Archive of Primary Source Documents

The Web de Anza Archives contain ten primary source documents. That is, journals, diaries, and letters which are eyewitness accounts from the Spanish Colonial era. These sources are both available in transcriptions from the original Spanish and English translations.

The center piece of the archive is the Diary of Juan Bautista de Anza compiled from records of his 1775-6 Colonizing Expedition to bring settlers from Sonora to San Francico Bay. Anza's account is supported by a large collection of definitions, explanations, identifications, maps, and pictures which you can access by clicking on words in the text and from indexes available from the Resources Page. You can also jump directly from any entry in Anza's Diary directly to entries for that same day written by either Father Pedro Font or Father Francisco Garcés, who accompanied Anza on the journey.

The other sources in the Archive provide background and supporting material helpful in understanding the Colonizing Expedition. Especially important to this is the account by Don Josef Joachin Moraga of the actual founding of the Presido at San Francisco.

Links to each of the primary sources documents are below:

Calendar Index