who led the first overland expedition to san diego
Portolá expedition Captain Fernando Rivera, moving north through Baja California, gathered horses and mules from the fragile chain of Catholic missions to supply his overland expedition. José de Gálvez had ordered Rivera to requisition horses and mules from the missions without endangering their survival and give the friars receipts for the number of animals taken; those missions would later get restocked with animals brought over from the Mexican mainland. Friar Juan Crespí, selected as chaplain for the Rivera party and diarist for the Franciscan missionaries, traveled 24 days from Mission La Purísima, 400 miles (640 km) north to Velicatá (near the current town of Ramona), then the northern frontier of Spanish settlement in Baja California. There Crespí met up with the Rivera party, which set out from Velicatá on March 24. Their mule and horse train, tended by three muleteers, carried 25 leather-jacket soldiers and 42 Baja California Christian Indians (all men).[7]
Mission San Diego de Alcalá Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá was the first Franciscan mission in The Californias, a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it was founded on July 16, 1769 by Spanish friar Junípero Serra in an area long inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The mission and the surrounding area were named for the Catholic Didacus of Alcalá, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego. The mission was the site of the first Christian burial in Alta California. San Diego is also generally regarded as the site of the region's first public execution, in 1778. Father Luis Jayme, California's first Christian martyr, lies entombed beneath the chancel floor. The current church, built in the early 19th century, is the fifth to stand on this location.[16][17] The mission site is a National Historic Landmark.[14][18]