De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: Explorers of the Northern Mystery - David Lavender

[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.