He
Directed That To Vizcaino Should Be Given The Command Of The Expedition.
His Orders Were Not Carried Out And Vizcaino Sailed Instead For Japan,
Whence He Returned In 1613, And Died Three Years Later.
For over one hundred and sixty years, no steps were taken for the
pacification and settlement of Alta California.
The galleons continued
to make their yearly voyages to the Philippines, and returning, sail
down the coast within sight of the fair land; but no harbor of refuge
was established and no attempt was made to colonize the country.
At last the Spanish king began to realize that if he would retain his
possessions in America, some action was necessary for their protection.
Spanish sovereignty in the Pacific was threatened. The Russians had
crossed Bering Sea, had established themselves on the coast of Alaska,
and their hunters were extending their pursuit of the sea otter into
more southern waters. 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. In these few ships consisted
all the maritime forces which could have been opposed to foreign
invasion. All this Galvez laid before the Junta, there being present the
commandant of the department and the army officers and pilots who
chanced to be there. It was resolved to send an expedition by sea in the
San Carlos and San Antonio, and orders were made to prepare the ships,
while Galvez proceeded to the peninsula to attend to the gathering of
supplies and provisions. All the missions of Lower California were laid
under contribution of vestments and sacred vessels for the new missions
to be established, also dried fruits, wine, oil, riding horses and mule
herd; for Galvez had decided to supplement the maritime expedition by
one by land, lest the infinite risks and dangers attending a long
sea-voyage should render the attempt abortive. The governor, Don Gaspar
de Portola, volunteered to lead the expedition, and he was named
commander-in-chief. Don Fernando de Rivera y Moncado, captain of the
presidio of Loreto, was appointed second in command. The troops were
composed of forty cavalrymen from the presidio of Loreto in Lower
California, under Rivera, and twenty-five infantrymen of the compania
franca of Catalonia, under Lieutenant Don Pedro Fages. To the presidial
troops were joined thirty Christian Indians from the missions, armed
with bows and arrows. These were intended for the land expedition. The
mission of Santa Maria, the northernmost mission on the peninsula, was
the rendezvous of the land forces, and from Loreto four lighters loaded
with provisions for the land expedition were sent up the gulf to the bay
of San Luis Gonzaga, the nearest point to the mission of Santa Maria,
whither also went by land the troops, muleteers, and vaqueros, with the
herd of every sort.
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