Diary of Captain Gaspar de Portolá
Portola Expedition, 1769-1770
9/1/1769 -- The 1st of September, we proceeded for four hours and a half, the whole time over a mountainous road with very many sand dunes. We halted at a very large pool of water, near which there were two villages of about one hundred natives.
9/2/1769 -- The 2nd, we proceeded for five hours over very sandy hills and halted at a very large pool. [The inhabitants of] two villages of the neighborhood which were composed of about sixty natives came [to our camp]. Here we halted [for one day].
9/4/1769 -- The 4th, we proceeded for four hours, the greater part of the road was good; the remainder, close to the seashore, was over great sand dunes. It was necessary to go around the many marshes and lagoons, which gave us much labor. [We halted at a place having] much water and pasture, where there came [to our camp the inhabitants of] a village of about forty natives with out [counting] others who were in the neighborhood. Here we found ourselves at the foot of the Sierra de Santa Lucía. We observed that the villages have a small number of inhabitants, and that they do not live in regular houses as [do the Indians] on the channel, but they are more docile.
9/5/1769 -- The 5th, we travelled for four hours; the entire way was over hills. We halted in a gully surrounded by very high hills, where there was much water and pasture. The 6th, we rested.
9/7/1769 -- The 7th, we proceeded for five hours; part of the way was over hills and the remainder through a canyon in which we saw from fourteen to sixteen bears together, some of which we killed. We stopped in a gully where there was sufficient water and pasture.
9/8/1769 -- The 8th, we travelled for two hours. We halted in a canyon near the seashore where there was much pasture and water, and in which there was a village of about sixty inhabitants.
9/9/1769 -- The 9th, we proceeded for four hours along the seashore and halted at a lagoon where a stream came down from the hills. On this day's march we had crossed six very rapid streams.
9/10/1769 -- The 10th, we proceeded for two hours through a canyon and have halted in a gully, thickly grown with trees and entirely surrounded by pine woods.
9/11/1769 -- The 11th, we proceeded for three hours; the entire road was over hills where there was very much pasture and water.
9/12/1769 -- The 12th, we proceeded for three hours and a half. We halted in a gully with running water where [the inhabitants of] a village of about thirty natives came [to our camp].
9/13/1769 -- The 13th, we proceeded for three hours over hills and halted at the foot of a very high range. Here we remained for two days to search for an opening [through the range]; unless there was another [range] further on, we inferred that this must be the Sierra de Santa Lucía. We rested for two days.
9/16/1769 -- The 16th, we proceeded for two hours, penetrating the range, and continuously along a gully formed by the mountains on either side. It was necessary to send soldiers and Indians in advance to open the way, which occasioned much labor. We halted on a small elevation where the gully denied us a passage; it was necessary to stop in order to open a path over a very high ridge.
9/17/1769 -- The 17th of September, we crossed part of the range, having opened the path, and, at two o'clock, we halted in order to begin to open a road over another and still higher range. Here there was a village composed of eighty very docile natives. All over this range there is much pasture and water. Here we remained the 18th and 19th to cut a new road.
9/20/1769 -- The 20th, we marched for four hours over mountains which, as I sail, are very high. All the way, a path had to be opened; the most laborious part being to clear the many rough places full of brambles. The account of Cabrera Bueno has good reason for describing the Sierra de Santa Lucía as being so high, rugged, and massive. We inferred that we could not possibly find any greater range as this was twenty leagues long and sixteen wide. We halted in a gorge where there was little water and pasture; here about four hundred natives came [to our camp].
9/21/1769 -- The 21st, we proceeded for two hours. We had to change our route as the range denied us a passage. It was necessary to open a trail and we halted in a gully. Here we rested the 22nd; the 23rd was spent in going out to . . .
9/24/1769 -- The 24th, we travelled for two hours, descending in a northeasterly direction in order to avoid the vexatious inequalities of the slope of the impassable mountains. We halted in a gully where there was sufficient water and pasture, and a village of about sixty natives.
9/25/1769 -- The 25th, we proceeded for an hour and a half, the whole time skirting the mountains. We halted where there was neither water nor pasture.
9/26/1769 -- The 26th, we proceeded for four hours, skirting these mountains, and halted by a river where [the inhabitants of] a village of two hundred and twenty natives came [to our camp] besides [those of] another village that we met on the way, numbering two hundred.
9/27/1769 -- The 27th, we proceeded for five hours, keeping along the same river.
9/28/1769 -- The 28th, we proceeded for five hours along the same river.
9/29/1769 -- The 29th, we proceeded for four hours along the same river. There was a village but [on seeing us the inhabitants] fled.
9/30/1769 -- The 30th, we proceeded for five hours along the same river; we debated whether it could be the Carmelo.