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and supposedly engraved a metal plaque to
leave behind, commemorating his “posses-
sion” of the land. (Drake enthusiasts have
searched for the plaque for centuries; scholars
insist that one discovered plaque, found in
1937 is a hoax.)
On June 23, after spending little more
than a month ashore, Drake sailed away
from California, continuing the voyage that
would take him around the globe and bring
him home to England in September 1580.
Had his claim of land been pursued, Califor-
nia, not Virginia, might have become Eng-
land’s first colony in the New World. The
secrecy that enveloped his mission obscured
from other navigators what he had learned
about California’s coastline, but his escape
gained him the open distinction of being the
first English captain to circumnavigate the
world.
VIZCAÍNO TRIES AGAIN
Spain’s efforts to find protective harbors along
the coast of upper California were initially left
to navigators approaching from the west, in
the so-called Manila galleons bringing goods
to New Spain from the Philippines. Galleon
commander Roderíguez Cermeño was the
first to make any progress. Ironically, Cer-
meño’s route from the Philippines took him
into Drake’s Bay, where he anchored and
encountered the friendly Miwok. Like Drake,
Cermeño claimed the surrounding country-
side—but for Spain. A sudden storm, however,
destroyed his galleon, leaving Cermeño and
the other survivors to struggle some 1,300
miles down the coast from Drake’s Bay to the
port of Navidad in New Spain in an over-
crowded longboat.
The task of learning about California’s
coast next fell to a merchant and would-be
Spanish colonizer named Sebastián Vizcaíno,
whose previous experience included disas-
trous attempts to establish settlements on
the coast of Baja California in 1596. Vizcaíno
set sail with three ships carrying 130 men on
May 5, 1602, sponsored by New Spain’s
viceroy Gaspar de Zuñiga y Acevedo, the
count of Monterrey. Vizcaíno’s patron
ordered him to name every port he discov-
ered after a Christian saint and claim it for
Spain. Vizcaíno was explicitly ordered not to
rename any sites previously named by
Cabrillo, Ferrer, or others. Possessing little or
no detailed information from the earlier
expedition to which he could refer, however,
Vizcaíno industriously renamed the geogra-
phy discovered by the previous explorers as
he slowly made his way up the California
coast. San Salvador became Catalina and La
Victoria became San Clemente, names by
which both islands arestill known. Onthe
mainland, the harbor Cabrillo had chris-
tened San Miguel was named after a Christ-
ian saint, San Diego de Acalá. The area is
simply known today as San Diego. The coast-
line of modern California is dotted with other
locations named by Vizcaíno: Santa Barbara,
Point Conception, Carmel, and Año Nuevo.
As was the case with Cabrillo, Vizcaíno had
friendly meetings with the Chumash and
other mainland Indians, who rowed out to
trade with the Spanish sailors. In December
1602 Vizcaíno’s ships sailed along the rocky,
wooded shores of a bay he named Monterrey
(now spelled Monterey) after his sponsor. Viz-
caíno would later report that the area offered
“protection and security” for ships coming
from the Philippines:In it may be repaired the damages which
they may havesustained, for there is a
great extent of pine forest from which to
obtain masts and yards, even though the
vessel be of a thousand tons burden, very(^128) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
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