Pedro Fages And The Quest For Deserters

I'm not sure why the only portrait of Pedro depicts him with young children, but it's kinda creepy.



In 1767, Lieutenant Fages left Spain with the Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia for New Spain. In 1769, Fages was selected to lead the Gaspar de Portolà expedition to found San Diego, California. Fages sailed from La Paz on January 10, 1769, aboard the San Carlos and arrived at San Diego Bay on April 29 with scurvy-ridden troops. Fages accompanied the 1769 and 1770 land expeditions to locate Monterey Bay. During this time he was promoted to Captain. Also during this time, many his party would desert their posts and populate the western Mojave Desert. Pedro would be sent after them after his return to Sand Diego de Alcala.

He would roll north from San Diego through the Cajon Pass.
This same pass would later be the gap that American pioneers would pour through to populate the Inland Empire for citrus and lumber, and Los Angeles and San Diego for gold and land. Now angelino's use it to escape East for a wekend to Las Vegas! After reaching the high desert, Officer Fages broke north through the back of the Sierra Madres, over into Lake Elisabeth, up through the Tehachapi's (see the earlier article on the Tejon Pass) and down into the San Joaquin Valley. He would never find the men (who were the first anglo's to populate the desert!), and returned to San Diego.







After Portolà left California in 1770, Fages served as the somewhat independent military governor of New California, which was later to become Alta California. During this time, Fages explored by land San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait, the San Joaquin River and surrounding areas.He earned his nickname El Oso while hunting bears near San Luis Obispo. Fages fought with Father Junípero Serra, and was replaced in 1774.


In 1777 Fages returned to Sonora to fight the Apaches, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. In 1782 he was appointed Governor of the Californias, replacing Felipe de Neve, and returned to Monterey which had replaced Loreto as the capital of the Californias in 1777. He was promoted to Colonel in 1789 and resigned his governorship in 1791. He moved back to Mexico City where he died in 1794.

I love this stuff. Much more interesting than the CURRENT Gov. of California, don't you think? Has Ahnolt ever dealt with scurvy, or had to ride a horse across the desert looking for a degenerate deputy district attorney? I doubt it...