1908a Chapter I - Discovery page 3

Brief History of California

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Chapter I. Discovery.

     [p. 3] Romance enters into the story of California with its very beginning. When Gondalez de Sandoval, in 1524, gave to Cortes an account of a wonderful island ten days to the westward from the Pacific Coast of Mexico, inhabited by women only and exceedingly rich in pearls and gold, he no doubt derived his information from Montalvo's romance, Sergas de Esplandian. Cortes seems to have given credence to his lieutenant's story and to have kept in view the discovery of this wonderful island, California. The discovery of which was then supposed to be an island, by Fortuna Jiminez, in 1534, no doubt confirmed in Cortes' mind the truth of Sandoval's story, told him a decade before. For did not the island of Jiminez, like the island of Montalvo's fiction, lie on the right hand of the Indies, or where the Indies were then supposed to be? Pearls were found on it and gold and the Amazons must be there too.

     Fortuna Jiminez, the discoverer of Lower California, was chief pilot on one of the ships which Cortes, in 1533, fitted out to explore the northwest coast of Mexico. A mutiny broke out on the ship commanded by Becerro de Mendoza. He was killed and his friends forced to go on shore at Jalisco. The mutineers, commanded by Jiminez, sailed westerly away from the coast of the mainland. After several days of sailing out of sight of the main land, they discovered what they supposed to be an island and landed at what is now known as La Paz, in Lower California. There Jiminez and twenty of his followers were killed by the Indians; the few survivors of the ill-fated crew managed to navigate the vessel back to Jalisco, where they reported the discovery of an island rich in pearls.

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017