were expelled from Baja California and replaced, first by the Franciscans in 1768 and then by the Dominicans in 1773. In 1769, the Loreto mission (now led by Franciscans under Junípero Serra) was the departure point for the land portion of the land/sea exploratory expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá. The joint military/missionary expedition traveled into today's U.S. state of California as far north as San Francisco Bay, establishing new Franciscan missions at Velicatá (Baja), San Diego and Monterey. Mission Loreto came to an end in 1829, by which time the native population throughout Baja California had declined "to the point of near extinction." Population decline By the end of 1698, one year after its founding, the Loreto mission had a population of about 100 Monqui families who had been converted to Christianity, nearly all of the Monqui who had lived along a stretch of coast.This population of around 400 steadily decreased thereafter because of the toll from imported European diseases. By 1733, the Monqui population of Loreto was only 134 and the population was maintained thereafter at about that level only by bringing in Christian Indians from other parts of Baja California. In 1762, a Jesuit report recorded only 38 baptisms in the previous 18 years – but 309 deaths. At the same time as the Monqui population declined, the transplanted Spanish, mestizo, and Indian population of Loreto increased. In 1730, the Jesuits recorded the non-Monqui population of Loreto at 175, which included 99 men and their wives and children. The men were employed as soldiers, sailors, artisans, teamsters, and cowboys. By 1770, the total population of Loreto was more than 400, of whom only about 120 were Indians indigenous to Baja California. The Monqui as a people and distinct culture were virtually extinct. Gallery See also Spanish missions in Baja California Spanish missions in California Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church Spanish colonization of the Americas Eusebio Kino USNS Mission Loreto (AO-116), a Mission Buenaventura Class fleet oiler built during World War II List of Jesuit sites Footnotes References Crosby, Harry W. 1994. Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697–1768. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. León-Portilla, Miguel. 1997. Loreto's Key Role in the Early History of the Californias (1697–1773). California Mission Studies Association. Salvatierra, Juan María. 1971.Selected Letters about Lower California. Edited by Ernest J. Burrus. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles. Vernon, Edward W.