90 FIRST VOYAGE OF VIZCAINO. [1596. 



the continent, as the Spaniards were then engaged in the settlement 

 of New Mexico, or the country traversed by the River Bravo del 

 Norte, in which their colonies extended nearly to the 40th degree 

 of latitude ; and they had no clear idea of the distance between 

 that region and the Pacific. 



The count de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, in consequence, 

 despatched three vessels from Acapulco, in the spring of 1596, 

 under the command of Sebastian Vizcaino, a distinguished officer, 

 who had been in the ship Santa Anna, when she was taken and 

 burnt by Cavendish, off Cape San Lucas. Nothing, however, was 

 gained by this expedition. For reasons of which we are not 

 informed by the Spanish historians, Vizcaino did not proceed 

 beyond the Californian Gulf, on the shores of which he endeavored 

 to plant colonies, first at a place called St. Sebastian, and after- 

 wards at La Paz, or Santa Cruz, where Cortes had made a similar 

 attempt sixty years before : but both these places were soon aban- 

 doned, on account of the sterility of the surrounding country, and 

 the ferocity of the natives ; and Vizcaino returned to Mexico before 

 the end of the year.* 



The viceroy had most probably hoped, by means of this voyage, 

 to escape the infliction of the heavy expenses of an expedition 

 such as that which he was enjoined to make by the royal decree ; 

 but King Philip II. died in 1598, and one of the first acts of the 

 reign of his successor, Philip III., was a peremptory order for the 

 immediate despatch of a squadron from Mexico, to complete the 

 survey of the west coasts of the continent, agreeably to the previous 

 instructions. The viceroy thereupon commenced preparations for 

 the purpose on an extended scale of equipment. Two large ships 

 and a fragata, or small vessel, were provided at Acapulco, and 

 furnished with all the requisites for a long voyage of discovery ; and, 

 in addition to their regular crews, a number of pilots, draughtsmen, 

 and educated priests, were engaged, forming together, says the 



* This expedition is thus noticed by Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 522 : — 

 " We have seen a letter written the 8th of October, 1597, at a town called Puebla 

 de los Jlngeles, eighteen leagues from Mexico, making mention of the islands of Cal- 

 ifornia, situated two or three hundred leagues from the main land of New Spain, in 

 the South Sea, as that thither have been sent, before that time, some people to con- 

 quer them, which, with loss of some twenty men, were forced back, after that they 

 had well visited, and found those islands or countries to be very rich of gold and 

 silver mines, and of very fair Oriental pearls, which were caught, in good quantity, 

 upon one fathom and a half, passing, in beauty, the pearls of Margarita. The report 

 thereof caused the viceroy of Mexico to send a citizen of Mexico, with two hundred 

 men. to conquer the same." 



