52 THE SERI INDIAN [eth ann.H 



de Mendoza, to explore the territory traversed by Vaca, under the 

 guidance of the negro Estevauico, the only oue of Vaca's three (com- 

 panions remaining in Mexico; in good time he reached a iioiut prob- 

 ably not far from the center of the present state of Sonora, whence 

 messengers were sent coastward to return duly accompanied by certain 

 "very poor" Indians wearing pearl oyster (!) ornaments, who were 

 reputed to inhabit a large island (almost certainly Tiburon) reached from 

 the mainland by means of balsas. Bandelier identified these coastwise 

 Indians with the Guayma tribe, a supposed branch of the Seri;' but 

 if the "large island" were Tiburon, it would seem more probable that 

 the Indians belonged to the tribe now known as Seri, while both descrii)- 

 tion and location suggest the Tepoka. This record is of questionable 

 weight, partly by reason of the doubtful identification of the Indians, 

 and i)artly because the friar's itinerary was found to be misleaduig by 

 his immediate successors, because of the fact tliat portions of his nar- 

 rative were based on hearsay; though it is Just to uote that Bandelier, 

 after critical study, deemed the record about as trustworthy as others 

 of the time, and to add that the disparagement of Niza's discoveries 

 by his followers was in accord with the fashion of the day — indeed it 

 was little more severe relatively than the criticism of the strikingly 

 trustworthy Ulloa by his first follower, Alarcon. 



On July 8-19, 1539, according to the collection of Ramusio, three 

 vessels sent out by Cortes to discover unknown lands — "Of Which 

 Fleete was Captaine the right worshipful] knight Francis de VUoa 

 borne in the Oitie of Merida" — sailed from Acapulco.^ Skirting the 

 mainland northwestwaid, they explored Mar de Cortes, or Gulf of 

 California; and on September 24 (as fixed by interpolation from Ulloa's 

 excellent itinerary) they descried and described the features of the coast 

 in such fashion as to locate their vessels (one was already lost) off the 

 southern point of Tiburon, and in sight of the islands of San Esteban 

 and San Lorenzo, as well as locally prominent points on the mainland 

 of Lower California. Here they "discerned the countrey to be phiiue, 

 and certaine mountaines, and it seemed that a certaine gut of water 

 like a brooke ran through the plaine" (p. 322). Judging from other 

 geographic details, this "gut of water" was certainly the ti<letoru 

 gateway now named Boca Infieruo; while the next day's sailing lit is 

 noteworthy that this was "north" instead of northwestward as usual) 

 carried them by "a circuit or bay of G leagues into the land with many 

 cooues or creeks", evidently Bahia Tepopa with the northern end of 

 the turbulent strait El Infteruillo. The record shows clearly that Ulloa 

 discovered Tiburon, but failed (quite naturally, in view of the route 

 pursued aud the peculiar configuration at both extremities of the strait) 

 to perceive its insular character. No mention is made of inhabitants 

 or habitations on this land- mass, though both are described on the 



' Ibid, pp. 661-663; Papers of the Arcli.Tological lastitute of America, American series, v, p. 118. 

 "The Voyages of the English Nation to America, collected by Kichard Haklujt and edited by 

 Edmund Goldsmid, 1890, vol. in, p. 317. 



