Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820Cook, Sherburne Friend
History
Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820
Cook, Sherburne Friend
California -- Discovery and exploration; California -- History -- To 1846 -- Sources; Central Valley (Calif.)
At four leagues from the place where we had slept the last night we came
to a stream filled with water and well provided with lands for crops.
Two leagues beyond we found another of the same sort and with the same
amount of water as the last one. Near this watering place is the village
of Guapiana. There we found several children from San Gabriel. I
baptized an old woman and called her Gabriela. To the old man this
morning I gave the name.... In the baptisms which I have performed I
have undertaken to make a prior judgment with reference to the condition
in which those to be baptized found themselves, so as to preserve
consistently the significance of baptism. All those baptized embraced
the ceremony voluntarily, after having been instructed in the dogmas of
our Holy Faith and having previously made public and private avowal of
the principal mysteries of our religion and the repudiation of their
past sins.
This night we entered San Gabriel, and as attestation I sign.
Fray José Maria de Zalvidea
LIEUTENANT GABRIEL MORAGA'S EXPEDITION, 1806
The Moraga expedition of 1806 was recorded by Father Fray Pedro Muñoz,
who accompanied it as chaplain. His diary, or report, is translated
below.
Concerning the background of and preparation for the expedition there
is a great deal of correspondence, a full exposition of which will
be found in Cutter's thesis (MS, chap. IV). Since the political and
military details are irrelevant here, they are omitted.
_Diary of Father Pedro Muñoz_
Diary of the expedition made by Don Gabriel Moraga, Second Lieutenant
of the Company of San Francisco to the new discoveries in the Tulare
Valley: by order of the Governor Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga. The
first day September 21, 1806. (Santa Barbara Arch., IV: 1-47.)
_1st day and 21 [September]._ On the morning of this day the troops were
informed in a formal address of the purpose toward which God was guiding
them in the present expedition and of the merit they would acquire if,
following the Voice of God as transmitted through their chief, they
fulfilled their duty. In resignation and accord we left the mission of
San Juan Bautista at about two o'clock in the afternoon. We went more or
less to the east for a league and a half in the afternoon, traversing a
great plain, well covered with forage, to arrive at a stream called that
of the Huzaymas. It is a creek well populated with alders, oaks, and
other shrubs. It dries up in the summer and has water only in a few
pools. It has a wide bed and could be of considerable importance in the
rainy season. In this place we made camp for the following night, during
which nothing particular occurred.[13]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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