of
the 22nd brought the party to a creek 6 or 7 leagues (Sal says 6) north
of Santa Clara. Taking the league as 2.7 miles, this distance puts them
on Mission Creek not far from Mission San Jose (called by Danti, San
Francisco Solano). On the morning of the 23rd they penetrated to the
headwaters of this creek, approximately 2 or 3 miles into the hills.
The idea that this creek came out opposite the town of San Jose is
manifestly an error.

Returning to the starting point and then going along the foot of the
hills for 2 leagues, as Sal says in the "Informe," they reached Alameda
Creek very close to Niles. They then went upstream to the junction of
Stonybrook Creek in the hills and then retraced their steps to Niles.
The water disappeared just southwest of the town (1/4 league from the
hills) and reappeared one league below, perhaps a mile southwest of
Decoto and 3 miles east of Alvarado and on the edge of the salt marshes.

On the 24th the party proceeded 3 leagues northward to the stream called
San Juan de la Cruz. From the distances, this can have been no other
than San Lorenzo Creek. If so, they went on out to the shore of the Bay
and saw San Francisco from a point just west of San Lorenzo. A few miles
now to the southward would have brought them to the salt marshes just
southwest of Mt. Eden. The hills they ascended were the Coyote Hills
near Newark. From this point they crossed the plain directly to Mission
San Jose and thence to Santa Clara.

Danti notes on Mission Creek the presence of three empty houses,
indicating at least transient occupation by a few natives. Toward the
end of the "Diario" he says that the unconverted heathen are "fairly
numerous" and that on the plain there are three "moderate-sized"
rancherias. Actually, therefore, he saw no indigenous heathen, and could
find traces of no more than would inhabit three rancherias of dubious
size. It will be remembered that Crespi reported in 1772 that there were
five villages between Milpitas and San Lorenzo, whereas Anza in 1776
found six. Danti, in a much more exhaustive survey, located only three.
It is evident that during the intervening twenty years the native
population in southwestern Alameda County had been seriously depleted,
reduced perhaps more than half. Accordingly it must be recognized that
the documents relating to the Danti-Sal expedition (and all later ones)
are of little value for estimating the preconquest population of the
East Bay. The