The Discovery of Los Angeles

In 1769 a party of Spanish explorers were developing a trail between San Diego and San Francisco which became known as El Camino Real. A series of missions would be established along this trail. Led by Father Junipero Serra and Captain Gaspar de Portola, and with Father Juan Crespi to record what they saw, the expedition of about 67 men entered what is now Los Angeles by way of Elysian Park on August 2, 1769.

After traveling about a league and a half through a pass between low hills we entered a very spacious valley, well grown with cottonwoods and alders, among which ran a beautiful river from north-northwest, and then, doubling the point of a steep hill, it went on afterward to the south.

...As soon as we arrived, about eight heathen from a good village came to visit us; they live in this delightful place among the trees on the river.

Portola named the river El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula. The expedition left the area the next morning; during their brief stay there had been three earthquakes. Nevertheless, Crespi saw the possibilities for a large settlement in this "delightful place" by the river.

Next, read about the settlement of Los Angeles

Bolton, Herbert E.Fray Juan Crespi: Missionary Explorer of the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1927.
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