The climax of the Portola expedition narrated
by Miguel Costansó and father Juan Crespí..
( * ) " Diario Histórico "
by Miguel Costansó. ( México, 24 de Octubre de 1770 )
Academy of Pacific Coast History, Vol. 1, nº4. 1910.
( ** ) " Diario del Viaje de tierra hecho
al Norte de la California ..."
by Miguel Costansó ( Puerto y Real de San
Diego 7 de Febrero de 1770 )
Copia del Museo Naval, Madrid. Mns. 56. Virreinato de Mejico, t.
1, n.22
( *** ) " Diario de Fray Juan Crespi ",
from the coming book of Alan K. Brown
( Original Journals of the First Expedition to California ).
--------------------------------------------
(*)
It must be borne in mind that the marches of this body with so great a train and / so many / obstacles, through unknown lands and on unused roads, could not be long. Not to mention other reasons that made it necessary to halt and camp early the necessity of reconnoitering the country from day to day in order to regulate the marches according to the distance between the watering-places, and consequently to take the proper precautions...
In the order and manner described, the Spaniards made their marches over vast territorties which became more fertile and more pleasant the further they penetrated to the north.
From the Santa Bárbara Channel on, the country is not so thickly populated, nor are the indians so industrious, but they are equally affable and gentle. The Spaniards continued their journey without opposition as far as Sierra de Santa Lucía, which they succeeded in crossing, /although/ with much trouble.
At the foot of the northern slope of that range there lies, according to old accounts, the Port of Monterrey, between the Punta de Pinos and the Punta de Año Nuevo.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
September, 30th
Back they came saying ... that the shore, seen both to north and to south, was surrounded bu dunes, with the coast-line making an enormous bight , that to the south was descried a hill running out into a point out at sea, covered with trees that looked to be pines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
October, 1st
... then some officers with the engineer went to examine the shore . What they observed there was arge bight seen bay the scouts ...
Track from Pt.
Concepción to Pt. Pinos
Pt. Concepción, Pueblo del Cojo (The Cripple Village), la Espada
(Sword Village), Pedernales ( The Flints),
Buchón (The Goitre),Cañada de los Osos (Bear Hollow), Santa
Lucía Mountains, Nacimiento river,
Salinas river, Harbor (of Monterey), Point of Pines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(***)
October, 1st.
... On reaching here we could already see the sea a little, and a point going a long way out to seaward, very much grown over with pinewoods, and a point far off on the coast, and were all of us very happy thinking that the point of pinewood here must be the one set down in the Histories of Monte Rey, and the other point being Point Año Nuevo. We did not have a clear view of the sea from the spot.
And the better to assure ourselves, Captain Don Fernando de Ribera, Engineer Don Miguel Costansó, five soldiers and myself all went off to a small hill that lay a good league off close to the shore, and stood there, having a clear view off the two points and of a very large bight that begins from the aforesaid Point of Pines and extends across to the other point, Point Año Nuevo, upon the coast.
We were, however, greatly confounded by the sight of high sea with no shelter or harbor in view anywhere, instead only embayment and high sea, which we thought could be no less than twelve leagues, or more, in a straight line from one point to the other, whereas according to the histories, this embayment was where the harbor of Monte Rey ought to lie, for what we were viewing was northeastward of the Point of Pines and that was where this harbor without fail ougth to have lain.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(***)
October, 2th.
Our Captain set out with nine or ten soldiers to explore the aforesaid Point of Pines and ils whole surroundings ...
... the Captain returned with his soldiers, reporting they had scouted it all; they had however seen no harbor, nor any indications there has ever been one ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
Octubre, 4th.
Confounded a bit by this news, our commander determined to call a meeting of his officers in order to deliberate upon the most suitable course to be taken in the present straits. ... the officers all voted as one to continue the journey, as the only course left to us - in hope of meeting through God's grace with the long wished for harbor of Monterrey...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(*)
They therefore resolved to continue the journey, thus turning their backs on the port they were seeking.
The last day of October, the land-expedition sighted the Punta de los Reyes and the Farallones of the Port of San Francisco, which landmarks, when compared with the sailing directions of the pilot Cabrera Bueno, were found to be correct.
It then came to be recognized as obvious that the Port of Monterrey had been left behind, and there were few who adhered to the contrary opinion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Track from the Harbor of
Monterrey to San Francisco.
Harbor (of Monterrey), Pajaro river, San Lorenzo river,
Pt. Año Nuevo, Pescadero, Montara mountains,
San Pedro valley, Pt. Reyes, Farallones,San Francisco harbor.
(***)
October, 30th
We set out ... following a northwestward course along the shore ... in the sea, there are some rocks awash, with two of them rising some distance out the water ...
I called this point "Punta de los Angeles Custodios", Guardian Angels Point.
... came across four strems of running water emptying into the sea ... They had to make bridges at strems which were very deep down and cliffy.
A large bight or very wide bay begins and runs onward here from the point just passed; the other point closing this embayment upon the north side is the one called in the histories " Punta de los Reyes", with, consequently, the Harbor of San Francisco close to it.
In front of us ... bed here stretch the six or seven islan rocks ( farallones ) which they set down at the Harbor of San Francisco, and everything that can be viewed of the embayment here is entirely as depicted by Cabrera Bueno ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
October, 31st
The heights which forbade us the way along the seashore, easy to climb though they were everywhere on the way up, had a very abrupt steep descent upon the opposite side.
From the summit we descried a large bay lying to the norhwest under a point of land reaching far out to sea, ... Out beyond, ... were seen seven white farallones ( island rocks ) of various sizes. Looking back toward the bay there were abrupt white bluffs made out more to the northward, while turning around norteastwardly, the mouth of an inlet was discovered, which seemed to make inland.
On sight of these marks we turned to the sailing-directions of pilot Cabrera Bueno, and thought that beyond all doubt what we were looking upon was San Francisco Harbor.
We went down to the grade and placed our camp in the midst of a very lush little valley ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(***)
November, 1 and 2
... and after the mass on All Saints Day, at our Governor's orders Sergeant Ortega set out with eight soldiers to scout for three days, wherefore we remained halted here until the 3th, when they came back at night from scouting.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
November, 2nd
Several soldiers asked permission to go out hunting ... they came back after nightfall ... These men said that they had seen to the northward an enormous sea-arm or inlet shooting as far inland as eye could see toward southeast ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(***)
At about eight o'clock at night on the third, the scouts came back from their exploration, firing off a salvo, and reported on arrival that they had come upon a great inlet or sea arm, very broad, that must reach about eight or ten leagues inland ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Painting from San Mateo Historical Museum.
(**)
November, 4th
With this news, our commander determined to continue the journey in search of the harbor ... along the southern shore or beach of San Francisco.
We at once went into the mountains steering a course to the north, and from the height of a hill descried a great inlet drawing to the southeast and south-southeastward. Living it to our left hand, turning our backs upon the harbor, we took a hollow open to south ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(***)
November, 5 and 6
We set out at nine o'clock in the morning ... following the same hollow on a due southward course ... continuing to our left between ourselves and the inlet ...
It was all level land, to all appearance of many leagues' extent, the entire plain being very good dark very grassy soil, ... and the entire plain much grown over with a great many large white oaks and live oaks.
We halted at the edge of a good sized strem with a good flow of runing water, very pure, delicious water, that flows through the plain here and goes they say to empty into the aforesaid inlet.
We having reached here, our Governor ordered Seargent Ortega with some soldiers to scout once again for four days, wherefore, in the mean while, ..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------( *** )
November, 7th
This is the furthest limit to which this expedition in search of Monte Rey travelled, up till it reached nearly the end of this large inlet which all or most of us hold to be the harbor of San Francisco
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
November, 10th
The scouts arerived again at night, very downcast, finally unpersuaded of the notion that Monterrey harbor might lie further on ... They said that all the country they had been over to northeast and north could not be traveled ... and they had been faced by another enormous inlet equal in size and extent to the one we had in view, and connected with it, and that it would be neccessary to go many leagues to get around it ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Montara mountains to San Francisco harbor bay.
Montara, San Pedro valley, Sweeney Ridge, San Francisco inlet,
San Francisquito, Palos Altos, Guadalupe river, San Leandro river.(**)
November, 11th
The scouts' reports having been heard, and weighed against the state we were in, our commander determined to call his Officers together in order to choose, on the basis of their opinions, whatever was most suitable to the service of God and the King and to the welfare of all.
On assembling, the officers gave their views in writing, and unanimously agreed it had become necessary to turn back, for they recognized that Monterrey harbor must lie behind us ...
... in the afternoon of this day camp was shifted two leagues from the place at the inlet, going backward along our way from San Francisco harbor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
December, 5th.In view of what had been happening to us, we were at a loss. How can we claim that so famous a harbor as Monterrey, one so much praised and cried up in its day by men of repute, by able, well-informed, skilled sailors who had come expressly to survey these coast by order of the monarch then ruling the Spaniards, has not been found despite the most exquisite, earnest efforts practised at the expense of a great deal of sweat and toil ?
... So that we shall positively affirm that Monterrey harbor does not exist at the latitude indicated by the old rutters of thirty seven degrees ...-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
December, 7th
... our commander took it upon himself to decide for returning, arguing that if the way through the mountains became closed to us, we must necessarily all perish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(**)
December, 10th
Before leaving the bight of Pinos, we set up a cross upon the shore with a legend carved into its timber, saying " dig at the foot you will find a writing".
" The overland expedition which set out from San Diego on July the 14th, 1769, under command of the Governor of Californias Don Gaspar de Portolá, entered upon the Santa Bárbara Chanel the 14th of August, passed Point Concepción on the 27th of same, reached the foot of the Santa Lucía Mountains the 13th of September, entered into that range on the 17th of the same month, finished crossing the range or rounding it entirely upon the 1st of October, and the same day sighted the Point of Pines, and on the 7th of the month, having explored the Point of Pines and the bights on its northern and southern sides without seeing any signs of Monterrey harbor, determined to search further on for it.
On October 30th the expedition caught sight of Point Reyes and the farallones of San Francisco harbor, seven in number.
On its trying to reach Point Reyes, however, enormous inlets shooting an extraordinary way inland and requiring an immense circuit to be made around them, with other hindrances, the principal one being the lack of provisions, forced it to turn back again in the belief that Monterrey harbor might perhaps lie within the Santa Lucía Mountains and have been passed by without being seen.
It turned back from the end of the San Francisco Inlet on November 11th, passed New Year's Point the 19th of the same, and came once more to the Point and Bight of Pines here on the 27th of the month.
Between that date and the present December 9th it took measures to search for Monterrey harbor within the mountains by skirting them along the sea despite their steepness, but in vain.
At last, having lost all belief or hope of finding it after all this endeavor, effort and toil, it is setting out today for San Diego, without any more provisions than fourteen sacks of flour.
It prays for God Almighty to guide its way, and for His Providence to bring thee, sailor, to thine own safe harbor.
Here at the Bight of Pines, December 9th, 1769 "
============================
[Narration of Mr. Hammond] [Back to index] [Narration of F. Boneu]
