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In obedience thereto, I ordered the chief Alcalde of said city to proceed against these in my power, agreeably to what was commanded me by your Counsel; and with the utmost speed I came on in pursuit of Juan Florin to Colmenar de Arenas where were executed on his person the laws of your kingdom, Mon de Mensieris, Michel and Gile I condemned perpetually to the galleys; and because the High Sheriff and the Vizcaynos left Mons de la Sale at the point of death with Juan Lopez de Cumaya, a Vizcaino, who go by another road, I send the High Sheriff for him while I return to Cadiz to make provision for things not done in a manner beat befitting the royal service.
Father Junipero Serra and Don Gaspar de Portola decided on the following plan; that Junipero Serra with Fathers Francisco Palou and Francisco de Lasuen would remain in San Diego, where Serra was to establish his first mission while Portola with Fathers Crespi and Gomez, Captain Rivera y Moncada, Lieutenant Fages and some of the Spanish dragoons and muleteers started overland to explore the country, and in quest of the Harbor of Monterey, carrying with them the map of Sebastian Vizcaino.
Not a neophyte gladdened the Father's heart for more than a year. San Diego Mission founded, Serra was impatient to have work begun elsewhere. They set out gaily, gladly. They were sure of a speedy journey to the Bay of Monterey, discovered by Cabrillo, and seen again and charted by Vizcaino, where they were to establish the second Mission.
From the time that Sebastian Vizcaino placed her on his map in 1602 and glowingly described her beautiful harbor, noble forests and majestic hills, Spain focused her attention on Monterey, and when her Port was at last found by Portola, and the stout old ship San Antonio under the command of Captain Juan Perez entered her harbor on May 31st, 1770, without any discussion or preamble she was made the capital of New Spain.
Storms, battles with the natives, and scurvy made sad havoc among the sailors. Early in November Vizcaino entered "a famous port," which he named San Diego, finding it, as Padre Ascension's journal says, "beautiful and very grand, and all parts of it very convenient shelter from the winds."
In doing so he was so unfortunate as to run his vessel ashore behind Point Reyes, and to lighten her was obliged to leave behind a portion of his cargo, consisting of wax and silks in boxes. There is only the briefest record of this voyage, and no report of any discoveries. Vizcaino
It had always been the intention of Spain to colonize and missionize Alta California, even as far back as the days of Cabrillo in 1542, and when Vizcaino, sixty years later, went over the same region, the original intention was renewed. But intentions do not always fructify and bring forth, so it was not until a hundred and sixty years after Vizcaino that the work was actually begun.
For over one hundred and fifty years this oak was known, both in New Spain and at the court of the king, as the "Oak of Vizcaino, in the Bay of Monterey." From here Vizcaino wrote to the king of Spain as follows: "Among the ports of greater consideration which I have discovered is one in 30i north latitude which I called Monterey, as I wrote to your majesty in December.
The king agreed to the admiral's request, and placed him in command of a flotilla composed of four vessels, the Santiago, Gallego, Vizcaino, and a caravel, as admiral's galley. These ships were of small tonnage, the largest being only of seventy tons, and the smallest of fifty; they were in fact, little better than coasting-vessels.
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.
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