San Lorenzo River through Neary Lagoon?

In E. S. Harrison's History of Santa Cruz County (1892), there's a translation of Fr. Crespi's diary recounting Portola's 1769 exploration of our area. On the day the party reached the river, it says:

"Toward the end of this day's journey, we turned to the westward, and not very far from the sea we came to a river of much water, which we crossed. It was about fifty-four feet wide, and in the middle the water reached to the bellies of the animals. It is the largest stream we have seen in all the journey. In its bed there are many poplar and alder trees, and has very good patches of land that can be sown and irrigated. The stream is not distant from the beach, and according to what the explorers say, it empties into a small shallow arm of the sea into which the tide rises and falls. We rested on the other side of the river, and to descend and ascend the banks of it caused us some trouble. The river has besides many redwood trees. Near the river we came to good and different land which was not burnt over. It gave us pleasure to see the grasses and the variety of the herbage, and the roses of Castile. We called the river San Lorenzo."

The translator (author of this chapter E. L. Williams?) adds the following:

"[From the above diary it will be seen that the San Lorenzo River was discovered and named on Tuesday, October 17, 1769, the expedition having occupied an entire day traveling from Soquel Creek to the San Lorenzo River. From Father Crespi's description of where the river debouches it would seem that at that time it emptied into what is now the " Neary " lagoon. Corroborative evidence of this has been found by the translator in pieces of redwood logs discovered beneath the surface of the earth, and charcoal at twelve feet depth when digging wells...]"

If this is true, the geography of Santa Cruz was much different in those days. I have doubts, however, that the entire river (plus Santa Cruz Creek) flowed out of Neary Lagoon through the narrow gap where the railroad tracks now pass under the old truss bridge. I think the river must have had more than one mouth.

This information could be used to expand a couple of the "Names on the Signs" blog posts: The Explorers and The River.