as set forth in the royal cedula of 1606, (one hundred and sixty-three years before,) and that it cannot fail to be recognized from the landmarks mentioned by Vizcayno. At the conclusion in his own handwriting we have the following:

"NOTE. That to the fort or presidio that may be constructed, and to the pueblo (village) of the mission which may be established at Monterey, there shall be given the glorious name of San Carlos de Monterey.-JOSEPH DE GALVEZ," (with his rubric.)

When the San Antonio sailed she seems to have carried a letter from Galvez to Pedro Fages, who had gone in advance on the San Carlos, for we have it now in the archives. It is dated cape San Lucas, February 14, 1769. The body of the letter is in substance: That the San Antonio arrived at the bay (San Lucas) on the twenty-fifth of last month, (January ;) that she was discharged and cleared of barnacles; that he examined the vessel with his own eyes, and found the keel thereof as sound as when it was placed in the vessel; that the necessary repairs had been made, and her cargo again placed on board, and that to-morrow, if the weather permit, she will sail, and that he trusts in Providence she will come safely into Monterey and find him (Fages) already in possession of the country.

So far it is in the handwriting of a clerk. He then adds a postscript with his own hand, addressed as well to Father Parron and the Engineer Constanzo as to Fages. I read it, for it is pleasant to have, as it were, a personal acquaintance with the eminent personage who directed the foundation of Upper California, and to find him a gentleman of such manifest abilities, generous temper. and enthusiasm:

“MY FRIENDS: It appears that the Lord, to my confusion, desires infinitely to reward the only virtue I possess, which is my constant faith, for everything here goes on prosperously, even to the mines abounding in metals. Many people are collecting, with abundance of provisions.

I hope you will sing the Te Deum in Monterey, and in order that we may repeat it here, you will not withhold the notice of the same an instant longer than is necessary.

This is also for the Reverend Father Parron.

"JOSEF DE GALVEZ," (Rubrica.)

Just as active was he in getting off the land expedition. The chief command was given to Don Gaspar de Portala, captain of dragoons, and then governor of Lower California; the second rank to Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, captain of a company of foot soldiers who carried leathern bucklers. And in imitation of Jacob, Galvez, in view of the dangers of the route through savages and an unknown country, divided the force into two parts, to save one if the other was lost. Rivera was to lead the first and the governor to follow after. Rivera sets out towards the north as early as September, 1768, collecting mules and muleteers, horses, dried meat, grain, flour, biscuits, &c, among the missions; encamps on the verge of the unexplored regions, and sends word to the visitor general that he will be ready to start for San Diego in all of March. Father Juan Crespi there joins him, and on the 24th day of March, which was Good Friday, he begins the journey. This party consisted of the Captain Rivera, Father Crespi, a pilot who went to keep a diary, twenty-five foot soldiers with leathern bucklers, three muleteers, and a band of Christian Indians of Lower California, to serve as pioneers, assistants to the muleteers, and for anything else that might be necessary, and who carried bows and arrows. They spent fiftytwo days in the journey, and on the 14th day of May arrived, without accident, at San Diego. Father Junipero Serra, president of the missions of Lower California, and of those that were to be founded, marched with Portala. The sea

son of lent, the dispositions to be made for the regulation of the missions during his absence, and the preparations for the expedition in its spiritual part, detained him, so that it was May before he joined Portalà at the same encampment from which Rivera had set out. The reverend father president came up in very bad condition. He was travelling with an escort of two soldiers, and hardly able to get on or off his mule. His foot and leg were greatly inflamed, and the more that he always wore sandals, and never used boots, shoes, or stockings. His priests and the governor tried to dissuade him from the undertaking, but he said he would rather die on the road, yet he had faith that the Lord would carry him safely through. A letter was even sent to Galvez, but he was a kindred spirit, and agreed with Father Junipero, who, however, was far into the wilderness before the answer was received. On the second day out, his pain was so great that he could neither sit nor stand, nor sleep, and Portala, being still unable to induce him to return, gave orders for a litter to be made. Hearing this, Father Junipero was greatly distressed on the score of the Indians, who would have to carry him. He prayed fervently, and then a happy thought occurred to him. He called one of the muleteers and addressed him, so runs the story, in these words: " Son, don't you know some remedy for the sore on my foot and leg?" But the_muleteer answered, Father, what remedy can I know? Am I a surgeon? I am a muleteeer, and have only cured the sore backs of beasts." "Then consider me a beast," said the father, "and this sore which has produced this swelling of my legs, and the grievous pains I am suffering, and that neither let me stand nor sleep, to be a sore back, and give me the same treatment you would apply to a beast. The muleteer, smiling, as did all the rest who heard him, answered, "I will, father, to please you;" and taking a small piece of tallow, mashed it between two stones, mixing with it herbs, which he found growing close by, and having heated it over the fire, annointed the foot and leg, leaving a plaster of it on the sore. God wrought in such a manner-for so wrote Father Junipero himself from San Diego-that he slept all that night until daybreak, and awoke so much relieved from his pains that he got up and said matins and prime, and afterwards Mass, as if he had never suffered such an accident; and to the astonishment of the governor and the troop at seeing the father in such health and spirits for the journey, which was not delayed a moment on his account. Such a man was Father Junipero Serra; and so he journeyed when he went to conquer California. On the first of July, 1769, they reached San Diego, all well, in forty-six days after leaving the frontier. When they came in sight of the port the troops began firing for joy those already there replied in the same manner. The vessels at anchor joined in the salute, and so they kept up the firing, until, ali having arrived, they fell to embracing one another, and to mutual congratulations at finding all the expeditions united and already at their longed-for destination. Here, then, we have the officers and priests, soldiers and sailors, and laborers, mules, oxen and cows, seeds, tools, implements of husbandry, and vases, ornaments, and utensils for the church, gotten together to begin the work of settlement, conversion, and civilization on the soil of California. The first day of July, ninety-one years ago, is the first day of California. The year 1769 is our era. The obscure events that I have noticed must yet by us be classed among its greatest occurrences, although it saw the birth of Napoleon and Wellington.

The number of souls then at San Diego should have been about two hundred and fifty, but the San Carlos had had a very hard time at sea, not reaching San Diego (which place she found with difficulty) until twenty days after the arrival of the San Antonio, which sailed five weeks later. She had, of the crew, but one sailor and the cook left alive; all the rest had died of scurvy. The first thing to be done was to found a mission and to look for Monterey, which from Vizcayno's time had been lost to the world. For founding a mission this was the proceeding:

Formal possession of the designated spot was taken in the name of Spain. A tent or arbor, or whatever construction was most practicable, was erected to serve as a temporary church, and adorned as well as circumstances would permit; a father in his robes blessed the place and the chapel, sprinkling them with water, which also he had first blessed for the occasion, and immediately the holy cross, having first been adored by all, was mounted on a staff and planted in front of the chapel. A saint was named as a patron of the mission, and a father appointed as its minister. Mass was said and a fervent discourse concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost delivered. That service, celebrated with such candles or other lights as they might have, being over, the Veni Creator Spiritus-an invocation to the Holy Ghost-was sung, whilst the continual firing of the soldiers during the ceremony supplied the place of an organ, and the smoke of the gunpowder that of incense, if it was wanting.

The mission being founded, the next thing was to attract the Indians. This was done in the simplest manner, by presents of food and cloth to the older ones, and bits of sugar to the young ones. When they had learned enough of their language to communicate with them, they taught them the mysteries of the faith, and when they were able to say a few prayers and make in some sort a confession of faith, they were baptised and received into the fold of the Church. At the same time they were drawn from a wandering life, collected in villages around the mission Church, and instructed in the habits and arts of civilized life. To keep them in the practice of their lessons, spiritual and secular, the father in charge of the mission had over them the control of a master, and for them the affection of a parent, and was supported in his authority by the soldiers at the presidios, or an escort stationed at the mission itself.

This was the mode of accomplishing what Galvez in his instructions declared to be the first object of the enterprise. And in this manner Father Junipero begun the work at San Diego on the 16th day of July. An untoward incident of a very unusual nature in California attended this first essay. The Indians, not being permitted to steal all the cloth they coveted, surprised the mission when only four soldiers, the carpenter, and blacksmith were present, and Father Junipero would have been murdered then at the outset, but for the muskets, leathern jackets, and bucklers, and mainly the valor of the blacksmith. This man had just come from the communion, to which circumstance the fathers attributed his heroism, and although he wore no defensive armor of skins, he rushed out shouting vivas for the faith of Jesus Christ and death to the dogs, its enemies, at the same time firing away at the savages.

On the 14th day of July the Governor Portala and a servant; Father Juan Crespi and Francisco Gomez; Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada, the second in command, with a sergeant and twenty-six soldiers of the leathern jackets; Lieutenant Pedro Fages and seven of his soldiers-the rest had died on the San Carlos or were left sick at San Diego; Don Miguel Constanzo, the engineer; seven muleteers, and fifteen Christian Indians, sixty five persons in all, with a pack train carrying a large supply of provisions, set out to rediscover Monterey. The mortality on board the San Carlos prevented any attempt at that time by sea; that vessel having to be laid up at San Diego, whilst all the efficient men were transferred to the San Antonio, which was sent back with the news and for reinforcements, and lost nine men before reaching San Blas, although she made the voyage in twenty days. Such was navigation on this coast at that time. Portala returned to San Diego on the 24th of June, six months and ten days after his departure. He had been at the port of Monterey, stopped there and set up a cross without recognizing the place. Father Crespi, who kept the diary, said he supposed the bay had been filled up, as they found a great many large sand-hills. This disappointment caused Portala to keep on further towards the north, and at forty leagues distant in that direction they discovered the port of San Francisco, which they recognized at once by the description they had o

it. The fathers considered this circumstance as providential. They remembered that when Galvez was instructing Father Junipero by what names to call the three missions he was to found, the father had asked him: "But, sir, is there to be no mission for our father, St. Francis?" and that the visitor general had replied: "If St. Francis wants a mission, let him show us his port, and we will put one there." And in view of the discovery, they thought that it was now clear that St. Francis did want a mission, and had concealed Monterey from them purposely that they might go and find his port; and Galvez to some extent may have been of the same opinion, as they say, for he ordered a mission to be founded there, and a presidio also, as soon as he received the news. However this may be, a question of more historical interest, or curiosity, at least, is whether, notwithstanding that Portala knew the port from description as soon as he saw it, any other white man had ever seen it before. His latest guide was the voyage of Vizcayno, who had entered the port of San Francisco on the 12th of January 1603, and anchored under a point of land called Punta de Los Reyes, namely, in the bight outside the heads and north of Point Bonita.

In the port of San Francisco, as known to Vizcayno, the Manilla galleon San Augustine had been wrecked a few years before. Did a galleon ever enter our bay? Vizcayno was searching for a port to shelter the Manilla trade; if he had seen our harbor would he have ever thought of recommending Monterey? He was doubtless following the pilot who gave the information of the loss of the San Augustine; if that pilot had seen this port would not the specific object of Vizcayno have been to find it again, and not generally to explore the coast to look for a good harbor? Had anything been known of it, would it not have been mentioned by Galvez in his first instructions to Villa, in which he is so earnest on the subject of Monterey? Would he have waited for this news to have given the urgent orders that he did, that this important place should be taken possession of iramediately, for fear that it might fall into the hands of foreigners? It seems to me certain that Portala was the discoverer. And I regard it as one of the most remarkable facts in history, that others had passed it, anchored near it and actually given its name to adjacent roadsteads, and so described its position that it was immediately known; and yet that the cloud had never been lifted which concealed the entrance of the bay of San Francisco, and that it was at last discovered by land.

Although Portala reported that he could not find the port of Monterey, it was suspected at the time that he had been there. Father Junipero writes that such was his opinion and that of Don Vicente Villa, of the San Carlos. In the same letter he mentions another matter, and one which disturbed him greatly. The Governor Portala, finding his provisions very short, determined if a vessel did not arrive with relief, to abandon the mission on the 20th of March.

But California was saved at the last moment. The San Antonio came in on the 19th and brought such a quantity of provisions that Portala set out again by land, and Father Junipero himself embarked on the San Antonio, which had proved herself a good sailer and well commanded, and anchored in the bay of Monterey, namely, on the 31st day of May, 1770, and found that the expedition by land had arrived eight days before; and we thus see that the journey from San Diego at that time was made quicker by land than by water. Father Junipero writes that he found the lovely port of Monterey the same and unchanged in substance and in circumstance as the expedition of Sebastian Vizcayno left it in 1603; and that all the officers of sea and land, and all their people assembled in the same glen and under the same oak where the Fathers of Vizcayno's expedition had worshipped, and there arranged their altar, hung up and rung their bells, sung the Veni Creator, blessed the holy water, set up and blessed the cross and the royal standards, concluding with a Te Deum. And there the name of Christ was again spoken for the first time after an interval of more than one hundred and sixty-seven years of silence. After

the religious ceremonies were over, the officers went through the act of taking possession of the country "in the name of our lord the King."

When this news was received at the city of Mexico it created a profound impression. At the request of the Viceroy the bells of the cathedral were rung, and those of all the other churches answered; people ran about the streets to tell one another the story, and all the distinguished persons at the capital waited upon the Viceroy, who, in company with Galvez, received their congratulations at the palace; and that not only the inhabitants of the city of Mexico, but also those of all New Spain might participate in the general joy, the Viceroy caused a narrative of the great achievement to be printed; and which, indeed, was circulated throughout old as well as New Spain. It commences by referring to the costly and repeated expeditions which were made by the Crown of Spain during the two preceding centuries to explore the western coast of California and to occupy the important port of Monterey, which now, it says, has been most happily accomplished; and it is jubilant throughout. Nothing of this sort occurred when they heard a short time before of the discovery of the Bay of San Francisco; and in this authoritative relation it is not even mentioned.

1

Governor Portala, with the engineer Constanzo, very soon returned to Mexico in the good ship San Antonio, and carried themselves the tidings of their success. We may imagine what a description they gave when we remember that they left San Diego about the middle of April, and that at that season the country through which they passed to Monterey was mottled' all over with the brightest and most varied colors. They were the first to behold a California spring in all its boundless profusion of flowers. When they were gone there remained only Father Junipero Serra and five priests, and the Lieutenant Pedro Fages and thirty soldiers in all California; for the captain, Rivera y Moncada, with nineteen soldiers, the muleteers and vaqueros, was at this time absent too, in Lower California, whither he had gone to bring up a band of two hundred cattle and provisions. It is impossible to imagine anything more lonely and secluded than their situation here, at the time the bells were ringing so joyfully in Mexico on their account. Very soon, however, they began to get on good terms with the Indians, for Father Junipero was not a man to lose any time in beginning his work. And when they came to understand one another, the Indians there, under the pines, told them awful tales about the cross which Portala had set up the year before when he stopped at Monterey without knowing the place; how when they first saw the whites they noticed that each one carried a shining cross upon his breast; and how they were so terrified when they found the whites had gone and had left that large one standing on the shore that at first they dared not approach it; that at night it shone with dazzling splendor, and would rise and grow until it seemed to reach the skies; and how, seeing nothing of this sort about it in the day time, and that it was only of its proper size, they had at last taken courage and gone up to it, and to make friends with it, had stuck arrows and feathers around it in the earth, and had hung strings of sardines on its arms, as the Spaniards had found on their return. For the truth of this story the prudent father would not vouch, but they were still willing to regard it as an omen, and to attribute to it their easy success in converting the natives of those parts, as Father Junipero wrote to the Viceroy for his edification and encouragement. Father Junipero soon removed his mission from Monterey to a more suitable place close by, on the river Carmelo. This was his own mission, where he always resided when not engaged in founding or visiting other missions, or in some other duty appertaining to his office of president of the missions of Upper California. This high office he held for the first fifteen years of the history of California, and until his death, which occurred at his mission of Carmel on the 28th of August, 1784. His activity and zeal in the conversion and civilization of savages are really wonderful, and scarcely intelligible to us. The sight of