Part 9

[4]Among the 30 riders was Juan de Zaldívar. As a consequence, Zaldívar had to leave behind a captive Indian woman he had picked up in Tiguex. Rather than return there she fled down a fork of the Brazos River that rises in the Staked Plains. Somewhere near present Waco, Texas, she perhaps met the survivors of De Soto’s party as they were trying to reach Pánuco, Mexico, by land. See page 50 above. If true, and it seems likely, it was the only contact between the two groups, who at one point were within 300 to 400 miles of each other.

[5]Too few records have survived for anyone to say with certainty where Cabrillo was born or grew up. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, a Spanish chronicler, identified him in 1615 as Portuguese. Set against this is the testimony of the explorer’s grandson in 1617 that “My paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo came [to the New World] from the Kingdoms of Spain....” The NPS has adopted the view that Cabrillo was Portuguese. Many historians, including Cabrillo’s most recent biographer Harry Kelsey, aver that he was Spanish. David Lavender believes that the question is both elusive and unimportant. What is certain, Lavender points out, is that like many adventurers from other countries Cabrillo spent a good part of his life in the service of Spain and opened new lands to Spanish settlement. _Ed._

[6]Recent scholarship has shown that accounts which say Cabrillo commanded two ships on his northern journey, as most accounts do, were following mistakes made by the first Spanish historians of the expedition. Unfortunately, Cabrillo’s own log has disappeared and is known only through an often vague, chronologically mixed-up summary attributed to a Juan Páez, of whom little is known. Better sources are the testimony given by witnesses in legal actions brought by Cabrillo’s heirs to recover property taken from his estate after his death. For details see Harry Kelsey’s biography, _Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo_ (1986). and the Cabrillo Historical Association’s 1982 publication, _The Cabrillo Era and His Voyage of Discovery_, especially articles by Kelsey and James R. Moriarty, III.

National Park Service

_Sources_

Alabama Museum of Natural History 51 (palette stone) Andersen, Roy 68-69; 82 Batchelor, John 90-91, 92, 93 Bell, Fred 100 Cook, Kathleen Norris 84 Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 28 (bottom) Florida Division of Historical Resources 43 (all except olive jar) Florida Museum of Natural History 43 (olive jar) Glanzman, Louis S. 16; 18-19; 34-35; 44; 64-65; 94 (Chumash Indian) Gnass, Jeff 104; 108 (lighthouse) Gray, Tom Back cover (upper left); 36; 102-3 Harrington, Marshall 108-9 (San Diego, gray whale) Hudson, Charles 46-47 (route information) Huey, George H. H. 107 Huntington Library 57 Jacka, Jerry Back cover (upper right); 58-59; 73; 79; 80; 106 Lanza, Patricia 77 Library of Congress 4 (De Bry woodcut); 23 (from _Das Trachtenbuch des Christian Weiditz_); 31 (from Gomara’s _History_); 38; 94 (right) Mang, Fred 96 Muench, David 54; 98-99 Museo Civico Navale di Genova-Pegli 15 (portrait) Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon 14 National Geographic Society 24 (artist, Felipe Davalos); 26-27 (Michael A. Hampshire) National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 88 Odyssey Productions (R. Frerck) 20; 22; 28 (top) Palazzo Tursi, Genoa 15 (coat-of-arms) Parkin Archeological State Park, Arkansas 48 Peabody Museum, Harvard University 50 Smithsonian Institution 51 (stone axe) Till, Tom 105 Townsend, L. Kenneth 54-55, 74-75 University of California, Berkeley, Lowie Museum of Anthropology 95 Westlight (Bill Ross) Back cover, lower left; 109

U.S. Department of the Interior

As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering wise use of our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to assure that their development is in the best interest of all our people. The Department also promotes the goals of the Take Pride in America campaign by encouraging stewardship and citizen responsibility for the public lands and promoting citizen participation in their care. The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in Island Territories under U.S. Administration.

De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo Explorers of the _Northern Mystery_

_Here is the story of the first explorations of North America. _De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: Explorers of the Northern Mystery_ traces in graceful text and illustration the journeys of three captains of discovery into New Spain’s northern frontier between 1539 and 1543. Their encounters with a new land and its native peoples mark the beginnings of American history._

Transcriber’s Notes

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Relocated all image captions to be immediately under the corresponding images, removing redundant references like ”preceding page”.

—Inverted the Timeline to better fit a vertical flow model.

—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.

End of Project Gutenberg's De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo, by David Lavender