Celebrating 250 Years: Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition and United States Semiquincentennial
Prelude to De Anza: Early Spanish Expeditions
In 1542, Portuguese mariner João Rodrigues Cabrilho mapped the Pacific coast but failed to spot the Golden Gate — obscured by persistent fog that would keep San Francisco Bay hidden from Europeans for over two hundred years. Spain's colonization of California was finally driven by the southward expansion of the Russian Empire along the Pacific coast.
In 1769, Gaspar de Portolá led 73 men north from San Diego alongside Father Juan Crespí and Fernando Rivera y Moncada, while Father Junípero Serra remained behind to consecrate Mission San Diego. Low on food and suffering from scurvy, the party overshot Monterey Bay — and on November 2, became the first Europeans to observe San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley. Pedro Fages, also on the expedition, succeeded Portolá as acting governor and later passed through the Santa Clara Valley, becoming the first European to confirm that the Bay connected to the Pacific Ocean. By 1775, Rivera y Moncada and Father Francisco Palóu had scouted the Peninsula for missions and a presidio, and on August 6, the San Carlos became the first Spanish ship to enter San Francisco Bay, greeted by Ohlone and Miwok in tule fishing boats. What remained was to send settlers.
The De Anza Expedition: Colonists on the Road to San Francisco Bay
Many of the newly established California missions were in danger of collapsing due to food shortages and Indigenous resistance to missionization. Father Junípero Serra — president of all the California missions — argued that the missions required Spanish and Hispanicized settlers from New Spain to support them. The man chosen to lead them north was Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza, who had already established an overland route from New Spain to Alta California in 1774, forging friendly relations with the Quechan (Yuma) people along the way.
The De Anza Expedition set out with 240 colonists including 30 soldiers, 40 women — eight of whom were pregnant — and more than 100 children. The colonists were of diverse backgrounds, including a mix of Indigenous, European, and African heritage. The expedition also included vaqueros, muleteers, servants, Indigenous guides, friars, 695 horses and mules, and 385 Longhorn cattle. Father Pedro Font served as chaplain and diarist. His and De Anza’s meticulous records give us much of what we know about the journey today.
On September 29, Font collected the settlers at Horcasitas in Sonora, Mexico, and the party arrived at the Presidio of Tubac in Arizona on October 15. The expedition set off on October 22 — but that very night, a soldier's wife and mother of seven named Manuela Peñulas went into labor, giving birth to a "very lusty boy." She would die of complications the following morning, the only expedition member to perish on the journey. She was buried at Mission San Xavier del Bac, where her newborn son was baptized. Her passing was a sobering reminder of the dangers faced by the colonists. Multiple women would give birth along the way, and De Anza repeatedly delayed the march so that mothers could recuperate.
Crossing the Sonora Desert, the party struggled to find enough water for everyone and all their animals. Their solution was to "march a tardeada" — splitting the party so that portions could travel over a stretch of trail at a time. Desertions began almost immediately and those caught were punished with beatings. On October 29, De Anza made clear his policy on interactions with Indigenous peoples: his men were not to steal goods, use weapons except in self-defense, or violate women or face harsh punishments. De Anza's motives were twofold in that he wanted to preserve good relationships with Indigenous nations, but also wanted to “set an example” and prepare native peoples for eventual missionization.
Along the Gila River, the expedition was warmly welcomed by villages of as many as 1,000 people — the same ones with whom De Anza had built goodwill on his 1774 expedition. On November 27, De Anza met again with Captain Salvador Palma, a leader of the Quechan people at the Colorado River crossing. Palma told De Anza that he desired for the Spanish to come live among his people. De Anza promised to take him to the Viceroy of New Spain to plead his case, a promise with lasting consequences for Alta California. Both Palma and De Anza's scouts informed him there was no easy ford, but De Anza found a place upriver where the river split into three shallower and more manageable streams where the expedition could cross. Fathers Garcés and Eixarch remained behind under Palma's protection until a mission could be set up with the Quechan.
The crossing behind them, the expedition now faced the most punishing leg of the journey. Caught in a serious snowstorm near the Laguna Mountains west of the present-day Salton Sea, the party lost a significant number of animals to the cold. Fifty more head of cattle perished in subsequent delays between December 14–16 and December 20–22. Lieutenant José Joaquín Moraga was temporarily deafened in both ears from cold exposure. On Christmas night, a third boy was born on the expedition.
Then came news that would cast a shadow over the entire enterprise. On January 1, 1776, soldiers sent ahead from Mission San Gabriel returned with word that the San Diego mission had been attacked by Kumeyaay warriors, killing Father Luís Jayme, wounding all the soldiers, and burning the mission. The rebellion had occurred on November 5th, when Portolá expedition veteran Lt. José Francisco Ortega and his men were away to establish San Juan Capistrano. Fifteen out of twenty-five Kumeyaay villages in a 31-mile vicinity contributed warriors to the assault, numbering as high as 600. The Kumeyaay were furious that the Spanish were seizing land to support their livestock and crops which disrupted their traditional economies and encroached on villages while taking their people into missions for labor. It was one of the most successful revolts against the California missions.
On January 4, the expedition arrived at Mission San Gabriel, where they met military governor Fernando Rivera y Moncada, an officer who had marched with the original 1769 Portolá expedition. De Anza, Font, and Rivera agreed that the colonists would recuperate at San Gabriel while the officers rode south to assess the damage. They arrived at San Diego on January 11. Rivera launched investigations, sent out soldiers to capture the rebellion's leaders, and traded threats with nearby Kumeyaay villages. But the investigation moved slowly, and De Anza, already on a mission of his own, grew impatient. The two men clashed repeatedly. By February 3, with little progress made and word arriving that the settlers were straining San Gabriel's food supply, De Anza resolved to depart, leaving Rivera to his investigations.
Further complications awaited at San Gabriel. A soldier had deserted the night before De Anza's return, taking three muleteers, a servant, twenty-five of their best saddle animals, trade beads, tobacco, chocolate, and two muskets. Lt. Moraga set out with seven soldiers to run them down, catching the deserters some 10 miles from the Colorado River. It turned out the soldier had stolen chocolate and liquor from the commissary, and fearful of being caught, had persuaded the others to flee with him. They were imprisoned and eventually sentenced to labor at the Presidio of San Francisco.
On February 20, De Anza departed without Moraga, leaving orders for him to catch up. The expedition followed the coastal trail defined by Portolá, reaching Mission San Luís Obispo on March 2. Font recorded an amusing scene upon arrival: those who had dressed up to enter the pueblo were precisely those who got the wettest crossing a mire. The pueblo itself had barely a dozen inhabitants.
On March 10, the expedition arrived at the Presidio of Monterey, where Father Serra greeted them and invited De Anza and Font to Mission Carmelo. There, Font spent time with Fathers Palóu and Crespí, both veterans of expeditions to San Francisco Bay, as preparations were made to set out for the Bay on the 14th. On the 13th, however, De Anza became suddenly severely ill, suffering from debilitating pains and a fever. It wasn't for another week that he would be able to take some steps, and he decided to proceed against doctor's advice.
On March 24, the party entered the Santa Clara Valley through Gilroy, where they began to encounter the local Matalans, Thámien, and other Ohlone peoples — the same people who had inhabited this valley for thousands of years, stewarding its environment.
And so it was on March 25, 1776, that De Anza encamped on the banks of Stevens Creek, which Font named the Arroyo de San Josef Cupertino. Over a century later, Cupertino would become the name of our city.
Near modern Burlingame the party found the cross that Rivera had raised to mark a place for a mission, though De Anza found the site to lack water in the dry season. On March 27, they reached Fort Point, where De Anza stood at the cliff's edge and looked out on the Golden Gate, erecting a cross to mark the site of the future Presidio of San Francisco. On March 29, he and Font located a suitable site for the mission at the Arroyo de los Dolores. The next day, Font measured a towering tree: 5.5 yards in circumference, 50 yards tall. It would come to be known as El Palo Alto which gave its name to the city of Palo Alto and still stands today, a true witness to history.
De Anza would never see the founding of San Francisco. Still recovering from illness and unable to obtain a reply from Rivera, he was forced to return to Mexico City. He left the task to Lt. Moraga, who led Father Palóu north to establish what the expedition had set out to build. The first mass in San Francisco was said on June 29. The presidio began construction on August 18 and was officially founded September 17. Mission Dolores followed on October 9. Rivera established Mission Santa Clara on January 12, 1777 only to be relieved of his position on February 3. And on November 29, 1777, Moraga founded El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian settlement in Alta California.