Juan Bautista De Anza (1735-1788), Spain
Captain Juan Bautista de Anza was a Mexican-born trailblazer and explorer. He was the first person of European descent to establish an overland trail from Mexico to the northern Pacific coast of California (then called New Albion). He found a corridor through the desolate Sonoran Desert. His expeditions brought hundreds of settlers to California. He founded the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose. De Anza was the commander of the presidio at Tubac.
Junipero Serra (1713-1784), Spain
Father Junipero Serra was one of the greatest missionaries in history. In 1976, he set off on an expedition with Gaspar de Portola to find missions at San Diego and Monterey and to establish the Spanish right to California and convert the indians to Christianity. He founded the first of California's missions in San Diego, when he was 56 years old. He established nine missions, with a total of twenty-one missions eventually being established along the El Camino Real, from San Diego to Sonoma. mission San Carlos Barromeo founded (1770), Serra remained there as president of Alta California missions; in 1771 he moved the mission to Carmel-by-the-Sea, which became his headquarters for the rest of his days. Under his presidency were founded the missions San Antonio de Padua (1771), San Gabriel Arcángel (1771), San Luis Obispo (1772), San Juan Capistrano (1776), San Francisco de Asís (1776), Santa Clara de Asís (1777), and San Buenaventura (1782).
Gaspar de Portola (1734-84) Spain
Spanish explorer in the Far West. After serving in Italy and Portugal, he was sent (1767) to America as governor of the Californias to expel the Jesuits and to save Franciscan missions. In 1769, Portolá commanded an expedition sent out from Mexico to extend Spain’s control up the Pacific coast by establishing a colony at Monterey Bay, which had been discovered and described by earlier explorers. Portolá’s expedition, composed of two ships and two land parties, left Velicatá and met at San Diego Bay, where Portolá established a small colony. From there he continued with a small land party to Monterey Bay, which he failed to recognize. After exploring the region, he returned (1770) to San Diego. Convinced by one of his captains that he had actually seen Monterey Bay, Portolá again marched north. Recognizing at last the bay described by earlier explorers and the site chosen for Spanish occupation of Upper California, he established the mission and presidio of San Carlos. Portolá became governor of Puebla, Mexico, in 1776 and in 1784 returned to Spain.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779)
English explorer and navigator. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joined (1755) the royal navy. He surveyed the St. Lawrence Channel (1760) and the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador (1763–67). Cook was then given command of the Endeavour and sailed (1768) on an expedition to chart the transit of Venus; he returned to England in 1771, having also circumnavigated the globe and explored the coasts of New Zealand, which he accurately charted for the first time, and E Australia. He next commanded (1772–75) an expedition to the South Pacific of two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure. On this voyage he disproved the rumor of a great southern continent, explored the Antarctic Ocean and the New Hebrides, visited New Caledonia, and by the observance of strict diet and hygiene prevented scurvy, heretofore the scourge of long voyages. Cook sailed again in 1776; in 1778 he visited and named the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and unsuccessfully searched the northwest coast of North America for a Northwest Passage. On the return voyage he was killed by natives on the island of Hawaii.
Vitus Bering (1681-1741)
In 1725, Bering was selected by Peter I to explore far NE Siberia. Having finally moved men and supplies across Siberia, Bering in 1728 sailed north through Bering Strait but sighted no land and did not recognize the importance of the strait. Later in 1728, setting out from Kamchatka, he was driven from his course and came around the southern route near Kamchatka, discovering that on August 13, 1728, Asia and America were two separate continents. He returned to St. Petersburg, arriving in 1730, but was criticized for not having actually seen the American coast. The second Kamchatka Expedition, also called Great Nordic Expedition, was the largest expedition the world ever saw. It included 10,000 men. As leader and overall organizer, it was also Bering's task to find and then map the west coast of Siberia and America. He also ehaded an expedition across the sea to Alaska. In 1741, he commanded the St. Peter while Aleksey Ilich Chirikov commanded the St. Paul. They set out, roudned Kamchatka, founded the town of Petropavlovsk, and then sailed west, but the vessels were separated. Bering sighted the St. Elias Mts. in Alaska on July 16, and the scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller led a landing party. Sailing West past the Aleutian Islands, the ship was wrecked on the shore of Bering Island, which they mistook for the coast of Kamchatka. On December 8, 1741, Bering died on Bering Island. The few survivors managed to reach Kamchatka in the summer of 1742.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (1498-1543)
Spanish conquistador and discoverer of California, b. Portugal. In 1520 he landed in Mexico with Pánfilo de Narváez and joined in the conquests of Mexico and Guatemala. Accompanying Pedro de Alvarado up the west coast of Mexico, he assumed command of the expedition and continued the voyage after Alvarado's death. He discovered San Diego Bay on Sept. 28, 1542, landing at Point Loma Head, now in Cabrillo National Monument. He then sailed on to Northwest Cape beyond San Francisco Bay, which he did not find. Returning to winter on San Miguel Island off the Santa Barbara coast, he died Jan. 3, 1543.
