Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [10]
After exploring as far as the Russian River in Northern California, the expedition turned back to the south as Cabrillo had decided not to voyage any further unaccompanied. On his way back he would again miss sighting the inlet to the San Francisco Bay, probably due to fog or the masking illusion of Alcatraz. Cabrillo found his companion ship anchored near Santa Cruz, located just north of Monterey. While his crew repaired damages from the storm, Cabrillo briefly explored the Monterey Bay territories. After the necessary repairs had been completed, both ships set southward along the coast.
Cabrillo’s return voyage led the explorers to San Miguel Island in the Santa Barbara Channel. The expedition was further complicated when Cabrillo met a tragic and untimely death from a severe leg injury. One of Cabrillo’s men, Francisco de Vargas, described how several crewmen were ambushed by natives while filling drinking urns with fresh water. Cabrillo led a rescue party and severely injured his leg when jumping from the small shore boat. Vargas wrote: “one foot struck a rocky ledge, and he splintered a shinbone.” Weeks later the open fracture became severely infected as gangrene set in. Cabrillo would die shortly thereafter on January 3, 1543. He had given final orders to Senior Navigator Bargolomé Ferrelo to resume the expedition, taking a northern course.
After burying Cabrillo on the Channel Islands, Ferrelo took charge of the expedition and continued the exploratory voyage north. He decided to push further than was originally planned, charting the coastline up through the northwest regions of Oregon. The ships rounded Cape Mendocino, finally reaching what is now known as the Rogue River in Oregon. With rations running low and huge winter storms inhibiting the visibility necessary to plot their course, they turned south and made the journey back to Navidad. Only ten months after their original departure they arrived back at their homeport on April 14, 1543, and their expedition was judged a monumental failure by Mendoza. The surviving crewmen were weakened by starvation and many were seriously ill with scurvy. They had found no riches and more importantly, no mystical passage joining the great oceans.
Mendoza had the ships refitted and sent them to Peru on a trading voyage. Neither the San Salvador nor the Victoria would ever return, both falling victim to the shipworms that fed on the wooden hulls, eroding their structures. There is little documentation detailing Pacific coastal expeditions over the next two centuries. The crude charts from Cabrillo’s voyages were published and they served as the primary means of navigating the California coast for explorers of this period.
The earliest authenticated instance of the name California being used by explorers was in the summation ship logs of Cabrillo’s expedition in 1542. But the first ever recorded use of the name was discovered in a romantic novel entitled The Exploits of Esplandián written around 1500 by Garci Ordóńez de Montalvo. This work referred to an “Amazon Island” called California, and it is believed that explorers of this period were familiar with the book – which further romanticized the early exploration of these waters.
In late 1577, England’s famed sea voyager Sir Francis Drake embarked on a courageous expedition, once more in hope of locating the elusive Northern Passage. He would journey to the Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Magellan with five ships and he announced to his crew: “Whoever first describes her, shall have my chain of gold for his good news.” As they ran down the Atlantic Coast of South America, storms, separations, dissension and a near fatal encounter with natives marred their passage. Drake was forced to scrap two of his severely damaged vessels and it would be several months before he could recommence his journey. His flagship the Pelican would be christened under a glorious new designation and would henceforth