As in heroic qualities, so also in skill and judgment, Portola upholds the best traditions of Spain.  The success of an expedition depends upon the character of the leader.  Panfilo de Narvaez landed on the coast of Florida in April, 1528, with a well-equipped army of three hundred men and forty horses, just half the force he sailed with from Spain the previous June, and of the three hundred men whom he led into Florida, only four lived to reach civilization — the rest perished.  That is but one example of incompetent leadership.  When Portola organized his expedition for the march from San Diego Bay to Monterey, many of his soldiers were ill from scurvy, and at one time on the march the sick list numbered nineteen men, including the governor and Rivera, his chief officer.  Sixteen men had to be carried, and to three, in extremis, the viaticum was administered; but he brought them all through, and returned to San Diego without the loss of a man.

There are two full diaries of this expedition, one by Father Crespi and the other by Alferez Costanso.  There is, besides, a diary of Junipero Serra of the march from Velicata to San Diego Bay, a translation of which is printed in Out West magazine (Los Angeles), March-July, 1902.  It is of small value to the student of history.  There is a diary by Portola, quoted by Bancroft, and a Fragmento by Ortega, also used by Bancroft.  These we have not seen.  There are letters from Francisco Palou, Juan Crespi and Miguel Costanso, printed in Out West for January 1902.  The diary of Father Crespi is printed in Palou’s Noticias de la Nueva California.  Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, re-printed San Francisco, 1874.  The diary of Miguel Costanso is in the Sutro library.  It has never been printed.  It is prefaced by an historical narrative, a poor translation of which was published by Dalrymple, London, 1790, and a better one by Chas. F. Lummis in Out West, June-July, 1901.  In Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, Vol.  II, Part 1, Los Angeles, 1891, a number of documents of the Sutro collection are printed, with translations by George Butler Griffin.  These relate to the explorations of the California coast by ships from the Philippines, the two voyages of Vizcaino, with some letters of Junipero Serra, and diaries of the voyage of the Santiago to the northern coast in 1774.

The sketch here submitted is the result of much study of original documents, and the route of the expedition is laid down after careful survey of the physical geography where possible, and in other cases, by the contoured maps of the Geological Survey, following the directions and language as given by the diarists.  Among the printed books consulted are Palou’s Vida del Padre Junipero Serra and his Noticias de la Nueva California, above noted.  The Conquest of the Great Northwest, Agnes C. Laut, New York, 1908; History of California by H. H. Bancroft; Treaties of Navigation, Cabrera Bueno, Translation, Dalrymple, London, 1790; The Discovery of San Francisco Bay, George Davidson, and Francis Drake on the Northwest Coast of America in 1579, the same author; Proceedings of the Geographical Society of the Pacific.