Gaspar de Portolà

Gaspar de Portolà

Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira (* 1716 in Balaguer , Catalonia, † 1784 in Spain or New Spain ) was a Spanish soldier, governor of Baja California and Alta California , discoverer and founder of San Diego and Monterey .

history

By 1767, Jesuit missionaries had established about twenty-three mission stations on the Baja California peninsula . Rumors circulated that the Jesuits had become very rich and very powerful in the process. Among other things, because of these rumors, Charles III imposed . finally the Jesuit ban . In connection with this, he banished all Jesuits from New Spain and ordered their arrest and deportation to Spain. Gaspar de Portolà was commissioned to carry out the king's orders and arrest the Jesuits. The missions were given to the Franciscans and later to the Dominicans . The Franciscans then played a central role in the occupation of Upper California for the Spanish Crown.

Statue of Gaspar de Portolà, by Josep Maria Subirachs

Despite the prohibition of the Jesuit order, Spain was still keen to establish mission stations in Alta California . This was especially true because the Spanish crown feared that England or Russia would claim the area for themselves. In 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno provided the cartographic basis for the Spaniards' advance northward along the California coast . In May 1768, Portolà volunteered to lead an expedition consisting of four groups - two at sea and two on land.

All four detachments should meet again in San Diego Bay . The first ship, the San Carlos , left La Paz on January 10, 1769, followed by the San Antonio on February 15. On land, the advance began on March 24th under the leadership of Fernando Rivera y Moncada and on May 15 under the leadership of Portolà from the San Fernando Velicata Mission . Portolà was accompanied by religious, missionaries and soldiers. The Franciscan Junípero Serra , considered the founder of San Francisco , was also part of the group.

Because of an error on the Vizcaíno charts, the ships initially missed the Gulf of San Diego and continued sailing to what is now Los Angeles , until they noticed the error and returned. This camp later became the city of San Diego. The San Antonio reached San Diego on April 11th, the San Carlos , which had had to deal with strong winds and storms, on April 29th. A third ship that was supposed to follow them with supplies was believed to have fallen victim to the sea. Rivera reached the bay in May and set up the camp there that later became the Presidio . Portolà arrived on June 27th. Serra followed him two days later with most of the supplies, 70 men, a large herd of cattle and horses, and 163 mules. However, the seafarers had been severely decimated. Many of them had died at sea, most of them from scurvy , but even after arriving in San Diego, seamen died almost daily. Of the two hundred and nineteen men who had left Baja California , a little over a hundred remained.

On July 16, 1769, Serra erected a cross and celebrated the first Holy Mass in Alta California. He established the San Diego de Alcalá Mission . This was the first of the Spanish mission stations in California and became the starting point of the El Camino Real , the "royal" road from San Diego to San Francisco, the most important trade route in California until the arrival of the Americans (when interest shifted to connections to the east) .

On July 14, 1769, Portolà had already set out in search of the Bay of Monterey . Portolà's group now marched constantly north, via today's Los Angeles and Santa Monica they reached Santa Barbara on August 19th . They moved on via San Simeon and finally reached the mouth of the Salinas River north of Monterey on October 1st .

After a march of about a thousand miles north they had reached the port they were looking for. But the fog obscured the coast so that the bay and the expected natural harbor of Monterey could not be seen. So they couldn't find the shape of the coast that Vizcaíno had described, even though they walked the beach several times. Believing that they had missed the port they were looking for, they marched further north, where they came to San Francisco Bay . They named many places south of the strait known today as the Golden Gate . They then return to San Diego, where they arrived on January 24, 1770.

After Portolà was convinced by one of his officers that he had indeed found Monterey, he put together an expedition group again. In April 1770 the San Antonio sailed north again, Junípero Serra went with her. Portolà himself again led a group on land.

The expedition followed the same route that they had followed the previous winter when they returned to San Diego. Thirty-six days later he reached the spot he had expected to see the port of Monterey the year before, but now, on a fine day, he saw how the description on the old maps would fit. A mass was held to celebrate the discovery and the country was officially annexed for Spain. They laid the foundations for the San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission , the second of the Spanish missions in California, and for the Presidio of Monterey .

Portolà's task was over. He left Captain Pedro Fages in command and sailed for San Blas . In 1776 Portolà was appointed governor of Puebla . In 1784 his successor was appointed and he returned to Spain. Nothing is known about his further life.

obituary

In Pacifica there is a 2.7 meter high statue of Gaspar de Portolà, which was donated to the state of California by the Catalan government in 1988. Portola, California and Portola Valley as well as various institutions and schools bear his name.

literature

• Crespí, Juan: A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770. San Diego State University Press, San Diego, CA. 2001, ISBN 1-879691-64-7 .

Web links

• San Diego Historical Society: Short biography of de Gaspar Portolà and the expedition to Alta California (Engl.)