SAN DIEGO AND GASPAR DE PORTOLÁ
First page of the Gaspar de Portolá's Diary to San Diego and Monterrey (1769).
When, on June 29 1769, Portolá and Father Serra reached the port of San Diego after crossing the entire peninsula of California from South to North, they found a desolate spectacle.
Anchored there were the "San Carlos" of Captain Vicente Vila, Commander of the sea expeditions, and the "San Antonio" under Juan Perez.
They had reached this refuge some weeks before. Disease had decimated their crews to such an extent that a few men of the "San Carlos" remained alive and only some of the "San Antonio" crew were of any use.
Some of Pedro Fages’ Catalan volunteers had also died and many others were laid low with the fateful scurvy.
San Diego harbor's plan. (1769 – 1770).
Vicente Vila, Capitain of the "San Carlos".
The Franciscans who had come by sea, plus the land expedition led by Fernando de Rivera, and the surgeon Pedro Prat were the people who sustained the camp, trying to cover the needs of the sick and relieve their suffering.
In this heart-breaking situation, the Governor and Commander of the land expedition, who was responsible for occupying and taking possession of California at Monterrey, had to act.
Without being able to use the "San Carlos", totally out of action, he sent the "San Antonio" to San Blas in search of aid and advice.
Then, with Rivera, Fages and some Catalan volunteers, Sergeant Ortega and the buffcoat soldiers, the indian neophytes from Baja California, Fathers Crespi and Gómez and the remnants of the mules, Portolá organized the expedition because "...the unexpected accident of the ships did not exempt him from pursuing his voyage to Monterrey by land".
San Diego was born with the building of the fort, and of the troop posted there. Later, when Portolá was absent, Padre Junípero founded the mission of San Diego de Alcalá, near the place where the first Spanish redoubt had been set up on new land which would later be Alta California.
That fort suffered other misfortunes. Deaths due to scurvy continued. The rebellious native indians attacked the expeditionaries.
Portolá returned after the failure of his first exploration and his people made even worse the food situation at the San Diego Presidio.
The encampment lived days of anguish and a growing doubt as to whether the project was viable. Finally the "San Antonio" arrived with orders and help that enabled them to go on once more with their plans.
Portolá left for Monterrey a second time and there established the fort of San Carlos, which from then on was capital of the entire territory up to San Francisco.
In San Diego, the fort and mission were later moved in the quest for greater security and more useful land. Grave disturbances occurred there, which caused grief throughout the territory. Franciscans, colonizers, indians and soldiers who had arrived with the aim of incorporating the territory into the Viceroyalty died there.
All those who died were buried on a small hill beside the sea, somewhat apart from the ships and huts which gave refuge and protection to the many people who fell ill in this first settlement. It was the first consecrated cemetery in California.
