Esteban Jose Martinez: His Voyage in 1779 to Supply Alta California (review)

In 1993 the Bancroft Library acquired an original diary by Esteban José Martínez, commander of the supply vessel Santiago, which sailed from San Blas on the Pacific coast of New Spain to Alta California and back again in 1779. The late Vivian Fisher scrupulously transcribed, translated, and edited the diary, which she aptly described as fulfilling the "functions of a log, journal, and report" (p. 13 ). The Bancroft Library has published it in a handsome edition. Martínez is best remembered for his unfortunate, and perhaps alcohol-abetted, decision to arrest British ship captain James Colnett at Nootka Sound in 1789 —an episode that plunged Spain into a crisis with England and apparently ended Martínez's career. When he wrote this diary in 1779 , however, his star was rising. Alta California was a decade old and the sea remained its lifeline to the rest of New Spain. Beginning in 1774 , Martínez made annual voyages to California on the supply vessels that headed north from San Blas, delivering food and manufactured goods and transporting mail and passengers in both directions. Martínez sailed first as second pilot, then as pilot—the position he occupied in 1779.

Historians have paid scant attention to these prosaic supply journeys, focusing instead on voyages of discovery in the Pacific Northwest. Martínez's diary suggests that historians' priorities have not been misguided. His entries at sea, on both the outbound and inbound voyages, focus almost exclusively on his daily challenge of figuring out where he was and how to get where he was going. In 1779 this proved unusually difficult. He got off to a late start, well into the season when contrary winds forced ships to sail far west before heading north. He also lacked a compass to measure the difference between magnetic north and true north. Astonishingly, the Naval Department of San Blas had none to give him when he set out with his valuable cargo. Although Martínez meticulously charted his course with other instruments, his diary makes clear that he also believed his fate depended on his God, whom he credited with curing sick sailors, providing or withholding favorable winds, and keeping his vessel from harm.

In Alta California, Martínez moved beyond the quotidian to record his impressions of the three landings—the nascent communities of San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego. His verbal snapshots focus almost entirely on the physical structures and demographic profiles of the presidios and missions and the crops grown at the missions. San Francisco, founded just three years prior, made a poor impression. It was foggy, cold, and damp, and the entrance to the bay (which he navigated for the first time on this trip) was difficult to find and exceedingly difficult to leave. Westerly winds and currents blew into the "canyon" (p. 91 ), as he called the Golden Gate, delaying his departure for two weeks. At all three ports he experienced difficulties unloading cargo, keeping track of its weight, and transporting it to warehouses with inadequate local mules. He noted little about local personalities, politics, or social life. We do learn, however, that it was commonplace for mariners to stay in California for a year to work as "servants" at the missions and that Martínez served at the mission at San Francisco as godfather for the baptism of four Indian boys, two of whom were married immediately afterward.

Vivian Fisher has added much of the value to Martínez's diary. She translated its difficult maritime terminology and included a glossary to make it intelligible for English-speaking landlubbers who do not know a capstan from a cathead. Her annotations identify every bird and barnacle, and her appendices include a list of ships that sailed up the coast from San Blas in the Spanish era (1769-1809) and several...