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“Exploration of the Sierra Nevada” (1925)
by Francis P. Farquhar

Moraga—1805

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Spanish settlers coming from Mexico were firmly established in Alta California, and both churchmen and soldiers were beginning to find out more about the country in which they lived. Several expeditions crossed the coast ranges into the great central valley of California between 1804 and 1806, visiting the Indian rancherias beyond the Tulares. Don Gabriel Moraga, in 1805, named a liver descending from the eastern mountains “Rio de los Santos Reyes,” from which it might be inferred that he camped on its banks on the day of Epiphany. ⁵ The name has come down in English as Kings River, often erroneously written “Kings.” In 1806 the Merced and other riven were named. It is improbable that any of the Spanish visitors to the San Joaquin Valley penetrated the mountains, excepting to cross by the Tehachapi or Tejon passes to the south.

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⁵ Muñoz: Diaro, 1806, quoted in Richton’s California under Spain and Mexico, 1911, p. 465.

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