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It was placed five miles farther south, where there were better pasturage and shelter. This was on a beautiful slope of the hill, flanked by a fertile valley opening out to the glittering sea, with the mountains of Santa Lucia in front and a great pine forest behind. The valley was named Carmelo, in honor of Vizcaino's Carmelite friars, and the mission was named for San Carlos Borromeo.
The boats and the other party were already there, and in the valley to the north of the mesa, on the banks of the little San Diego River, they founded the first mission in California. Within a fortnight of Serra's arrival at San Diego, a special land expedition set out in search of Vizcaino's lost port of Monterey.
Years after these expeditions the good Jesuit Fathers established several missions in Lower California, but were recalled to Spain by King Carlos III and by this sovereign's request the Franciscan Fathers of the College of San Fernando were commissioned to take the newly vacated missions and accompany as missionaries the great and glorious enterprise of Don Gaspar de Portola, with Vizcaino's map as guide, to further explore California and add it to the Crown of Castile and Leon.
A few weeks later Padre Junipero wrote to Padre Palou: "By the favor of God, after a month and a half of painful navigation, the San Antonio found anchor in this port of Monterey, which we find unvarying in circumstances and substance as described by Don Sebastian Vizcaino." They even found Vizcaino's oak.
Junipero Serra left the Mission of San Diego in charge of two of the good fathers and a small garrison as guards, and set out with Portola on his second expedition; and it was Serra whose very presence seemed to draw the blessings of heaven, who pointed out to the Governor the error on Vizcaino's map which caused him to miss the Port of Monterey.
Before them they saw an open bay, or roadstead, lying between the point on which they stood, and one extending into the sea far to the northwest. Upon looking at their map of Vizcaino's voyage, they rightly decided that this farther projection was Point Reyes; the little bay sheltered by the curve of its arm was the one named on the map St. Francis, and now known as Drakes Bay.
Then they went down the coast by Point Año Nuevo, to Santa Cruz. At the Point of Pines they spent two weeks, searching again everywhere for the Bay of Monterey. At last they decided that Vizcaino's description must have been too highly colored, or else that the Bay of Monterey must, since his time, have been filled up with silt or destroyed by some earthquake.
At any rate, the bay between Santa Cruz and the Point of Pines was the only Monterey they could find. According to Washburn, Vizcaino's account was far from a correct one. It was no fault of Portolá and Crespi that, after spending a month on its shores, it never occurred to them to recognize the bay.
To a broad curve of the coast to the north, between Point San Pedro and Point Reyes, he gave the name of the Bay of San Francisco, dedicating it to the memory of St. Francis of Assisi. A rough chart of the coast was made by his pilot, Cabrera Bueno, who left also an account of its leading features. For a hundred and sixty years after Vizcaino's expedition, no use was made of his discoveries.
This expedition was to result in the memorable "March of Portola," which lasted about eight months. Missing the Harbor of Monterey on account of an error in the reckoning of Vizcaino's map, the explorers marched as far north as what is now San Francisco and discovered the Harbor that bears that name; so named later by Junipero Serra in honor of St.
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