The March of Portola and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco | Page 2

after the occupation and settlement by the Spaniards, so feeble were
their establishments that, as Vancouver reports to the Admiralty, it
would take but a small force to wrest from Spain this most valuable
possession. But though the growing feebleness of Spain presaged the
time when her hold upon America would be loosened, the standard of
individual heroism was not lowered, and the achievements of Portolá
and of Anza rank with those of De Soto and Coronado. The California
explorer did not, it is true, have to fight his way through hordes of
fierce natives. The California Indians, as a rule, received the white
adventurers gladly, and entertained them with such hospitality as they
had to offer, but the Indians north of the Santa Barbara Channel were
but a poor lot. In a country abounding in game of all kinds, a sea
swarming with fish, a soil capable of growing every character of
foodstuff, these miserable natives lived in a chronic state of starvation.
As in heroic qualities, so also in skill and judgment, Portolá upholds the
best traditions of Spain. The success of an expedition depends upon the
character of the leader. Pánfilo de Narváez landed on the coast of
Florida in April, 1528, with a well-equipped army of three hundred
men and forty horses, just half the force he sailed with from Spain the
previous June, and of the three hundred men whom he led into Florida,
only four lived to reach civilization - the rest perished. That is but one
example of incompetent leadership. When Portolá organized his
expedition for the march from San Diego Bay to Monterey, many of his
soldiers were ill from scurvy, and at one time on the march the sick list

numbered nineteen men, including the governor and Rivera, his chief
officer. Sixteen men had to be carried, and to three, in extremis, the
viaticum was administered; but he brought them all through, and
returned to San Diego without the loss of a man.
There are two full diaries of this expedition, one by Father Crespi and
the other by Alférez Costansó. There is, besides, a diary of Junípero
Serra of the march from Velicatá to San Diego Bay, a translation of
which is printed in Out West magazine (Los Angeles), March-July,
1902. It is of small value to the student of history. There is a diary by
Portolá, quoted by Bancroft, and a Fragmento by Ortega, also used by
Bancroft. These we have not seen. There are letters from Francisco
Palou, Juan Crespi and Miguel Costansó, printed in Out West for
January 1902. The diary of Father Crespi is printed in Palou's Noticias
de la Nueva California. Documentos para la Historia de Mexico,
re-printed San Francisco, 1874. The diary of Miguel Costansó is in the
Sutro library. It has never been printed. It is prefaced by an historical
narrative, a poor translation of which was published by Dalrymple,
London, 1790, and a better one by Chas. F. Lummis in Out West,
June-July, 1901. In Publications of the Historical Society of Southern
California, Vol. II, Part 1, Los Angeles, 1891, a number of documents
of the Sutro collection are printed, with translations by George Butler
Griffin. These relate to the explorations of the California coast by ships
from the Philippines, the two voyages of Vizcaino, with some letters of
Junípero Serra, and diaries of the voyage of the Santiago to the northern
coast in 1774.
The sketch here submitted is the result of much study of original
documents, and the route of the expedition is laid down after careful
survey of the physical geography where possible, and in other cases, by
the contoured maps of the Geological Survey, following the directions
and language as given by the diarists. Among the printed books
consulted are Palou's Vida del Padre Junipero Serra and his Noticias de
la Nueva California, above noted. The Conquest of the Great Northwest,
Agnes C. Laut, New York, 1908; History of California by H. H.
Bancroft; Treaties of Navigation, Cabrera Bueno, Translation,
Dalrymple, London, 1790; The Discovery of San Francisco Bay,
George Davidson, and Francis Drake on the Northwest Coast of
America in 1579, the same author; Proceedings of the Geographical

Society of the Pacific.
In view of the forthcoming Portolá Festival, The California Promotion
Committee, through its Reception Committee, appointed three of its
members to compile a history of the first expedition for the settlement
of California. In the endeavor to obtain further knowledge of the life
and character of Portolá, the committee has been enabled, through the
efforts of one of its members, to have careful search made among the
archives of Madrid, of the India Office at Saville, of the City of Mexico,
and of Puebla, and while we have little to show, as yet, concerning
Portolá, we have