urnished them with water and they
named the camp El Rincon de las Almejas, on account of the mussels and
other shell fish they found on the rocks. Crespi calls it La Punta
del Angel Custodia. The site of the camp is about a mile north of the
Montara fog signal. By noon of the next day, October 31st, the pioneers
had prepared a passage over the bold promontory of Point San Pedro, and
at ten o'clock in the morning the company set out on the trail of the
exploradores and made their painful way to the summit. Here a wondrous
sight met their eyes and quickened their flagging spirits. Before them,
bright and beautiful, was spread a great ensenada, its waters dancing
in the sunlight. Far to the northwest a point reached out into the sea,
rising abruptly before them, high above the ocean. Further to the left,
west-northwest, were seen six or seven white Farallones and finally
along the shore northward they discerned the white cliffs and what
appeared to be the mouth of an inlet. There could be no mistake. The
distant point was the Punta de los Reyes and before them lay the Bahia o
Puerto de San Francisco. The saint had been good to them and with joy in
their hearts they made the steep and difficult descent and camped in the
San Pedro valley[29] at the foot of the Montara mountains.

Some of the company thought they had left the Port of Monterey behind
but would not believe they had reached the Port of San Francisco. To
settle the matter, the governor ordered Ortega and his men to examine
the country as far as Point Reyes, giving them three days in which to
report, while the command remained in camp in the Vallecito de la Punta
de las Almejas del Angel de la Guarda, as Crespi calls it, combining the
two names of the camp of October 30th and transferring them to the camp
in San Pedro valley.

The next day, Thursday, November 2nd, being All Souls day, after mass
some of the soldiers asked permission to go and hunt for deer. They
climbed the mountains east of the camp and returning after nightfall
reported that they had seen from the top of the mountain an immense
estero or arm of the sea, which thrust itself into the land as far as
the eye could reach, stretching to the southeast; that they had seen
some beautiful plains thickly covered with trees, while the many columns
of smoke rising over them showed that they were well stocked with Indian
villages. This story confirmed them in the belief that they were at the
Port of San Fran