Anza's California Expeditions, in Five Volumes: An Outpost of Empire;; Opening a Land Route to California - Diaries of Anza, Diaz, Garces, and Palou; The San Francisco Colony - Diares of Anza, Font, and Eixarch, and Narratives by Palou and Moraga; Font's…

xxi, 528; pp. 8vo. Includes 14 maps (7 of which are fold-outs), 106 plates (comprised of both photographs and illustrations), and 47 facsimiles of diary pages. Transcriptions of original manuscript diaries recounting exploration of California by Spanish pioneers, specifically focusing on the origins of San Francisco. From the jackets: "These five volumes record for the first time in circumstantial detail the story of the beginnings of San Francisco. It is a narrative of deep human interest and of profound significance. It brings together in one picture the pioneer work of soldier, missionary and colonist. It tells of the opening of a route of travel across the California mountains three-quarters of a century ahead of the Forty-niners. It gives eyewitness accounts of the 1600-mile journey of the Spanish pioneers whom Anza led from Mexico to found San Francisco. Volume I contains a graphic recital of one of the most remarkable episodes in colony founding in the whole history of North America. In Volumes II, III and IV are published for the first time twelve diaries of the Anza expeditions. These precious accounts were written by Anza, the leader, and by the four Franciscan friars who accompanied him - Fathers Garces, Diaz, Font, and Eixarch. Greatest of all the diarists was Father Font, whose superb journal, filling a whole volume, is not excelled in all the annals of America. In Volume V is published the official and personal correspondence of the two Anza expeditions." Howes B-583: "Monumental work containing translations of the original MS. diaries of Anza, Diaz, Garces, Font and Palou relating to the 1773 and 1774 expeditions and the founding of both Monterey and San Francisco." "In 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza, a captain on the Spanish frontier stationed at the Tubac Presidio, requested permission from the viceroy of New Spain, Antonio Maria Bucareli, to prove that a land route from Mexico to Alta (Upper) California was possible. Spain was in need of an overland route to Alta California, because existing sea routes were too dangerous, and the Spanish needed to secure their outposts in this area from Russian and English exploration and colonization. Bucareli granted Anza permission, and with the help of American Indian guides, Anza identified an overland route in 1774. With the success of this first expedition, Anza gained permission to recruit potential settlers for a second colonizing expedition. By October of 1775, Anza had convinced nearly 300 people to take their chances on a new life. He persuaded people to join him on a colonizing expedition to Alta California by telling them stories of lush resources, plentiful land, and new opportunities. A culturally diverse mix of peoples of American Indian, European, and Afro-Latino ancestry put their trust in Anza and became a part of the expedition. The settlers, their military escorts, and the 1,000 head of livestock included in the expedition traveled to presidios, missions, and through the countryside for about five and a half months until they reached their final destination. By June 27, 1776, Lt. Moraga, one of the main lieutenants on the expedition, led the settlers into the area that is now San Francisco. Anza had decided on this site as the final destination on March 28, 1776, after exploring while the rest of the group recuperated from the journey in Monterey. Anza made sure that the settlers reached their final destination and that Spain successfully established its outpost in Alta California. Anza's expedition changed the course of California history, and descendants of the expedition live on today." (National Park Service) "The world has seen great explorers come and go, and the greatest of those were the Spaniards. As New Spain pushed northward from Mexico it found itself hampered by the difficulties of defending and supplying an ever-lengthening line of frontier - the scattered settlements of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and California. One by one those were cut off without seriously affecting the integrity of the colonies to the south. Spanish dominion in North America reached its peak with Anza's establishment of the pueblo of San Francisco - the farthest flung outpost of Spain on this continent. Backed by a wealth of new documentary material and fortified by a first-hand knowledge of the desert trails, Professor Bolton has produced a definitive account of Anza's achievements. Bancroft disposes of Anza in twenty-one pages. Eldredge increases this to ninety-five. Of the two Anza expeditions 'thirteen diaries were kept, of which only two have been printed in any language. In addition, Father Garces wrote a brief account of the first journey which is essential another diary. Of the fourteen documents twelve are printed here for the first time and one is reprinted.' So there is no lack of sources, most of which Bancroft never obtained. In his first volume Bolton gives a masterly summary of the detailed matter included in the other four. And prefacing this summary is a most interesting resume of the results of the Spanish conquest of North and South America." (California Historical Society Quarterly, Volume 10, Issue I, March 1931). The Zamarano 80 #07: "Juan Bautista de Anza was the foremost land explorer in Spanish California. With his expedition of 1774 he opened up the land route between the established settlements of Sonora and the new colonies of Alta California, and his expedition of 1776 brought overland the colonists who founded San Francisco. Anza's accomplishments were not well understood and hence not appreciated until Bolton assembled all the diaries, journals, and correspondence of Anza and his associates in this publication. Incidentally I agree with Bolton in his assertion that the Font long diary of the 1776 expedition contained herein is the greatest single diary of exploration in the history of Latin America."