Juan Crespi

Background

Juan Crespi was born on March 01, 1721 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Career

Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. In 1749 he came to America and went as missionary to the Sierra Gorda, that wild mountain fastness northeast of the Aztec capital. Later he was sent to the Peninsula of California on the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, and there was put in charge of Mission Purísima Concepción.

Two years later he was one of the small band of friars selected by Serra to join the Portolá expedition for the occupation of San Diego and Monterey. Crespi even preceded Serra on the great march, for he joined Rivera y Moneada, who led the vanguard, while Serra followed with Portolá. Crespi was one of the handful of pioneers who planted the Cross and the banner of Spain at San Diego in the summer of 1769. With Portolá he continued north, accomplishing the first European expedition by land up the California coast. With the mystified Portolá, seeking the harbor of Monterey, he pushed still farther north, and became one of the discoverers of San Francisco Bay, whose existence theretofore was unknown and whose importance he was one of the first to recognize.

Returning to San Diego with Portolá he again made the land march to Monterey. With Serra he became one of the founders of Mission Carmel, and there he spent the next twelve years, as Serra’s companion. In 1772 he went with Pedro Fages, to explore a route around San Francisco Bay. Two years afterward he joined the Pérez expedition to Alaska. In 1782 he died at Carmel.

Achievements

• Crespi is famous primarily as explorer and diarist. Of all the men of the half decade (1769 - 1774) so prolific in frontier extension up the Pacific Coast by land and sea, he alone participated in all the major path-breaking expeditions. From Vellicatá to San Diego, he journeyed; from San Diego to San Francisco Bay; from Monterey to the San Joaquin Valley; from Monterey by sea to Alaska. In distance he outtraveled Coronado. In all these expeditions he went in the double capacity of chaplain and diarist. Of all of them he kept superb diaries that have come down to us. His precious pages record nearly two thousand miles of laud travel and a sea voyage of twice that distance.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A description of distant roads: Original journals of the first expedition into California, 1769-1770

    ( A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of th...)

  • Captain Portola in San Luis Obispo County,: 1769-1969

    (Stapled card stock cover has edge wear.)

References

• Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County