The March of Portola and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco

Description of the Newly-discovered Port of San Francisco

Situated in Latitude 37° 53' North, Longitude 17° 10' West of San Blas

By Lieutenant Don Juan Manuel Ayala

Placed about two leagues west-southwest of Point Almejas52, latitude 37° 42', the following is to be seen: First that it53 is large, with two red barrancas54, and second, that to the north there are three white rocks at a stone's throw55. From that point the coast runs north-northeast, forming a small harbor in which there are five submerged rocks close to its shore; above it some white barrancas56, ending in a sloping bill which top, to the north, is what is called Angel Point57. This has near it several rocks58, the furtherest one a gunshot distant. From this point there is a harbor sufficient to accommodate any vessel59, not only on account of its bottom, but because it is sheltered from all winds excepting those from the west-southwest. The middle of this harbor is to the northwest, where a copious creek empties60; the point runs northeast 1/4 east. This harbor, with the one inside of it, which I called San Jose61, has been found very good, with the prevailing winds from the south to the northwest.

From Pt. Almejas to the northwest 1/4 west, four Farallones are seen, distant about four leagues. The one southernmost looks like a sugar-loaf. To the northwest 1/4 north, at a distance of about twelve leagues, a mountain62 is seen which ends in a low point. According to the records of Sebastian Vizcaino and coast pilot of Cabrera Bueno, this is the one called Point Reyes. From this point the coast runs east-southeast in the shape of a half-moon, open to all winds of the third quarter and ending in two barrancas at the foot of which a low point comes out with two submerged rocks. This point was called Santiago63, and, with one called Angel de la Guarda, forms the mouth of the channel of the entrance of the port64. Following this shore in a northeast direction, another harbor is to be found within three small rocks near the shore which, in case of necessity, may shelter any vessel. This harbor65 ends on the north with a large, steep, and broken point, at the foot of which there is a white farallon to which and to the point I gave the name of San Carlos66, and with Point San José, which is distant about half a league, forms the entrance of this famous port. It is to be borne in mind that any vessel that enters or leaves this port must take the precaution not to come near San Carlos Point, because in this place exist violent whirlpools which make useless the rudder, but must take the middle of the channel or sail near the shores of San José Point.

To the northeast 1/4 north of the middle of the entrance, an island67 is seen, distant about one and a half leagues. This island divides the water of the flood in two channels in which a vessel may anchor, especially in the one that runs northeast 1/4 north near the island where water and wood are to be found in abundance. The vicinity of the island is such good anchorage that a vessel can anchor within a pistol-shot of the shore.

To the east-northeast of Point San José there is a sheltered harbor, landlocked, with bottom which diminishes gradually to the shore, where water and some wood are to be found68. In this harbor there is no current, and for that reason, and because it is so near the point I consider, it one of the best anchorages.

Once Points San José and San Carlos have been passed, and taking care to leave at one side the principal channel, an anchorage can be made at any place, because it is sheltered from all winds; the only thing to avoid is the current, which in the principal channel is five miles, and in its branches three miles.

This report was made to me by Pilot Don José Cañizares, to whom I entrusted the examination of the port, because I was seriously sick.

Reconnaissance of the Port of San Francisco, with Map

Report of the Pilot Don José de Cañizares to Commander Don Juan de Ayala

Translation of a Certified Copy of the Original in the Archives of the Indies at Seville.

Dear Captain:—During the four times that I made reconnaissance of this Port, and made its map, I found at the northeast and north-northeast what is shown on the map and I here describe. To the north-northeast of Angel Island, distant about a mile, there is a bay running in a direction north-northwest to south-southwest. The distance between the points forming said bay, is about two leagues, and the shore line is about two and a half leagues. To the northwest of the shore there are three small islands, forming between them and the shore a narrow passage of shallow water closed to the southwest. This bay is all surrounded with hills with few trees, which are mostly laurel and oak, but at a distance to the west-northwest, is visible a wood of what seems to be pines. In the middle of this bay is standing a high farallon with submerged rocks around it. On the northeast of it there is sufficient water for anchorage, as is shown on the map. There is no doubt of its being good anchorage for vessels, provided they have good cables and anchors, for they are subject to great stress because of the current, which at this point, cannot be less than four miles an hour69.

North-northeast of said bay there is a mouth about two miles wide, where there are four small white rocks, the two north ones with the two south ones70 form a channel of nine brazas depth. From this, one passes to another bay71 more spacious, the diameter of which is about eight leagues, its shape a perfect isosceles triangle; its mouth is divided into two channels,—one, on the side of the southwest coast, turns to the northwest at about the distance of a mile and ends in two large harbors which are situated in the same shore at about four league's distance from the mouth that communicates with the first bay; from the northwest point of the furthest harbor to the north of it, distant about one and a half leagues, in turning a point to the west-northwest, a large body of water72 is seen, which I did not examine because the channel which leads to it is extremely limited, its depth not having three codos73 of water; from here to the east-northeast follows a low-lying island, just above the water level, ending in a division made by the hills74. The other channel, which is roomy and deep, runs directly in a northeast direction till it reaches the division of the hills through a cañon that runs in the same direction.

All the bay, which is called the round bay (Bahia Redondo), though it is not shaped that way, is surrounded with steep hills, without trees, excepting two spots on the slopes fronting the two harbors to the southwest. The rest of it is arid, rugged, and of a melancholic aspect. Outside of the channels there is in this bay about five codos of water, and at low tide two and a half, and in some places it is dry. It is not difficult to enter this bay, but going out will be difficult on account of the wind from the southwest. After a careful examination of its shore, I did not find any fresh water or any signs of it. Standing in the cañon, which is to the northeast, there is a channel75 a mile and a half wide, deep and clear. East of its entrance there is a ranchería of about four hundred souls. I had dealings with them, but did not buy anything, though I presented them with beads, which you had given me for that purpose, and some old clothing of mine. Their acquaintance was useful to my men and to me, as they presented us with exquisite fishes (amongst them salmon), seeds, and pinole. I had opportunity of visiting them four times and found them always as friendly as the first time, noticing in them polite manners, and what is better, modesty and retirement in the women. They are not disposed to beg, but accept with good will what is given them, without being impertinent, as are many others I have seen during the conquest. This Indian village has some scows or canoes, made of tule, so well constructed and woven that they caused me great admiration. Four men get in them to go fishing, pushing with two-ended oars with such speed that I found they went faster than the launch. These were the only Indians with whom I had communication in this northern part.

Following said channel a distance to the west from its mouth, there is a harbor, so commodious, accessible, abundant in fresh water and wood, and sheltered from all winds, that I considered it one of the best inland ports that our Sovereign has for anchoring a fleet of vessels. I called it Puerto de la Asumpta, having examined it the day of the festivity of that saint76.

To the southeast of this port77 the cañon continues, until it joins the channel of the Indian village. Following a distance of three leagues in an east-northeast direction, it enters another bay78 with a depth of thirteen brazas, diminishing to four where some rivers79 empty and take the saltiness of the water which there becomes sweet, the same as in a lake. The rivers come, one from the east-northeast (this is the largest, about two hundred and fifty yards wide), the other, which has many branches, comes from the northeast through tulares and swamps in very low land, the channels not over two brazas with sandy bars at their mouths, where I found in sounding the water not more than a half braza. This made me think they were not navigable, especially as on the second occasion I entered them, I touched bottom both in the channels and on the bars. The bay where these rivers empty, is another port larger than the Asumpta, where any vessel may enter, but it would be difficult to obtain wood, which is far from the shore. All the eastern coast is covered with trees; that to the west is arid, dry, full of grasshoppers, and impossible of settlement. This is all I have reconnoitered to the north of Angel Island. To the southeast of said island following the estero is as follows:

To the east of this island, at a distance of about two leagues, there is another, steep and barren, without any shelter, which divides the mouth of the channel in two80, through which the sea enters to a distance of about twelve leagues. The width of this channel is in some parts, one, two, and three leagues; its depth is not over four brazas, its width ample, but a pistol shot outside of the channel; its depth is not over two brazas. The extreme end of this sound, eastward, forms with a point, a pocket, which, at low tide is nearly dry81. In every part there are seen poles driven in (the mud), with black feathers, bunches of tule, and little shells, which I believe are buoys for fishing, since they are in the water. I think it will be impossible to anchor for three leagues inside of this slough, because it is so exposed to the weather that strong cables and good anchorage are needed to hold against the strong current from the north.

The northeast part of this slough is surrounded by high hills, and has in its mouth a thick wood of oaks, and at the other end groves of thick redwood trees. At the southwest of the coast is a small slough, navigable only by launches82, and on the coast two harbors83 where vessels can anchor. On the more eastern one there is an Indian village, rough, like the ones in Monterey. This part seems to have better places for missions, though I did not examine it except from a distance.

All the above stated in this report is what I observed, saw, surveyed, and sounded, during the days, in which by your orders, I went to the reconnoitering of this Port of San Francisco in its interior; and as proof of it, I sign it in this new Port of San Francisco, at the shelter of Angel Island, on September 7th, 1775.

José de Cañizares.

Index of Places

Index of Persons

FOOTNOTES:

1 (return)
[ Sierra de Santa Lucia.]

2 (return)
[ Audiencia, the highest judicial body.]

3 (return)
[ The system of encomienda conferred feudal rights upon the discoverers. The Indians became vassals of Spanish lords.]

4 (return)
[ Vizcaino says he set out on the discovery of the coast of the South Sea with two ships, a lancha, and a barcoluengo. A lancha was a small vessel having no deck and but one mast, and propelled by sweeps. Vanegas calls the vessel a fragata. A barcoluengo, or barcolongo, was a long open boat.]

5 (return)
[ The second voyage of Vizcaino is of particular interest to Californians for the reason that the names given by him to the various geographical features of the coast still remain. The particulars of the first voyage are taken largely from the publications of the Southern California Historical Society of documents in the Sutro collection.]

6 (return)
[ Sutro Col. Pub. Southern California Hist. Socy.]

7 (return)
[ Prof. George Davidson identifies the Rio de los Reyes as Rogue River in 42° 25'.]

8 (return)
[ About Cape San Quintin, the latitude of their northernmost mission.]

9 (return)
[ Instruccion qua ha de observer el Teniente de Infanteria. Dn Pedro Pages, 5 enero de 1769. Provincial State Papers; i, 38.9, Ms. Spanish Archives of California.]

10 (return)
[ So-called from the cuera, a leathern jacket worn by them as a defensive armor.]

11 (return)
[ Out West. March-July, 1902.]

12 (return)
[ Pancakes.]

13 (return)
[ Dead Men's Point. The name has disappeared from the modern maps, but is found on all of the old ones. It is the foot of H street where the cars for the Coronado ferry turn on to the wharf.]

14 (return)
[ I am well aware that this claim will be disputed by one whose study of original documents and power of analysis make him perhaps the greatest authority on early California History; but I am nevertheless prepared to maintain my position.]

15 (return)
[ Carga, 275 lbs.]

16 (return)
[ Hence the presidial soldiers were called Soldados de Cuera and so distinguished from soldiers of the regular army.]

17 (return)
[ Diario Historico de los viages de Mar y de tierra hichos al norte de la California. Ms. Original in Sutro Library.]

18 (return)
[ The league is the Spanish league of 5,000 varas. 2.63 miles.]

19 (return)
[ They also gave it the name of Santa Ana, whose day, July 26th, they had just observed.]

20 (return)
[ Sometimes called the Grand Pardon of Assisi—the great indulgence of the Franciscans. Originally granted to St. Francis for the Church of Our Lady of the Angeles of Porciúncula, it was, by apostolic indult, expanded to accompany the child of St. Francis wherever he may be. It is enough for him to erect an altar and that altar will be to him St. Mary of the Angels, and he will there find the Porciúncula of the revelations. Whoso confesses and receives the sacrament in the church of Porciúncula is granted plenary remission of his sins in this world and the next. This indulgence is only for August 2nd—that is, from the afternoon of August 1st until sunset of August 2nd.]

21 (return)
[ It is to this incident that the city of Los Angeles owes its name. The full baptismal name of the city is Nuestra Senora La Reina de los Angeles—Our Lady the Queen of the Angels. It was founded in 1781, by royal order, the second pueblo established in California.]

22 (return)
[ Ranchería is the name given to an Indian village or town.]

23 (return)
[ The Valley of the Bears.]

24 (return)
[ The diarists applied the word cañada to either a cañon or an open valley.]

25 (return)
[ The word ensenada, much used by the Spanish explorers, means a bight or open roadstead, not an enclosed and protected bay.]

26 (return)
[ "Transportar en Xamus al Modo que cominan las mujeres en Andalucia," Crespi: Palou's Noticias de la Nueva California, ii. 181.]

27 (return)
[ The names given on this portion of the route have all disappeared, but are here given as a suggestion to the Ocean Shore Railroad.]

28 (return)
[ The Fleas.]

29 (return)
[ It must be borne in mind that what they called the Bay or Port of San Francisco was that stretch of water reaching from Point Reyes to Point San Pedro and later known as the Gulf of the Farallones.]

30 (return)
[ Professor George Davidson says that what was seen by Portolá from the Montara mountains was the break in the Ballenos cliffs, a deep narrow valley which runs straight from Ballenos bay to Tomales bay, fourteen miles.]

31 (return)
[ The Golden Gate and Bay of San Francisco.]

32 (return)
[ The Bay of San Francisco continued to be called the "Estero," until some time after Colonel Anza established the presidio and mission of San Francisco in 1776.]

33 (return)
[ The present name, Cañada de San Andres, was given by Rivera, Nov. 30, 1714.]

34 (return)
[ On November, 1774, Rivera came up the peninsula on an exploring expedition and on the spot where he had camped with the first expedition in 1769, he planted a cross to mark the place for a mission. In March, 1776, Col. Juan Bautista de Anza, coming to select sites for the Presidio and Mission of San Francisco, notes this cross on the bank of the Arroyo de San Francisco (now San Francisquito creek), about one hundred paces above the great redwood tree, and says the plan for a mission there was abandoned because the creek was dry in summer. I note this explanation because an excellent authority has located Portolá's camp on Redwood creek.]

35 (return)
[ I give to Ortega the credit of discovering the Golden Gate and the Straits of Carquinez. The testimony seems sufficient to me.]

36 (return)
[ Vizcaino to the King, May 23, 1603. Pub. Hist. Socy. of Southern California, Vol. ii, Part 1.]

37 (return)
[ On the day of the Holy Innocents it was not possible to say mass. We are sorry for it, because it is the only feast day in all the journey up to the present that we have been without mass. We are stuck in a mud hole and are unable to move from the place where we are all wet through, and it is not possible to make a journada to a plain that is dry for this is bubbling up water—Crespi, Diario.]

38 (return)
[ Crespi: Diario.]

39 (return)
[ Palou: Noticias de la Nueva California.]

40 (return)
[ Invernate—to winter.]

41 (return)
[ Manuel Orozco y Berra, Apuntes Airs. la Historia de la Geografia an Mexico, Anales del Ministerio de Formento de la Republica Mexicana Tomo VI, p. 269. Documents in the Archives of the Indies, Seville.]

42 (return)
[ This is a summary of the document. A full translation would be too tedious for a work of this kind.]

43 (return)
[ On the Tres Marias Islands.]

44 (return)
[ Don Pedro Fages. Commandante of California, who had been recalled.]

45 (return)
[ Bancroft. Hist. of Cal., says Ayala sailed from Monterey, July 24th. That was to make the sailing fit the Bancroft theories.]

46 (return)
[ Braza—Fathom: Six feet.]

47 (return)
[ Ayala anchored inside Port Point—the Presidio anchorage.]

48 (return)
[ Richardson's Bay.]

49 (return)
[ Angel Island.]

50 (return)
[ Alcatraz—Pelican]

51 (return)
[ The Southern portion of the bay.]

52 (return)
[ Pt. San Pedro.]

53 (return)
[ That is: Pt. Almejas or Pt. San Pedro.]

54 (return)
[ Barranca: The dictionary definition is a ravine or gulch, but it also means a high bluff or cliff and in that sense is used by these explorers.]

55 (return)
[ i. e.: from Pt. Almejas.]

56 (return)
[ Cliff Rouse Rocks.]

57 (return)
[ Punta del Angel de la Guarda—Point Lobos.]

58 (return)
[ Seal Rocks.]

59 (return)
[ Bakers Beach.]

60 (return)
[ Lobos Creek.]

61 (return)
[ i. e.: Inside of Point San Jose—Fort Point.]

62 (return)
[ Tamalpais]

63 (return)
[ Point Bonita. The present name was given it in 1776.]

64 (return)
[ Golden Gate Strait.]

65 (return)
[ i. e.: The outer harbor; outside of the Golden Gate.]

66 (return)
[ Lime Point.]

67 (return)
[ Angel Island.]

68 (return)
[ The Presidio anchorage.]

69 (return)
[ This is the body of water between Pt. San Pedro, Pt. San Pablo, Pt. Richmond and Tiburon Peninsula. The high farallon is Red Rock.]

70 (return)
[ The rocks are The Sisters and The Brothers.]

71 (return)
[ San Pablo Bay.]

72 (return)
[ Napa Slough. The marsh was evidently under water, and island number one, with Mare Island, made one long island.]

73 (return)
[ Codo—1 1/2 feet.]

74 (return)
[ Mare Island. The division of the hills or cañon is Carquines Strait.]

75 (return)
[ Carquines Straits.]

76 (return)
[ The Assumption of the Virgin—August 15th. It is Southampton bay.]

77 (return)
[ That is, from Puerto de la Asumpta.]

78 (return)
[ Suisun Bay.]

79 (return)
[ The Sacramento and San Joaquin. Suisun Bay was long known as Puerto Dulce—Freshwater Port.]

80 (return)
[ Yerba Buena or Goat Island. Cañizaries marked it on the map (c) for isla do Alcatraces, but that evidently was a mistake, as a comparison of the entry in the Log under date of August 12, with the map will show.]

81 (return)
[ Oakland and Berkeley tide flats.]

82 (return)
[ Islais creek.]

83 (return)
[ Yerba Buena cove and Mission bay.]