Pedro Font was a Franciscan missionary in charge of the Indian mission of San José de los Pimas, Sonora, Mexico, had gained such a reputation as a man of learning and cartographer.
Background
By the year 1774, that when Captan Juan Bautista de Anza was sent on a second expedition from his Sonora presidio, San Ignacio de Tubac, in order to establish a mission and presidio on the Bay of San Francisco, he was directed to accompany the expedition "on all the journey, so that as one skilled in these matters, [he] may observe latitudes. ”
Career
On January 4, 1776, the expedition reached San Gabriel (near the present Los Angeles), and on February 21, with Father Font in attendance, set out northward along the California coast.
On March 10, the expedition reached Monterey and here, at the mission of San Carlos Borromeo, Father Font was entertained by Fathers Junípero Serra, Francisco Palou and Juan Crespi, in connection with whom he made observation of the sun’s elevation.
On March 23, 1776, Anza with Father Font and eleven or twelve men left Monterey for San Francisco Bay. At sight of the port of San Francisco, the Father was overjoyed, hailing it as a “wonder of nature. ”
It was the duty of Father Font to keep by graphometer and compass close tabulation of the course of the expedition, and this he did particularly with reference to the Bay of San Francisco. Toward the west he observed the Farallón Islands, the elevation of which he set down. Within the Bay he counted eight islands, four of which he sketched for his diary. He figured the latitude of the point at the entrance to the Bay (Fort Point) as 37° 49' uncorrected, the actual latitude being about 37°47'.
He took with him a record of observations by Father Crespi who had visited the region in I774- Journals had been kept by both Fathers Crespi and Palou, and of these Father Font made use by studying them on the spot.
Of the selection of a site for a presidio he wrote: “The commander decided to erect the holy cross on the extremity of the white cliff at the inner point of the entrance to the port, and we went there at eight o’clock in the morning. We ascended a small low hill, and then entered a table-land, entirely clear, of considerable extent, and flat, with a slight slope towards the port; it must be about half a league in width and a little more in length, and keeps narrowing until it ends in the white cliff. This table-land commands a most wonderful view, as from it a great part of the port is visible, with its islands, the entrance, and the ocean, as far as the eye can reach—even farther than the Farallones. The commander marked this table-land as the site of the new settlement, and the fort which is to be established at this port, for, from its being on a height it is so commanding that the entrance of the mouth of the port can be defended by musket-fire, and at the distance of a musket-shot there is water for the use of the people, that is, the spring or pond where we halted. I again examined the mouth of the port and its configuration with a graphometer, and attempted to survey it; the plan of it is the one I here set down” (Diario del P. Font. John Nicholas Brown manuscript in the Library of Congress).
On April 4, 1774 the Anza expedition began its return south, and by June 2, the return had been accomplished.
The death of Father Font occurred at Pitique, Sonora, September 6, 1781.