Anza, Juan Bautista de

Anza, Juan Bautista de (hwän boutēs`tä dā än`sä), 1735–88, Spanish explorer and official in the Southwest and the far West, reputed founder of San Francisco, b. Mexico. Accompanied by Father F. T. H. Garcés and a small expedition, he opened (1774) an overland road from Sonora through present-day Arizona to California, reaching San Gabriel and Monterey. Viceroy A. M. Bucareli, alarmed by the threatened encroachments of the Russians and the British on the Pacific coast, sent (1775) Anza on a new expedition to establish a colony. In 1776 he chose the site of San Francisco, where a presidio was founded by one of his lieutenants and a mission was founded by Father Francisco Palóu under the direction of Father Junípero Serra. Later, as governor of New Mexico (1777–88), Anza built up Spanish frontier defenses and established order. Journals of men on his California journey are in Anza's California Expeditions (ed. by H. E. Bolton, 5 vol., 1930, repr. 1966). For his diaries and a study of his administration, see A. B. Thomas, Forgotten Frontiers (1932, repr. 1969).

Bibliography

See F. Thurman, The Cahuillas and White Men of San Carlos and Coyote Canyon (1970).