The march that day was across the Point of Pines, one league and a half, and they camped on the shore of Monterey Bay, where they erected another cross with an inscription announcing their departure.  On the 11th, they ascended the Salinas and began to retrace the route of their coming.  They killed many geese, which relieved their necessities somewhat, and on the 21st were clear of the Santa Lucia mountains.  The hungry soldiers stole flour, and to prevent further theft, the comandante divided the remainder among them.  On the 28th the command was stuck fast in a mudhole near San Luis Obispo, and were unable to say mass, though it was a feast day[37].  On January 3d, they passed Point Concepcion.  Here, among the Channel Indians, food was abundant, their severe trials were over, and the health of the command improved daily.  Instead of following up the Santa Clara river, they crossed the Santa Susana mountains, into the San Fernando valley, and followed down the Los Angeles river, crossed the Santa Ana, January 18th, and reached San Diego, January 24, 1770, with the command in good health and without the loss of a man, “with the merit of having been compelled to eat the flesh of male and female mules, and with not having found the Port of Monterey, which we judged to have been filled up by the great sand dunes which were in the place where we had expected to find it."[38]

Portola found a joyful welcome at the little camp at San Diego.  Many had died, and Junipero and Father Parron were just recovering from scurvy.  No tidings were yet received from the San Antonio.  The commander made a careful inventory of supplies, and reserved enough to march to Velicata in case the San Antonio did not appear when the remainder should be exhausted.  This, he calculated, would be a little after the middle of March, and the 20th of that month was fixed as the date of departure, very much to the disappointment of the priests.  On February 11th Rivera was sent to Velicata with a guard of nineteen or twenty soldiers, to bring up the cattle and supplies that had been left there.

After sundown of the day before that appointed for the departure, a sail appeared in the distance.  It was the San Antonio, just in time to prevent the abandonment of San Diego.  She brought abundant supplies, and Portola prepared for a second expedition in search of the Port of Monterey.  Captain Vila of the San Carlos declared, when the details of the search were related to him, that the place where they erected the second cross was the long-lost Port of Monterey.

On April 16th the San Antonio sailed for Monterey, carrying Junipero, Costanso, Prat, and a cargo of stores for the new mission.  On the 17th, Portola set out by land with Fages, twelve Catalan volunteers, seven soldados de cuera, Crespi, two muleteers, and five natives.  At San Diego was left Vila with his mate and five sailors on the San Carlos, Fathers Parron and Gomez, with Sergeant Ortega and eight soldados de cuera as guard, and Rivera arrived in July with over eighty mules laden with supplies, and one hundred and sixty head of cattle.