Padres Dumetz and Cambon had gone out to hunt for food to the Lower California Missions.

The same scarcity was noticed at San Gabriel, and the padres, "for a considerable time, already, had been using the supplies which were on hand to found the Mission of San Buenaventura; and though they have _drawn their belts tight_ there remains to them provisions only for two months and a half." Fortunately help came; so the work continued.
The region of San Diego was well peopled.

At the time of the founding there were eleven rancherias within a radius of ten leagues.

They must have been of a different type from most of the Indians of the coast, for, from the first, as the old Spanish chronicler reports, they were insolent, arrogant, and thievish.

They lived on grass seeds, fish, and rabbits.
In 1774, the separation of the Mission from the presidio was decided upon, in order to remove the neophytes from the evil influences of the soldiers.