There were three vessels that made the sacred voyage to California. The San Carloswould serve as the flagship with Portolá commanding from her helm. The other ships, the San Joseand San Antonio, were filled with livestock and other goods to be used in establishing the colonies. These vessels transported some of the furniture and other artifacts from Portolá’s expedition that still remain at the Carmel Mission in present day. The condition of the ships was less than adequate, and they took on large amounts of water through their leaky hulls. The San Josewent down, taking with her all of her crew, who additionally, were believed to have been stricken with Scurvy. The crews of the other vessels were also sick and the expedition would lose nearly half of its total number of nearly three hundred men. The expeditions into Monterey and north to San Francisco would have to be continued by land.
The first overland expedition failed to locate the Port at Monterey. It is suspected that Vizcaíno’s romanticized description may have been misleading and caused the frontiersmen to press too far northward in search of a site for their future mission. By the time the crew arrived in the area that is today known as Berkeley, they had already realized that they had overshot their destination. Many of the men had fallen ill during the exhausting expedition, with several documented as having severe diarrhea, and others stricken with scurvy. Portolá himself was described as being ill with “sickness of the intestines, ” and with rations low, the expedition settled for a brief period to allow the men time to rest.
On Tuesday October 31, 1769, Portolá’s party made the first official references to the discovery of San Francisco. In excerpts from the logs of Portolá and Miguel Costansó, the expedition’s engineer and cosmographer, the historic moment is described:
“We traveled two hours of very bad road up over a very high mountain. We stopped upon the height and the sergeant with eight soldiers were dispatched to explore, as some farallones, and a point of land, and a bight had been seen. Here we stayed for four days to explore. The pioneers set out, and we afterward followed along with the packtrain and the rest of the people at eleven o’clock in the forenoon. From the summit we descended a large bay lying to the northwest under a point of land reaching far out to sea, over which there had been much disputing the evening before whether it was an island or no, it having been impossible then, because of some horizon-mist covering it, to make it out as clearly as we did now. Out beyond, about to the west-northwest with respect to our position, and a bit to the southwest from the point could be seen seven white farallones of differing sizes and looking back along the north side of the bay there were abrupt white bluffs made out more toward the north, while turning around toward the northeast, the mouth of the inlet was discovered that seemed to reach inland. At the sight of these marks we turned to the Cabrera Bueno’s sailing directions, and it seemed to us out of all doubt that we were looking upon was the Harbor of San Francisco, and so persuaded that Monterrey Harbor lay behind us.”
Father Crespi who was present on the expedition wrote:
“All Saint’s day and All Soul’s day. The two of us said mass here, and on All Saint’s day after Mass by the governor’s order Sergeant Ortega set out with eight soldiers to scout for three days’ march, wherefore we remained here until the 3 rd, when they arrived back at night from scouting. At this place there are limitless very lush brambles, many rose patches, and all kinds of lush plants, very plentiful. Shortly after we here there came over to the camp a good sized village of very well behaved friendly natives (Indians), most of them well bearded and brought us a great many large dark-colored tamales, very rich, which the soldiers say are very good and would go well in a pipiánfricassee. There must be many villages all about this rich harbor, for we have seen many smoke [columns] from here; mussels are also very plentiful here, and very large, and the soldiers have brought back a great deal of them. Many deer have been seen upon the hills here. Bear tracks and droppings have been seen here. Our sick men have been improving everyday and are now all riding on horseback, thank the Lord Who has granted them this relief.”
On November 2, 1769, Portolá’s party climbed the eastern side of Sweeny Ridge and documented the large waterways that led to an open ocean. Yet despite their astonishing discovery of the San Francisco Bay, Portolá was convinced that he had failed in the objectives of his mission. He turned his expedition south to retrace his steps back to San Diego, arriving safely on January 24, 1770.
Six years after Portolá’s discovery of San Francisco by land, and in the same period when Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were completing the first draft of the Declaration of Independencein the new America, Juan Manual de Ayala, a young Spanish naval lieutenant, commanded the San Carloson a voyage to chart the waters of the San Francisco Bay.
After so many explorers had sailed right past it in their search for safe harbors, Ayala would be the first to log the discovery of the island of Alcatraz in 1775. Here is an excerpt from the ship’s log of the San Carlos:
August 11, 1775: The boat was launched and I set out to search for better anchorage for the ship. I went out toward the island I named de los Angeles (Angel Island), which is the largest in this harbor, in search of proper moorings for making water and wood; and though I found some good ones, I rather preferred to pass onward in search of another island, which when I reached it proved so arid and steep there was not even a boat-harbor there; I named this island La Isla de los Alcatrazes (Island of the Pelicans) because of their being so plentiful there. After this I attempted to reach the SW shore at the mouth of the of the inlet running to the SE, in order to examine a bight, but neither wind or current allowing it, I returned aboard the San Carlos at 5:30 p.m.
An original survey chart drawn in 1775 by José Cañizares, the First Pilot of the vessel San Carlos. This detailed chart of San Francisco Harbor was surveyed from a small boat during a forty-five-day expedition.
Nevertheless, the Spanish maps of the bay waters would mislabel the names and locations of Alcatraz and Yerba Buena. It would not be until 1826, when British Naval Captain Frederick Beechey secured permission to survey the San Francisco Bay and surrounding waters that the names would be properly assigned. There also is still considerable speculation as to why the bay went undiscovered for so long, despite a series of explorations that sailed in close proximity to the inlet. A United States Survey Map from 1851 indicated that the Farallon Islands might have played a role in the deception. This survey suggests that the Farallons may have influenced explorers to stay clear of the coastline, since they indicated hidden reefs lying close by, which could have kept the mariners sailing in deeper waters far from shore. Along with the near perfect positioning of Alcatraz across the mouth of the bay, and the textured blending of the East Bay Hills, this may have been what kept the Golden Gate from discovery for several centuries.
This United States Survey Map from 1851 illustrates how Alcatraz Island masked San Francisco Harbor. The combined factors of the near perfect positioning of Alcatraz across the mouth of the bay, the textured blending of the East Bay Hills, and the frequently foggy weather conditions may have hidden the Golden Gate from explorers for several centuries.