to 1791 and then commandant of the Presidio of Loreto from 1792 to 1795. Retirement In 1795 he retired as brevet captain with 40 years of service. Ortega was given a Spanish "land concession" in 1795 by governor Diego Borica, which he named Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio (Rancho Refugio) in Gaviota which spanned six leagues. The land in which his rancho was established on was near Point Conception which happened to be by a Chumash village called Qasil (Casil). He had accumulated a substantial amount of debt over his lifetime and argued that he needed to keep this land to make money to pay his debts, at the behest of Fray Tapis who argued that the land should go to the Chumash and the Santa Barbara Mission. At the age of 65, Ortega died after falling from his horse. He was laid to rest at the Mission of Santa Barbara in 1798. Family Rancho Nuestra la Senora del Refugio fell under the control of Ortega's sons: Josef Maria Ortega and Jose Francisco Maria Ortega. Josef Maria desired to add to the rancho in 1804 and asked governor Jose de Arrillaga if he could usurp Rancho Dos Pueblos to El Cojo near Point Conception. The governor then sent the message to the mission friars Fray Tapis and Fray Juan Cortes who noted that the land was held in a trust and needed to be returned back to the indigenous. His granddaughter Maria de Guadalupe married Joseph John Chapman, who was one of the first Anglo-Americans to see Los Angeles. Although he had been previously arrested for being a pirate, he proved to be a skilled craftsman as he worked as a blacksmith and as a carpenter. He converted to Catholicism in order to marry Maria de Guadalupe. References Military record in the Mission San Juan Capistrano archives Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The History of California (1884) Vol I. 1542-1800, pp. 670–671. Military personnel from California People from San Diego 1734 births 1798 deaths People of Alta California Californios