England Had Wrested Canada From France And Was
Ready To Turn Her Attention To The American Possessions Of Spain.
The
Family Compact of the Bourbon princes of France, Spain, and Italy had
aroused the ire of Pitt, then
At the zenith of his fame, and he resolved
to demand an explanation from Spain, and, failing to receive it, attack
her at home and abroad before she was prepared, declaring that it was
time for humbling the whole house of Bourbon. A check in the cabinet
caused Pitt's resignation, but in 1766 he was again restored to power
with vigor and arrogance unabated.
On February 27, 1767, Don Carlos III of Spain issued his famous decree
expelling the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions. This society had
established a number of missions in Lower California, and Don Gaspar de
Portola, a captain of dragoons of the Regiment of Spain, was appointed
governor of the Californias and sailed from Tepic with twenty-five
dragoons, twenty-five infantry, and fourteen Franciscan friars to
dispossess the Jesuits and turn the California missions over to the
Franciscans.
The king having been warned of the advance of the Russians upon the
northern coasts of California, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to take
effective measures to guard that part of his dominions from danger of
invasion and insult. While the viceroy was casting about to find a
person of sufficient importance and ability to organize and carry out so
great an undertaking, Don Jose de Galvez, visitador-general of the
kingdom and member of the Council of the Indies, offered his services
and volunteered to go to Lower California and effect the organization
and equipment of the expedition. His services were eagerly accepted, and
Galvez set out from the City of Mexico, April 9, 1768, for San Blas, on
the coast of New Galicia. Before arriving at that port, he was overtaken
by a courier from the viceroy bringing orders just received from the
court directing that a maritime expedition should be at once dispatched
to Monterey and that port fortified. Convening the Junta at San Blas on
the 16th of May, 1768, the senor visitador laid before them the
situation and the wishes of the king. He stated that on the exterior or
occidental coasts of the Californias, Spain claimed from Cape San Lucas
on the south to the Rio de los Reyes[7] in 43 degrees, though the only
portion occupied was from Cape San Lucas up to 30deg. 30'.[8] The civilized
or Christian portion of the community (gente de razon - people of
reason) did not, he said, number more than four hundred souls, including
the families of the soldiers of the garrison of Loreto and those of the
miners in the south; that if foreigners of any nation were to establish
themselves in the celebrated ports of San Diego and Monterey, they might
fortify themselves there before the government could receive notice of
it. In all the Sea of the South that washes the shores of New Spain
there were no other vessels than the two packet-boats recently built in
San Blas, the San Carlos and the San Antonio, and two others of small
tonnage which served the Jesuit missionaries in their communications
between California and the coast of Sonora.
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