Spanish Missionary
- Fray Juan Crespi (1721–1882)
- UNITED STATES
Born in 1721, Father Juan Crespi arrived in the Americas in 1749, eager to bring the Catholic faith to the distant boundaries of the Spanish empire. Crespi found assignments in Baja California and joined Father Junípero Serra on his expeditions.
Crespi first came to California as part of Gaspar de Portolá's 1769 overland expedition to colonize Alta California. He was present at the founding of Mission San Diego in 1769. In 1770 he served as the founding priest of Mission San Carlos Borromeo, which later became known as the Carmel Mission.
In addition to his role as an explorer and spiritual leader, Crespi kept journals of his travels, some of which survive. The journals describe his overland journey from Baja to Alta California in 1769, his encounter with a band of native California Indians on the way to San Diego, and his explorations of the Pacific as far north as Canada in 1774.
Father Crespi died in 1782.
First-person accounts extracted from Harry Crosby, The Gateway to Alta California: The Expedition to San Diego, 1769 (San Diego: Sunbelt Publications).
April 4 and 5, 1769, Father Crespi on his journey from Ensenada to San Diego:
“We set out from here at the stream at ten o’clock in the morning…. Taking up a northwest by west course, we went on through the mountains this way, up and down various grades of sheer soil having only a few rocks in some spots…. Upon one grade we passed through the midst of the dung heap of a rancheria, empty when we came upon it; although coming across various well-beaten trails belonging to the heathens, we did not meet with a single one of them in the entire day’s march, which was four and three quarters hours during which, over very broken country, we must have made four leagues; upon which we came down to a handsome level at the foot of a high range, with a lot of good soil and all of it overgrown with very good grasses, with a handsome stream with a good flow of water running through the flat at ground level…. The soldiers have been picking, among the many kinds of plants, a sort that they call greens. They say the heathens gather a great amount of seeds from it, of which they make an excellent gruel, which I myself have often tasted, delicious to the palate. They gathered a large share of these greens, very tender ones they were, and cooked them and I tried them and found them as delicious a vegetable dish as though they were spinach…. An excellent spot for founding a good-sized mission; I named it San Ysidoro because having reached it upon his day, so that in time it shall become a large mission with a great amount of heathen folk….”
May 7, 1769, on the trail to San Diego:
“During this march, a good-sized throng of heathens along the way shouted at us a great deal in a loud chorus; all naked, heavily armed, and with large quivers on their backs and bows and arrows in their hands, and all went running along the crests of the hills in view alongside of us…. Our commander charged everyone that no one should shout back to them, as we did not understand what they might be saying to us; instead, the commander himself repeatedly made signs to them to come to the camp without fear, showing them beads and ribbons that he would present to them, but they would never pay attention to anything. They kept us waiting this way the entire day until close to sunset, when they all together gave a loud whoop and vanished from sight and were seen no more that night.”
Father Crespi and his expedition arrived at San Diego harbor in advance of the new governor of the colony and of the “reverend father president” of the missions, Father Junipero Serra. Upon the arrival of Serra and his party on July 1, 1769, Crespi wrote:
“Thank the Lord, all of them reached here well, without the slightest change or breach in their health. Sunday, July the 2nd, the feast of the visitation of our lady, we sang a thanksgiving mass to her most holy spouse, patron of the expeditions by sea and land, now that we saw all their parts gathered together at this their intermediate goal.”