USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. I > Part 2
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THE DEER HUNTERS
para el sudeste). These hunters of the deer, whose names are not given, probably saw the bay of San Francisco about noon of Thursday, November 2, 1769.
Under date of Wednesday, November 1, 1769, Father Crespi, priest and diarist of the expedition, writes: "In this little valley of the Punta de las Almejas del Angel de la Guarda, we celebrated mass, and after this the sergeant (Ortega) with his party started for a three days' exploration."
His entry for the next day, November 2d, notes the report of the hunters concerning the great estero, and says: "We conjectured also from said news that the explorers would not be able to reach the opposite shore which is seen to the north [the Marin coast] and would therefore be unable to inspect the point which we believed to be that of Los Reyes, because it was impossible within the period of three days to make the circuit necessary to go around the estero whose extension was so magnified to us by the hunters."
Costansó, moreover, under date of November I, says: "Our comandante ordered the explorers to examine the country to a certain distance, allowing them three days for such examination." He also says in his entry of the next day, that in view of the report of the hunters the explorers could not in three days "descabezar" (behead) an estero of such great extent as that described.
From San Pedro Valley, Crespi's "Vallecito de la Punta de las Almejas del Angel de la Guarda,"
34
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
to Point Lobos is, as the crow flies, thirteen miles. From Point Lobos to Telegraph hill* is six miles. According to Crespi, Ortega started immediately after mass-say at eight o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, November Ist. He would travel at the rate of one league per hour, at least, and five hours of travel would bring him to Point Lobos where his further progress towards Point Reyes would be arrested by the waters of the Golden Gate.
He had been given three days' time to explore the coast up to Punta de los Reyes, say twenty leagues distant. Here in half a day's journey, with only five of the twenty leagues accomplished, he had come to the end of the land, with the objec- tive point of his order still in the distance before him. What was he to do? Return to the com- mander and report that he could not get through? Certainly not until he had satisfied himself that the terms of the order were impossible of execution without boats to carry him over the water. Ortega was thirty-five years old and had served for fourteen years as a soldier on the frontier; he was the explorer and pathfinder of the expedition and upon his experience, sagacity, and courage his commander depended. He had exhausted but one-half of the first of his three days. Perhaps it was possible for him to descabezar this body of water that impeded his progress? It was clearly his duty to try, and I do not think there can be any doubt as to what
* Loma Alta, the high hill north of Yerba Buena cove.
35
1434022
FIRST SIGHT OF THE BAY
Ortega would do. The language of both Costansó and Crespi indicates that Ortega connected the water which had barred his progress with the estero seen by the hunters. A ride of half or three- quarters of an hour would bring him to the mesa, back of Fort Point, whence the central and northern portions of the bay and the Alameda and Contra Costa shores would be in full view, while a further ride of three-quarters of an hour would carry him to Telegraph hill, from the summit of which the greater part of the bay of San Francisco would spread before him. On this theory then, Ortega would, by two or half past two o'clock of the after- noon of November Ist, have seen that part of the bay lying north of Yerba Buena island, and by or before four o'clock the greater part of the whole.
I am of the opinion therefore, that José Francisco Ortega was the actual discoverer of the bay of San Francisco, and that he saw it some twenty hours before the hunters of the deer.
The second day of Ortega's expedition was prob- ably spent in exploring the shore of the bay and the third in his return, by the route of his coming, to the camp at San Pedro.3
That the commander realized the impossibility of reaching Punta de los Reyes by proceeding up the ocean shore is shown by the fact that the day after Ortega's return he took up his march for the south end of San Francisco Bay and made an attempt to reach Point Reyes by the contra costa.
1
CHAPTER II. EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO 1770-1775
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P ORTOLA established the presidio and mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey, June 3, 1770, and dispatched a messenger to the City of Mexico to the Marques de Croix, Viceroy of New Spain, announcing the addition of a new province to the realms of His Most Catholic Majesty, Don Carlos III. For more than two hundred years Spain had claimed the Pacific coastof North America up to forty- twodegrees but had done nothing tomaintain her right by settlement. Now, in the foundation of Monterey, Alta California was brought under the flag of Spain and all nations were notified that she would protect her land from invasion and insult. The news of Por- tolá's success was received with joy and steps were at once taken to found on the shores of the great bay so recently discovered an establishment which, it was thought, would develop into a great com- mercial city. Portolá had been ordered to establish three missions: one at San Diego, one at Monterey, and one at some intermediate point, to be named for the good doctor serafico, San Buenaventura.4 It was now resolved to found five more missions in the new province and the guardian of the college of San Fernando was asked to furnish ten additional missionaries. The five missions proposed were San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, San Fran- cisco, and Santa Clara.
On November 12, 1770, the viceroy instructed Don Pedro Fages, comandante of California, to explore
39
40
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
the port of San Francisco for the purpose of estab- lishing a presidio and mission there, since a place so important ought not to remain exposed to foreign occupation. This order was received by Fages some six months later. Fages had but nineteen men at Monterey, while at San Diego, Rivera had twenty- two. This was the entire military force in Cali- fornia. Two missions: San Diego and Monterey, had been founded, but the establishment of San Buenaventura had been delayed by lack of troops. Rivera was ordered to send a portion of his force to Fages in order that the latter might make the recon- naissance of San Francisco, but the Indians at San Diego were manifesting a hostile disposition and Rivera would not divide his force. So it was not until March 1772 that Fages found himself able to obey the order to explore the port of San Fran- cisco .* On the 22d of March 1772, Fages left the presidio of Monterey with a guard of twelve soldiers, Father Juan Crespi, two servants, and a pack train, and taking a northeasterly course camped the first night on the bank of the Salinas river. The next morning they crossed the plains of Santa Delfina (Salinas valley), passed over the Gavilan mountains by the cañon of Gavilan creek, and descended into the San Benito valley, camping on the bank of the Arroyo de San Benito on the 21st, the day of St. Benedict, giving the stream the name it now bears.
* Fages had made a brief trip to the bay of San Francisco in November, 1770, and explored the contra costa to the Carquines straits.
-
41
EXPEDITION OF FAGES
The beautiful valley they called San Pascual Bailon. The next day they crossed the Pájaro river and entered the San Bernardino valley, naming it for Saint Bernardine of Siena, and camped for the night on an arroyo which they called Las Llagas de Nuestro Padre San Francisco-The Wounds of Our Father St. Francis. Ancient San Bernardino is now a part of the Santa Clara valley, but the Arroyo de Las Llagas still retains the name Fages gave it. The next day they passed into the upper Santa Clara valley, then called the Llano de Los Robles-the Plain of the Oaks-and keeping to the right of the great estero camped on an arroyo near the south- eastern point of the bay. On Wednesday March 25th, they camped on San Leandro creek, called by them San Salvador de Horta. Thursday the 26th they were on the site of Alameda, then covered with a forest of oaks, and called the San Antonio creek, Arroyo del Bosque-Creek of the Grove. Looking across to the Golden Gate they named it La Bocana de la Ensenada de los Farallones-The Entrance to the Gulf of the Farallones. On Friday they looked from the Berkeley hills through the Golden Gate to the broad Pacific. The next two days they followed the shore of San Pablo bay, hoping to get to the high sierra they saw to the north of La Bocana and reach Point Reyes near which, they believed, was the real port they were seeking. This they could not do because of an estero, quarter of a league wide, deep, and impassable without
42
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
boats. To the mountain of the north* they gave the name La Sierra de Nuestro Padre San Francisco, as it seemed to be the guardian of his port. On the opposite bank of that estero we call Carquines strait, they saw many rancherías whose Indians called to them, and seeing that the strangers were passing on, crossed the strait on their tule rafts and presented the travelers with their wild eatables.
Following up the estero, they camped March 30th on an arroyo near the present Martinez and the next day passed on to the site of Antioch. They tasted the waters of Carquines strait and Suisun bay and found them fresh, then climbing the hills they looked upon the great valley with its rivers dividing themselves into many branches, all of which united to form one great river before entering La Bahia Redonda. To this mighty river "the largest that has been discovered in New Spain" Fages gave the name of San Francisco. Satisfied that it was impossible to reach Point Reyes by this route with his present equipment, Fages returned to Monterey and made his report to the viceroy.5
On August 17, 1773, Bucaréli ordered Rivera, who had succeeded Fages, to make a further explora- tion of the port of San Francisco and of the great river that emptied into it, and on the 23d of Novem- ber 1774, Rivera with Father Palou and an escort of sixteen soldiers with forty days' provision, left Monterey and took his way to the famous port.
* Tamalpais.
43
EXPEDITION OF RIVERA
Keeping to the west of the bay they found them- selves at II.30 a. m. of November 28th on a deep arroyo through which ran about two bueyes* of water, its banks well covered with poplars, willows, laurels, and other trees, while some hundred paces below the ford stood a great redwood (madera colorada), seen for more than a league before reaching the arroyo, and which from a distance looked like a tower. They camped on the north bank of the stream and believing it to be a good place for a mission erected a cross near the ford. Palou writes "In this same place the first expedition (Portolá) arrived, and was the limit it reached, and where it stopped the 7, 8, 9, and 10th days of December, '69, while the explorers were looking for the port of San Francisco." They were on the Arroyo de San Francisco, or as it is now called, the San Fran- cisquito creek, and the great redwood described is the famous palo alto (high tree) of Stanford University.
On March 30th they passed through the Cañada de San Andrés and gave it that name, it being the day of St. Andrew, though it had been previously named by Portolá the Cañada de San Francisco. It now belongs to the Spring Valley Water Company and in it are the company's principal reservoirs. On December 4th, Rivera and Palou planted a cross on Point Lobos at a place "that had not, up to this
* A Buey de Agua is the unit of the old Mexican system. It is the amount of water that will pass through an orifice one vara (2.75 ft.) square. I am sup- plied with this definition by Mr. Charles F. Lummis of Los Angeles.
44
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
time, been trodden by Spaniard or other Christian," and where it could be seen from the beach. The weather was bad and Rivera returned to Monterey without further exploration.
In March 1775 an expedition for exploring the northern coast sailed from San Blas under command of Don Bruno de Heceta, consisting of the frigate Santiago in charge of the commander-in-chief, the packet boat San Carlos under Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, lieutenant of frigate, and the schooner Sonora under Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Cuadra, lieutenant of frigate. To Lieutenant Ayala was assigned the survey of the bay of San Francisco, while the Santiago and Sonora sailed for the north. Bodega discovered the bay that bears his name and Heceta discovered the Columbia river. Sailing with the squadron was a supply ship, the San Antonio, under Lieutenant Fernando Quiros, bound for San Diego.
For forty days Ayala faced contrary winds steadily driven southward to latitude 18° 40', and it was not until June IIth that he reached Cape San Lucas. From now on his progress was steady if slow, and on the 29th he cast anchor in Monterey bay, IOI days from San Blas. Here he unloaded the cargo of stores brought for the Monterey presidio, made some needed repairs, took on ballast and wood and water, and prepared for the expedition to San Francisco bay. He also constructed on the Rio Carmelo, a cayuco-a canoe or dugout-from the trunk of a redwood tree, to assist in the survey.
45
THE SAN CARLOS ENTERS THE BAY
On July 27th the San Carlos sailed for San Fran- cisco bay, beginning the voyage with a novena to their seraphic father, Saint Francis. Owing to contrary winds progress was slow and it was not until August 5th that they approached the entrance to the port. At eight in the morning of that day the launch was lowered, and Don José Cañizares, sailing master, with a crew of ten men, was sent in to make a reconnaissance and select an anchorage for the ship. At nine the tide was running out so strongly that the ship was driven to sea, but at eleven o'clock the tide turned and it drew near the coast, the captain approaching the entrance with caution, taking frequent soundings. At sunset the launch was seen coming from the port but the flood tide was too strong and she was forced back. Night was now coming on; an anchorage must be found and the San Carlos stood in through the unknown passage. Rock cliffs lined the narrow strait and the inrushing tide dashing against rock pinnacles bore the little ship onward. In mid-channel a sixty fathom line with a twenty pound lead failed to find bottom. Swiftly ran the tide and as day darkened into night the San Carlos sailed through the uncharted narrows, passed its inner portal, and opened the Golden Gate to the commerce of the world. Skirting the northern shore, the first ship cast anchor in the waters of San Francisco bay at half past ten o'clock on the night of August 5, 1775, in twenty-two fathoms, off what is now Sausalito.6
46
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
At six the next morning the launch came across from the opposite shore and the mate* explained his failure to come to the ship when he saw her approaching by saying that the tide was so strong that it drove him back in spite of all his efforts. Richardson's bay was then explored by the mate in the launch, but was not considered safe because of the character of its bottom and the fact that it was exposed to the southeast winds. Ayala named it Ensenada del Carmelita because of a rock in it that resembled a friar of that order. From a ranch- ería in Richardson's bay the Indians came, and with friendly gestures invited the boat's crew to visit them, but they, having no orders to do so, kept at a distance from the beach, and at nine o'clock returned to the ship. From Belvidere point the Indians cried out to the sailors on the ship who, hav- ing no interpreter, could not understand them. At three o'clock in the afternoon an attempt was made to move the vessel to a safer anchorage but the tide was running too swiftly and they anchored off Point Tiburon in fifteen fathoms, dropping two anchors which however did not prevent the ship from drifting.
Meanwhile the Indians on shore near the vessel were keeping up their solicitations and on the seventh the commander sent the chaplain, Fray Vicente Santa María, with the mate and a boat's crew of armed men, in the launch, to pay them a visit. He
* Piloto: sailing master, or mate.
47
ISLA DE LOS ANGELES
furnished them with beads and other trinkets for the Indians and charged them to take every precau- tion against treachery. They were hospitably received by the natives and entertained at their ranchería with pinole,* bread made from their corn or seeds, and tomales of the same. They were much pleased with their reception and found that the Indians could repeat the Spanish words with facility.
Explorations by use of the launch were continued and on the twelfth they made an examination of the large island near them which they named Isla de Los Angeles. Here they found good anchorage, and near at hand, wood and water. Another island near by they named Isla de Alcatraces because of the number of pelicans on it .; This was steep and barren and without shelter, even for a launch.
On the thirteenth Ayala moved his ship to the anchorage of Isla de Los Angeles, or Angel island, as it is now called, which I presume was Hospital Cove where the United States Quarantine station now is. Here, protected from the wind and the strong currents, he made his ship secure with anchors fore and aft, lowered the yards and sent down the top masts. This done he sent the launch with Cañizares and an armed force of men and provisions
* Pinole: a meal made from parched corn or acorns.
t Bancroft says (Hist. Cal. i, p. 702): "The name, 'Isla del Alcatraz' is used by Borica in 1797. I mention this fact because it has often been stated that the original and correct form was Alcatraces, in the plural." Comment is unnecessary. See Ayala's map, p. 50.
48
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
for eight days, to continue the survey into San Pablo and Suisun bays. Cañizares returned on the twenty-first and the launch was sent with fresh men under the second mate, Juan Bautista Aguirre, to look for a party Rivera had promised to send by land from Monterey, and, if he failed to find them, to explore the southeastern portion of the bay. Aguirre did not find the Monterey expedition for the good reason that Rivera had sent none, and when sent again on the thirty-first, with the cayuco, he found neither the Monterey expedition nor that of Colonel Anza, for which Ayala was looking .* Mean- while on the twenty-third fifteen Indians came off to the ship on two of their tule rafts or canoes and were taken on board, entertained and given food. On the twenty-eighth Cañizares resumed his explora- tion of San Pablo and Suisun bays and returned September Ist. The next few days he spent in surveying the southerly part of San Francisco bay and in making his report to the commander. His descriptions of the bay are excellent and the sound- ings shown on his map compare with those of the Coast Survey, allowing for the shallowing of the last sixty years. San Pablo bay he calls Bahia Redonda, though he says it is not round but in the shape of an isosceles triangle. This appears on his map as Bahia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. He visited an Indian ranchería at the entrance to Car- quines strait and found the natives polite and modest,
* Anza did not start from Tubac until October 23d.
49
CARQUINES STRAIT
not disposed to beg although they accepted some presents of beads and old clothes, and responded by giving the Spaniards some excellent fish, pinole, and seeds. These Indians had rafts or canoes made of tule and so well constructed and woven that they won the admiration of the sailing-master. Four men in them with double bladed oars could make greater speed than the launch. Passing through Carquines strait, to which he gives no name, Cañi- zares describes Southampton bay which he calls Puerto de la Asumpta, having examined it August 15th, the festival day of the Assumption of the Vir- gin. Suisun bay is described as a large port into which some rivers come and take the saltiness from the water which there becomes sweet as in a lake .* One river coming from the east-northeast (east-the San Joaquin) is about two hundred and fifty varas wide; the other, which has many branches, comes from the northeast through tulares and swamps, in very low land, and there are but two fathoms of water in their channels and sand bars with but half a fathom at their mouths.
Cañizares also mentions another island, to which no name is given, about two leagues to the south- east of Angel island. This is Yerba Buena. The tide flats of the Alameda coast with poles driven into the mud for the fishing stations of the Indians; the Presidio anchorage, Yerba Buena cove, Mission bay and Islais creek are all described, as well as
* Font's "Puerto Dulce."
50
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
the hills and groves of oak and redwood. A ranchería on the Alameda shore, seemed to be a good place for a mission, though he only viewed the site from a distance.
To Point Lobos was given the name Punta del Angel de la Garda. Fort Point was called Punta de San José. Lime Point was Punta de San Carlos, and Point Benito, Punta de Santiago. Point San Pedro was called Punta de Langosta (Locust Point), Point Richmond, Punta de San Antonio, and Point Avisadero, Punta de Concha. Mission bay was named Ensenada de los Llorones (The Weepers) because, it is said, the sailors saw some Indians weeping on the beach. Islais creek was called Estero Seco; the cove between Tiburon and Belvi- dere was Ensenada del Santo Evangelio; Mare island, Isla Plana, and Suisun bay Junta de los Quatro Evangelistas-The meeting of the four Evangelists. Of all the names given by Ayala there only remain to us Angel and Alcatraz islands. Point San José transferred its name to the next point east, while the point to which it was originally given became known as the Punta del Cantil Blanco, the name given it by Anza, and is now called Fort Point.
On the 7th of September Ayala had completed his survey and at eight in the morning he weighed anchor and leaving the shelter of Hospital Cove sailed for Monterey, but the wind failing, the current swept him on to a rock near Point Cavallo, injuring his rudder and compelling him to put into Horseshoe
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50
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
the hills and groves of oak and redwood. A rancheria on the Alameda shore, seemed to be a good place for a mission, though he only viewed the site from a distance.
To Point Lobos was given the name Punta del Angel de la Garda. Fort Point was called Punta de San José. Lime Point was Punta de San Carlos, and Point Benito, Punta de Santiago. Point San Pedro was called Punta de Langosta (Locust Point), Point Richmond, Punta de San Antonio, and Point Avisadero, Punta de Concha. Mission bay was named Ensenada de los Llorones (The Weepers) because, it is said, the sailors saw some Indians weeping on the beach. Islais creek was called Estero Seco; the cove between Tiburon and Belvi- dere was Ensenada del Santo Evangelio; Mare island, Isla Plana, and Suisun bay Junta de los Quatro Evangelistas-The meeting of the four Evangelists. Of all the names given by Ayala there only remain to us Angel and Alcatraz islands. Point San José transferred its name to the next point east, while the point to which it was originally given became known as the Punta del Cantil Blanco, the name given it by Anza, and is now called Fort Point.
On the 7th of September Ayala had completed his survey and at eight in the morning he weighed anchor and leaving the shelter of Hospital Cove sailed for Monterey, but the wind failing, the current swept him on to a rock near Point Cavallo, injuring his rudder and compelling him to put into Horseshoe
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AYALA'S MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY
51
HECETA'S EXPEDITION
bay for repairs. While thus detained he employed the time in examining the entrance to the bay. He sailed on the eighteenth and arrived at Monterey the next day. He had spent forty-four days in the bay of San Francisco.
Meanwhile Don Bruno de Heceta had returned to Monterey from his northern trip August 29th and learning that the land expedition for San Francisco promised by Rivera had not been sent, organized a party to go to the assistance of Ayala and help in the survey of the port. On the 14th of September he set out, with a guard of nine soldiers and accompanied by Fathers Palou and Campa, three sailors, and a carpenter, and carrying on a mule, a small canoe. They followed the route taken by Rivera in 1774, and on the twenty-second arrived at the beach below the Cliff House rocks where they found the wreck of Ayala's cayuco cast ashore. At the foot of the cross erected on the hill at Point Lobos by Rivera in 1774, they found letters from Padre Santa María directing them to go a league inland and light a fire on the beach to attract the notice of the San Carlos anchored at Angel Island. When this was done and there was no answer to the signal, Heceta retraced his steps as far as Lake Merced where he encamped September 24th, the day of Our Lady of Mercy, and gave to the lake the name it bears to-day: La Laguna de la Merced. Concluding that the San Carlos had finished her survey, Heceta left for Monterey where he arrived October Ist.
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