DAY TWO, JUNE 10, 1775:
The second day dawned cold, with a gray damp fog. During the night, a change of tide caused an anchor cable to fray. The next morning, they had to warp the Santiago out into safer water, away from the rocks. Again Indians came out in their canoes. But this time they brought along their women, wearing grass skirts, strands of beads, basket caps, and their chins tattooed with three vertical black marks. Both sexes had flowers in their hair. "Because of the report that our first visitors gave....not only the men but also the women came. All had crowns of flowers," one officer wrote in his log that night.

In preparation for landing, Heceta told his officers to order their sailors and soldiers to treat the Indians with kindness and to stay away from Indian women. Then, in full dress uniform, armor gleaming and banners waving, the two Captains, one officer and a party of armed soldiers loaded into the longboats and were rowed ashore. It was the first recorded landing of Whites on California's Indian Northcoast....

When the Spaniards stepped onto that narrow beach, the Indians earlier friendliness evaporated. A row of armed men strode forward bows drawn. A moment later, the local Elder, a thin old man of great dignity, put up his hand. The bows were unstrung. Gradually, the two sides relaxed and intermingled. Some of the Spaniards climbed the bluff and peered inside the houses. They found square, subterranean huts, well constructed out of thick straight planks, the roofs touching the ground, the low circular doorways barely the width of a human body, and the floors flat and clean. Two hours later they returned to their ships.

Later that night, Heceta reread his orders issued by the Colonial Office in far away Cadiz. He sent for his officers, and the two Franciscans. Together they planned the details for the morrow's ceremony. [Next Day]