Nueva España consisted of all the Spanish territory north of the isthmus of Panama plus the Philippines, Guam, Mariana, and the Caroline Islands. In 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the Pacific coast of North America and claimed the coastline as far north as 42 degrees north latitude. In 1596 Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho, a Portuguese captain sailing for Spain, further explored some of the coast. In 1602 Sebastián Vizcaíno made a more thorough survey of the area, as far north as Monterey. But for the next century and a half the only efforts to settle the coast were some Jesuit missions on the Baja California peninsula. In 1767 Carlos III expelled the Jesuit order from his kingdom and named Gaspar de Portolá governor of California to replace them with Franciscans, who would set up their own network of missions in California. He reached Monterey bay but failed to recognize it as the port described by Vizcaíno, so he continued north in search of it, advancing to the headlands near today's Moss Beach, where he sighted Drakes Bay, which he mistook as the "port of San Francisco." His chief scout, sergeant José Francisco Ortega, led a side expedition that found the actual San Francisco bay on November 1, 1769; acting on his report, Portolá led his party into the hills to a place where the entire bay was visible, but only friar Juan Crespí was impressed, writing in his diary that it was "a very large and fine harbor, such that not only all the navy of our Most Catholic Majesty but those of all Europe could take shelter in it." In 1772, Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto proposed a new expedition to Alta California to reinforce the area as a buffer against Russian colonization from Alaska and possibly establish a harbor that would give shelter to Spanish ships. Two years later he left Tubac Presidio, south of present-day Tucson, Arizona, and reached Monterey before turning back. He was sent back to establish a colony in 1776; he advanced to the bay in March 1776 but did not establish a colony there, but his expedition’s chaplain Pedro Font mapped it and identified the site for the proposed Mission San Francisco de Asís (commonly known as “Mission Dolores” after the nearby Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores -- "Our Lady of Sorrows Creek”), the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco; it was established on 29 June 1776 by de Anza’s 2nd-in command José Joaquín de la Santísima Trinidad Moraga and friar Francisco Palóu in order to evangelize among the local Ohlone tribe. In September Moraga established the Presidio of San Francisco, Spain’s northern-most military post.
Nueva España consisted of all the Spanish territory north of the isthmus of Panama plus the Philippines, Guam, Mariana, and the Caroline Islands. In 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the Pacific coast of North America and claimed the coastline as far north as 42 degrees north latitude. In 1596 Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho, a Portuguese captain sailing for Spain, further explored some of the coast. In 1602 Sebastián Vizcaíno made a more thorough survey of the area, as far north as Monterey. But for the next century and a half the only efforts to settle the coast were some Jesuit missions on the Baja California peninsula. In 1767 Carlos III expelled the Jesuit order from his kingdom and named Gaspar de Portolá governor of California to replace them with Franciscans, who would set up their own network of missions in California. He reached Monterey bay but failed to recognize it as the port described by Vizcaíno, so he continued north in search of it, advancing to the headlands near today's Moss Beach, where he sighted Drakes Bay, which he mistook as the "port of San Francisco." His chief scout, sergeant José Francisco Ortega, led a side expedition that found the actual San Francisco bay on November 1, 1769; acting on his report, Portolá led his party into the hills to a place where the entire bay was visible, but only friar Juan Crespí
ReplyDeletewas impressed, writing in his diary that it was "a very large and fine harbor, such that not only all the navy of our Most Catholic Majesty but those of all Europe could take shelter in it." In 1772, Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto proposed a new expedition to Alta California to reinforce the area as a buffer against Russian colonization from Alaska and possibly establish a harbor that would give shelter to Spanish ships. Two years later he left Tubac Presidio, south of present-day Tucson, Arizona, and reached Monterey before turning back. He was sent back to establish a colony in 1776; he advanced to the bay in March 1776 but did not establish a colony there, but his expedition’s chaplain Pedro Font mapped it and identified the site for the proposed Mission San Francisco de Asís (commonly known as “Mission Dolores” after the nearby Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores -- "Our Lady of Sorrows Creek”), the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco; it was established on 29 June 1776 by de Anza’s 2nd-in command José Joaquín de la Santísima Trinidad Moraga and friar Francisco Palóu in order to evangelize among the local Ohlone tribe. In September Moraga established the Presidio of San Francisco, Spain’s northern-most military post.