Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's Expedition

In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was assigned to a new expedition by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, with three ships under his command - the San Salvador, the Victoria and the third one that until now appears to be unknown. - Cabrillo was an explorer well known for being the first person who navigates the coast of California. His sailing began on June 27th, 1542 from Mexico. The weather helped them to start navigating toward our coast. During the navigation, they made some stop, not a lot of fishermen were found but the ones he met were happy at all with his arrival. Some of them exchanged information while others expressed their unhappiness. They found out by the natives that they were not the first ones who sailed and landed near them. It took them about three months to arrive at the coast of California. On September 28th Cabrillo named one of the ports, San Miguel, now known as San Diego. Since Europeans first landed in San

During the journey, they saw many other natives like the ones they met before. The expedition’s chronicler said that San Diego (known as San Miguel for them) was beautiful and had a tremendous marine life. Their houses had a rounded shape and their food came from Acorn and other seeds. Before they left the port, Cabrillo and his people aboard kidnapped about half a dozen of children from the California native tribe with the purpose of trained these children and used them as interpreters on their future journeys. After leaving the Channel Islands, a “great storm” made them go back to the land where they were attacked again by natives, this time Cabrillo got injured. They tried to navigate back home but the storm made them come back to San Miguel (San Diego) a few more times. Cabrillo died on January 3rd, 1543 by the severity of the wounds. After his death, Bartolome Ferrer took his position and sailed back to finish Cabrillo’s