KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4- 27 



at Valle de Banderas; and the few of tlie crew who succeeded in escaping the attacks of 

 the murderous Indians, brought back intelligence that Hurtado had disappeared and that 

 no one had heard anything of bis fäte. This has been understood by a number of modern 

 writers as if be had never been heard of any more; but the original sources show that this 

 was not the case. He did not proceed far on his voyage, however, before lie was com- 

 pelled to abandon his vessel on the coast, and he was slain, together with most of his 

 f ollowers, by the natives during an attempt to penetrate into the country. This is supposed 

 to have taken place not far from the present Mexican town of Sinaloa. 1 From this it 

 appears fully evidenced that the previously cited supposition (ef. page 18) that Hurtado 

 was driven out to sea and finally landed on Hawaii, is quite destitute of foundation. 



The other expeditions which went out in the same direction during the sixteenth 

 century need be only briefly enumerated. 



The first European who landed on the Californian Peninsula would seem to have 

 been the pilot Fortun Ximenes (1534), who mutinied against his commander, Diego 

 Becerra, and, with the help of the crew, murdered him somewhere off the west coast 

 of Mexico. Becerra's lieutenant, Hernando de Grijalva, did not get very far. While 

 cruising to and fro in about 20° N. lat., he discovered an island to which he ga ve the name 

 of Sa?ito Tomas af ter the saint of the day (21 December 1533): this is the island in the 

 Revilla-Gigedo group which is called in modern maps Socorro. After sighting another 

 island surrounded by some cliffs which, also after the saints of the day (28 December), 

 received the name of Los Innocentes (now San Benedicto), Grijalva turned back to Mexico. 2 



A new expedition (1535) to explore California was led by Ferdinand Cortes in 

 person; but he did not succeed in penetrating beyond the place, near the southern point 

 of the peninsula, where Ximenes had löst his life in a battle with the natives. On the 

 command of Cortes the work of exploration was continued by Francisco de Ulloa, 

 who after sailing a considerable distance up the Gulf of California, possibly to its very 

 end, turned back round Cape San Lucas and, in April 1540, reached Cape del Engano, 

 now Point Baja, near 30° N. lat., on the west coast of the Peninsula. In the course of 

 this voyage there was discovered Isla de Cedros or Cerros, which deserves to be mentioned 

 for this reason, that the island, though situated quite close to the coast, is found in låter 

 maps far out in the open sea. About Ulloa nothing further is known with certainty: 

 the last news of him was brought home by the ship he sent from the place above men- 

 tioned. That he himself, after unknown vicissitudes, returned home is indicated by the 

 report of his death in Xalisco, which we owe to Bernal Diaz del Castillo. Another 

 indication that the continuation of his voyage did not remain altogether unknown I 

 see in the name of an island Ulloa (also distorted to Ullao or Ulva) in a number of låter 

 maps, which may be assumed to indicate a discovery made by him, and of which he him- 

 self brought home intelligence. 3 I shall låter return to the question as to what must be 

 meant by this island: it cannot be Hawaii. 



1 On Hurtado's expedition see H. H. Baxcroft, History of the Pacific States of North America, Vol. 

 X, San Francisco 1883, pp. 40 — 45, where a full account of the original sources is given. 



2 On the voyages of Grijalva see Colecciön de docum. inéditos, XIV, 1870, pp. 128 — 142. 



3 This island does not occur in Domingo Castillo's map of 1541, which marks Ulloa's voyage up to the 



