14 THE SALTON SEA. 



EARLY MAPS AND EXPLORATION. 



Our real knowledge of the Colorado Desert extends back but few years and is still, 

 in many important respects, far from complete; but we know the Spaniards approached 

 the region, if they did not actually penetrate it, within a few years after the discovery of 

 the New World. 



The first expedition to explore the head of the Gulf of California and examine the 

 circumjacent region was the one sent out in 1540 by Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy 

 of Mexico, under the leadership of Francisco Vasquez Coronado. 



Pedro de Alarcon journeyed up to the mouth of theColorado Riverby sea, and examined 

 some parts of the Delta, and later in the year Coronado sent Melchior Diaz, with a small 

 party, overland from Corazones, to cooperate with him. Diaz reached the river, but fail- 

 ing to meet Alargon, he crossed it on rafts, and was afterwards accidentally killed while 

 on the west side. He has, however, left an account, as recorded by Castenada, 1 of reaching 

 a land of "hot ashes and volcanic rumblings," which no doubt refers to the mud volcanoes 

 near Volcano Lake. 



Castillo, the pilot of Alarcon's squadron, made a chart of the head of the Gulf, which 

 appears to have been first published by Lorenzana in Mexico in 1770 2 (Plate 3), and is 

 doubtless the earliest authentic map we have of the region. Castillo's interest, however, 

 was chiefly that of the mariner, and he made little attempt to portray inland features. 



The knowledge gained by this expedition was evidently the inspiration for the charts 

 of all the early cartographers such as Joannes Cimerlinus, 3 Plancius, 4 Mercator, 5 Wytfliet « 

 and others. 



Wytfiiet's map is by far the best and most interesting of these early charts, and 

 whoever his authorities may have been, they clearly had some first-hand knowledge of 

 the country. (Plate 4.) 



The western river, which figures so prominently in nearly all of these early maps, 

 although it appears merely as an estuary or entrance to a lagoon in Castillo's own chart, 

 is clearly meant for the Hardy, and it is not at all improbable that in the clays of these 

 early navigators and cartographers the Hardy, the Colorado, and the comparatively insig- 

 nificant channel which is now known as the Santa Clara Slough, may all have entered 

 the Gulf by separate estuaries, and each carried a running stream, and, indeed, there is 

 some reason for surmising that this latter channel may at that time have constituted the 

 main mouth of the river. 



Spanish interest in these distant and inhospitable lands began to wane after this early 

 attempt at their exploration, and it was not until the memorable journey of Father Kino, 

 in 1702, that any real addition was made to our knowledge of the region. His map, which 

 is carefully drawn and fairly accurate, was published in various forms some years' later, 7 

 and shows two mouths to the Colorado, but as his detail to the west of the river is obviously 

 less complete than it is elsewhere, this omission of the estuary shown by Castillo may be 

 regarded as inconclusive. 



Father Fernando Consag was nearly contemporary withFatherKino, and a very interest- 

 ing manuscript map showing the results of his work in the Gulf exists in the British Museum. 8 



1 The Journey of Coronado, by Geo. Parker Winship, New York, 1904 p 59 



2 Lorenzana y Buitron, Historia de Nueva Espana, 1770. British Museum 1« d 14 



3 British Museum, Maps 70, d. 1, 1566. museum, 145, a. 14. 



4 British Museum, Maps 920 [279], 1590. 



6Bnti9h M jr^^ 1 'c£i^^^,!^&'~«> «"* ° f «* -p^teh^Svy 



•AdM^Wa AmCI ' iCa ' ^ EU8ebiUS FfanCiS Kin °' L ° nd0n ' 1786 ; British Museum °99> 15 (3D- 



