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Where did Gaspar de Portola live?
Gaspar de Portolà was born in the province of Lleida, in Spain, in 1716. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal. He moved to New Spain where he received several promotions. Don Denevi, the author of Junipero Serra (1985), argues that Portolà was a "pleasant, genial man".
What was Gaspar de Portola known for?
Gaspar de Portolá, (born c. 1723, Balaguer, Spain—died c. 1784, Mexico or Spain), Spanish military officer, the first governor of Upper California, and founder of Monterey and San Diego.
Where was Gaspar de Portola buried?
LleidaGaspar de PortoláGaspar de Portolá y RoviraDiedOctober 10, 1786 (aged 70) Lleida, SpainResting placeLleidaSignatureMilitary service13 more rows
When was Gaspar de Portola born?
January 1, 1716Gaspar de Portolá / Date of birth
What does Portolá mean in English?
Quick definitions from Wiktionary (Portola) ▸ noun: A city in Plumas County, California, United States.
What Bay did Portolá find?
San Francisco BayThe Aramai tribe, of modern-day Pacifica, accompanied the explorers to the top of Sweeney Ridge, where the Portolá party became the first Europeans to see San Francisco Bay.
Why didn't Portolá recognize Monterey Bay?
PORTOLA: In the fall of 1769, California's governor, Gaspar de Portola, led a party of explorers up the coast, trying to locate the Monterey Bay to establish California's capital. But they didn't recognize the bay due to fog and its great wide-openness, so they continued up the coast into Santa Cruz County.
When was Portolá founded?
In 1910, Ed Lane established the Portola Water Company. Underground pipes were dug and placed; however, there were no pumps.
When did Gaspar de Portola arrive at Monterey Bay?
After all, he was the first European to find it. Portola, governor of Baja California, led an expedition of 61 Spanish soldiers and two Franciscan missionaries to find Monterey Bay in 1769.
Was Gaspar de Portola married?
In 1836 Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm.
Who was the last Spanish governor of California?
Pablo Vicente de Solá (1761–1826) was a Spanish officer and the twelfth and last Spanish colonial governor of Alta California (1815-1822). He was born in Mondragón, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
Who led the first overland expedition to San Diego?
The Portola expedition The land expedition was split into two parts. Under the command of Capt. Fernando Rivera y Moncada, the first was to establish a mission at San Diego. He arrived in San Diego in May 1769, set up camp and awaited the arrival of Portola's party, which arrived on June 29, 1769.
What impact did the Portolá expedition have?
The expedition led to the founding of Alta California and contributed to the solidification of Spanish territorial claims in the disputed and unexplored regions along the Pacific coast of North America.
What was the purpose of the Portolá expedition?
To the secular leader of the expedition, Gaspar de Portolá (1723–1784), the task was to assert Spanish control of this coast, securing it against the claims of Russia. The Spanish had already established small communities in Baja or lower California, led by the Jesuit order.
Did the Portolá expedition realize the significance of their discovery?
Mainly worried about locating Monterey Bay, Portola and his men did not even realize the significance of their discovery.
Who led the first overland expedition to San Diego?
The Portola expedition The land expedition was split into two parts. Under the command of Capt. Fernando Rivera y Moncada, the first was to establish a mission at San Diego. He arrived in San Diego in May 1769, set up camp and awaited the arrival of Portola's party, which arrived on June 29, 1769.
Who was Gaspar de Portolá?
1723, Balaguer, Spain—died c. 1784, Mexico or Spain), Spanish military officer, the first governor of Upper California, and founder of Monterey and San Diego. The son of a noble family, Portolá entered the Spanish army in 1734.
What did Portolá do in California?
Soon after his arrival, Portolá assumed command of an expedition to establish Franciscan missions in Upper California and secure Spanish claims to the area.
Who was the Spanish leader who led the Spanish expedition to San Diego?
On May 15, 1769, Portolá, accompanied by Father Junípero Serra, began his journey from Velicatá in Lower California. The expedition joined another Spanish party at San Diego in late June, and, after establishing a mission there, Portolá and 40 men proceeded to march northward.
Where did Portolá go?
Although food was critically short and many of the men were ill, Portolá immediately set out to find the reported harbor of Monterey. Moving north from San Diego, he selected several possible mission sites, passed Monterey without recognizing the spot, and explored the region around San Francisco Bay before returning to San Diego in late January 1770. During the spring Portolá returned north and successfully located Monterey, where he and Serra established Mission San Carlos. Shortly thereafter Portolá returned to Baja California, where he remained as governor for several years.
Who translated Portolá's diary?
Portolá's diary of the 1769 expedition was translated by Donald E. Smith and Frederick J. Teggart as Diary of Gaspar de Portolá during the California Expedition of 1769-1770 (1909). There has been less written about Portolá than about his more famous companion, Fray Junípero Serra. Zoeth S. Eldredge, The March of Portolá and Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco (1909), contains much interesting material. The best firsthand account is in Francisco Palóu, Life of Fray Junípero Serra (trans. 1955). See also Richard F. Pourade, The Call to California (1968).
Who was the Spanish governor who established the first missions in Alta California?
The Spanish explorer and colonial governor Gaspar de Portolá (ca. 1723-ca. 1784) headed the Spanish expedition that established the first missions in Alta California.
Who was Gaspar de Portolà?
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira (spelled in Catalan as Portolà and in Spanish as Portolá; 1716–1786) was a Spanish soldier and administrator in service to the Spanish Empire in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. As commander of the Portolà expedition on land and sea that established San Diego and Monterey, Portolà expanded New Spain's Las Californias province far to the north from its beginnings on the Baja California peninsula. Portolà's expedition also was the first known European to see and record what we now call San Francisco Bay. His expedition gave names to geographic features along the way, many of which are still in use.[1]
Where did Portolà go?
Portolà's party then headed back to San Diego, exploring and naming many localities in the region south of what eventually became known as the Golden Gate. Surviving on mule meat for most of the journey, they arrived on January 24, 1770.
What county is Portola in?
The city of Portola in Plumas County,[2] the town of Portola Valley in San Mateo County, and the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco were named after Portolà. A number of schools in California were also named after him, including Portola Hills Elementary School in Portola Hills, Portola Elementary School in San Bruno, Portola Junior High School in El Cerrito, Gaspar de Portola Middle School in Tierrasanta, Portola Middle School in Tarzana, and Portola Middle School in Orange. The school in Orange is close to the spot where the expedition crossed the Santa Ana River, and the school has a 60-foot mural depicting the Portolà Expedition.
Where did the Portolà expedition go?
Eager to press on to Monterey Bay, Portolà and his expedition, consisting of Juan Crespí, 63 leather-jacket soldiers and 100 mules loaded down with provisions, headed north on July 14, 1769. Marching two to four leagues (1 league = 2.6 miles) a day, they reached the site of present-day Fullerton, at Hillcrest Park on July 30, 1769. They next traveled to Brea Canyon, in Brea, California, on July 31, 1769. They arrived in what is now Los Angeles on August 2. The following day, they marched out the Indian trail that would one day become Wilshire Boulevard to the present site of Santa Monica. Winding around to the area of later Saugus, now part of Santa Clarita, they reached the area to become Santa Barbara on August 19, and the present day San Simeon area on September 13. Unable to remain on the coast due to the steep, difficult terrain, the party turned inland. They marched through the San Antonio Valley and on October 1, Portolà's party emerged from the Santa Lucia Mountains and reached the mouth of the Salinas River.
Why did Spain set up outposts on the Pacific Coast?
Spain was driven to establish missions and other outposts on the Pacific Coast north of the Baja California Peninsula by fears that the territory would be claimed by foreign powers. The English, who had established colonies on the East Coast of the continent and north into what is now Canada, had also sent explorers into the Pacific. Russian fur hunters were pressing east from Siberia across the Bering Strait into the Aleutian Islands and beyond.
Who was the governor of Puebla?
Governor Portolà's task was finished. He then left Captain Pedro Fages in charge, and on June 9 he sailed for San Blas, never to return to Upper California. In 1776, Portolà was appointed the governor of Puebla. After the appointment of his successor in 1784, he was advanced money for expenses and returned to Spain, where he served as commander of the Numancia cavalry dragoon regiment. On February 7, 1786 he was appointed King's Lieutenant for the strongholds and castles of Lleida. He died that same year, in October.
Who made the statue of Gaspar de Portolà?
Statue of Gaspar de Portolà, by the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs
When did Serra and Portolá reach San Diego?
Portolá’s party reached San Diego on June 29, 1769. Portolá stayed only two weeks before setting out again to find Monterey. Left behind with two priests and a detachment of nine soldiers, Serra constructed a rustic chapel, furnished it with devotional objects, and dedicated the San Diego Mission on July 16. Meanwhile, Portolá’s party passed Monterey without finding it. Returning dispirited to San Diego, he assessed the mission’s dwindling provisions and returned to Baja for supplies. Serra stayed in San Diego, insisting he could not abandon the new mission, while still hoping to reach Monterey.
What did Portola look for in his expedition?
In an overland expedition up the coast, Portola looked for two sites reported to offer protected bays for Spanish ships: San Diego and Monterey, sighted from shipboard 150 years before by Sebastien Vizcaino, a Spanish merchant-adventurer. Portola hoped to do his duty while keeping himself and his men alive. Spanish soldiers in America were subject to Indian attack, disease, and starvation (since they understood little about subsisting on the native plants and game). Sea travel was even more perilous than overland ventures. Of three vessels sent up the coast to provision Portola’s 1769 expedition, one sank and another wandered, lost, while those aboard fell ill with scurvy.
Why did Father Serra prefer the Monterey Peninsula?
Library of Congress, LAMB, no. 2418. Perhaps Serra preferred the Monterey peninsula because the natives of the area, the Rumsen, were a gentle, unwarlike people.
Why was Portolá chosen?
A reliable army captain, he was chosen to perform difficult tasks: first, to oust the Jesuits from their California missions —since the Jesuit order had been suppressed in Spain—and install the Franciscans in their place. Next, he was expected to secure the northern territory.
What did Serra do to the natives?
Like many Spanish missionaries in Mexico and the American Southwest who preceded him, Serra expected the natives to participate in daily catechism and used corporal punishment to enforce rules. He sent soldiers to round up native converts who fled the missions, ordering severe floggings when escapees were returned. In reports to the civil authorities, he argued such punishment was essential to the missions’ survival. As one who himself practiced self-mortification, he also thought it beneficial to the natives’ souls. Or perhaps, as at least one biographer (Gregory Orfalea) suggests, he rationalized the floggings in this way. Certainly, he worried that Natives left outside the Missions would be enslaved by later Spanish settlers, without gaining any spiritual benefit.
What was the role of Serra in the Spanish mission?
Given charge over the missions of Baja California after the expulsion of the Jesuits, Serra had proved himself a forceful and dedicated organizer . He could not, however, make the Spanish agricultural model work on the arid Baja Peninsula, despite efforts to recruit native converts to work the fields. The missions languished as civil and religious authorities jostled for their control, a common pattern in the Spanish conquest of America.
How old was Serra when he was martyred?
Serra, a Franciscan priest and 55-years-old in 1769, zealously pursued an apostolic vision. He was prepared for martyrdom at the hands of the natives, but he meant to convert as many as possible to the Catholic faith. Eighteen years earlier, he’d left a more comfortable life as a professor of theology and philosophy on the island of Mallorca to travel to the New World and evangelize.
Where did Portola begin his journey?
Portola, nonetheless, could not have foreseen the problems which lay before him when he departed from Loreto on March 9, 1769, and began the first leg of his long journey - to Mission Santa Maria, the northernmost of the peninsular chain, about 400 miles distant.5 The
How long did Portola serve in the military?
California, where he had carried out the expulsion of the Jesuit Order and was serving as governor.1 Following his return from Upper Cali- fornia, Portola would serve the crown for an additional sixteen years, half of them as governor of Puebla. Portolá's Upper California duty was, therefore, but a brief episode in a distinguished fifty-year military career. Evidence indicates, however, that it very probably was the most distasteful period of his life.
How many men did Portola have in his party?
Leaving a few soldiers in San Diego to protect the Spaniards remain- ing in the land-settlement and on the San Carlos, Portola began his journey to Monterey Bay on July 14.14 His party was comprised of sixty-some men, or, as he later described them, * 'skeletons, who had been spared by scurvy, hunger and thirst."15
Where did Portola find the mission and presidio?
later observed, "the spot at which the expeditionaries by land and sea were to meet in accordance with the visitor-general's instructions to recount the great events which had happened to us and the discoveries incident to our journeys."10 And had Gálvez' plans been on schedule, Portola would have found the mission and presidio in San Diego well on their way to completion and preparations for founding the Monterey settlements already made.11
When did Portola break camp?
On May ii Portola broke camp at Mission Santa Maria and began
How long did the Spaniards rest?
After three days of rest, the Spaniards turned their backs on their objective and resumed their march. Progress was slow, for scurvy con- tinued to spread among the soldiers, and several had to be carried on litters. Six were given the last rites at various times but fortunately
What was the lowest point of Spanish morale?
Spanish morale reached its lowest point on October 28. The party was then well above the reported latitude of Monterey Bay, but it was nowhere to be found. Its food supply was dangerously low, making rationing necessary. A form of diarrhea had afflicted all of its members, including Portola. And heavy rains had begun to fall. The expedition's plight was such that Miguel Costansó, its cosmographer and engineer, feared it had reached its end.24 Miraculously, however, those suffering 189
