from Tampa Bay, Florida, until they reached Culiacan. They had received from the natives, accounts of rich and populous countries situated to the northwest. Mendoza, wishing to ascertain the truth of the reports, sent two friars, according to the advice of Las Casas, to make an exploration. They were accompanied by a Moor who had crossed the continent with Cabeza-Vaca and his friends, and they set out from Culiacan on the 7th of March, 1539.

Soon after the departure of the friars, Cortes sent out his last expedition. It was commanded by Francisco de Ulloa, and consisted of three vessels, well equipped. Sailing from Acapulco, on the 8th of July 1539. Ulloa reached the Bay of Santa Cruz, after losing one of his vessels in a storm. From Santa Cruz he started to survey the coast towards the north

west.

He completely examined both shores of the Gulf of California, and discovered the fact of the connection of the peninsula with the main land, near the 32° of latitude. This gulf Ulloa named the Sea of Cortes. On the 18th of October, he returned to Santa Cruz, and on the 29th again sailed with the object of exploring the coasts farther west. He rounded the point now called Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of California, and sailed along the coast towards the north. The Spaniards proceeded slowly, as they were opposed by north-western storms, and often landed and fought with the natives. In January, 1540, Ulloa reached the island under the 28th parallel of latitude, near the coast, which they named the Isle of Cedars. There he remained till April, when one of the ships, bearing the sick and accounts of the discoveries, was sent back to Mexico. The returning vessel was seized at Santiago by the

officers of the viceroy. The fate of the remaining vessel is uncertain. Some of the writers of that day. asserting that he continued his voyage as far north as the 30° of latitude, and returned safely to Mexico; while one asserts that nothing more was heard of him after the return of the vessel he sent back.

In the mean time, the two friars and the Moor penetrated a considerable distance into the interior of the continent, and sent home glowing accounts of rich and delightful countries which they said they had discovered. The inhabitants had, at first, been hostile, and had killed the Moor; but in the end submitted to the authority of the King of Spain. Mendoza, believing the accounts of the friars to be strictly true, prepared an expedition for the conquest of the countries they described. Disputes with the different Spanish chieftains occupied some months, at the end of which Cortes returned to Spain, in disgust. Mendoza despatched two bodies of troops, one by land, the other by sea, to reconnoitre the newly discovered land, and clear the way for conquest. The marine expedition was undertaken by two ships, under the command of Fernando de Alarcon, who sailed from Santiago on the 9th of May, 1540, and proceeding north-west along the coast, he reached the head of the California Gulf, in August of the same year. There he discovered the river now called the Colorado. The stream was ascended to the distance of eighty leagues, by Alarcon and some of his men, in boats; but all their inquiries were unsatisfactorily answered, and it was determined to return to Mexico. The vessels returned safely before the end of the year.

The land forces sent, at the same time, to the northwest, were composed of infantry and cavalry, and

commanded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who had been appointed governor of New Gallicia, in place of Nuno de Guzman. The party left Culiacan on the 22d of April, 1540, and took their way north, following the course described by the friars. They found the route which had been represented as easy, almost impassable. They made their way over mountains, and deserts, and rivers, and, in July, they reached the country called Cibola by the natives, but found it a half cultivated region, thinly inhabited by a people destitute of the wealth and civilization they had been represented as possessing. What had been represented as seven great cities, were seven small towns, rudely built. A few Aurquoises and some gold and silver supposed to be good, constituted the amount of what had been termed immense quantities of jewels, gold and silver. The Spaniards took possession of the country and wanted to remain and settle there. But Vasquez refused to acquiesce; and after naming one of the towns he visited, Granada, he started for the north-west, in search of other countries. The region called Cibola by the inhabitants, which Vasquez visited, is the territory now called Sonora, and is situated about the head waters of the Rivers Yaqui and Gila, east of the upper portion of the Gulf of California. The movements of the Spaniards after leaving Cibola, in August, 1540, have been the subject of very vague and contradictory accounts. All that is certain is, that the greater part of the force soon returned to Mexico, and that Vasquez, with the remainder, wandered through the interior for nearly two years longer, when, being disappointed in his expectations, he returned to Mexico in 1542.

In the spring of 1542, two vessels were placed under 2*

the command of Juan Roderiguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator of great reputation. The two vessels sailed from Navidad, a small port in Xalisco, in June, 1542. They rounded Cape San Lucas, and proceeded north-west, along the coast, as far as the 88th degree of latitude, when he was driven back, and took refuge in a harbor of one of the San Barbara islands. There Cabrillo died and the command devolved on Bartolome Ferrelo. Ferrelo was a zealous and determined man, and he resolved to proceed with the expedition. He sailed towards the north, and on the 26th of February, reached a promontory near the 41st parallel of latitude, which he named Stormy Cape. On the 1st of March, the ships reached the 44th parallel, but they were again driven south; and the men being almost worn out, Ferrelo resolved to go back to Mexico. He arrived at Navidad on the 14th of April, 1543. The promontory called Stormy Cape by Ferrelo, was the most northern portion of California visited by that navigator, and it is probably the same which is now called Cape Mendocino.

From all accounts that they had been able to collect, the Spaniards concluded that neither rich and populous countries existed beneath the 40th parallel of latitude, nor was there any navigable passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to be found in the same region. They, therefore, ceased to explore the north-western territory for some time after the return of Ferrelo in 1543.

Having thus given a somewhat detailed account of the discovery and explorations of the territory now called California, it will be sufficient to merely mention the various expeditions that visited it prior to the first regular settlement. In the spring of 1579, California

was visited by Sir Francis Drake, the English navigator, who landed on the shores of a bay supposed to be that of San Francisco. He formally took possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth, and called it New Albion. He left California on the 22d of July, 1579. In the spring of 1596, Sebastian Viscaino, under orders from the viceroy of Mexico, attempted to plant colonies on the peninsula of California, but the country was soon abandoned on account of the barrenness of the soil and the ferocity of the natives. Viscaino visited the coast of Upper California in 1602, and discovered and named some of the places Cabrillo had discovered and named long before. The Port San Miguel of Cabrillo was named Port San Diego; Cape Galera was named Cape Conception, the name now borne by it; the Port of Pines was named Port Monterey. This was the last expedition made by the Spaniards along the coast of California for more than a hundred and sixty years.

Various attempts were made to establish colonies, garrisons, and fishing or trading ports, on the eastern side of the peninsula of California, during the seventeenth century, but all failed, either from the want of funds, the sterility of the country, or the hostility of the natives. The pearl fishery in the gulf was the principal bait that attracted the Spaniards, and they succeeded in obtaining a considerable quantity, some of which were very valuable.