The Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Tongva (Gabrieleños) and Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ (written Yang-na by the Spanish), meaning "poison oak place".
Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769.