1535.] CORTES LANDS IN CALIFORNIA. 55 



killed by the natives ; the survivors succeeded in carrying the vessel 

 over to the little harbor of Chiametla, in Xalisco, where she also 

 was seized by Nuno de Guzman. 



These attempts of Cortes to make discoveries in the north-west, 

 had, in the mean time, excited Nuno de Guzman to efforts with the 

 same object ; and he had sent several parties of men in that direc- 

 tion, one of which appears to have traced the western shore of the 

 continent as far as the mouth of the river now called the Colorado, 

 and to have first brought accounts of rich and populous countries 

 and splendid cities in the interior. Guzman had also received 

 large accessions to his forces from Mexico, and was making many 

 settlements, one of which soon prospered, and became, in time, 

 the city of Guadalaxara, the second in size in New Spain. 



When Cortes became assured of the seizure of his vessels by 

 Guzman, he addressed a complaint on the subject to the Audiencia ; 

 whose decision being, however, not so determinate in his favor as 

 he wished, he assembled a large body of troops, and marched with 

 them to Chiametla, where he also ordered three vessels to be sent 

 from Tehuantepec. On the approach of these forces, Guzman 

 advanced to meet them, but no action ensued ; and Cortes, having 

 been joined at Chiametla by his vessels, embarked in them, with a 

 portion of his men, and set sail for the new country, found by 

 Ximenes in the west, which was said to abound in the finest pearls. 

 On the 3d of May, 1535, the day of the Invention of the Holy 

 Cross, according to the Roman Catholic calendar, the squadron 

 anchored in the bay, on the shore of which the murderers of 

 Becerra had met their fate in the preceding year ; and, in honor of 

 the day, the name of Santa Cruz was bestowed on the place, of 

 which possession was solemnly taken for the Spanish sovereign. 



The country thus claimed by Cortes for Spain, was the south-east 

 part of the great peninsula, which projects from the American con- 

 tinent on the Pacific side, in nearly the same direction, and between 

 nearly the same parallels of latitude, as that of Florida on the 

 Atlantic side. It soon after received the name of California,^ 

 respecting the origin and meaning of which, many speculations — ') 

 none of them satisfactory or even ingenious — have been offered.! 

 The bay called Santa Cruz by Cortes was probably the same now 

 known as Port La Paz, about a hundred miles from the Pacific, 

 near the 24th degree of latitude ; though some accounts place 

 it in the immediate vicinity of the southernmost point of the 

 peninsula. 



