The land expedition was divided into two parts.  The first division, under Rivera, started from Velicata March 24th, and the second, under command of the governor, started May 15th.  With Rivera were Padre Crespi, Pilotin (Mate) Jose Canizares.  Twenty-five soldados de cuera[10], three muleteers, and eleven Christian Indians — forty-two men.  With the governor marched Junipero Serra, fifteen soldados de cuera, under Sergeant Jose Francisco de Ortega, two servants, muleteers and Indians — forty-four in all.  The previous day, May 14, 1769, being Easter Sunday, Junipero established the Mission of San Fernando with Fray Miguel de la Campa as Minister.  For the succor and relief of the forces, both sea and land, Galvez built, at San Blas, a ship which he named in honor of the protector of the expedition, the San Jose, and loading her with supplies and provisions, sent her with orders to meet the expedition at Monterey.  She was lost at sea.

There is very little of interest in this march of some two hundred miles through a barren country to the bay of San Diego.  Junipero’s diary lies before me[11]; it is a dreary recital of small incidents of the march, the Indians they met, the barrancas they crossed, with pious comments, etc.; no course, no distances traveled, or other like information necessary to an understanding of the route and country.  As a diarist, he is not to be compared with Crespi.  On June 20th they came first in sight of the sea at the Ensenada de Todos Santos; thence their journey was by the sea until they came to the rendezvous.  As they drew near to San Diego, their Indian allies began to desert, evidently in fear of the Dieguenos, whom they began to meet in numbers and who proved a rascally lot.  They thronged the camp and became a perfect nuisance with their begging and stealing.  They begged from Junipero his robe and from the governor his cuera, waistcoat, breeches, and all he had on.  One of them succeeding in inducing Junipero to take off his spectacles to show them to him and as soon as he got them in his hands made off with them, causing the priest a thousand difficulties to recover them.  On the 27th of June Sergeant Ortega, with his scouts, pushed on to San Diego and announced to the anxious camp the proximity of the governor.  Rivera sent ten of his soldiers with fresh horses back with Ortega, and Portola, in advance of his command, reached the camp June 29th, and the entire division arrived, June 30th, in good order and condition, forty-six days from Velicata.

Let us anticipate their arrival and ascertain the fate of the other divisions of the expedition.  For more than a century and a half the placid waters of San Diego bay had lain undisturbed by any craft more formidable than the tule rafts (balsas de enea) of the natives, when on the 11th of April, 1769, a silent ship slowly entered the bay and dropped her anchor not far from the point where now the ferry boat for Coronado leaves the slip.  It was the San