The Famous Missions of California
William Henry Hudson
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To Bonnie Burckhalter Fletcher
With Affectionate Recollections of California Days
London, England, 1901
I.
On the 1st of July, 1769 - a day forever memorable in the annals of California - a small party of men,
worn out by the fatigues and hardships of their long and perilous journey from San Fernandez de
Villicatà, came in sight of the beautiful Bay of San Diego. They formed the last division of a tripartite
expedition which had for its object the political and spiritual conquest of the great Northwest coast of the
Pacific; and among their number were Gaspar de Portolà, the colonial governor and military commander
of the enterprise; and Father Junipero Serra, with whose name and achievements the early history of
California is indissolubly bound up.
This expedition was the outcome of a determination on the part of Spain to occupy and settle the upper of
its California provinces, or Alta California, as it was then called, and thus effectively prevent the more
than possible encroachments of the Russians and the English. Fully alive to the necessity of immediate
and decisive action, Carlos III. had sent Jose de Galvez out to New Spain, giving him at once large
powers as visitador general of the provinces, and special instructions to establish military posts at San
Diego and Monterey. Galvez was a man of remarkable zeal, energy, and organizing ability, and after the
manner of his age and church he regarded his undertaking as equally important from the religious and
from the political side. The twofold purpose of his expedition was, as he himself stated it, "to establish
the Catholic faith among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness of paganism,
and to extend the dominion of the King, our Lord, and protect this peninsula from the ambitious views of
foreign nations." From the first it was his intention that the Cross and the flag of Spain should be carried
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