The Jesuit order was at length superseded, 1767, by the Franciscan, whose members, patient, earnest workers in their cause, at once began efforts to plant missions in Alta California, and in the spring of 1769 they proceeded from La Paz, on the west shore of the Gulf of California, with cattle, sheep, and horses to San Diego, sending ships around with supplies. They arrived on May 14th and found two vessels already in the harbour, so that the settlement was immediately begun. It was the first in this portion of the Wilderness. A second party was to establish itself at the Bay of Monterey, but missing the way came to San Francisco Bay instead, then returned to Monterey, and finally to San Diego. The natives were hostile, food grew scarce, and starvation threatened, but a vessel, which had been sent back for supplies, came in the nick of time. The prosperity of California began with this event, March 10, 1770. Other settlers followed, cattle multiplied, vines and fruit trees bore abundantly, till, before the eventful year of 1776, the California missions were forever out of reach of the bony grasp of starvation. By the close of the decade eight had been founded from San Diego to San Francisco, and before the end of the century nine more.[47] Each consisted of a church, storehouses, workshops, dwellings, and a fort, usually arranged in a square. All these structures were at first extremely simple, but as time passed the friars exhibited their artistic taste in the construction of really admirable specimens of architecture. Some of these are still standing and will bear out this assertion. There were in California four presidios, or military posts, in addition to the forces at the missions, at San Diego, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. [Illustration: Glen Canyon, Colorado River. This Shows the Nature of the Colorado where Escalante Crossed in 1776. The Surface on Each Side is Barren Sandstone. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp.]