[1537.] After the abandonment of California by the colony, Cortés sent two vessels under Hernando de Grijalva and Alvarado (not Pedro) to Peru with supplies and reinforcements for Pizarro. There are vague reports that Grijalva sailed westward from Peru and made a long cruise in the Pacific, visiting various islands which cannot be located. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. v. lib. viii. cap. x.; dec. vii. lib. v. cap. ix.; Galvano's Discov., pp. 202-3; Burney's Discov. South Sea, vol. i. p. 180.
[1538.] Fernando de Soto landed on the west coast of Florida, crossed the peninsula to that part discovered by Aillon in 1526, wandered four or five years in the interior of the southern United States and followed the course of the Mississippi, probably as far up as to the Ohio. Here Soto died, and the remnant of his company, after penetrating farther west to the buffalo country, floated down the Mississippi and returned to Mexico in 1543. Soto's travels are esteemed by Kohl as "the principal source of knowledge regarding these regions, for more than a hundred years." Discov. and Conq. of Terra Florida, Hakluyt Soc., London, 1851; Selection of Curious Voy., Sup. to Hakluyt, London, 1812, p. 689; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, vol. iv. p. 1532; Ferdinands von Soto Reise nach Florida, in Sammlung, tom. xvi. p. 395.
[1539.] In August, 1539, three vessels under Alonso de Camargo were despatched from Seville for India via the South Sea, and reached Cabo de las Vírgenes January 20, 1540. One of the vessels was wrecked in the strait of Magellan; another returned to Spain, and the third entered the Pacific, and finally, after touching Chile in 38° 30', arrived at Arequipa in Peru. This voyage is supposed to have afforded the first knowledge of the intermediate coast between the strait of Magellan and Peru. Diccionario Univ., app. tom. x. p. 807; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. vii. lib. i. cap. viii.; Burney's Discov. South Sea, vol. i. p. 186.
NEW MEXICO INVADED.
Cabeza de Vaca brought to Sinaloa and thence to Mexico accounts of wonderful towns in the northern regions traversed by him; and in March, 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza, accompanied by one of the men who had seen the reported wonders, set out from Culiacan and proceeded northward in search of the Seven Cities of whose existence other rumors were current besides those brought by Alvar Nuñez. Marcos de Niza reached the Pueblo towns of Zuñi and brought back greatly exaggerated reports of the wealth of the people and the magnificence of their cities. Relatione del Reverendo Fra Marco da Nizza, in Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 356; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, vol. iv. p. 1560; Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. de Doc., tom. iii. p. 325; Hakluyt's Voy., vol. iii. pp. 366-73; Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i. tom. ix. p. 256. See also Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. iii. pp. 104-8.
Niza's report prompted Cortés to renewed efforts in his Californian enterprise, and in July, 1539, Francisco de Ulloa was sent from Acapulco with three vessels to prosecute the discoveries by water. Ulloa spent some time in the port of Santiago for repairs, lost one vessel in a gale near the entrance to the gulf, visited Santa Cruz, and then followed the main coast to the mouth of the Colorado, and returned along the coast of the Peninsula to Santa Cruz, where he arrived on the 18th of October. From this place he doubled the southern point of California, and sailed up the western coast to Cedros Island, and somewhat beyond. During the whole voyage he touched and named many places, whose names have seldom been retained, but some of which may be with tolerable certainty identified. In April the vessels separated, one returning by a quick passage to Colima. Ulloa himself with the other vessel attempted to continue his explorations northward, with what success is not known. According to Gomara and Bernal Diaz, he returned after several months spent in fruitless endeavors to reach more northern latitudes; other authorities state that he was never heard from. Preciado, who accompanied the expedition, wrote of it a detailed but not very clear narrative or journal. Relatione dello scoprimento che nel nome di Dio va à far l'armata dell' illustrissimo Fernando Cortese, etc. (Preciado's Relation), in Ramusio, tom. iii. 339-54, and in Hakluyt's Voy., vol. iii. pp. 397-424; Gomara, Hist. Conq., fol. 292-3; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 234; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. vi. lib. ix. cap. viii. et seq.; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, vol. v. p. 856; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. xxii.-vi.; Burney's Discov. South Sea, vol. i. pp. 193-210; Venegas, Noticia de la California, quoted from Gomara, tom. i. pp. 159-61; Clavigero, Storia della California, tom. i. p. 151.
[1540.] Also in consequence of Marcos de Niza's reports, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, who had succeeded Nuño de Guzman and Torre as governor of New Galicia, set out from Culiacan in April, 1540, penetrated to the Pueblo towns, or the Seven Cities of Cibola, and thence to the valley of the Rio Grande and far toward the north-east to Quivira, whose location, fixed by him in latitude 40°, has been a much disputed question. While in Sonora, he sent forth Melchor Diaz, who explored the head of the gulf, and the mouths of the rivers, Gila and Colorado, where he found letters left by Alarcon. See infra. From Cibola, Coronado sent Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas west, who passed through the Moqui towns and followed the Colorado for some distance. Coronado returned in 1542. Relatione che mando Francesco Vazquez di Coronado, in Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 359; Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. de Doc., tom. iii. p. 511. Hakluyt's Voy., vol. iii. pp. 373-82, has the same and Gomara's account. Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, série i. tom. ix., gives the relations of Coronado, Castañeda, and Jaramillo. See also Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. iii. pp. 108-12; Simpson, in Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1869.
To coöperate with Coronado's land expedition, Hernando de Alarcon was despatched from Acapulco in May, 1540. Alarcon followed the coast to the head of the gulf, and ascended the Buena Guia (Colorado) some eighty-five leagues in boats, but hearing nothing from Coronado, he returned after burying letters, which, as we have seen, were found by Melchor Diaz. Beside the references given above, see Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. xxviii.; Burney's Discov. South Sea, vol. i. pp. 211-16; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, vol. iv. p. 1560; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv. p. 21 et seq.; vol. vi. p. 60; Doc. Hist. Mex., serie iii. p. 671.
I here present reductions of two maps of the time to illustrate the explorations on the north-west coast, with which I close this sketch. The first was made by the pilot Castillo in 1541, and is taken from Cortés, Hist. Nueva-España, edited by Lorenzana, Mexico, 1770, p. 325.