While Junipero and his companions were thus engaged in planting the
faith among the Indians of San Diego, Portola's expedition was meeting
with unexpected trials and disappointments. The harbour of Monterey
had been discovered and described by Viscaino at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and it seemed no very difficult matter to reach
it by way of the coast. But either the charts misled them, or their own
calculations erred, or the appearance of the landscape was strangely
deceptive--at any rate, for whatever reason or combination of reasons,
the exploring party passed the harbour without recognizing it, though
actually lingering awhile on the sand hills overlooking the bay. Half
persuaded in their bewilderment that some great catastrophe must, since
Viscaino's observations, have obliterated the port altogether, they
pressed northward another forty leagues, and little dreaming of the
importance attaching to their wanderings, crossed the Coast range, and
looked down thence over the Santa Clara valley and the "immense arm"
of San Francisco Bay. By this time the rainy season had set in, and
convinced as they now were that they must, through some oversight or
ill-chance, have missed the object of their quest, they determined to
retrace their steps, and institute another and more thorough search.
On again reaching the neighborhood of Monterey, they spent a whole
fortnight in systematic exploration, but still, strangely enough,
without discovering "any indication or landmark" of the harbour.
Baffled and disheartened, therefore, the leaders resolved to abandon the
enterprise. They then erected two large wooden crosses as memorials of
their visit, and cutting on one of these the words--"Dig at the foot
of this and you will find a writing"--buried there a brief narrative of
their experiences. This is reproduced in the diary of Father Crespe
[3]; and its closing words have a touch of simple pathos: "At last,
undeceived, and despairing of finding it [the harbour] after so many
efforts, sufferings and labours, and having left of all our provisions
but fourteen small sacks of flour, our expedition leaves this place
to-day for San Diego; I beg of Almighty God to guide it, and for thee,
voyager, that His divine providence may lead thee to the harbour of
salvation. Done in this Bay of Pinos, the 9th of December, 1769." On
the cross on the other side of Point Pinos was cut with a razor
this legend:--"The land expedition returned to San Diego for want of
provisions, this 9th day of December, 1769."
The little party--or more correctly speaking--what was left of it, did
not reach San Diego till the 25th of the following month, having in
their march down suffered terribly from hunger, exposure, wet, fatigue
and sickness. Depressed themselves, they found nothing to encourage them
in the mission and camp, where death had played havoc among those they
had left behind them six months before, and where the provisions were so
fast running low that only the timely reappearance of the San Antonio,
long overdue, would save the survivors from actual starvation. Perhaps
it is hardly surprising that, under these circumstances, Portola's
courage should have failed him, and that he should have decided upon a
return to Mexico. He caused an inventory of all available provisions to
be taken, and calculating that, with strict economy, and setting aside
what would be required for the journey back to San Fernando, they might
last till somewhat beyond the middle of March, he gave out that unless
the San Antonio should arrive by the 20th of that month, he should
on that day abandon San Diego, and start south. But if the governor
imagined for a moment that he could persuade the padre presidente to
fall in with this arrangement, he did not know his man. Junipero firmly
believed, despite the failure of Portola's expedition, that the harbour
of Monterey still existed, and might be found; he even interested
Vicente Vila in a plan of his own for reaching it by sea; and he
furthermore made up his mind that, come what might, nothing should
ever induce him to turn his back upon his work. Then a wonderful thing
happened. On the 19th of March--the very day before that fixed by the
governor for his departure, and when everything was in readiness for
to-morrow's march--the sail of a ship appeared far out at sea; and
though the vessel presently disappeared towards the northwest, it
returned four days later and proved to be none other than the San
Antonio, bearing the much needed succour. She had passed up towards
Monterey in the expectation of finding the larger body of settlers
there, and had only put back to San Diego when unexpectedly, (and as it
seemed, providentially), she had run short of water. It was inevitable
that Father Junipero should see in this series of happenings the very
hand of God--the more so as the day of relief chanced to be the festival
of St. Joseph, who, as we have noted, was the patron of the mission
enterprise.
The arrival of the San Antonio put an entirely new complexion upon
affairs; and, relieved of immediate anxiety, Portola now resolved upon a
second expedition in quest of Monterey. Two divisions, one for sea, the
other for land, were accordingly made ready; the former, which included
Junipero, started in the San Antonio, on the 16th of April; the latter,
under the leadership of Portola, a day later. Strong adverse winds
interfered with the vessel, which did not make Monterey for a month and
a half. The land-party, following the coast, reached the more southern
of the great wooden crosses on the 24th of May, and after some
difficulty succeeded at last in identifying the harbour. Seven days
later, steering by the fires lighted for her guidance along the shore,
the San Antonio came safely into port; and formal possession of the bay
and surrounding country was presently taken in the name of church and
King. This was on the 3rd of June, the Feast of Pentecost; and on that
day of peculiar significance in the apostolic history of the church, the
second of the Upper California missions came into being. Palou has left
us a full account of the ceremonies. Governor, soldiers and priests
gathered together on the beach, on the spot where, in 1603, the
Carmelite fathers who had accompanied Viscaino, had celebrated the mass.
An altar was improvised and bells rung; and then, in alb and stole, the
father-president invoked the aid of the Holy Ghost, solemnly chanted the
Venite Creator Spiritus; blessed and raised a great cross; "to put to
flight all the infernal enemies;" and sprinkled with holy water the
beach and adjoining fields. Mass was then sung; Father Junipero preached
a sermon; again the roar of cannon and muskets took the place of
instrumental music; and the function was concluded with the Te Deum.
Though now commonly called Carmelo, or Carmel, from the river across
which it looks, and which has thus lent it a memory of the first
Christian explorers on the spot, this mission is properly known by the
name of San Carlos Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan. A few huts
enclosed by a palisade, and forming the germ at once of the religious
and of the military settlement, were hastily erected. But the actual
building of the mission was not begun until the summer of 1771