led
to no occupation. It seems incredible that two hundred and twenty-six
years elapsed from Cabrillo's visit to the day the first settlers landed
in San Diego, founding the first of the famous missions. Historically,
1769 is surely marked. In this year Napoleon and Wellington were born
and civilized California was founded.

San Francisco Bay was discovered by a land party. It was August 6, 1775,
seven weeks after the battle of Bunker Hill, that Ayala cautiously found
his way into the bay and anchored the "San Carlos" off Sausalito. Five
days before the Declaration of Independence was signed Moraga and his
men, the first colonists, arrived in San Francisco and began getting out
the timber to build the fort at the Presidio and the church at Mission
Dolores.

Vancouver, in 1792, poking into an unknown harbor, found a good
landing-place at a cove around the first point he rounded at his right.
The Spaniards called it Yerba Buena, after the fragrant running vine
that abounded in the lee of the sandhills which filled the present site
of Market Street, especially at a point now occupied by the building of
the Mechanics-Mercantile Library. There was no human habitation in
sight, nor was there to be for forty years, but friendly welcome came
on the trails that led to the Presidio and the Mission.

An occasional whaler or a trader in hides and tallow came and went, but
foreigners were not encouraged to settle. It was in 1814 that the first
"Gringo" came. In 1820 there were thirteen in all California, three of
whom were Americans. In 1835 William A. Richardson was the first foreign
resident of Yerba Buena. He was allowed to lay out a street and build a
structure of boards and ship's sails in the Calle de Fundacion, which
generally followed the lines of the present Grant Avenue. The spot
approximates number 811 of the avenue today. When Dana came in 1835 it
was the only house visible. The following year Jacob P. Leese built a
complete house, and it was dedicated by a celebration and ball on the
Fourth of July in which the whole community participated.

The settlement grew slowly. In 1840 there were sixteen foreigners. In
1844 there were a dozen houses and fifty people. In 1845 there were but
five thousand people in all the state. The missions had been disbanded
and the Presidio was manned by one gray-haired soldier. The Mexican War
brought renewed life. On July 9, 1846, Commodore Sloat sent Captain
Montgomery with the frigate