Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo or after the Portuguese João Rodrigues notation Cabrilho (c. 1499; † January 3, 1543 ) was a Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain. He died in 1543 on the island of San Miguel from the effects of gangrene.

Life

Little is known about Cabrillo until he appeared in the lists of the army of Hernán Cortés in 1519. In 1520 he came as a soldier under the command of Pánfilo de Narváez from Cuba to Mexico. After the defeat of the Aztecs, he joined various military expeditions in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and San Salvador. As a reward he received land in Guatemala, where he achieved wealth through gold mining with the help of Indian forced laborers. In 1532 he sailed to Spain, married Beatriz Sanchez de Ortega and returned with her ​​back to Guatemala. From this marriage two sons were born. He established himself as a businessman in Guatemala by driving by means of self -built ships by Spanish artisans along the Pacific coast trade.

Expedition

Preparation

Pedro de Alvarado, at that time governor of Guatemala, Cabrillo commissioned to build ships and compile the necessary equipment (now California ) to undertake an expedition along the north coast of New Spain. After Alvarado's death sent him the viceroy of Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza as a commander to lead the sailing expedition.

Objectives

Cabrillo should look for a connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, he got the job, the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Cibola that supposedly should be located near the Pacific Ocean, north of New Spain to seek. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who had previously made ​​an expedition to the land areas in the north of New Spain, had also been ordered to search for Cibola.

Course

Cabrillo left the port of Navidad, near the present-day Manzanillo in Mexico on June 24, 1542nd His expedition was equipped for a period of two years and consisted of three ships, including the flagship San Salvador, which was designed by Cabrillo itself had.

On September 28, 1542, he went to San Diego at Point Loma was the first European to land and explained his discovery to the possession of the Spanish crown. He originally gave this place the name San Miguel, but was renamed in 1602 by Sebastian Vizcaino in San Diego. During his stay, he made ​​contact with the Kumeyaay Indians. On 3 October, the expedition left the bay of San Diego. On 6 October, she reached San Pedro, on the 9th of Santa Monica, on the 10th of San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara on 13 and 17 Point Concepcion. Due to adverse winds, the ships returned and anchored off the island of San Miguel. With a more favorable wind, they reached Santa Maria on November 11, and a little later the Santa Lucia Mountains. The two ships were separated by a storm shortly thereafter, however, met on November 15 at Año Nuevo north of Santa Cruz again. In the further course of the trip along the California coast, however, they reached up to the height of San Francisco, without the Bay of San Francisco to explore. On November 23, the expedition turned back and spent the next three months in winter quarters on the island of San Miguel. Here Cabrillo was seriously injured in a fight with Indians on December 24 and died shortly thereafter. The location of his grave is unknown, but there are suspicions that it is located on the island of Santa Catalina.

His crew continued the journey under the leadership of the first helmsman Bartolome Ferrer to the Rogue River in Oregon, until they had to turn back due to lack of supplies and because of the onset of winter to Mexico. They reached Navidad on 14 April 1543.

Output of the expedition

According to contemporaries of the Cabrillo expedition was considered a success and was quickly forgotten. Original documents have not survived. In memory of the first Europeans who reached the West Coast of the United States today, was built on October 14, 1913 at this point in San Diego ( Point Loma ), the Cabrillo National Monument inaugurated.