Anza Expedition of 1776

Anza Expedition of 1776. . , "We called to these Indians, hoping to buy their fish from them." , From Father Pedro Font's Diary, April 2, 1776, In 1775 and 1776, Lt. Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, Father Pedro Font, along with 240 settlers, soldiers, and others traveled 1,800 miles from Sonora, Mexico to Monterey, California. Anza then led a smaller party to choose sites for the mission and presidio (military base) in San Francisco, and to explore the East Bay., On April 2, 1776, the explorers stopped near this location and traded for a fish they had never seen before from local fishermen, perhaps from a nearby Carquin Ohlone village. , Font's Diary, April 2, 1776: We saw there some launches [boats] very well made with tule...in the middle of the waterside Indians were fishing in one...with nets..., Anza's Diary, April 2, 1776: [They traded]...us a fish two and one-eighth varas long ...entirely lacking in scales or interior bones...between the skin and the flesh there were some very perfect stars painted on the skull...Their eyes were gilded but very small...we ate it and found it very palatable and tender... , [ 1 vara = 2.7 feet. The fish was a sturgeon over 6 feet long.], Welcome to the homeland of the Huichun-Aguasto, and Ohlone-speaking tribe. , Dates and stories taken from the diaries of Anza and Font, courtesy of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education, University of Oregon, www.anza.uoregon.edu