meñon, for the express purpose of exploring the coast. All that is known of the result is that the San Agustin ran ashore behind the point a little later called Reyes, in the bay now bearing the name of Drake, or Jack Harbor, but then named San Francisco, probably from the day of arrival.[1]
But the matter was not allowed to drop. The same viceroy entered into a contract with Sebastian Vizcaino to explore anew and occupy for Spain the Islas Californias. Velasco's successor, the count of Monterey, ratified the contract and despatched the expedition in 1597.[2]
Though Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco with three vessels and a large force, the expedition again proved a failure, and those of the discomfited Spaniards who were fortunate enough to escape with their lives subsequently returned to Acapulco.[3]
Meanwhile on the Atlantic, where the necessity for the protection of commerce from the pirates was greater than on the Pacific, more efficient measures were introduced. Commercial intercourse with the mother country must at all hazards be preserved. Hence navíos de registro were formed into fleets, and periodically despatched from Spain to Vera Cruz, convoyed by war-vessels, the first coming in 1581.[4]
- ↑ The further fate of the vessel and crew is left to conjecture; but the pilot Francisco de Bolaños lived to visit the bay again in 1603 with Vizcaino, and from him apparently comes all that is known of the voyage. Torquemada, i. 717-18; Ascension, Rel. Breve, 558; Cabrera Bueno, Nav. Especvl., passim; Salmeron, Rel., 20; Niel, Apunt., 74; Sutil y Mex., Viage, lvi.-vii. The question is fully discussed in Hist. North Mex. States and Hist. Cal., this series.
- ↑ Torquemada, followed apparently by all other writers, states that in 1596 the king ordered Viceroy Monterey to send Vizcaino to California, and that the expedition was made the same year; but there is a royal cédula of August 2, 1628, in Doc. Hist. Mex., 2d series, iii. 442-3, in which the facts are stated as I have given them, Monterey ordering Vizcaino to fulfil his contract, 'no embargante que en la sustancia y capacidad de su persona, halló algunos inconvenientes.' Greenhow, Or. and Cal., 89-91, tells us without any known authority that Vizcaino had been on the Santa Ana, that was captured by Cavendish.
- ↑ For the interesting details of this expedition and the adventures of the Spaniards in California, see Hist. North Mex. States, i., and Hist. Northwest Coast, this series.
- ↑ In 1582 new laws and regulations were promulgated concerning these
