DAWN AND THE DONS 34
from San Lucas, at the end of the Peninsula, only to be beaten back by contrary winds and opposing currents. For four days it struggled and maneuvered, while the Visitador Galvez, from a high hill near the water’s edge, watched with keen anxiety. Favoring winds caught the sails of the baffled ship on its fifth day, and she sailed serenely out of his sight.
The San Antonio did not get under way until February 15 of the same year, yet of the four expeditions, two by land, two by sea, it was the first to arrive at San Diego; fifty-five days en route, it came to anchor on April 11, 1769. No severe storms had been encountered, she had been able to keep fairly close to shore, but scurvy, the dread maritime scourge of that day, had attacked the boat’s officers and crew. Except for the friars, Juan Vizcaino and Francisco Gomez, all of the expedition were sick or disabled.
Next to arrive was the San Carlos. She had had a tempestuous, a prolonged and a circuitous voyage. She arrived on April 29, 1769, having occupied one hundred and ten days in sailing from San Lucas to San Diego. She had been driven far out to sea, and far north of her intended destination. Because of storms, she twice took to the open sea, finally sighting land in the Santa Barbara Channel, a little south of Point Conception. Thence she followed the coast south to San Diego. Scurvy had taken a terrible toll on the San Carlos. Everybody on board was sick, and all but two of the crew had died. both boats, when they reached In fact, San Diego, were sub-
