The first Portolá expedition, which was sent north from Mission San Diego by Father Junipero Serra, didn’t do well. They walked or rode the length of the state as far north as San Francisco, dragging minimal supplies on sledges, searching for a “famoso” harbor sighted 67 years before and named “Monterey” by Vizcaino. They looked at Montery from just to the north, and saw a wide curve of shore with no anchorage as protected as that described by Vizcaino. They lacked the benefit of Vizcaino’s directions, which were usable only to someone looking at landmarks from offshore, and saw the country in a different season, which made the rivers look different.
Their travel plans depended upon resupply from the ship San José, which was never seen again after it left San Diego. The group went on to visit and name many geographic features of California, including the San Francisco Bay. Spanish bureaucratic culture prevented them from telling Father Serra what they must have known: that they had discovered a better harbor and better site for a northern capital than any known to the Spanish before. Serra had told them to find Monterey, and that was their only charge.
Within six months, Portolá and much of the same group had tread back northward. This time Serra himself, who couldn’t walk very well, rode the supply ship. Perhaps it was the force of his legendary will that forced the ship to its goal: it certainly wasn’t the winds or currents. But on June 3, 1770, Serra said Mass under the great Oak Tree near the beach where Monterey’s harbor is now located. Portolá thrust his sword into the earth, guns were fired, and the land was formally claimed for the King of Spain.
Photo No. 239L16 ©1999 Marc Shargel
Photographed at Carmel, CA
