DAWN AND THE DONS
guarded against the menace of international rivals. There yet remained the important tasks of establishing a Presidio and a Mission, and the founding of a colony.
The Presidio problem presented no serious difficulty. Portola selected a site, named it the Presidio San Carlos, put his handful of soldiers in charge, and ordered the construction of suitable barracks. Father Serra selected a Mission site a short distance from the shoreline of the harbor, near the Presidio, where under his personal supervision, a small chapel was constructed, and also rooms and offices for the missionaries; all surrounded by a stockade. The Mission was given the official name of San Carlos Borromeo.
The founding of a colony presented many difficulties and necessitated the return to Mexico of Portola. He named Pedro Fages Military Governor of California, and left him some thirty soldiers to complete and occupy the Presidio. Serra, as President of the California Missions, was of course in charge of the Mission here.
With these preliminary matters arranged, Portola set sail on the San Antonio for Mexico, where Galvez and Croix were anxiously awaiting tidings of the great venture that lay so close to their hearts. It is a striking illustration of the advance made in the means of communication since Portola found the “Noble Harbor’”—a little more than a century and a half ago—that Visitador Galvez and Viceroy Croix had no knowledge of events in California during eighteen months of waiting, nor until the San Antonio, with Portola and Constanso aboard,
