The Discovery of San Francisco Bay (1542-1769)

Early Spanish map of the Bay Area from the Presidion in Monterrey (sic) to Bodega Bay in the north.

San Francisco Bay, one of the great natural harbors of the world, lay undiscovered for over two centuries from the time of first navigation along the California coast in 1542. Throughout the second half of the 16th century, Spanish, Portuguese and English navigators sailed along the California coast in search of a safe harbor yet repeatedly failed to sight the entrance to the great bay. Geography, fog and chance forever altered the region's history by hiding the Golden Gate and delaying the beginnings of European settlement along the bay. It was not until 1769 that Europeans first sighted the bay during a land expedition led by Gaspar de Portola and dispatched by Spain in a vain attempt to bolster its waning military influence in the region. To add to San Francisco's less-than-glorious beginnings, the Portola men only discovered the great bay by accident after overshooting their real target, Monterey, and then failed to even realize they were the first Europeans to sight the bay!

By the mid-sixteenth century, Spain, the dominant European power, had established colonies throughout much of South and Central America. Bible and sword in hand, the conquistadores plundered the natural resources and ruthlessly destroyed the native cultures. By the late 1530s, Spain's control extended as far north as present-day Mexico and starting in the early 1540's Spain began a campaign of exploration of the territories north of the Rio Grande.

In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was sent by Mexico's viceroy to explore the coast north of western Mexico. On September 28 Cabrillo landed in a bay he named San Miguel, now the city of San Diego, and became the first European to sail along the coastline of present-day California. Cabrillo sailed as far north as the mouth of the Russian River passing by the coast of Marin County and Point Reyes. Cabrillo and his crew, however, did not sail too close to the shoreline for fear of being shipwrecked and thus he became the first of a number of European explorers who missed the great bay east of the Golden Gate.

Exploration of the California coastline resumed after the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in 1565. Starting in 1566, Spanish vessels known as Manila Galleons carried trade between Mexico and the Philippines. The voyage to the Philippines was a fairly direct one, while the journey back required the Manila Galleons to take advantage of currents across the north Pacific which ended in northern California. There was thus a need for a safe port in northern California, which would allow vessels to stop for repairs and supplies.

English buccaneering activities along the California coast and western Mexico during the latter half of the 16th century lent further urgency to the need for a safe port. One of the more legendary buccaneers of the period was Sir Francis Drake, who was pillaging Spanish ships for Her Majesty the Queen while traveling around the globe. In the summer of 1579 he anchored his ship, the Golden Hind, in what was likely Drake's Bay, the bay South East of Point Reyes that Cabrillo had first sighted in 1542. (This bay was not named so until 1792 when English navigator Vancouver visited the area and named the bay in honor of the buccaneer). Drake went on shore and had his crew nail a plaque of brass claiming the land for the Queen of England. Though he remained for 6 weeks he never sighted the entrance to the bay, the reason probably being fog.

In the meantime, Spain was still looking to establish a safe port as a midpoint on the Manila-Acapulco route and in 1595, in view of this objective, Portuguese-born Sebastiano Cermeo was instructed to explore the California coastline. After a trying four-month trip across the Pacific, Cermeo landed his ship, the San Agustin, in present-day Drake's Bay. While Cermeo and part of his crew explored the surrounding region, a winter storm struck the bay and sunk their ship. The navigator and his crew of 70 men eventually made it back to Acapulco on a small manufactured vessel, an amazing feat possible mostly because of the assistance of friendly coastal Indians. For fear of another shipwreck, the sailors kept far away from the coast and Cermeo saw nothing of the entrance to the great bay. Before he left, though, Cermeo named present-day Drake's Bay, La Bahia de San Francisco, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order.

The fourth near-discovery occurred in 1602 when Sebastian Vizcaino, one of Cermeo's officers, sailed back to Drake's Bay in search of the sunken San Agustin. He failed to locate the ship, yet explored the coastline more methodically than his predecessors. His exaggerated praise of Monterey Bay greatly influenced future exploration of northern California and was a deciding factor in establishing the capital of Alta California in Monterey. While Vizcaino did well as an explorer, naming today's San Diego, Santa Barbara and Monterey, he too failed to spot the Golden Gate.

At this point it is hard not to wonder how it was possible for all these explorers to come so close to San Francisco Bay yet fail to see its entrance. How could they be such crude explorers, unable to discover one of the world's great bays despite numerous expeditions? Chance certainly seemed to be on the side of the Bay Area Indians, at least for another 200 years or so. Yet, the 200 or more voyages which had already been made between Mexico and the Philippines by the early 17th century indicates that factors other than chance were involved. For one, geography played an important role in keeping the Golden Gate hidden. From the open ocean, Alcatraz and Angel Islands are often in the line of view thus making the already narrow entrance appear as solid coastline. In addition, the top of the Berkeley hills merges with the sides of the Golden Gate thus further obscuring the opening to the bay. The navigational practices of the time also constituted an important factor. During the 16th and 17th centuries sailing vessels were small and entirely dependent upon wind for propulsion. As a result, captains needed to stay away from the coast lest adverse winds blow them against the shores and wreck their ship. Finally, fog itself, ironically one of the characteristics so commonly identified with San Francisco, often hid the Golden Gate from navigators.

In any event, Vizcaino's expedition was the last systematic effort at exploration along the California Coast for another 150 years. Though the Spanish Empire spread very rapidly from 1492 to 1542, its borders remained virtually fixed for the next two centuries. In addition to the constant danger and misery involved in sea exploration, several factors explain this period of Spanish lethargy. By the early 17th century, trade between Mexico and the Philippines had dwindled to just one ship a year, thus reducing the need for a port in northern California. Over-land expeditions into the South-West U.S. had failed to identify mineral wealth. The Spanish colonization model did not encourage exploration and settlement. And finally there was no competition from other European powers for these lands. In the end, the one factor that changed and rekindled Spain's interest in California was competition from another European power, namely Russia.

Starting in the 1750's, Russian fur traders, backed by government funds, began to expand their business on the western coast of North America starting in Alaska and gradually descending the coast until Fort Ross was established in northern California in 1812. The Spanish monarchy had noticed Russian ambitions in this area almost from the beginning, and in 1768 King Carlos III ordered the Viceroy of Mexico and his second, the Visitador General Jose de Galvez, to send land and sea expeditions to colonize Alta California. Jose de Galvez and Father Junipero Serra, Franciscan monk and head of the Baja missions, decided to set up a chain of missions, some protected by forts (presidios), to ensure control and communication along the coast of Alta California. The first two sites to be colonized were San Diego and Monterey.

Don Gaspar de Portola , Military Governor of the Californias, was given command of the land expedition and Captain Vila led the sea expedition which consisted of two vessels. The land and sea parties were to meet in San Diego by June, 1769, and then set out for Monterey. Portol left Velicat in Baja California (about 200 miles south of San Diego) on March 9 of 1769 with a party of approximately 60, including soldiers, Franciscan monks and christianized Indians and arrived in San Diego by mid-June. The two vessels left in January and February 1769 and arrived in late April after a grueling trip (two thirds of the naval expedition died from scurvy). On July 14, the land party set off into unknown territory in search of Monterey where they were to meet one of the two ships.

The Portola expedition of 1769, the first land exploration of California by Europeans, was a defining moment in the history of the region: it marked the end of the Spanish colonization of the New World and the beginning of the destruction of the California Indians. Miguel Costans, the engineer of the expedition, and Father Juan Crespi kept detailed diaries of the trip, describing how they traveled, the natural landscape, as well as the appearance and lives of Indians they encountered (most of whom were apparently friendly). The expedition reached Monterey Bay on September 30 after an arduous journey but failed to recognize it. In the words of Costans: ‘A port so famous as that of Monterey, so celebrated, and so talked of in its time, by ... expert sailors who came expressly to reconnoiter these coasts ... - is it possible to say that it has not been found after the most careful and earnest efforts, carried out at the cost of much toil and fatigue?’ What the Portola men failed to understand was to what extent Vizcaino had exaggerated. At this time, they were also expecting to meet up with the supply ship from San Diego that was nowhere in sight. So they continued further north in search of Monterey.

The Portola expedition reached the San Francisco Peninsula by late October. On October 31, the crew climbed to the top of the western ridge of Montara Mountain west of San Bruno and sighted the Farallones Islands and to the north Cermeos Bahia de San Francisco (Drakes Bay) and Point Reyes. Some members of the expedition, though, thought this to be Monterey Bay. Portola thus decided to send a scouting party under the command of Sergeant Jos Ortega to dispel any confusion.

In the meantime, a small group of soldiers went off into the hills to hunt deer for the hungry party. It was this group of soldiers which reached the top of Montara Mountains' Sweeney Ridge and beheld a body of water so great that Father Crespi described it as a harbor such that not only the navy of our most Catholic Majesty but those of all Europe could take shelter in it. On November 2, the hunting party returned to the camp with news of their discovery. The following day Sergeant Ortega confirmed the hunters account: while attempting to reach Point Reyes, they too had seen a vast body of water which channeled to the ocean through a strait, today's Golden Gate. On November 4, the entire Portol expedition saw the magnificent bay while crossing Sweeney Ridge.

So, ironically, after more than 200 years of naval exploration of the California coastline, San Francisco Bay was discovered by a land expedition and only by accident! In fact, Portola and his men did not even realize they were the first Europeans to sight the bay. Everyone was convinced that what they were seeing was a large inner arm of Cermeo's Bahia de San Francisco. In Costans's words, the accounts of the hunters confirm(ed) us more and more in the opinion that we were at the port of San Francisco. A few years later, Mexican authorities, confused over the presence of these two bays, began associating the name San Francisco with both, until the practice spread to Monterey and the larger, clearly superior bay, appropriated the name.

Mainly worried about locating Monterey Bay, Portola and his men did not even realize the significance of their discovery. Here before their eyes was one of the worlds great bays, a natural harbor vastly superior to Monterey Bay and clearly befitting Spain's new colonial ambitions for Alta California, yet Portol completely failed to grasp the importance of his greatest discovery. In his memoirs of this trip, written four years later, Portola spoke mainly of boredom, hunger and illness and said only of the San Francisco peninsula: I did not linger there, nor did I see anything worthy of description there, save only a labyrinth of bays and channels which inundate the territory. So modest was the Governor's view of the bay that it was not until 7 years later that the Spaniards settled its shores. And so it was that fog, chance and a misnaming had finally given birth to the Bay of San Francisco, site of the future Queen City of the West.

—K. Maldetto

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FURTHER READING:

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of California, Volume I, 1542-1800, Publisher Wallace Hebberd, 1963 (first published 1886).

Bean, Walton and Rawls, James, California: An Interpretive History, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Chapman, Charles E., History of California: The Spanish Period, MacMillan, 1949 (first published 1921).

Costans, Miguel, The Discovery of San Francisco Bay, The Portol Expedition 1769-70 (Diary of Miguel Costans), Great West Books, 1992.

Faber, Harold, The Discoverers of America, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1992.

Lewis, Oscar, San Francisco, Mission to Metropolis, Howell-North Books, Berkeley, 1966.

Charles Wollenberg, Perspectives in Bay Area History, UC Berkeley Press, 1984.

Contributors to this page include:

Maldetto,K. - Writer

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