2o6 ELDORADO 



ply having arrived from Mexico by water, Portala 

 again set out for Monterey and there effected a settle- 

 ment. Parties of emigrants came from Mexico during 

 the year 1770 and establishments were made on the 

 coast between San Diego and Monterey. Eight set- 

 tlements were effected between those points ]:)revious 

 to 1779. The most southern post was San Diego and 

 the most northern, San Francisco. 



Various expeditions for exploring the coast above 

 Cape Mendocino were made by the Spaniards. One of 

 these proceeded as far north as latitude 41 degrees, 

 and some men were landed on the shores of a small 

 bay just north of Cape Mendocino and gave the har- 

 bor the name of Port Trinidad. The small river which 

 flows into the Pacific near the place where they landed 

 was called Pigeon River, from the great number of 

 those birds found in that neighborhood. The Indians 

 were a peaceable race and were inoffensive in their 

 conduct towards the Spaniards. In the same year, 

 1775, Bodega, a Spanish commander, discovered a 

 small bay a few miles north of the Golden Gate, which 

 had not previously been described and gave it his own 

 name, which it still bears. 



Few events worth relating occurred in California 

 during the fifty years from the establishing of the 

 Spaniards on the coast until the close of the Mexican 

 war of independence with Spain. An attempt being 

 made by the Russians to form a settlement on the 

 shores of the Bay of Bodega in 1815. led to a remon- 

 strance from the Governor of California, but it was 

 disregarded and the command to quit the place was 

 disobeved. The ae'cnt. Ktishof. denied the rigfht of the 



