(1717?–84?). San Diego and Monterey in California were both founded by the Spanish soldier and explorer Gaspar de Portolá. He was accompanied on his expedition by the priest Junípero Serra, who founded many of California's earliest Franciscan missions (see Serra). Portolá was born sometime between 1717 and 1723 in Balaguer, Spain. He entered the Spanish army in 1734. After 30 years of service in Europe, he had attained the rank of captain. In 1767 he was sent to the New World as governor of the yet-unsettled provinces of California. He arrived in Lower California on July 6, 1768, and led an overland party to what is now San Diego. The expedition arrived in late June 1769, to find its supply ships waiting. Portolá took 40 men on a march northward to find Monterey. They missed the site and went on to present-day San Francisco. By January 1770 he was back in San Diego. He set out again in April and found Monterey Bay on May 24, 1770. There he established the mission San Carlos Barromeo and set up a fort for Upper California. Portolá served as governor of Puebla from 1777 to 1784, after which nothing more is known of his life. |