Most likely a Spaniard, though some earlier authorities assumed he was Portuguese, Cabrillo ranks among the founders of Spanish California, which was part of New Spain, a colonial viceroyalty or imperial province that included today’s Central America, Mexico, and the American Southwest. In 1542, New Spain’s highest official, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, directed Cabrillo to lead a northern voyage comprised of three ships in search of the Strait of Anian. At about the same time, Mendoza commissioned a second voyage, led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, to sail to the Philippines. The aim of both of these maritime expeditions was to enhance trade prospects with Asia’s Spice Islands. At the time, virtually all of the maritime powers of Europe had this same goal.
Departing Navidad, a port on Mexico’s mainland just above Acapulco, on June 27, Cabrillo began a reconnaissance that would gather important information regarding California’s islands, coastline, Indians, and natural resources. Rounding the tip of Baja, his party at first enjoyed easy sailing, stopping occasionally to chart islands and land along the peninsula to make claims of possession for Spain. Some Indians came on board to trade goods; they used sign language to indicate that they had recently learned of men looking like Spaniards who had been exploring in the interior region to the east. The tribesmen may have been referring to Ulloa’s expeditionary force of three years earlier.
On September 28 Cabrillo’s party dropped anchor in San Miguel Bay, renamed San Diego early in the next century. That same day, he and his men became the first Europeans known to set foot on present-day California. The Kumeyaay Indians they encountered proved wary. Cabrillo soon learned that the natives, some of whom had attacked his men with bows and arrows, were agitated by news of Spanish atrocities committed on tribesmen to the east. When Cabrillo gave gifts to the Kumeyaay tensions relaxed and the Spaniards were able to take on needed supplies for the voyage northward.
From San Diego Cabrillo’s expedition sighted and visited offshore islands, where members encountered large Indian populations. Reaching Santa Catalina, the expedition’s journal noted: “They went ashore with the boat to see if there were people; and when the boat came near, a great number of Indians emerged from the bushes and grass, shouting, dancing and making signs that they should land.” The women fled in fear, continued the account, and the Spanish responded by giving assurances that they came in peace. Accepting these assurances, the Indians “laid their bows and arrows on the ground and launched in the water a good canoe which held eight or ten Indians, and came to the ships.” Gifts were then exchanged on the ships followed by the Spaniards going ashore. “All felt secure,” concluded the journal entry.
Afterward the expedition sailed for the mainland. The voyagers sighted the bay at San Pedro and then visited a nearby Indian fishing village named Town of Canoes, where a
Figure 2.1 An artistic depiction of Cabrillo's vessel San Salvador under full sail. Courtesy of the artist, Richard DeRosset.
Customary possession ceremony in the name of the king was held. Such ceremonies involved praying, singing the Catholic Latin hymn Te Deum (Thee, O God, we praise), and claiming the land and its inhabitants for the Spanish Crown. After the possession ceremony, the Spaniards plied the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Conception. They encountered the prosperous Chumash settlements that greatly impressed the white men, who marveled at the Indians’ nautical skills and seaworthy canoes. Strong northwest headwinds convinced Cabrillo to sail back to San Miguel Island, where he fell and apparently broke an arm. This mishap did not stop the expedition from resuming its explorations and mapping of coastal waters. Without landing, he viewed what later was named Monterey Bay. More bad weather set in, along with gangrene in Cabrillo’s arm, resulting in a return to San Miguel Island; on January 3, 1543, Cabrillo died there. His crew buried him on the windswept island.
Bartolome Ferrer, second in command, then assumed leadership of the expedition. Confronting gales and high waves, the explorers reached a northern point somewhere between Monterey Bay and the present Oregon-California border (42 degrees latitude). Overtaken by exhaustion, a shortage of supplies, scurvy (a life-threatening disease caused by lack of ascorbic acid in one’s diet), and heavy seas, Ferrer and his party reversed course and sailed back to Navidad.
Aside from being the first documented Europeans to set foot on Alta (upper) California, that is, what would later constitute the Spanish claim above the Baja Peninsula, the record of the Cabrillo-Ferrer expedition is mixed. The search for the Strait of Anian remained as elusive as ever. No gold or other precious metals were found. The charts of the rugged coastline lacked sufficient detail. Eldorado, or the land of riches that Spaniards imagined California to be, now seemed a wilderness filled with dangers to ships and crewmen alike. Still, the expedition registered at least one major accomplishment: it established Spain’s claim to California, meaning most of North America’s western coastline.
World History
