soldiers and their families, there were to be a certain number of families 
of settlers (pobladores). 

Anza raised the standard of the expedition at San Felipe de Sinaloa with 
the rendezvous at San Miguel de Horcasitas, then the residence of the 
governor of Sonora. His own presidio of Tubac was on the northern frontier 
and contained no white inhabitants save the garrison. By order of the king 
the royal treasury was thrown open, the colonists, men, women, and 
children were clothed from head to foot and from date of enlistment "ate 
with the king."(*) One hundred and forty pack mules were required to carry 
the provisions, war material, baggage, and other goods and presents for 
the Indians among whom they were going. There were one hundred and twenty 
horses and twenty-five mules for the use of the troops, two hundred and 
twenty horses belonging to the expedition and three hundred and twenty 
head of beef cattle, altogether, eight hundred and twenty-five head of 
stock. Anza took the ensign, sergeant, and eight soldiers from his own 
presidio and enlisted twenty new men. All were married. The amount allowed 
for equipment and transportation of each family was eight hundred dollars; 
this in addition to pay. Besides the soldiers there were several families 
of pobladores. These also received pay, rations, etc. The chaplain of the 
expedition was Fray Pedro Font, and two priests, Fray Francisco Garces and 
Fray Tomas Esaire, accompanied the expedition to the Rio Colorado where 
they were to remain to explore the country and catechise the natives until 
Anza's return. The commissary of the expedition, thirty muleteers, 
vaqueros, interpreters, and servants, an escort of ten soldiers from 
Anza's presidio, together with the families of the soldiers and settlers, 
made up in all a company of two hundred and forty souls, of whom one 
hundred and sixty were women and children. The number was increased by the 
birth of eight children on the road. By September 1775, the expedition was 
assembled ready to start for Tubac, and waiting for the arrival of the 
escort from that presidio, for the road from Horcasitas to Tubac, infested 
with the plague of Apaches, was the most dangerous part of the whole 
journey. As the escort was about to leave this outpost for Horcasitas the 
Apaches descended upon them and ran off all their horses. The commander at 
Horcasitas was notified and sent horses from that place to Tubac for the 
use of the escort. Anza improved the time afforded by this delay to 
increase his escort but only succeeded in getting five additional soldiers 
for duty between these points. On September 29th the outfit was mustered 
and inspected and at 4.30 in the afternoon they began the long march of 
seventy leagues to Tubac. Crossing the Rio de Horcasitas they left the 
river on the right and took a course north-northwest to the pueblo of 
Santa Ana on the Rio San Ignacio, thence up the San Ignacio past the 
pueblos of Santa Maria Magdalena, San Ignacio, and Imuris,--all known to-
day--and at eight o'clock of October 12th entered the dreaded canon of the 
San Ignacio. This was the danger point of the journey and the scene of 
many a massacre by Apaches. A canon ten miles long, in many places less 
than a hundred feet wide, with walls rising abruptly to a height of five 
hundred to eight hundred feet, invited ambush and attack. Anza proceeded 
very slowly, taking precautions against surprise, and safely accomplished 
the passage in five hours. Two more jornadas(**) of eight leagues each 
brought him to the presidio of Tubac. This was his official starting point 
and the presidio under his command.

(* Palou: Noticias de la Nueva California, iv, 133)
(** Jornada, a day's journey)

On Sunday, October 22d, mass was sung with all possible solemnity for the 
purpose of invoking divine aid for the expedition; the Santisima Virgen de 
Guadalupe was named as patroness, with the Princes San Miguel and San 
Francisco de Asis as protectors, and at eleven o'clock the following 
morning, Monday, October 23, 1775, the journey began. 

Of the personnel of this expedition, the interest centers mainly around 
the thirty soldiers(*) who were to remain in California and become the 
first settlers of San Francisco. Fifteen are classed as Espanoles, seven 
as Mulatos, six as Mestizos, and two as Indios. They were good people, 
carefully selected, and they proved themselves good soldiers and excellent 
citizens. Anza makes a public record of their faithfulness and devotion to 
king and country.[12]

(* Soldados de cuera, so called because of a sleeveless coat worn by them 
made of six or seven thicknesses of dressed deer skins, impervious to 
Indian arrows except at very short range. The horse was also protected, in 
part, by a leathern apron, fastened to the pommel of the saddle and 
covering the breast of the horse and the legs and thighs of the rider. The 
arms were lance and shield, carbine, and broadsword.)

Owing to the lateness of the season and the great number of women and 
children, Anza would not attempt the passage of the Papaguería, but 
preferred the longer and safer route by way of the Santa Cruz river and 
the Gila. The first day's journey was four leagues to the north where the 
expedition camped at a place called Canoa. Here the wife of a soldier, 
taken with labor pains, gave birth to a boy and died at 3.45 in the 
morning. The body of the unfortunate woman was taken by Padre Garces to 
his mission of San Xavier del Bac, thirteen leagues north of Tubac, for 
burial. On October 26th they were at Tucson which Anza speaks of as an 
Indian pueblo, containing the most northerly of the converted Indians.[13]
Five uneventful jornados brought them to the Rio Gila where a rest of one 
day was taken and the comandante and his chaplain visited the famous Casa 
Grande, of which Font gives an excellent description. On November 1st, the 
expedition began its march down the river. The order of march, as given by 
Font, was as follows: Four soldiers went ahead as scouts, Anza led off 
with the van guard; after him came the priests and next the men, women, 
and children, escorted by soldiers; the ensign brought up the rear guard. 
Behind these followed the pack trains with the loose horses and beef 
cattle. As soon as the long column started, Font would strike up the 
Alabado,(*) to which all the people would respond. On making camp, when 
they had dismounted the ensign reported and received his orders. The 
soldiers made shelters with their cloaks and blankets and there were 
thirteen tents--nine for the soldiers' families, two for the priests, one 
for the ensign and a big circular one for the senor comandante.

(* A hymn of praise)

As he passed through the Pima villages, Anza was joyfully received by the 
Indians and noted their irrigation ditches and the crops raised, and also, 
with satisfaction, that the peace established by him between the nations 
of the Gila and Colorado had been kept. On November 3d he reached Maricopa 
Wells, the waters of which had such serious effect upon both his people 
and animals that he gave them the name of Las Lagunas de Hospital. So bad 
was the water that two of the women were taken violently ill and were 
thought to be dying. Anza administered such remedies as he had and brought 
water from the Gila, three leagues distant, for them to drink. Many of the 
caballerías became sick also and two horses died. Anza determined to move 
the expedition, though the women were still very ill, and the next journey 
must be a forced march across the Gila Bend, a desert, without water, and 
with but scanty feed for the animals. Starting at one o'clock in the 
afternoon of November 7th, he passed around the southern end of the Sierra 
de Estrella thence west-southwest towards the Sierra Maricopa and halted 
for the night before the Pass of the Cocomaricopas. Resuming the march in 
the morning he crossed the mountains by the above pass and at four in the 
afternoon reached the village of Opas, or Cocomaricopas, called by him in 
1774 San Simon y Judas, having made the journey in fourteen hours of 
actual trave--very good time with his sick women and sick and dying 
horses. Bartlett(*) who crossed this desert in 1852, gives a graphic 
account of the passage. From now on to the jurisdiction of the Yumas, Anza 
traveled among the rancherías of the Cocomaricopas. He found them enjoying 
the fruits of the peace he had established between them and the Yumas on 
one side and the Pimas on the other and they gave him repeated thanks for 
the great service he had done them, for they could now dwell on open 
ground and cultivate their lands. The expedition was detained for three 
days at San Simon y Judas by a very sick woman, and five other members 
were added to the sick list, including the chaplain, Father Font, who 
became very ill with a tertian ague.

(* John Russel Bartlett, U. S. Boundary commissioner) 

Resuming the march November 11th they passed down the plain of the river 
among rich cultivated fields and on the fourteenth reached Agua 
Caliente(*) where a day's rest allowed opportunity for doing family 
washing. Here Anza was waited on by a large number of Maricopas--to give 
them their modern name--who desired him to appoint a chief to rule over 
them. Anza conferred on one of their number, selected by themselves, the 
title of governor, and appointed another alcalde, and admonished them to 
recognize the king as their master and to obey all the orders he or his 
ministers might give them. This they all agreed to do and Anza fixed the 
bounds of their jurisdiction. Before installing them he gave them the most 
precise instructions concerning their duties which, he says, so 
intimidated the governor that for more than an hour he trembled as if he 
had an ague.

(* Hot Water; named by Anza on his upward passage May 19, 1774) 

The expedition resumed its march Thursday, November 16th, continuing down 
the plain of the river and passing from the jurisdiction of the Maricopas 
to that of the Yumas. The stops were usually made at or near some Indian 
ranchería which Anza had named in his upward passage in May of the 
previous year. Everywhere he notes improvement in the condition of the 
people and he cements the friendship established between them and the 
Spaniards by liberal presents from the stores furnished him for that 
purpose. With the exception of Agua Caliente, which shows on the map on 
the north bank of the Gila on the western border of Maricopa County, the 
names given by Anza in this region have disappeared. 

From Agua Caliente the comandante sent forward four soldiers with a Yuma 
interpreter to announce his approach to Salvador Palma, captain of the 
Yumas, to select a place for crossing the Colorado river, and to look for 
a better route across the Colorado desert from Santa Olalla to San 
Sebastian. At a place named by him in 1774, San Pascual, the expedition 
was detained three days by the confinement of the wife of a soldier. The 
cold was excessive and in four days six horses died from it. On the twenty-
second Anza resumed his march and on the twenty-seventh Captain Palma with 
an escort of thirty unarmed Indians met him four leagues above the 
confluence of the rivers. The Yuma chief embraced his friend joyfully and 
announced that his nation and all the tribes of the river joined him in 
the welcome to the expedition. Palma had advanced so far in civilization 
as to enquire courteously after the health of his majesty, the king, and 
that of his excellency, the viceroy, saying that he was fortunate in 
having seen them when they were at the presidio of San Miguel 
(Horcasitas)(*) and happy in having heard them speak and that to have 
understood what they said he would willingly have taken off his ears and 
put on Spanish ones. He anxiously enquired if the missions he had asked 
for were soon to be established in his country, and said that to make 
himself worthy of such a blessing he had complied exactly with the order 
Anza had given him, and had not made war on any nation save the Serranos 
on the west and had only done that because the Serranos had attacked a 
Spanish mission in Alta California and killed some of its people.(**) He 
concluded by offering to the Spaniards all his lands in the name of his 
people, since all desired the Spaniards to come and settle among them and 
Christianize them, and he requested that Anza and all his expedition 
remain with him until the king was advised of his petition.[14] In reply 
to this Anza said that he had no power to grant such a request, but as his 
majesty had sent him with troops and families to establish a presidio and 
two missions in California he would undoubtedly in due time consider 
Palma's wishes. This satisfied the chief who said that on Anza's return, 
if three establishments (a presidio and two missions) had not been made in 
his country he would accompany Anza to the City of Mexico and make his 
demand on the viceroy. Anza replied that he would willingly take Palma to 
Mexico, provided it met with the approval of his people.

(* Palma had visited Horcasitas to ask the governor of Sonora to establish 
a mission on the Rio Colorado. The diarist does not state whom Palma took 
for the king and viceroy.)
(** This referred to the destruction of the mission of San Diego by the 
Dieguenos, who, as well as those Indians called by the diarist Serranos, 
belonged to the Comeya. Anza had evidence that the Serranos of the San 
Jacinto mountains participated in the sack of the mission.)

On the evening of this day Anza presented the chief with the baton of 
authority as captain of the Yumas, and also a dress the viceroy had sent 
him, consisting of a shirt, trousers, waistcoat yellow in front and 
trimmed with gold, blue coat laced, and black velvet cap adorned with 
false gems and a plume a modo de Palma. The chief was greatly pleased with 
these attentions, as were his followers, for the power and authority of 
Palma were greatly enhanced by the favor shown him by the Spaniards. The 
Yumas were very proud of the ability of their wives to say "Ave Maria" and 
other salutations taught them by the members of the former expedition, and 
were covered with shame at the recollection of the naked condition in 
which they had then presented themselves. 

On the following day a march of four hours brought the expedition to the 
confluence of the Rios Gila and Colorado. Crossing the Gila by a good ford 
they reached the ranchería of Captain Palma--San Dionisio of Father Kino--
where they were hospitably entertained by the Yumas who brought them 
beans, calabashes, maize, and other grains in abundance, and very many 
water-melons. Here came the scouts sent out from Agua Caliente to find a 
better route across the Colorado desert, and reported that though they had 
spent six days in the survey they could find no other watering places 
(aguages), than those indicated in the route of the previous expedition; 
nor could they find any trails or footprints of men or beasts save those 
noted thereon. The Indians informed Anza that there was no ford to the Rio 
Colorado, and when he ordered a raft made said that it was impossible to 
cross in that manner owing to the coldness of the water, the Indians 
having to swim and guide the raft. He, however, persisted in making the 
raft, and at seven o'clock the next morning mounted his horse and 
accompanied by a courageous soldier and a Yuma went in search of a ford. 
He spent the forenoon in testing the river at various points, both he and 
his companions submerging themselves and their horses in the icy waters, 
and at one o'clock in the afternoon found a place where the river was 
divided into three branches and could be forded. Here he would attempt the 
passage and returning to the camp sent a party of axemen to open a road to 
the ford through the dense forest growth of the river bottom. At seven in 
the morning of November 30th the expedition moved up to the ford, about a 
quarter of a league above the camp. The pack-trains were brought up and 
the freight and baggage were sent over in half loads. The women and 
children were placed on the tallest and strongest horses, each led by the 
head strap and each accompanied by ten men on the lower side for rescue in 
case of a fall. Thus the passage was made in safety with nothing more 
serious than a wetting, for the water was but little over four feet in the 
deepest part and about eight hundred and fifty feet wide. One reckless 
rider who was carrying a child was swept from his horse, but both were 
instantly rescued. Font, who was sick and dizzy, was held on his horse by 
a servant on either side, while a third led the animal. He got wet to the 
knees. Garces was carried over on the shoulders of three Yumas, two by his 
head and one by his feet, stretched out stiff, face upward, like a corpse. 
By one o'clock in the afternoon the first settlers of San Francisco were 
on California soil. 

Building a hut (barraca) on the bank of the river for the two priests who 
were to remain, Anza prepared to resume his journey when he was informed 
that two more of his people were added to the sick list and were so 
desperately ill that the sacrament of penitence had been administered to 
them. Hastening to their relief, he applied such remedies as he had, but 
it was not until the fourth day that he could again take up the march. 

Settling the padres in their abode with an interpreter and three servants, 
one of whom was Sebastian Tarabel who had accompanied the first 
expedition,  Anza provided them with horses and four months' supply of 
provisions, and committing them to the care of Palma, began his march down 
the plain of the Colorado on the morning of December 4th. The route was a 
toilsome one, so overgrown with brush that in many places only a narrow 
trail could be found. It was so difficult to get the cattle through this 
chaparral that they remained more than a league behind. That night he 
camped at the Cerro de San Pablo (Pilot Knob) near the present boundary 
line. The cold was so great that two horses died and the sick list was 
increased to eleven. In the morning the march was resumed in a southerly 
direction with frequent detours to avoid the forest and the crooked 
branches of the river channel. After an advance of three leagues, camp was 
made at the Laguna de los Cojas. The sacrament of penitence was 
administered this night to one of the sick who was thought to be dying. 
The next day they reached the Laguna de Santa Olalla where they were to 
rest and prepare for the most difficult portion of their journey: the 
passage of the Colorado desert. The Indians of Santa Olalla received them 
hospitably and gave them great quantities of fish from the lake, and 
grains and fruits, including more than two thousand water-melons which 
they were obliged to leave behind. Mindful of the dangers of the previous 
journey, Anza divided the expedition into three parts, to start on 
different days that all might not arrive at the wells the same day. The 
first division was under his own command; the second he placed in charge 
of Sergeant Grijalva, and the third was under command of Ensign Moraga. 
The beef herd he sent by a separate road in charge of vaqueros, for the 
cattle were so wild they could not be watered from buckets, but must go 
from the Pozos del Carrizal to San Sebastian, a distance of fifty miles, 
without water or pasture. The vaqueros, muleteers, and troopers were 
ordered to carry maize and grass for the animals. At 9.30 on the morning 
of December 9th, the first division began the march. It reached the Pozos 
del Carrizal at half-past two in the afternoon, and found the water 
abundant, though bad. Font, who was with the first division, called the 
aguage El Poso Salobre del Carrizal--the brackish well of the Carrizal--
and denounced it as a dreadful stopping place, without pasture and with 
very bad water. The next day after giving the animals all the water they 
would take, they resumed the march and traveled about five leagues in a 
west-northwest direction, and camped for the night in a deep dry 
watercourse where there was a little firewood, but neither water nor 
pasture. The camp was in the bed of the New river about a mile below the 
boundary line. The cold was intense. At three o'clock in the morning the 
caballerías were fed with grain, and at daybreak began a forced march of 
ten leagues in a westerly direction, reaching Los Pozos de Santa Rosa de 
las Lajas at night. Anza had sent men in advance with tools to open the 
wells, but he found them much behind hand with the work. He set himself 
personally to the task, but so slowly did the water distill that it was 
ten o'clock before he was able to give water to any of the beasts. The 
night was cruelly cold; they had no fuel, and in the darkness none could 
be found. It was two o'clock in the morning before the last thirsty animal 
had relief, but not till the next forenoon was the herd satisfied. At 
12.30 they resumed the march, laying their course in a northerly direction 
with a slight inclination to the west. A fierce cold wind from the north 
distressed them and impeded their progress. They made four leagues and 
camped at a place where there was a small quantity of firewood--very 
necessary on account of the cold. At daylight they saw the high mountains 
on their left covered with snow; the cold wind continued, causing much 
distress to the women and children, and to increase their discomfort it 
began to snow. At nine o'clock they took up the march, traveling in the 
same general direction for five and a half leagues, then due north one and 
a half leagues more, and arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon at the Cienega 
de San Sebastian. The weather had calmed somewhat and in the clearer 
atmosphere they saw the Sierra Madre, through which they must pass, so 
filled with snow that they marveled that so much could be gathered 
together. Anza caused the people to gather all the firewood possible; this 
was but little, while at five o'clock the cold wind began again with great 
force and continued throughout the night. At daylight it began to snow, 
and Anza determined to wait in camp the arrival of the two divisions that 
were to follow. At twelve o'clock the cattle arrived, four days from Los 
Pozos del Carrizal without water, and with the loss of ten oxen. Though 
taken to the edge of the pool, most of them refused to drink the brackish 
water and began eating the alkali whitened grass. All day Anza waited the 
arrival of the second division. All day the bitter wind continued and the 
snow fell until plain and mountain were alike covered. At eleven o'clock 
in the night the snow ceased and a pitiless frost followed from which the 
people suffered greatly and six oxen and one mule died. The morning of the 
fifteenth dawned clear and cold, with the snow that had fallen the 
preceding night well hardened by the frost that followed. At 12.15 the 
second division under Sergeant Grijalva arrived, badly crippled by the 
storm which had caught them between the wells of Santa Rosa and San 
Sebastian. Many of the people were badly frost-bitten, one barely escaped 
death, and they had lost five caballerías from the cold. The frost 
continued severe and four more oxen died that night. The next morning Anza 
was informed that the Serranos had run off some of his caballerías during 
the night. The sergeant and four soldiers were dispatched in pursuit and 
instructed to recover the animals without harming the Indians unless the 
latter showed fight, but to warn them that a second offence would be 
severely punished. All day long they waited for the third division. In the 
evening the sergeant returned with the stolen animals. He had found them 
in charge of the women in two different rancherías, the men having 
disappeared. At seven the next morning the commander sent soldiers with 
twenty horses to the relief of the distressed rear guard, and at 3.30 in 
the afternoon it came in. Upon them the storm had fallen with fury and the 
driving snow had stampeded most of their horses. Four horses had died from 
the cold, and the ensign with the greatest difficulty had saved the lives 
of his men. His exposure in caring for the people had brought on an 
earache so severe that it made him, for a time, totally deaf.[15] Two more 
oxen died this day from the cold, but Anza notes a general improvement in 
the health of the command, and notwithstanding the exposure, his sick list 
is reduced from fifteen to five. He gives credit for this to the many 
water-melons the people ate at Santa Olalla. 

On the following day, December 18, 1775, Anza prepared to resume his march 
and begin the passage of the cordillera. Three oxen died from cold and 
exhaustion in the morning, and five more, unable to move with the band 
were killed, and the beef dried and salted, though hardly eatable by 
reason of its smell, taste, and color. At 1 :30 in the afternoon the 
expedition moved up the broad canada of the San Felipe river and traveled 
three and a half leagues. The next day they made four leagues to San 
Gregorio, in Coyote canon, where the water in the wells was insufficient 
for the cattle and the cold was so intense that each day many of the 
cattle and caballerías, weakened by the hardships of the journey, died. 
The cold this night was so great that the people dared not sleep, and 
three caballerías and five oxen were frozen. At seven in the morning the 
commander was notified that many of the cattle, driven by thirst, had 
escaped from their keepers. Sending the sergeant with three soldiers and a 
vaquero to look for them he moved forward to the sink of the Santa 
Catarina (Coyote creek), the site of the camp of March 13, 1774. Here he 
proposed to give rest to his tired caballerías, which, he says, have, like 
the cattle, dried up and become so thin that they could not be recognized 
for the beasts that began the march. In this day's march the loss in 
cattle and horses was very heavy. In the afternoon of the second day the 
sergeant returned with a few of the cattle and reported a loss of fifty 
head, suffocated in the mud of the Cienega de San Sebastian. Anza was 
greatly distressed at this mishap which had cost him so dear, in spite of 
all his care. A few miserable Indians came into camp and were fed by the 
Spaniards. The morning of December 23d began with a rain storm, but the 
rain ceased at nine o'clock and the expedition resumed its march up the 
canon of the Coyote. Two short jornadas brought them on the twenty-fourth 
to the ranchería of the Danzantes. They were halted here by the sickness 
of one of the women, and ten o'clock that night she was happily delivered 
of a boy. Anza makes record that "she is the third who has done this thing 
between Tubac and this place. Besides these there have been two other 
births, that, with the other three that happened on the march to San 
Miguel de Horcasitas make a total of eight, all in the open air." Owing to 
this affair Christmas was passed quietly in camp but on the following 
morning, the sick woman having courage for the march, the command moved 
forward and after a hard climb of about five hours, passing through Horse 
canon, arrived at two in the afternoon at the Royal Pass of San Carlos 
where a halt was necessary on account of the rain. Here they had a 
thunderstorm followed by an earthquake. Five leagues of travel the next 
day carried them to San Patricio, the beginning of San Jacinto river. From 
this point Anza sent three soldiers of his escort to the missions of 
California and to the comandante, Don Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, 
advising them of the probable time of the arrival of the expedition, its 
condition, and the necessity of furnishing him with horses. He also 
expressly requested that on the arrival of the expedition at Monterey, the 
comandante be prepared to accompany him to the survey of the Rio de San 
Francisco as ordered by the viceroy.[23] 

From the summit of the cordillera the poor people looked with dismay upon 
range after range of mountains filled with snow. To the west, those 
towards the South Sea,(*) as well as those extending into Baja California, 
all were so covered that only a few trees on their summits could be seen. 
Coming from a hot climate few of them had ever seen such a thing, and so 
terrible did the sight appear that some began to weep, saying that if here 
so many animals died from the cold and they themselves barely escaped the 
same fate, what would happen to them in the north where the snow would be 
so much more plentiful? (**) The commander comforted their hearts by 
telling them that as they approached the sea the cold would diminish and 
the journey would be easy and comfortable. The next day they were obliged 
to remain in camp for between the cold and the damp the invalid was much 
worse and was threatened with convulsions. Responding to the treatment 
given, the sick woman obtained relief during the day and night and on 
December 29th, the expedition moved forward and traveling six leagues down 
the canada camped in the Valle Ameno de San Jose. The following day they 
marched down the spacious and beautiful valley and camped at the Laguna de 
San Antonio de Bucareli. A long march of seven leagues the next day 
brought them to the Santa Ana river, which on inspection proved to be 
unfordable. Anza was obliged to build a bridge to get his people over, and 
it was twelve o'clock the following day before this was completed. The 
women and children were passed over first, and then the rest of the people 
and the baggage. The animals had to swim for it and one horse and one ox 
were swept away and drowned. By three o'clock the passage was completed 
and they camped for the night of January 1st, 1776, on the western bank of 
the river.[16] The three soldiers Anza had sent to the mission of San 
Gabriel December 27th, now came to report, bringing eleven horses from the 
padres and a message from the corporal commanding the mission guard, to 
the effect that the Indians had risen against the mission of San Diego, 
killed one of the priests and two of the servants, wounded the soldiers 
and burned the mission buildings. The Indians, the corporal said, were 
gathering in the vicinity of San Gabriel and threatened an attack. He had 
sent word to the comandante, Captain Rivera, at Monterey, and was 
expecting that officer at San Gabriel. 

(* The Pacific Ocean was usually called the South Sea. Father Font's map 
has it "Mar del Sur.")
(** It is difficult for one who is not a californian to realize how little 
the latitude has to do with the climate of California. On the coast the 
same temperature practically rules without regard to latitude, and in the 
interior, the northern citrus belt, six hundred miles north of Los 
Angeles, produces the earliest oranges.)

In the morning Anza sent two soldiers forward to the mission to announce 
his approach and taking up his march advanced through a heavy rain storm, 
intermingled with snow, as far as the site of the present town of Pomona, 
camping on San Antonio creek. The next day they made five leagues through 
the heavy mud to the San Gabriel river, and the following morning at 
eleven o'clock of January 4, 1776, entered the mission of San Gabriel 
Arcangel, seventy-three days from Tubac. Here Anza met Captain Don 
Fernando Rivera y Moncada, who had come the previous day. Rivera laid 
before Anza the particulars of the revolt at San Diego and requested the 
loan of his troops to suppress the rebellion and pacify the country. The 
entire military establishment of California at this time (without counting 
Anza's troops) consisted of Comandante Rivera, one lieutenant, two 
ensigns, two sergeants, eight corporals, fifty-four soldiers, one armorer, 
and one drummer, a total of seventy-one. This force was scattered over a 
coast line of four hundred and twenty miles, guarding two presidios and 
five missions. 

Rivera had brought with him from Monterey a force of ten soldiers and with 
two more, taken from the San Gabriel escolta, proposed to put down an 
insurrection in which from eight hundred to one thousand savages were 
already engaged and which threatened to unite the entire Comeya in an 
effort to expel the Spaniards. This incident reminds one of the heroes of 
the Long Sault in Canada when seventeen devoted young Frenchmen checked 
the invasion of more than seven hundred Iroquois; only the comparison 
between the fierce Iroquois and the cowardly Dieguenos will hardly hold. 
Rivera told Anza that he doubted if the force he had with him was 
sufficient to inflict the necessary punishment upon the perpetrators of 
the outrage at San Diego and he had information that the Indians were 
uniting for a further attack upon the Spaniards. 

Anza gave Rivera's request careful consideration and believing he would be 
justified in stopping to assist him, gave consent to the proposition and 
volunteered to serve under him in the expedition against the savages. His 
offer was accepted, and taking seventeen of his veteran troopers, joined 
to the twelve under Rivera, they set out, January 7th for San Diego, forty 
leagues distant, leaving the expedition at San Gabriel under command of 
Moraga, whose commission as lieutenant (teniente) was received here. We 
will not follow Anza on this march. Nothing was accomplished so far as 
punishment to the perpetrators of the outrage was concerned, and Anza, in 
disgust with the dilatory tactics of Rivera, resolved to proceed. with his 
journey. He returned therefore to San Gabriel where he found that a 
soldier of the mission guard together with three muleteers and a servant 
of Sergeant Grijalva had, the night before he arrived, deserted and 
carried off twenty-five of the best horses of the expedition and of the 
mission, together with a lot of his stores. He at once dispatched Moraga 
with ten soldiers in pursuit of the deserters, and after waiting eight 
days for his return, resumed his march February 21st, leaving orders for 
Moraga to follow. For Rivera's assistance he left twelve of his soldiers 
including Sergeant Grijalva, all of whom joined their comrades at Monterey 
before June 17, 1776. 

The incessant rains of a very wet season had made travel slow and 
difficult for the laden mules, and marching in a westerly direction, Anza 
passed through what is now the city of Los Angeles, crossed the Rio 
Porciúncula (Los Angeles river), and came through the Cahuenga pass into 
the San Fernando valley. He camped for the night in the mouth of the pass, 
which he calls Puertezuelo (Little Gate). Resuming the march the next 
morning the expedition traveled along the southern border of the San 
Fernando valley and halted in the canon of the Rio de las Virgenes at a 
spring called by Anza Agua Escondida, now known as Agua Amarga (Bitter 
Water). The next day's march was a long and difficult one of nine leagues, 
over the Susanna mountains, the descent of which (Liberty hill) was so 
steep that the women were obliged to dismount and accomplish it on foot. 
Passing into the Santa Clara valley they camped on the river of that name, 
near the present village of Saticoy. A march of two leagues in a dense fog 
the next morning brought them to La Asuncion, the first ranchería of the 
channel Indians, and the site of Anza's camp of April 11, 1775. Portola 
reached this ranchería, August 14, 1769, the vespers of the feast of La 
Asuncion de Nuestro Senora, and gave it that name. It was then decided to 
establish on this site the mission of San Buenaventura, and Anza on his 
return march camped again on the site April 26, 1776. He then calls the 
river Rio de San Buenaventura. Continuing his march along the Santa 
Barbara channel, Anza camped for the night at the Ranchería del Rincon, on 
the Arroyo del Rincon, the boundary line between Ventura and Santa Barbara 
counties. The Indians brought them an abundant supply of good fish, and 
among them Anza named sardines, obadas, and tangres, more than a third of 
a vara long, not counting the tail. 

A march of seven leagues the next day brought the expedition to the 
Rancherías de Mescaltitan, four large Indian villages around the shore of 
an estero or lake, while on an island in the midst was one larger still, 
consisting of more than one hundred houses. On the march this day they 
passed through three large rancherías, one situated on a lake of fresh 
water, named by Portola, La Laguna de la Concepcion, is the site of the 
city of Santa Barbara. When Governor Neve was about to establish the 
presidio and mission of Santa Barbara in 1782, he hesitated between the 
site of Mescaltitan and that of La Laguna, but decided in favor of the 
latter because the water was of better quality.[17] The rancherías of 
Mescaltitan have all disappeared, but the island still preserves the 
name.[18] 

The following day they passed through five rancherías, all abounding with 
fish, and finished the day's journey at Rancheíia Nueva. Four more 
rancherías were passed the next day, February 27th, and camp made at the 
Ranchería del Cojo, just east of Point Concepcion. When Portola reached 
this village August 26, 1769, he was graciously received by the chief who, 
being lame, was called by the soldiers "El Cojo" (The lame one) thus 
giving a name for the chief and his ranchería. Crespi, priest and diarist 
for the expedition, "baptized" the village with the name of Santa Teresa, 
but El Cojo was the name that stuck and it may be seen to-day on the 
county maps. The next morning the expedition finished the Santa Barbara 
channel and turning Point Concepcion, proceeded to the mouth of the Rio de 
Santa Rosa (now Santa Inez) where they camped for the night. 

Anza remained in camp on the Rio de Santa Rosa until the falling tide 
enabled him to cross, and in the afternoon of February 29th, continued the 
northerly march along Burton Mesa, in sight of the ocean, and came in 
three leagues of travel to a little lake named La Laguna Graciosa where 
they camped for the night. The map of the Geological survey does not show 
any lake in this vicinity and it has possibly disappeared. It may have 
been formed by the San Antonio creek which here flows into the sea. The 
name is perpetuated by the Canada de la Graciosa through which the Pacific 
Coast railroad runs and by Graciosa station at the mouth of the canon. 
Three leagues of travel the next morning brought them into a wide and 
beautiful valley containing a large lake, named by Portola La Laguna Larga 
de los Santos Martires, San Daniel y sus Companeros--The Great Lake of the 
sainted Martyrs, St. Daniel and his Companions--now known as Lake 
Guadalupe, situated in the northwestern corner of Santa Barbara county. 
Anza did not halt at Lake Guadalupe but pushed on to the mouth of the San 
Luis canon, a long jornada of nine leagues, to the Ranchería del Buchon. 

A march of three and a half leagues the next morning brought the 
expedition to the mission of San Luis Obispo, founded in 1772, and now a 
flourishing town of 3500 inhabitants. In anticipation of their arrival at 
the mission the colonists had smartened themselves up but disaster 
overtook them. Just before they reached the mission they fell into a marsh 
so miry that all had to dismount and make their way across it as best they 
could. The men had to relieve the pack animals and carry the baggage on 
their shoulders, while those who endeavored to preserve their finery by 
forcing their horses through the mire fared worse than the rest, being 
obliged to dismount and extricate their horses. The marsh which caused 
such distress was located in what is now the southern part of the town of 
San Luis Obispo, and one of the finest residence streets of the town to-
day is Marsh street. It was the same marsh. that entrapped the Portola 
expedition on the Fiesta de los Santos Inocentes. 

There was great joy in the mission of San Luis Obispo over the arrival of 
the expedition. Not only was it a delight to the priests and the soldiers 
of the escolta to see so many Spanish faces and hear the news from home, 
but they had been badly frightened by the affair at San Diego, and had 
been informed by the Indians that they were to be next attacked, and that 
Anza had been killed and his expedition totally destroyed by the tribes of 
the Colorado. 

Sunday, March 3rd, was given to rest, and on  Monday morning the march was 
resumed. Traveling up the canon of San Luis Obispo creek for seven miles, 
they crossed the summit of the Santa Lucía mountains by the Cuesta pass at 
an elevation of about 1500 feet, thence a descent of four miles brought 
them to Santa Margarita where now a little town marks the site and 
preserves the name of the ancient ranchería. Two and a half miles down the 
Rio de Santa Margarita they came to the Rio de Monterey (Salinas river), 
down which they traveled five and a half miles and camped at the ranchería 
of La Asumpcion (Asuncion), still so called, a good day's march of seven 
leagues. This is one of the sites selected by the United States government 
for the camp and summer manoeuvers of the army. The next morning they 
traveled down the beautiful plain for three leagues, then left the river 
at a point where El Paso de Robles now stands and passed into the hills to 
the west, traveling in a west-northwest direction. Four leagues more 
brought them to the Rio del Nacimiento which they crossed and proceeded 
another mile to El Primo Vado of the Rio de San Antonio where they camped 
for the night. Resuming the march the next morning they reached the 
mission of San Antonio de Padua at four o'clock in the afternoon after a 
march of eight leagues. Their reception here was equal to that of San 
Gabriel and of San Luis, and the padres regaled the troops with two very 
fat hogs and some hog lard. This present, Anza says, considering the 
condition of the country and of the priests' necessities, they highly 
appreciated. The following day was given to rest and at one in the 
afternoon, Lieutenant Moraga arrived and reported to the commander that he 
had captured the deserters in the desert of the Colorado and had left them 
prisoners at San Gabriel to be dealt with by Captain Rivera. He also 
reported that the Serranos of the Sierra Madre had made hostile 
demonstrations against him, but when he charged them they dispersed. He 
said that the Indians had secretly killed three of the stolen horses to 
prevent their recapture, and that he had noted in their possession 
articles indicating that they had taken part in the sacking of San Diego. 

Leaving the mission the next morning, the Spaniards passed up Mission 
creek and descended Releuse canon to Arroyo Seco, down which they traveled 
to the valley of the Rio de Monterey and halted for the night at the site 
of Anza's camp of April 17, 1774, which he now calls Los Ositos (the 
Little Bears). The next day they traveled eight leagues through a spacious 
and delightful valley and camped at a place called by them Los Correos. 
The following day, Sunday, March 10, 1776, they marched three leagues down 
the river, then leaving it, turned westward for four leagues more, all in 
a heavy rain, and at half past four in the afternoon reached the Royal 
Presidio of Monterey and the end of their journey. Anza gives the distance 
traveled from Tubac as three hundred and sixteen and a half leagues, made 
in sixty-two jornados--somewhat fewer than he had calculated before 
starting. 

The next morning the very beloved father-president of the missions, Fray 
Junípero Serra,[19] accompanied by three other religious, came from the 
mission of San Carlos del Carmelo to congratulate the travelers and bid 
them welcome, the priests sang a mass as an act of thanks for the happy 
arrival of the expedition, after which Padre Font preached a sermon. In 
the evening the senor comandante and his chaplain accompanied the priests 
to the mission, one league distant, as there were no proper accommodations 
for them at the presidio. Anza notes that the number of Christian converts 
has been increased to more than three hundred souls, and he says that 
here, as in the other missions he has passed through, they do not, with 
all they raise, produce enough to maintain themselves, because, while the 
land is very fertile, there has been no means of planting it, although 
this year the amount of land under cultivation is much greater than 
before; "and in proportion as this abounds will be the spiritual conquest, 
since the Indians are many, and if, as we say of the greater part of 
these, conversion and faith enter by the mouth, so much greater will be 
our success." 

The viceroy had ordered Anza to deliver his expedition to Rivera, the 
comandante of California, at Monterey, and proceed to make a survey of the 
port and river of San Francisco before returning to his presidio of Tubac. 
Two days after his arrival at the mission, while preparing for his survey, 
Anza was suddenly taken with most violent pains in the left leg and groin. 
So great was the pain that he could scarcely breathe and believed that he 
would suffocate and die. After six hours of torment, during which the 
doctor of the presidio administered such remedies as he had without giving 
him relief, Anza had them make a poultice of a root among his own stores, 
which somewhat alleviated the pain, but not enough to enable him to sleep. 
For over a week he was unable to move, but on the ninth day he got out of 
bed, and on the day following, in spite of the remonstrance of the doctor, 
he mounted his horse and began his journey to the San Francisco peninsula, 
going as far as the presidio of Monterey. There he rested, being able to 
walk but a few steps. The next day, March 23rd, he set out, accompanied by 
Padre Font, Lieutenant Moraga, and an escort of eleven soldiers. While 
sick at the mission he had sent to Rivera to say that the soldiers of the 
expedition were anxious to reach their destination and get settled in 
their new home and he begged Rivera to join him in establishing the fort 
and mission of San Francisco as ordered by the viceroy; and notified him 
that he should himself proceed at once to the survey and examination of 
the port. The travelers made seven leagues across the valley of Santa 
Delfina, as Font calls it, and camped at the mouth of a canon at a place 
called La Natividad, probably an Indian ranchería. The village of 
Natividad now marks the site and preserves the name. The place was the 
scene of a sharp little engagement November 16, 1846, between a detachment 
of sixty Americans under Captain Burrows and a force of about eighty 
Californians under Don Manuel de Jesus Castro. The valley, which is the 
lower Monterey or Salinas, was given the name of Santa Delfina, virgen y 
esposa(*) de San Elcearo, by Portola.

(* Esposa, as used here, does not mean spouse--wife, but a young woman who 
devotes herself to the service of the holy man)

Leaving the Salinas valley, the explorers passed into the Gavilan 
mountains, traveling up the beautiful canon of Gavilan creek, over the 
summit, and descended to the San Benito river. They crossed the San Benito 
just north of where the mission of San Juan Bautista now stands and 
entered upon the Llano de San Pascual, now called the San Benito valley, 
passed the Rio del Pajaro, entered the San Bernardino valley and camped 
for the night on the Arroyo de las Llagas. The following morning the 
explorers passed between the low hills where the valley narrows to the 
Coyote river and entered upon the great Llano de los Robles del Puerto de 
San Francisco--The Plain of the Oaks of the Port of San Francisco--now 
better known as the Santa Clara valley--and keeping well to the western 
part, they traveled along the base of the foot hills and camped on the 
Arroyo de San Jose Cupertino, where from an elevation of about three 
hundred feet, they saw the bay of San Francisco some seven miles to the 
north. A march of four leagues the next morning brought the exploradores 
to the Arroyo de San Francisco, now known as the San Francisquito creek, 
the site of Stanford University and of Portola's camp of November 6th to 
11th, 1769. A little ranchería of about twenty huts on the bank of the 
stream received the name of Palo Alto in honor of a giant redwood tree 
growing on the bank, whose size, height, and appearance is recorded by 
both Anza and Font as it had been by Father Crespi six years before. The 
name has been retained and the people of the pretty university town are 
fond of their name and proud of their tree. 

Anza found on the bank of the creek a cross which had been planted by 
Rivera in 1774, to mark the spot for a mission, but the plan had been 
abandoned, he says, because the creek was dry in summer. Passing on the 
explorers crossed the Arroyo de San Mateo and halted for the night on a 
little stream about a league beyond. Anza comments upon the abundance of 
oaks and other trees they have been passing through during the last two 
days and particularly notes the many tall and thick laurels of 
extraordinary and very fragrant scent. He has been traveling through the 
most beautiful section of California. After breaking camp early the next 
morning a march of three and a half leagues brought the Spaniards to the 
mouth of the port of San Francisco, and they camped at Mountain Lake, 
known afterwards as Laguna del Presidio. Anza does not give any name to 
the lake but the creek running from it to the sea he calls the Arroyo del 
Puerto and says its flow is considerable and sufficient for a mill; while 
Font says that boats can come into it for water. Its present name is Lobos 
creek and it is but a little brooklet.(*)

(* The government is taking measures to fortify the mouth of Lobos creek, 
which forms the southern boundary of the Presidio reservation, not to 
prevent the boats of a hostile fleet from entering the creek, but as a 
part of the system adopted for fortifying the harbor of San Francisco.) 

Pitching his camp at the laguna, Anza went at once to inspect the entrance 
to the bay for the purpose of selecting a site for a fort. Font grows 
enthusiastic over the wonderful bay. He says the port of San Francisco is 
a marvel of nature and may be called the port of ports. He gives at length 
an excellent description of it; its shores; its islands; the great river 
which disembogues into the Bahia Redondo (San Pablo bay), which has been 
called the Rio de San Francisco, and which, he says, he will henceforth 
call La Boca del Puerto Dulce--The Mouth of the Fresh Water Port. At eight 
o'clock the next morning Anza resumed his survey, and going to the place 
where the entrance to the bay was narrowest, which he called Punta del 
Cantil Blanco--Point of the Steep White Rock, now called Fort Point--and 
where, he says, no one had hitherto been, he planted a cross to mark the 
spot where the fort should be built, and at its foot, underground, he 
placed a notice of what he had seen. Between the Laguna del Presidio and 
the Punto del Cantil Blanco is a mesa--table-land--having an elevation of 
some three hundred and fifty feet, about a mile in breadth and a trifle 
more in length, narrowing to the north until it ends in the Cantil Blanco. 
Font says: "This mesa presents a most delicious view. From it may be seen 
a great part of the port and its islands, the mouth of the port, and of 
the sea, the view reaching beyond the Farallones.(*) The Senor Comandante 
designated this mesa for the site of a new town."(**)

(* The Farallon Islands; about twenty-five miles off the coast)
(** Captain Benjamin Morrell, who visited the port in May, 1825, says: 
"The town of San Francisco stands on a table-land, about three hundred and 
fifty feet above the sea, on a peninsula five miles in width, on the south 
side of the entrance to the bay, about two miles to the east of the outer 
entrance, and one-fourth of a mile from the shore" (Morrell's Narrative, 
p. 211). The settlement at the presidio was abandoned after 1835-6, when 
the Americans and other foreigners began to build their trading-houses and 
residences at Yerba Buena. It was not on the mesa but on the lower and 
more sheltered ground of the presidio.) 

The comandante, taking with him his lieutenant, now turned to explore the 
inner coast of the peninsula. He encountered some streams and trees, 
mostly of oak, of good thickness, but twisted against the ground by the 
prevailing northwest winds.[20] About three-quarters of a league from camp 
he came upon a little lake of good water, known to the Spaniards as Laguna 
Pequena and to the San Francisco pioneers as Fresh Pond, or Washerwomen's 
Lagoon, from which he thought water for irrigation might be drawn. 
Continuing along the eastern shore of the bay he came to a large lake into 
which flowed a good stream or spring--ojo de agua(*)--, and which appeared 
as if it might be permanent in the dryest season, while the land about it 
was fertile and promised abundant reward for cultivation. He returned to 
camp about five o'clock much pleased with the result of his 
examination.[21]

(* Ojo de agua, means a spring of water or a spring from which flows a 
stream of water. Anza frequently used the expression to denote a small 
stream.)

The next morning, Friday, March 29th, Anza packed the baggage and sent it 
by the road of his coming with orders to await him at the Arroyo de San 
Mateo; then taking his padre capellan, Pedro Font, and an escort of five 
soldiers, he went to complete his examination of the southeastern part of 
the peninsula and of the lake he had seen the day before, to which he gave 
the name of Laguna de Manantial. He also examined the stream--ojo de agua--
which Font calls a beautiful little rivulet, and because the day was the 
Friday of Sorrows--Viernes de Dolores--Anza named it Arroyo de los 
Dolores."(*)

(* The Friday of Sorrows is the Friday before Palm Sunday) 

Thus originated a name that became the official designation of a very 
large and thickly settled section of the city of San Francisco--the 
Mission Dolores--shortened in the vernacular to the "Mission." Anza found 
here all the requirements for a mission: fertile land for cultivation, 
unequalled in goodness and abundance, with fuel and water, timber and 
stone suitable for building; nothing was wanting. Anza speaks with 
enthusiasm of the new town and mission. The fort, he said, shall be built 
where the entrance to the port is narrowest and where he set up the cross, 
the town on the mesa behind it, and the mission in this quiet beautiful 
valley, sufficiently near the fort to be under its protection, but far 
enough away to insure its peaceful serenity. 

Having settled these details Anza proceeded across the peninsula to 
examine the Laguna de la Merced, which is situated near the ocean shore in 
the southwestern part of the city, thence he turned into the Canada de San 
Andres,(*) through which he traveled its entire length of some six and a 
half leagues; and he gives an account of the abundance of suitable timber 
for building, speaking particularly of the red-wood--palo colorado, the 
oak, poplar, willow, and other trees, of its proximity to the bay and of 
the facility with which the lumber could be gotten out. He also suggests 
that the second bay mission could be established in this canada, and would 
serve as a stopping-place--escala--between Monterey and San Francisco. In 
the canada an enormous bear came out against them and they succeeded in 
killing it. At 6.15, after dark, they reached the camp on the Arroyo de 
San Mateo.

(* It extends from a little north of Point San Pedro southerly to the San 
Francisquito creek. It was from the heights as he crossed into it that 
Portola first saw the bay of San Francisco. It formed part of the Buri 
Buri and Las Pulgas grants and now belongs to the Spring Valley Water 
ompany and contains their principal reservoirs.) 

The following morning, March 31st, they proceeded to the survey of the Rio 
de San Francisco, keeping to the road of their coming until they reached 
the San Francisquito, then leaving the road they passed around the head of 
the bay and came to a large arroyo which they crossed and camped for the 
night. Anza gave the name of Rio de Guadalupe to the stream, a name it 
still bears, and said it had abundant and good timber, and lands that 
would support a large population.[22] The next morning the march was 
resumed and crossing with some difficulty the Coyote river, they traveled 
northward for seven leagues and camped on the San Leandro creek, named by 
Fages in 1772 Arroyo de San Salvador. They passed six rancherías, the 
people of which, being unaccustomed to seeing white men, fled in terror. 
Anza endeavored to pacify them and gave presents of food and trinkets to 
all who would approach him. The Indians of the San Francisco bay were of 
darker color than those of the Colorado and the Santa Barbara channel, 
many wore beards and all wore hair long and tied up on top of the head. 
Three leagues of travel the next morning brought the exploradores to the 
site of the University of California at Berkeley, "a point opposite the 
disemboguement of the estero commonly called San Francisco," and they 
gazed out through the Golden Gate to the broad Pacific beyond. Anza noted 
his opinion that the estero was not five leagues broad, as had. been 
stated, but scarcely four.(*) Proceeding on their journey they climbed 
over the treeless hills and crossed the deep arroyos of Contra Costa and 
camped for the night very close to the "disemboguement of the Rio de San 
Francisco into the port of that name." Font gives a very good description 
of San Pablo bay (Bahia Redonda) and speculates whether the large cove and 
stretch of water which from a high hill he could see away to the west, one-
quarter northwest, communicated with the port of Bodega, discovered six 
months before by Lieutenant Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra. What Font 
saw was Napa slough. The camp that night was on Rodeo creek about two and 
a half miles from Carquines strait. On the following day, April 2d, the 
command proceeded a short distance up the strait and halted to take the 
latitude of the place, to observe the condition of the "river," and to 
measure its breadth and depth. Both Anza and Font doubted if it were a 
river at all as there appeared to be no current and there was no evidence 
of freshets in the shape of driftwood and rubbish thrown up on its banks. 
They both tasted the water and found it brackish but not so salty as the 
sea. They record their observation of the sun as giving the latitude 38 
degrees 5' 14". Resuming the march in the afternoon they saw the so-called 
river begin to widen out until it took on the appearance of a laguna 
rather than that of a river,(**) then turning somewhat to the south to 
avoid the marshes they camped for the night on the bank of an arroyo of 
wholesome water that had been named by Fages Arroyo de Santa Angela de 
Fulgino, now known as Walnut creek. The next morning they crossed the 
valley of Santa Angela de Fulgino in a northwest direction, entered Willow 
Pass and mounted a hill, from the top of which they could see how the 
river divided itself into three arms or branches, as described by Don 
Pedro Fages. Descending the hill they tried to approach the river, but 
were prevented by the marshes. Continuing to the east-northeast for two 
and a half leagues they came to the river and to a large ranchería of some 
four hundred Indians who received them with friendly demonstrations and 
gave them cooked slices of salmon, while Anza reciprocated with the usual 
presents. Tasting the water of the river they found it quite fresh and 
were persuaded that what Captain Fages had called the Rio de San Francisco 
was not a river at all, but a great fresh water sea. They were now on the 
San Joaquin river.

(* 4 leagues: 10.4 miles. It is 9.75 miles from the Berkeley shore to the 
Marin coast.)
(** This was Suisun bay)

Resuming his march to the east-northeast for about one league, Anza 
climbed a high hill to observe the country and from this vantage point he 
saw a confusion of water, tulares, forest, and level plain of an extension 
unmeasurable. To the east, beyond the plain, he saw a great sierra nevada, 
white from the summit down, which appeared to run from southeast to 
northwest, while northward to the horizon extended the plain, encroached 
upon by the sea of fresh water and tulares. With the doubt that the Rio de 
San Francisco was a river at all becoming more fixed in his mind, he 
descended to the water and camped for the night in a grove of oaks near an 
abandoned ranchería, which he called San Ricardo. This was at or near the 
site of the present town of Antioch. It was here that Fages in 1772 gave 
up the attempt to reach Point Reyes, and turned back to Monterey. Anza 
again tasted the water and found it crystalline, cool, fresh, and good. 
Seeing that the breeze caused some gentle waves to wash the beach or 
shore, he took a good sized pole and threw it as far out on the water as 
he could, but instead of being carried down the stream it was washed 
ashore by the little waves. He resolved to go further up the river or 
laguna and see if he could ascertain what it was. Noting the rise and fall 
of the tide he posted Lieutenant Moraga to watch throughout the night and 
measure its height. They found that the difference between high and low 
water was eight feet and eleven inches. All this convinced Font that the 
Rio de San Francisco was no river at all but a fresh water sea, and he 
named it Puerto Dulce--Fresh-water Port, a name which was frequently used 
by the Spaniards in speaking of Suisun bay. One who has been through the 
waste of waters of the San Joaquin delta can understand what it might have 
been one hundred and thirty years ago in the spring of the year. Anza 
still retained his doubt and from this day used the term, Rio o Laguna de 
San Francisco, in alluding to it. Until two o'clock the following 
afternoon Anza struggled on foot and on horseback to overcome the 
obstacles which prevented him from reaching the plains on the northeast, 
but the farther he went the farther he was diverted from his true 
direction and the more his course was obstructed by water running into the 
river or laguna. He was now informed by two soldiers of his escort who 
belonged to the Monterey garrison that the water came from the tulares(*) 
that reached as far south as the mission of San Luis Obispo, that they 
were thirty leagues in breadth and were unfordable even in the dry season. 
Realizing that what he attempted could only be accomplished by a detour of 
three or four hundred miles and that a survey could be better made from 
San Luis Obispo, Anza turned and rode straight to the southwest in the 
direction of Monterey, and traveling four and a half leagues camped for 
the night in the foot hills of the Monte del Diablo range. Being without a 
guide he had crossed the entrance to the Livermore pass, missed a very 
easy road through Livermore valley to the route of his upward journey and 
plunged into about as rough a mountain country as could be found in 
America. For the next two days he struggled with the difficulties of the 
mountain passage, frequently turning back to escape from impassable canons 
and on April 6th emerged from the cordillera into the Santa Clara valley 
by the canon of Coyote creek. The explorers' route from the camp in the 
Livermore hills was by the canon of the Arroyo de Bueno Ayres to the 
summit of the mountains whence they looked down upon the great San Joaquin 
valley; thence descending into the Arroyo Mocho they traveled some five 
miles, passing to the west of Cerro Colorado, which they noted, and 
camping in San Antonio valley. The second day's route was over the divide 
to the canon of the east fork of the Coyote creek down which they 
traveled, climbing into and out of the dangerous canon, and camped at 
night near the site of Gilroy Hot Springs. It was a difficult journey. 
Anza says that the hardships of the march were very great.. "If we 
traveled by the canons we were impeded by the rocks, and when we attempted 
the heights we nearly fell over the precipices. The sierra, whose width 
and dangerous heights no one would have believed we could surmount, was 
named by those who came before 'La Sierra del Charco."' 

(* "The Tulares" is a large tract of marsh reaching from Kern lake in the 
Upper San Joaquin valley to Butte in the Sacramento--a distance of about 
three hundred and fifty miles--and filled with tules or bulrushes. It has 
been largely drained and contains some of the richest land in California.)

The rest of the journey was easy and rapid. They reached the presidio of 
Monterey at 10.30 in the morning of April 8th, and Anza went to the 
mission of the Carmelo to cure his leg, from which he was still suffering. 
On April 13th he sent five soldiers to the presidio of San Diego, where 
Rivera still lingered, to request the comandante of California to meet him 
at the mission of San Gabriel on the 25th or 26th of April, and come to 
some agreement regarding the duty with which they were both charged, viz: 
the establishment of the presidio and mission of San Francisco. Then with 
but slight improvement in his malady, Anza went to the presidio of 
Monterey to deliver to Lieutenant Moraga the command of the expedition. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon of April 14th Anza began his return march 
to Mexico. With the commander was his chaplain, Fray Pedro Font, the 
purveyer of the expedition, Don Mariano Vidal, his escort of ten soldiers, 
and twelve vaqueros, arrieros, and servants--twenty-five in all. He was 
also accompanied by two priests of San Luis Obispo, visiting at Monterey, 
who availed themselves of this opportunity for returning. "This day," he 
writes, "has been the saddest that said presidio (of Monterey) has 
experienced since it was founded. As I mounted my horse in its plaza, the 
greater part of the people I had brought from their country, and 
particularly the women, remembering the treatment, good or bad, they have 
experienced from me while under my command, came dissolved in tears, which 
they shed publicly, not so much because of their banishment as because of 
my departure, and with embraces and wishes for my happiness bade me 
farewell, giving me praises I do not deserve. I was deeply moved by their 
gratitude and affection, which I reciprocate, and I testify that from the 
beginning up to to-day I have not seen any sign of desertion in any of 
these whom I have brought from their country to remain in this distant 
place; and in praise of their fidelity I may be permitted to make this 
memorial of a people who in the course of time will come to be very useful 
to the monarchy in whose service they have voluntarily left parents and 
country, which is everything one can abandon." 

Returning by the road he had come Anza met on the morning of the second 
day, the sergeant whom he had sent with dispatches to Rivera. Delivering 
to Anza two letters from Rivera the soldier requested the honor of a 
private interview in which he communicated to Anza the fact that Rivera, 
who was following close behind, had been excommunicated at San Diego for 
having violated the sanctuary of the church in taking there from by force 
an Indian criminal; that in his opinion the comandante was mad; that he 
had treated him with indignity and had reduced him from the rank of 
sergeant; that the comandante had first refused to receive Anza' s 
letters, and on the following day had demanded them and at the same time, 
without opening them had given him the letters for Anza and bade him 
begone. Anza opened Rivera's letters and found they contained a refusal to 
join him in the establishment of the presidio at San Francisco. 

Directing the sergeant to continue his way to Monterey Anza resumed his 
march and a league further on met Rivera. Anza saluted the comandante 
courteously with an enquiry for his health, but without halting Rivera 
answered the enquiry and spurred his horse forward with a short "goodbye." 
Anza called to him, "Well! about the letter lately written you, you shall 
answer me in Mexico--or wherever you wish"; to which Rivera replied, "Very 
well." This so enraged Anza that he called on the priests with him to 
witness Rivera's discourtesy.[23] 

At San Luis Obispo Anza was overtaken by a messenger from Junípero Serra 
who requested his good offices in the matter of the Indians concerned in 
the late rebellion at San Diego who had now offered their submission. The 
messenger also brought a letter from Rivera, apologizing for his 
discourtesy, and both priest and soldier asked Anza to await their arrival 
from Monterey. Anza waited, but the conference resulted in nothing. The 
two officers did not meet but conducted their negotiations by letter. 
Rivera, from his camp a short distance from San Luis, requested a 
conference at San Gabriel. Anza, who had lost four days in waiting, pushed 
on for San Gabriel where he waited three days more for Rivera to appear, 
and then resumed his march, first sending to Rivera a plan of the port of 
San Francisco, with the places selected for the fort and mission. At the 
Santa Ana river he was again overtaken by a messenger from Rivera who 
wrote that he had been so busy over the papers in the affair at San Diego 
that he had no time to write to his excellency, the viceroy. He begged 
Anza to make his excuses to the viceroy and at the same time enclosed him 
a letter to be delivered to the father guardian of the College of San 
Fernando. Anza, who was out of patience with Rivera's trifling and 
considered it disrespectful for him to write to the guardian and not to 
the viceroy, refused to receive the letter and sent it back. Crossing the 
San Jacinto mountains by the route he had come, he reached the Cienega de 
San Sebastian on the evening of May 7th. Wishing to cross the desert in 
one jornada if possible Anza made what he calls a tardeada--a late march--
and starting at 12.45 p.m. of May 8th reached the Laguna de Santa Olalla 
at midnight of the 9th, having traveled twenty-five leagues with two rests 
of five and a half hours each. Joyfully received by the Indians of Santa 
Olalla, who brought the travelers an abundance of maize, beans, and other 
eatables, Anza rested his weary men and caballerías until three o'clock of 
the next afternoon and then resumed his march for the junction of the 
rivers, where he arrived at eleven on the morning of May 11th. 

At the Puerto de la Concepcion Anza found Padre Esaire, one of the two 
priests that had accompanied him from Horcasitas to the Colorado river; 
the other, Garces, had gone up the river, whence he had crossed the Mojave 
desert into the interior of California and was, at that moment on the Kern 
river on his way back from San Gabriel. Anza dispatched a letter by an 
Indian messenger to the place where Garces was supposed to be, saying that 
he would wait three days and then resume his journey. He then began 
collecting logs for a raft, for the river was running full. 

The next day came Palma, chief of the Yumas, to remind Anza of his 
agreement to take him to the City of Mexico. Anza represented to the chief 
that the City of Mexico was a great distance off, and that if Palma went 
there he would be a long time away from his people. Palma asked how many 
years he would be away and the comandante told him not more than one at 
most. Palma said it was well; that he had provided for the government of 
his nation during his absence, and he presented to Anza two underchiefs to 
whom he had committed the administration of affairs. Anza required him 
also to select three of his people to accompany him, that there might be 
witnesses to report to the Yumas if anything should befall their chief, 
and then, after consultation with the priests, granted Palma's petition.(*)

(* Anza took with him to the City of Mexico Palma, his brother, a son of 
Pablo, and a Cajuenche Indian--four in all. They lived with him in a house 
in the Calle de la Merced and were handsomely entertained. They were 
baptized February 13, 1777; Don Jose Gomez, Cabo de Alabarderos, was 
sponsor.) 

They now prepared to cross the river, selecting a place where it was 
compressed to about one hundred varas in width. The current was very rapid 
but the banks were approachable. One raft was launched on the morning of 
the 13th, loaded with some of Anza's people and baggage, directed by 
twenty-three Yumas swimming, and made the journey in safety, but consumed 
five and a half hours on the trip. At four o'clock another raft was sent 
over and made the opposite shore, but far down the stream, and was so 
badly damaged that the Yumas did not attempt to return it that night. 

At daybreak the next morning the river was much higher and the great force 
of the water made the passage of the train very difficult. The provisions 
and such of the freight as could be divided into small portions were sent 
over in coritas and cajetes grandes,(*) which the women, swimming, pushed 
before them like little boats. Owing to the swiftness of the current a 
woman would have to swim more than fifteen hundred varas--four-fifths of a 
mile--in going and coming, and they had to bring back the empty vessels. 
Anza says that some of the women made twelve trips. All they asked for the 
service was a few glass beads, which Anza gave them in abundance. A raft 
was sent over at midday with some of the people of the expedition, and 
late in the afternoon two others were completed on which the rest of the 
command embarked. On the larger of the two were the comandante, the two 
priests, the purveyor, and some soldiers--thirteen persons in all. It was 
managed by forty Yumas in the water, but as it was leaving the bank it 
began to sink. Instantly more than two hundred Yumas--among them many 
women, plunged into the river and with much noise and shouting the raft 
was passed over to the other shore, traveling some eight hundred varas, 
its passengers safe, but a little wet.(**) Anza says: "I have, before 
this, made the statement which I now most emphatically confirm, that the 
fact of our having the people of this river for friends, enables us to 
cross it with the fewest difficulties, and that were the contrary the 
case, it would be almost impossible to make the passage."(***)

(* Corita--a large, shallow, water-tight basket. Cajete--a flat, earthen 
bowl.)
(** The authorities for the narrative of Anza's two journeys are his diary 
of 1774, his diary of 1775-6, Pedro Font's diary of 1775-6, and Garces 
diary of 1775-6. Of Anza's subsequent career little is known. After his 
return from California he was made governor of New Mexico where he served 
until April, 1788. He died December 19th of that year and his widow and 
heirs were paid a year's salary of a colonel of cavalry--twenty-four 
hundred dollars.)
(*** After the destruction of the missions of the Colorado in 1781, the 
overland route from Sonora was closed until sometime after the beginning 
of the nineteenth century. It was reopened in 1823, but there was always 
trouble with the Yumas.)

On May 15th, having seen all his people and baggage safely over the river, 
Anza resumed his march, passing up the Gila some thirty-one and a half 
miles to the Laguna Salada; then leaving the river he struck across the 
Papaguería, direct to the southeast and by forced marches reached 
Carrizal, the sink of the Sonoita, about noon of the 19th, having lost six 
caballerías on the passage. From here on to the mission of Caborca on the 
Rio del Altar he followed the route of his upward passage of 1774. 
Starting from Caborca on the 25th, he continued his route to the 
southeast. At Real de la Cieneguilla, a rich gold mining camp, he took 
under his protection a pack-train that was waiting for an escort, this 
portion of the country being infested with Apaches, and reached San Miguel 
de Horcasitas and the end of his journey, June 1, 1776. 

Here ends the diary. Anza's mission was accomplished. He had taken his 
people through in safety to Monterey, meeting with skill and courage the 
perils of the way--the cold, the deserts, the mountains, and the rivers--
and he testifies that of all those entrusted to his care, not one had been 
lost except the woman who died in childbirth the first night out from 
Tubac. He had left them in a strange and far country and they had parted 
from him with tears, not because they had left home and friends, but 
because they should see his face no more. 

Anza's character may be read in the pages of his diary. He was by nature 
simple and kindly, responsive to the call of duty and true to the 
"chivalrous traditions of heroic Spain." It is not easy to estimate the 
value of the services of this gallant soldier, and the monument erected in 
San Francisco to the Pioneers of California is incomplete without his 
name. 

From San Diego Rivera wrote Moraga to build houses at Monterey for the 
people of the expedition as there would be a year's delay before the 
presidio could be founded at San Francisco; but on May 8th, the 
comandante, having changed his mind, ordered the lieutenant to proceed to 
San Francisco and establish the fort on the site selected by Anza, also 
instructing him to notify the priests that the founding of the two 
missions was for the present suspended. In conformity therefore with this 
order Lieutenant Moraga with Sergeant Grijalva and sixteen soldiers, two 
priests, seven colonists, besides servants, arrieros, and vaqueros, left 
Monterey, June 17th, and took the road followed by Anza to the peninsula 
of San Francisco. They traveled slowly, the men having their families with 
them, and on the 27th reached the site selected by Anza for the mission 
and camped on the bank of the Laguna de Manantial, which they called the 
Laguna de los Dolores, taking the name from the arroyo. The packet boat 
San Carlos was to sail from Monterey with the stores and the remainder of 
the expedition. While waiting the arrival of the vessel Moraga employed 
the men in cutting timber for the buildings of the presidio and mission. 
After waiting a month for the vessel Moraga moved the greater part of his 
command to the site selected for the presidio, leaving six soldiers to 
guard the camp on the Laguna de los Dolores. On August 18th the paquebot 
arrived, seventy-three days from Monterey, having been driven by adverse 
winds as far south as San Diego. The commander of the San Carlos, 
Lieutenant Fernando de Quiros, sent his sailors ashore and they, with the 
soldiers, began the construction of the buildings at the presidio and 
mission. At the former were built a chapel, a storehouse, and quarters for 
the troops, all of wood, and thatched with rushes. Before the arrival of 
the San Carlos, on the 10th day of August, 1776, was born the first white 
child in San Francisco to the wife of the soldier De Soto in the camp at 
the mission. 

On the 17th of September, "The anniversary of the impression of the wounds 
of our father Saint Francis, patron of the presidio and fort," as Father 
Palou says, they took formal possession of the presidio. Father Palou said 
mass, blessed the site, and after the elevation and adoration of the Holy 
Cross, concluded the religious services with the Te Deum. Then Moraga and 
his officers took formal possession in the name of the sovereign and with 
discharges of cannon by the San Carlos and the shore batteries, and 
volleys of musketry from the troops, the city of San Francisco was born.(*)

(* The authorities for the narrative of Anza's two journeys are his diary 
of 1774, his diary of 1775-6, Pedro Font's diary of 1775-6, and Garces 
diary of 1775-6. Of Anza's subsequent career little is known. After his 
return from California he was made governor of New Mexico where he served 
until April, 1788. He died December 19th of that year and his widow and 
heirs were paid a year's salary of a colonel of cavalry--twenty-four 
hundred dollars.)