[1287] Cf. Bancroft, North Mexican States, vol. i. chap. ii., with references; p. 29, on Guzman’s expedition, and a map of it, p. 31.
[1288] The Rev. Edward E. Hale procured a copy of this when in Spain in 1883, and from his copy the annexed woodcut is made. Cf. Gomara, folio 117; Herrera, Decade viii. lib. viii. cap. ix. and x. Bancroft (Central America, i. 150) writes without knowledge of this map.
[1289] The Spanish is printed in Navarrete, iv. 190.
[1290] This expedition of Cortés is not without difficulties in reconciling authorities and tracing the fate of the colonists which he sought to plant at Santa Cruz. Bancroft has examined the various accounts (North Mexican States, i. 52, etc.).
[1291] Cortés had called California an island as early as 1524, in a report to the Emperor, deducing his belief from native reports. De Laet in 1633 mentions having seen early Spanish maps showing it of insular shape.
[1292] Cf. Prescott’s Mexico, iii. 322; Bancroft’s Mexico, ii. 425; Central America, i. 152, and North Mexican States, i. 79, with references. The accounts are not wholly reconcilable. It would seem probable that Ulloa’s own ship was never heard from. Ramusio gives a full account (vol. iii. p. 340) by one of the companions of Ulloa, on another ship.
[1293] At least so says Herrera (Stevens’s edition, vi. 305). Castañeda defers the naming till Alarcon’s expedition. Cabrillo in 1542 used the name as of well-known application. The origin of the name has been a cause of dispute. Professor Jules Marcou is in error in stating that the name was first applied by Bernal Diaz to a bay on the coast, and so was made to include the whole region. He claims that it was simply a designation used by Cortés to distinguish a land which we now know to be the hottest in the two Americas,—Tierra California, derived from “calida fornax,” fiery furnace. (Cf. Annual Report of the Survey west of the hundredth Parallel, by George M. Wheeler, 1876, p. 386; and Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U.S.A., 1878, appendix, also printed separately as Notes upon the First Discoveries of California and the Origin of its Name, by Jules Marcou, Washington, 1878.) Bancroft (California, i. 65, 66) points out a variety of equivalent derivations which have been suggested. The name was first traced in 1862, by Edward E. Hale, to a romance published, it is supposed, in 1510,—Las Sergas de Esplandian, by Garcia Ordoñez de Montalvo, which might easily enough have been a popular book with the Spanish followers of Cortés. There were later editions in 1519, 1521, 1525, and 1526. In this romance Esplandian, emperor of the Greeks, the imaginary son of the imaginary Amadis, defends Constantinople against the infidels of the East. A pagan queen of Amazons brings an army of Amazons to the succor of the infidels. This imaginary queen is named Calafia, and her kingdom is called “California,”—a name possibly derived from “Calif,” which, to the readers of such a book, would be associated with the East. California in the romance is represented as an island rich with gold and diamonds and pearls. The language of the writer is this:—
“Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it was peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they lived in the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardy bodies, of ardent courage and great force. Their island was the strongest in all the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores. Their arms were all of gold, and so was the harness of the wild beasts which they tamed to ride; for in the whole island there was no metal but gold. They lived in caves wrought out of the rock with much labor. They had many ships, with which they sailed out to other countries to obtain booty.”
That this name, as an omen of wealth, struck the fancy of Cortés is the theory of Dr. Hale, who adds “that as a western pioneer now gives the name of ‘Eden’ to his new home, so Cortés called his new discovery ‘California.’” (Cf. Hale in Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., April 30, 1862; in Historical Magazine, vi. 312, Oct. 1862; in His Level Best, p. 234; and in Atlantic Monthly, xiii. 265; J. Archibald in Overland Monthly, ii. 437, Prof. J. D. Whitney in article “California” in Encyclopædia Britannica.) Bancroft (North Mexican States, vol. i. p. 82; and California, vol. i. p. 64) points out how the earliest use of the name known to us was in Preciado’s narrative (Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 343) of Ulloa’s voyage; and that there is no evidence of its use by Cortés himself. It was applied then to the bay or its neighborhood, which had been called Santa Cruz or La Paz.
[1294] Kohl, Maps in Hakluyt, p. 58.