Background
He was born about 1723 at Balaguer in Catalonia, Spain, of a Spanish noble family.
He was born about 1723 at Balaguer in Catalonia, Spain, of a Spanish noble family.
There is no information about his education.
Commissioned ensign in 1734, lieutenant in 1743, and captain in 1764, he saw military service in Italy and Portugal. In 1767 he was sent out as governor of the Californias to take charge of the expulsion of the Jesuits from that territory. His contribution to the history of what is now the United States consists in his march from Velicat, Lower California, to Monterey, Upper California, a distance of about one thousand miles, through untrod country, and in his founding of the missions and presidios of San Diego and Monterey.
Dispatches of January 23, 1768, exchanged between the viceroy and the king, laid the administrative foundation for the enterprise. The Visitor General, José de Galvez, in May proceeded to prepare the expedition, consisting of two land and two sea detachments, which Portol volunteered to command. The two vessels left Lower California early in 1769, the San Carlos on January 10, and the San Antonio on February 15. The first land party, under Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada, left the base at Velicat on March 24, and Portol led forward the final detachment on May 15.
Portol reached San Diego, Upper California, on June 29, welcomed by Rivera, who had in May established a camp in "Old Town. " The San Antonio and the San Carlos had arrived on April 11 and April 29 respectively. Though his followers were ravaged by scurvy, Portol chose some forty, with whom and a hundred provision-laden mules, he pressed on, setting forth July 14 for a march of some four hundred miles to an assumedly identifiable harbor near latitude 37°, noted in the reports of earlier explorers. Portol 's party emerged at the mouth of the Salinas River on October 1. They did see and attempt to reach Drake's (San Francisco) Bay, and explored and named many localities in the region south of the Golden Gate. Disappointed by their failure to find Vizcaino's harbor, they returned to San Diego, subsisting for most of the march on mule meat.
Upon their arrival, January 24, 1770, however, Portol was persuaded by Captain Vicente Vila that he had been exactly on the Bay of Monterey when he placed his second cross at Pacific Grove. He therefore mustered what forces he could and on April 17 set out once more, the San Antonio under Juan Perez having sailed on the quest the day before. Arriving at his second cross on May 24, 1770, Portol saw that on a clear day and from a certain point of view, the round harbor assumed the proportions remarked by its early enthusiastic visitors.
In 1776 he was appointed governor of the city of Puebla, and in 1784, after the appointment of his successor, was advanced money for the expenses of his return to Spain. He died in 1786.
Gaspar de Portol was a well-known commander of the Spanish colonizing expedition, the first European to see San Francisco Bay. In the result of his expedition San Diego and Monterey were established and many geographic features were named along the way, many of which are still in use. He also expanded New Spain's Las Californias province far to the north from its beginnings on the Baja California peninsula. The city of Portola in Plumas County, the town of Portola Valley in San Mateo County, and the 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.
There is no information about his marital status.
