JUAN
BAUTISTA DE ANZA II
Juan Bautista De Anza II was the son of Juan Bautista De Anza and Maria
Rosa Bezerra Nieto. He was born in July 1736 at either the Presidio at Fronteras,
Mexico, which his father
commanded, or at the family ranch in Cuquiarachi,
Mexico.
His father was killed by Apaches on 9 May 1740 near the family-owned Divisadoro
Ranch that was located south of the Guevavi Mission.
Anza decided at an early age to be like his father and make the military his
career. He joined the Spanish Militia in December 1751 at San
Ignacio, Sonora, Mexico
and became a “cadete” in the cavalry at the Fronteras Presidio in 1754.
At Fronteras, he was under the tutelage of Captain Gabriel de Vildosola, his
sister’s husband, and learned the art of frontier warfare. He proved his
ability as a soldier, was twice wounded by the Apaches and was promoted to
Cavalry Lieutenant at Fronteras in 1756. When Juan de Belderrain, the first
Captain of the newly established presidio at Tubac, was killed in a campaign against
the Seri Indians, Anza was selected in December 1759 to become the next Captain
of the Tubac Presidio. He became well known for his abilities as a
soldier fighting the Apaches in the north and the Seri Indians in the south.
Anza married Ana Maria Perez on 24 June1761 but had no children.
The Spanish had long been interested in reinforcing their presence in upper
California to secure the Pacific coast from Russian and English
influence. Settlement of Alta California by sea expeditions or land expeditions
through Baja California was extremely
difficult and the Spanish needed a new overland route originating in Sonora.
In 1772 Anza proposed to the Viceroy of New Spain that he lead an expedition to
Alta California. The expedition was approved
by the King of Spain and on 9 January 1774, Anza left Tubac to explore an
overland route from Sonora Mexico
to Alta California. He arrived at
Mission San Gabriel near present day Los
Angeles on 22 March 1774. He returned to Tubac in late
May. As a result of this exploratory expedition, he was promoted to the
rank of Lieutenant Colonel and ordered to lead a group of colonists to California.
Anza began organizing the second expedition in January of 1775. He started
recruiting colonizers in the villages of Culiacan,
Sinaloa and El Fuerte in the province
of Sinaloa, Mexico
and in Alamos, Sonora
in the March through May time frame. He spent the summer training his recruits
for the difficult journey that lay ahead of them. They arrived in Tubac
in mid-October and continued preparations for the trip. The expedition
left Tubac 23 October 1775 with 300 people and 1000 head of livestock.
They used no wagons or carts. All supplies were carried on pack mules,
which had to be loaded every morning and unloaded every night.
The expedition arrived in San Gabriel on 4
January 1776, 74 days after leaving Tubac and 8 months after leaving Culiacan.
They departed San Gabriel on 17 February and
arrived in Monterey, California
on 10 March 1776. Anza arrived in California
with two more people than had left Tubac. Three children were born along
the way and one women died in childbirth at Canoa, at the first
encampment. Leaving the colonists in Monterey,
Anza proceeded to the San
Francisco Bay
area and after selecting the future sites of the San Francisco Presidio and
Mission Delores, he returned to Tubac in April. On 17 June, the colonists left Monterey
and proceeded to found what was to become the City of San
Francisco.
After Anza returned to Mexico City to report on
the expedition, he was made commander of all the troops in Sonora
in the fall of 1776. He was made Governor of New Mexico in 1777, a position he
held until 1787 when he was relieved at his request. He became commander of the
Buenaventura Presidio in 1787 and then the Tucson Presidio in the fall of
1788. He died 19 December 1788 and was buried in the cathedral at Arizpe,
Sonora, Mexico.
Congress established the Juan Batista De Anza National Historic Trail in
1990. The trail is administered by the National Park Service.
Summarized by T. Johnson in October 2004 from various Web Sites
For related information, click on the following links.
1. Juan Batista
De Anza 4. National Historic Trail
2. The Anza Dream 5. Detailed Expedition Route
3. Anza''s
Expeditions
Additional Material: GVHC Library File 81