58 ULLOA DISCOVERS THE WEST COAST OF CALIFORNIA. [1539. 



truth of them. For this purpose he collected a band of fifty horse- 

 men, who were to be commanded by Dorantes, one of the compan- 

 ions of Cabeza-Vaca ; but, that plan being overthrown by some 

 circumstance, he was induced, by the representations of his friend, 

 the celebrated Bartolome de las Casas, to depute two friars to make 

 the exploration, with the view of preserving the inhabitants of the 

 countries visited, from the violence to which military men would not 

 fail to resort, if there should be occasion, for the gratification of 

 their cupidity. The friars, Marcos de Niza, provincial of the 

 Franciscan order in Mexico, and Honorato, accompanied by the 

 negro or Moor, Estavanico, who had crossed the continent with 

 Cabeza-Vaca, accordingly set out from Culiacan, on the 7th of March, 

 1539, in search of the rich countries reported to lie in the north-west. 



Soon after the departure of the friars, the last expedition made 

 by order of Cortes was begun.* It was commanded by Francisco 

 de Ulloa, who sailed from Acapulco on the 8th of July, 1539, with 

 three vessels, well manned and equipped, and took his course for 

 California. One of the vessels was driven ashore in a storm near 

 Culiacan : with the others Ulloa proceeded to the Bay of Santa 

 Cruz, and thence in a few days departed to survey the coasts 

 towards the north-east. In this occupation the ships were engaged 

 until the 18th of October, when Ulloa returned to Santa Cruz, 

 having in the mean time completely examined both shores of the 

 great gulf which separates California from the main land on the 

 east, and ascertained the fact of the junction of the two territories, 

 near the 32d degree of latitude, though he failed to discover the 

 Colorado River, which enters the gulf at its northern extremity. 

 This gulf was named, by Ulloa, the Sea of Cortes ; but it is gener- 

 ally distinguished, on Spanish maps, as the Vermilion Sea, {Mar 

 Vermejo,) and, in those of other nations, as the Gulf of California. 



On the 29th of October, Ulloa again sailed from Santa Cruz, in 

 order to examine the coasts farther west, and having rounded the 

 point now called Cape San Lucas, which forms the southern 

 extremity of California, he pursued his voyage along the coast 

 towards the north. In this direction the Spaniards proceeded 

 slowly, often landing and fighting with the natives, and generally 

 opposed by violent storms from the north-west, until the end of 

 January, 1540, when they had reached an island near the coast, 

 under the 28th parallel of latitude, which they named the Isle of 



* See Narrative of Francisco Preciado, one of the officers of the Santa Agueda, in 

 Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 283, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 503. 



