the command of Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra, in search of the other. These ships sailed on the 30th of September, 1533, but were soon separated. Grijalva discovered the islands of St. Thomas, as he called them-a group of islands about fifty leagues from the coast. He remained there till the following spring, and then returned home. Becerra proceeded north-westward; but his crew mutinied, and he was murdered by Fortuno Ximenes. The mutineers, under Ximenes, then steered directly west from the main land, and soon reached a coast not known to them before. They landed, and soon after Ximenes and nineteen men were killed by the natives. The rest of the men carried the vessel over to Xalisco, where she was seized by Nuno de Guz

man.

Soon after these unlucky expeditions, Nuno de Guzman sent out several exploring parties in a northerly direction, one of which traced the western shore as far as the mouth of the Colorado, and brought back accounts of a rich and populous country and splendid cities in the interior. When Cortes became acquainted with the seizure of his vessels, a dispute arose between him and Nuno de Guzman, which almost led to a battle between their forces. But no action occurred, and Cortes, having heard of the newly discovered country, which was said to abound in the finest pearls, embarked at Chiametla, with a portion of his men, and set sail for the new land of promise. On the 3d of May, 1535, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, according to the Roman Catholic Calendar, Cortes arrived in the bay where Ximenes and his fellow-mutineers had met their fate in the previous year. In honor of the day, the place was called

Santa Cruz, and possession of it was taken in the name of the Spanish sovereign.

The country claimed by Cortes for Spain, was the south-east portion of the peninsula, which was afterwards called California. The bay, called by Cortes, Santa Cruz, was, perhaps, the same now known as Port La Paz, about a hundred miles from the Pacific, near the 24th parallel of latitude. Cortes landed on the shore of this bay, rocky and forbidding as it appeared, with a hundred and thirty men, and forty horses. He then sent back two of his ships to Chiametla, to bring over the rest of his troops. The vessels soon returned with a portion of the troops, and being again despatched to the Mexican coast, only one of them returned. The other was wrecked on her way. Cortes then took seventy men and embarked for Xalisco, from which he returned just in time to save his troops from death by famine. A year was spent in these operations, and the troops began to grow discontented. A few pearls had been found on the coast, but the country was found to be barren, and without attractions for Spaniards.

In the mean time, the wife of Cortes hearing reports of his ill success, sent a vessel to Santa Cruz, and entreated him to return. He then learned that he had been superseded in the government of New Spain by Don Antonio de Mendoza, who had already entered the capital as viceroy. Cortes returned to Mexico, and soon after, recalled the vessels and troops from Santa Cruz.

The viceroy, Mendoza, had received some information concerning the country north-west of Mexico, from de Cabeza-Vaca and two other Spaniards, who had wandered nine years, through forests and deserts,

from Tampa Bay, Florida, until they reached Culiacan. They had received from the natives, accounts of rich and populous countries situated to the northwest. Mendoza, wishing to ascertain the truth of the reports, sent two friars, according to the advice of Las Casas, to make an exploration. They were accompanied by a Moor who had crossed the continent with Cabeza-Vaca and his friends, and they set out from Culiacan on the 7th of March, 1539.

Soon after the departure of the friars, Cortes sent out his last expedition. It was commanded by Francisco de Ulloa, and consisted of three vessels, well equipped. Sailing from Acapulco, on the 8th of July 1539. Ulloa reached the Bay of Santa Cruz, after losing one of his vessels in a storm. From Santa Cruz he started to survey the coast towards the northwest. He completely examined both shores of the Gulf of California, and discovered. the fact of the connection of the peninsula with the main land, near the 32° of latitude. This gulf Ulloa named the Sea of Cortes. On the 18th of October, he returned to Santa Cruz, and on the 29th again sailed with the object of exploring the coasts farther west. He rounded the point now called Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of California, and sailed along the coast towards the north. The Spaniards proceeded slowly, as they were opposed by north-western storms, and often landed and fought with the natives. In January, 1540, Ulloa reached the island under the 28th parallel of latitude, near the coast, which they named the Isle of Cedars. There he remained till April, when one of the ships, bearing the sick and accounts of the discoveries, was sent back to Mexico. The returning vessel was seized at Santiago by the

officers of the viceroy. The fate of the remaining vessel is uncertain. Some of the writers of that day asserting that he continued his voyage as far north as the 30° of latitude, and returned safely to Mexico; while one asserts that nothing more was heard of him after the return of the vessel he sent back.

In the mean time, the two friars and the Moor penetrated a considerable distance into the interior of the continent, and sent home glowing accounts of rich and delightful countries which they said they had discovered. The inhabitants had, at first, been hostile, and had killed the Moor; but in the end submitted to the authority of the King of Spain. Mendoza, believing the accounts of the friars to be strictly true, prepared an expedition for the conquest of the countries they described. Disputes with the different Spanish chieftains occupied some months, at the end of which Cortes returned to Spain, in disgust. Mendoza despatched two bodies of troops, one by land, the other by sea, to reconnoitre the newly discovered land, and clear the way for conquest. The marine expedition was undertaken by two ships, under the command of Fernando de Alarcon, who sailed from Santiago on the 9th of May, 1540, and proceeding north-west along the coast, he reached the head of the California Gulf, in August of the same year. There he discovered the river now called the Colorado. The stream was ascended to the distance of eighty leagues, by Alarcon and some of his men, in boats; but all their inquiries were unsatisfactorily answered, and it was determined to return to Mexico. The vessels returned safely before the end of the year.

The land forces sent, at the same time, to the northwest, were composed of infantry and cavalry, and

commanded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who had been appointed governor of New Gallicia, in place of Nuno de Guzman. The party left Culiacan on the 22d of April, 1540, and took their way north, following the course described by the friars. They found the route which had been represented as easy, almost impassable. They made their way over mountains, and deserts, and rivers, and, in July, they reached the country called Cibola by the natives, but found it a half cultivated region, thinly inhabited by a people destitute of the wealth and civilization they had been represented as possessing. What had been represented as seven great cities, were seven small towns, rudely built. A few Aurquoises and some gold and silver supposed to be good, constituted the amount of what had been termed immense quantities of jewels, gold and silver. The Spaniards took possession of the country and wanted to remain and settle there. But Vasquez refused to acquiesce; and after naming one of the towns he visited, Granada, he started for the north-west, in search of other countries. The region called Cibola by the inhabitants, which Vasquez visited, is the territory now called Sonora, and is situated about the head waters of the Rivers Yaqui and Gila, east of the upper portion of the Gulf of California. The movements of the Spaniards after leaving Cibola, in August, 1540, have been the subject of very vague and contradictory accounts. All that is certain is, that the greater part of the force soon returned to Mexico, and that Vasquez, with the remainder, wandered through the interior for nearly two years longer, when, being disappointed in his expectations, he returned to Mexico in 1542.

In the spring of 1542, two vessels were placed under 2*