Exploration 



Figure 1 . Early maps of Califor- 

 nia redrawn from photographs 

 in Wagner (1937): 1542, Batiste 

 Aganese's map, including UUoa's 

 discoveries of 1539. 1559, Andre 

 Homem's planisphere, including 

 discoveries by Cabrillo. 1625, 

 Henry Briggs's map probably 

 based on copy of chart by Fray 

 Antonio de la Ascension. 1647, 

 Robert Dudley's map. 1722, 

 Joseph Nicholas Delisle's map, 

 showing explorations of Kino 

 and Consag. 1771, Miguel Cas- 

 tanso's map, including data of 

 Portola's ships. 



to southern California by another expedi- 

 tion under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (Bolton, 

 1916), sent out by the viceroy Antonio de 

 Mendoza to find a route to China and 

 possibly also to establish contact with Coro- 

 nado in his search for the Seven Cities of 

 Cibola. Cabrillo arrived at Santa Catalina 

 Island, which he named San Salvador after 

 one of his two ships, on October 7, 1542. 

 Continuing up the coast, the expedition 

 wintered on San Miguel Island where 

 Cabrillo died. The next year under his suc- 

 cessor, Bartolome Ferrer, the ships reached 

 Cape Mendocino in northern California be- 

 fore returning to Mexico. 



The findings of Cabrillo's expedition are 

 shown on a map of 1559, which is distinctly 

 better than other maps of the region made 

 during the following two centuries. In fact. 



it was during this period that European map 

 makers conceived the idea that Baja Cal- 

 ifornia was an island, an illusion that was 

 not dispelled until Fray Eusebio Francisco 

 Kino in 1699 and Padre Fernando Consag 

 in 1746 repeated Ulloa's and Alarcon's ex- 

 plorations at the head of the gulf. Probably 

 the island concept as well as the name arose 

 because of the popularity of a Spanish 

 romance called Los Sergas de Esplandidn 

 written by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo in 

 1510. This was a tale of an island popu- 

 lated by Amazons, abundant in gold and 

 gems, and ruled by the queen Calafia. Sim- 

 ilarities, real and fancied, between this fabled 

 land and the tip of Baja California led to the 

 latter's being called the land of Calafia, or 

 California (Stewart, 1945, p. 14). 

 Except for sighting of the islands by the 



