10 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



Be this as it may, in the sixteenth century the Span- 

 iards had heard of it from some one and were intent 

 upon finding it, as were the many martyrs to the pole. 

 That gallant gentleman, Cortez — the Columbus of 

 the Pacific — had equipped several expeditions before 

 Cabrillo, and as early as 1522 had established a ship- 

 yard as a base of supplies at Zacatula, Mexico. One 

 of his caravals, under Pedro Nuiiez Maldonado, 

 reached the Sandiago River in 1528. Nuiio de Guz- 

 man reached San Miguel, on the coast of Sinaloa, and 

 in 1532 Cortez, for whom the Gulf of California was 

 named and should be called, sent north from Aca- 

 pulco two ships under Diego Hurtando de Mendoza, 

 and Juan de Maznela. 



Hurtando discovered the harbor of Tobari, near the 

 mouth of the Yaqui — which I know well — marched 

 up into the interior, and explored the delta of the 

 Yaqui, one of the richest lands not only in Sonora, 

 but in all Mexico. He was wrecked in the Sea of 

 Cortez. Another of the men of Cortez, Fortunio 

 Ximines, is said to have discovered the peninsula of 

 Lower California, and many old maps tell an inter- 

 esting story of the energy and gallant qualities of 

 these men. In 1535 Cortez sent a new fleet north, 

 and La Paz was gained to the map-makers of his 

 Majesty of Castile and Aragon. 



We now first hear of the name California and for 

 years after it was supposed to be an island. In 1539 

 an old captain of Cortez, one Francisco de UUoa, 

 reached up the coast as far as Cerros Island before 

 he was forced back. And so the fight for the north 

 went on, until the time of Cabrillo, who, in 1542, 

 made the first successful trip up the coast as far as 



