Note 1425 — Chapter VII

Alarcon set sail on the 9th of May, 1540, and by penetrating to the upper extremity of the Gulf of California, proved that California was not an island, as had been supposed. He made two attempts to ascend the Colorado in boats, and planted a cross at the highest point he reached, burying at its foot a writing, which, as will be seen, was subsequently found by Melchior Diaz. His report of this voyage, containing valuable information in regard to the natives, can be found in Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 505 (ed. 1810); translated from Ramusio, Navigationi, iii. 363 (ed. 1565). There is a French translation in Ternaux-Compans, ix. 299. This information about California is supplemented by the narrative of the voyage made two years later by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo along the Pacific shore of the peninsula, and up the northwest coast probably as far as the southern border of Oregon. It was printed in Buckingham Smith’s Coleccion, p. 173; and subsequently in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. xiv. p. 165. A translation by Mr. R. S. Evans, with valuable notes by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, is given in vol. vii. (Archæology) of United States Geological Survey west of the one hundredth Meridian. [See also the present volume, p. 443.—Ed.]