The Next Day, Thursday, November 2nd, Being All Souls Day, After Mass
Some Of The Soldiers Asked Permission To Go And Hunt For Deer.
They
climbed the mountains east of the camp and returning after nightfall
reported that they had seen from the
Top of the mountain an immense
estero or arm of the sea, which thrust itself into the land as far as
the eye could reach, stretching to the southeast; that they had seen
some beautiful plains thickly covered with trees, while the many columns
of smoke rising over them showed that they were well stocked with Indian
villages. This story confirmed them in the belief that they were at the
Port of San Francisco, and that the estero described was that spoken of
by Cabrera Bueno, the mouth of which they imagined they had seen from
the Montara mountains[30]. They were now satisfied that Ortega would be
unable to reach Point Reyes, and that three days was not sufficient time
to go around the head of such an estero. The exploring party returned in
the night of November 3d, discharging their fire-arms as they
approached. They reported that they found themselves obstructed by
immense estuaries which ran extraordinarily far back into the land[31],
but what caused their rejoicing was that they understood from the signs
of the Indians that at two days journey from where they were there was a
port in which a ship was anchored. On this announcement, some thought
that they were at the port of Monterey, and that the supply ship San
Jose or the San Carlos was waiting for them.
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