View source for Gaspar de Portolá

{{Short description|Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator}}
{{family name hatnote|de Portolá|Rovira|lang=Spanish}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = Gaspar de Portolá 
| image         = Retrat Gaspar de Portolà (Lleida).jpg
| image_size    = 220
| birth_name    = Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira
| birth_date    = January 1, 1716
| birth_place   = [[Os de Balaguer]], [[Catalonia]]
| death_date    = October 10, 1786 (aged 70)
| death_place   = [[Lleida]], Catalonia
| resting_place = Lleida, Catalonia
| office        = [[List of governors of California before 1850|Governor of the Californias]]
| monarch       = [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]]
| term_start    = November 30, 1767
| term_end      = July 9, 1770
| predecessor   = ''Office established''
| successor     = [[Pedro Fages]]
| allegiance    = {{flagcountry|Spanish Empire}}
| branch        = {{army|Spanish Empire}}
| rank          = [[Captain]]
| battles       = 
| signature     = Gaspar de Portola signature.png
}}

[[Don (honorific)|Don]] '''Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira''' (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1786) was a [[Spanish Army]] officer and colonial administrator who served as the first [[List of governors of California before 1850|governor of the Californias]] from 1767 to 1770. Born in [[Catalonia]] into an [[Spanish nobility|aristocratic family]], he is best known for leading the [[Portolá expedition]] into [[California]], which laid the foundations of Spanish rule in the region Californian cities like [[San Diego]] and [[Monterey, California|Monterey]], and bestowed names to geographic features throughout California, many of which are still in use.<ref>[http://factcards.califa.org/exp/portola.html factcards.califa.org, Gaspar de Portolá i Rovira]</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Balaguer. Monument a Gaspar de Portolà (A-SiT-D1262).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Monument to Portolá in [[Balaguer]], [[Catalonia]].]]

Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira was born on January 1, 1716 in [[Os de Balaguer]], Catalonia, into a family of minor Catalan nobility. After he came of age, Portolá joined the [[Spanish Army]], being commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] in 1734 and a [[lieutenant]] in 1743. He saw service in [[Italy]] during the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] and participated in the [[Spanish invasion of Portugal (1762)|Spanish invasion of Portugal]] during the [[Fantastic War]]. Following the [[expulsion of the Jesuits]] from the [[Spanish Empire]], Portolá was tasked with removing the [[Jesuits]] from [[Spanish missions in Baja California]]. He then ensured the missions were turned over to the [[Franciscan]]s and later to the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]].{{fact|date=June 2024}}

==Expedition to Las Californias==
{{main|Portolá expedition}}{{more|Timeline of the Portolà expedition|The Californias}}

Spain was driven to establish [[Spanish missions in California|missions]] and other outposts on the Pacific Coast north of the [[Baja California Peninsula]] by fears that the territory would be claimed by competing foreign powers, in addition to its Catholic proselytizing mission and need for additional sources of income. The [[British Empire|British]], who had established [[British North America|several colonies]] on the East Coast of North America, had also sent explorers into the Pacific. Russian fur hunters were pressing east from [[Siberia]] across the [[Bering Strait]] into the [[Aleutian Islands]] and beyond. 
[[File:Map_of_the_Portolá_Expedition_of_California_(1769-1770).png|thumb|right|Map of the [[Portolá expedition]]]]
Dispatches of January 23, 1768, exchanged between King Carlos and the viceroy, set the wheels in motion to extend Spain's control up the Pacific Coast and establish colonies and missions at [[San Diego Bay]] and [[Monterey Bay]], which had been discovered and described in reports by earlier explorers [[Juan Cabrillo]] and [[Sebastián Vizcaíno]]. Vizcaíno had mapped the California coastline as far north as Monterey in 1602, but no significant Spanish settlement or even trading station had followed because those earlier explorations had failed to find a good harbor that the Spanish could have used for their long-standing Pacific maritime trade between Asia and Mexico: Monterey Bay, sighted by both Cabrillo and Vizcaíno, was exposed to rough currents and winds.

In May 1768, the Spanish Visitor General, [[José de Gálvez]], began to organize an [[Portolá expedition|expedition]], by sea and by land. Portolá was created "Governor of the Californias" and given overall command. [[Junípero Serra]], leader of the expedition's [[Franciscan]] missionaries, took command of spiritual matters. Sea and land detachments were to meet at San Diego Bay. 
[[File:San Francisco Bay Discovery Site vista (2009) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|[[Portolá expedition]] monument in [[Pacifica, California]] honoring Portolá's first sighting of [[San Francisco Bay]].]]
The first ship, the [[San Carlos (ship)|''San Carlos'']], sailed from [[La Paz, Baja California Sur|La Paz]] on January 10, 1769 and a second, the ''San Antonio'' sailed from [[Cabo San Lucas]] on February 15. At the same time, the various elements of the land parties began to move
north from [[Loreto, Baja California Sur]]. The land expedition was assembled at Velicatá, where Serra established his first new [[Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá|mission]]. From there, Portolá's plan called for splitting the land expedition in two. The lead group, charged with building a wagon trail and pacifying the natives, was led by Captain [[Fernando Rivera y Moncada]], and departed from Velicatá on March 24. With Rivera was the priest [[Juan Crespí]], diarist for the Franciscans. The expedition led by Portolá, which included [[Junípero Serra]] (the President of the Missions), along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers, including [[José Raimundo Carrillo]], left Velicatá on May 15. Junípero Serra founded two more missions during the expedition: [[San Diego de Alcalá]] on July 16, 1769 and [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]] on June 3, 1770.

Rivera reached the site of present-day [[San Diego]] in May, established a camp in the area that is now [[Old Town San Diego|Old Town]] and awaited the arrival of the others. Because of an error by Vizcaíno in determining the latitude of the San Diego Harbor, the ships passed by it and landed too far north before finding their way back. The ''San Antonio'' arrived on April 11 and the ''San Carlos'', the first ship to leave La Paz, having met with fierce winds and storms on the journey, arrived on April 29. A third vessel was to follow with supplies, but it was probably lost at sea. The land expedition of Portolá arrived on June 29. After their arduous journeys, most of the men aboard ship were ill, chiefly from [[scurvy]], and many had died. Out of a total of 219 who left Baja California, little more than 100 now survived.
[[File:Sant Esteve de la Sarga. Castellnou de Montsec. Monument a Gaspar de Portolà.JPG|thumb|right|Monument to Portolá in [[Sant Esteve de la Sarga]], Catalonia.]]
Eager to press on to [[Monterey Bay]], Portolá and his expedition, consisting of Juan Crespí, 63 leather-jacket soldiers and 100 mules loaded down with provisions, headed north on July 14, 1769, marching two to four leagues (1 league = 2.6 miles) a day. The expedition recorded an [[earthquake]] on July 28 at the [[Santa Ana River]]. On July 29 they reached the site of present-day [[Fullerton, California]] at [[Hillcrest Park (Fullerton)|Hillcrest Park]]. On July 30, the expedition crossed the [[Puente Hills]] at a pass in [[La Habra, California|La Habra]] (North Harbor Boulevard). They moved north-west to the [[San Gabriel River (California)|San Gabriel River]] (near [[El Monte, California|El Monte]]) where they built a bridge to cross over. This bridge ('La Puente' in Crespi's diary) is remembered in the name of today's nearby city of [[La Puente, California|La Puente]]. They arrived in what is now [[Los Angeles]] on August 2 (where the [[Los Angeles River]] and Arroyo Seco river meet). The following day, they marched out the Indian trail that would one day become [[Wilshire Boulevard]] to the present site of [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]]. Winding around to the area of later [[Saugus, Santa Clarita, California|Saugus]], now part of [[Santa Clarita, California|Santa Clarita]], they reached the area to become [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] on August 19, and the present-day [[San Simeon, California|San Simeon]] area on September 13. Unable to remain on the coast due to the steep, difficult terrain, the party turned inland. They marched through the San Antonio Valley and on October 1, Portolá's party emerged from the [[Santa Lucia Mountains]] and reached the mouth of the [[Salinas River (California)|Salinas River]].
[[File:Estracto de noticias del puerto de Monterrey.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The famous ''Estracto de Noticias'' written by Portolá in 1770 is the first published account of Spanish settlements in [[California]].]]
After a march of some {{convert|400|mile}} from San Diego and about {{convert|1000|mile}} from Velicatá, they had reached the bay they were seeking. But they failed to discern the coastline's semi-circular shape, described by Vizcaíno as round like an "O", even though members of the party had twice marched along its beach. Having failed to find their goal, they marched on north and reached the area at the north end of the bay, where Crespí named a creek [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]] on October 18. Pushing on, they reached a creek in the present-day town of [[Pacifica, California|Pacifica]] on October 31.

On November 4, having crossed the low coastal mountain range above the creek, the party was stunned to catch a glimpse of the enormous [[San Francisco Bay]] from the mountain range, as the bay was previously unknown to the Spanish.  This sighting was crucial to the later settlement of California because unlike Monterey Bay, it was surrounded by land on all sides except the Golden Gate, and thus it was not exposed to rough ocean currents as was Monterey Bay, which had been known to the Spanish since Cabrillo's exploration in the sixteenth century. Despite the earlier explorations of Cabrillo and Vizcaíno, and despite two centuries of Spanish sailing the Pacific for trade between Asia and Mexico, the San Francisco Bay had been missed because of the fog that frequently shrouded its entrance. If the San Francisco Bay had been discovered earlier, the region surrounding would have been settled by the Spanish earlier since it would have provided a safe, convenient harbor for Spain's Pacific maritime trade.

Portolá's party then headed back to San Diego, exploring and naming many localities in the region south of what eventually became known as the [[Golden Gate]]. Surviving on mule meat for most of the journey, they arrived on January 24, 1770.

On their way past Monterey Bay, they again failed to recognize it as the same bay that Vizcaíno had described in 1602.

==Second expedition==
[[File:Monument in Barcelona to Gaspar de Portola, 1st Governor of California.jpg|thumb|left|Monument to Portolá at [[Montjuïc Castle]] in [[Barcelona]], by Catalan sculptor [[:ca:Lluís Montané i Mollfulleda|Lluís Montané i Mollfulleda]].]]
[[File:Placa a Gaspar de Portolà davant el Castell de Pradell (Preixens).JPG|thumb|upright|right|Plaque honoring Gaspar de Portolá at the [[:ca:Castell de Pradell de Sió|Castle of Pradell de Sió]], his family's ancestral home in [[Preixens]].]]
One of Portolá's officers, Captain Vicente Vila, convinced him that he had actually been exactly on the Bay of Monterey when he placed his second cross at what later became [[Pacific Grove, California|Pacific Grove]]. After replenishing supplies at San Diego, Portolá and Serra decided on a joint expedition by land and sea to again search for the bay and establish a colony if they were successful. The ''San Antonio'' sailed on April 16, 1770. On board were Serra, Miguel Costansó, military engineer and cartographer, and Doctor Pedro Prat, army surgeon, along with a cargo of supplies for the new mission at Monterey. On April 17, after mustering what forces he could, Portolá's land expedition, which included lieutenant [[Pedro Fages]], 12 Spanish volunteers, seven leather-jacket soldiers, five Baja California Indians, two [[Arriero|muleteers]], and [[Juan Crespí]] serving as the expedition's chaplain, again marched north.

The expedition followed the same route they had the previous winter while returning to San Diego. After 36 days on the road, with only two days of rest, Portolá arrived at his second cross on May 24, 1770. He then saw that on a clear day and from a certain point of view the round harbor assumed the proportions described by the earlier enthusiastic explorers. Having recognized the bay, a Mass was conducted near the oak tree that the Carmelite missionaries with Vizcaíno had worshiped under in 1603, and possession was officially taken. On June 3, 1770, they laid the beginnings of the [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]] and founded the [[Presidio of Monterey, California|Presidio of Monterey]].

==Later life==
Governor Portolá's task was finished. He then left Captain [[Pedro Fages]] in charge, and on June 9 he sailed for [[San Blas, Nayarit|San Blas]], never to return to Upper California. In 1776, Portolá was appointed the governor of [[Puebla]]. After the appointment of his successor in 1784, he was advanced money for expenses and returned to Spain, where he served as commander of the ''Numancia'' cavalry dragoon regiment. On February 7, 1786 he was appointed King's Lieutenant for the strongholds and castles of Lleida. He died that same year, in October.

==Memorials==
{{multiple image
| align       = left
| total_width = 350
| image1      = Estàtua de Gaspar de Portolà a Arties.jpg
| width1      = 
| height1     = 300
| image2      = Gaspar de Portola statue.jpg
| height2     = 300
| footer      = Twin statues of Gaspar de Portolá by Spanish sculptor [[Josep Maria Subirachs]], located in [[Naut Aran|Arties, Catalonia]] (left) and [[Pacifica, California]] (right). They were a gift to the people of California by the [[Generalitat of Catalonia]] in 1988. 
}}

A 9 foot (2.7 m) statue in [[Pacifica, California]] was sculpted by the [[Catalonia|Catalan]] sculptor [[Josep Maria Subirachs]] and his associate, Francesc Carulla. It was given to the people of California by the [[Generalitat of Catalonia|Catalan government]] in 1988.  The statue was taken down on January 18, 2024, after years of complaint that the statue was honoring European colonization in the area.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lambert |first1=Clay |title=Portola statue removed after years of complaint |url=https://www.pacificatribune.com/news/portola-statue-removed-after-years-of-complaint/article_36076600-b629-11ee-9d8d-13901e472bed.html |work=[[Pacifica Tribune]] |access-date=18 January 2024 |date=18 January 2024}}</ref> A ten-foot high oil-on-canvas portrait of Portolá by [[Albert Herter]] in 1929 hangs in the [[Richard J. Riordan Central Library|Los Angeles Central Library's]] History Room.<ref>{{cite web |title=History Department Murals, Los Angeles Public Library |url=https://calisphere.org/item/836de14459c5d1928e070a64850f41d9/ |website=Calisphere, University of California |access-date=1 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=History Department Murals, Los Angeles Public Library |url=https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/112840 |website=TESSA, Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library |access-date=1 June 2023}}</ref>

The city of [[Portola, California|Portola]] in [[Plumas County, California|Plumas County]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=405lAAAAIBAJ&pg=775%2C5627048 |title=Over the Sierra |work=Indian Valley Record |date=May 30, 1940 |access-date=7 May 2015 |last=Brown |first=Thomas P. |page=3 |via=[[Google News]]}}</ref> the town of [[Portola Valley, California|Portola Valley]] in [[San Mateo County, California|San Mateo County]], and the [[Portola, San Francisco|Portola neighborhood of San Francisco]] were named after Portolà.

A number of schools in California were also named after him, including Portola Hills Elementary School in [[Portola Hills, California|Portola Hills]], Portola Elementary School in [[San Bruno, California|San Bruno]], Gaspar de Portola Middle School in [[Tierrasanta, San Diego|Tierrasanta]], Portola Middle School in [[Tarzana, Los Angeles|Tarzana]], [[Portola Middle School]] in [[Orange, California|Orange]], & Portola High School in [[Irvine, California|Irvine]].  The school in Orange is close to the spot where the expedition crossed the Santa Ana River, and the school has a 60-foot mural depicting the Portolà Expedition.

Portola Parkway running through Irvine and Lake Forest (though not connected as of 2018), was also named after Portolà. It is said that Portolà used the same route Portola Parkway now runs across. Portola Drive, which runs parallel to and near the Monterey Bay shoreline, is the main street of the [[Pleasure Point, California|Pleasure Point]] area of [[Santa Cruz County, California|Santa Cruz County]]. Portola Avenue is also a north-south street located in [[Palm Desert, California|Palm Desert]] in the [[Coachella Valley]].

{{libship honor|name=Gaspar de Portola|type=his}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further information==
*{{Cite web |last=Alvarez |first=Jose Manuel Serrano |title=Gaspar de Portolá and Rovira |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/10063/gaspar-de-portola-y-rovira |website=Real Academia de la Historia |language=Spanish}}
*{{cite book | last=Crespí | first=Juan |author2=Alan K Brown | title=A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769&ndash;1770 | location=San Diego | publisher=San Diego State University Press | year=2001 | isbn=1-879691-64-7}}
*{{cite encyclopedia| editor-last = Howgego| editor-first = Raymond John| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800| title = Portola, Gaspar de |pages=853–854| year = 2003| publisher = Hordern House |isbn=1875567364}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Nuttall |first1=Donald A. |title=Gaspar de Portolá: Disenchanted Conquistador of Spanish Upper California |journal=Southern California Quarterly |date=1971 |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=185–198|doi=10.2307/41170367 |jstor=41170367 }}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/portola/portola.htm Biography of Gaspar de Portolá] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503155856/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/portola/portola.htm |date=2009-05-03 }} at the  San Diego Historical Society website
*[http://historyandculture.com/chcc/explorers.html Early Exploration of San Diego: 1542 to 1769] at the California History & Culture Conservancy website ([https://web.archive.org/web/20030509094054/http://historyandculture.com/chcc/explorers.html archived])
*[http://www.ci.pacifica.ca.us/HISTORY/portola.html Portolá's History and Statue] in [[Pacifica, California]]([https://web.archive.org/web/19961031163947/http://www.ci.pacifica.ca.us/HISTORY/portola.html archived])
*[http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~vspanish1.html Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast of North America] website article ([https://web.archive.org/web/20020202082350/http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~vspanish1.html archived])
*[https://home.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/San-Mateo-HSR-Part-II-Sweeney-Ridge.pdf Sweeney Ridge, Golden Gate National Recreation Area] Portola Discovery Site in San Mateo County, California

{{Governors of California}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Explorers of California]]
[[Category:Governors of the Californias]]
[[Category:Spanish explorers of North America]]
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[[Category:1786 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Mexican people]]
[[Category:18th-century Spanish military personnel]]
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[[Category:American people of Catalan descent]]
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