ided
with everything necessary for the voyage and the safety of the people.
The Council of the Indies, on receiving Zuniga's report, ordered him
to cancel Vizcaino's commission and select another leader for the
expedition, but before this order could reach the viceroy, Vizcaino
had sailed. The expedition consisted of the flagship San Francisco, six
hundred tons; the San Jose, a smaller ship, under command of Captain
Rodrigo de Figueroa, and a lancha. Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco in
March, 1596. His first stop was at the port of Calagua on the coast
of Colima, where he took on some of his people and stores, and to this
point the watchful viceroy sent a personal representative to see that
Vizcaino complied with all of his requirements, and to report on the
conduct of his soldiers. From here Vizcaino sailed northwest to Cape
Corrientes, thence northerly to the Islands of San Juan de Mazatlan.
From Mazatlan he bore west-northwest across the Gulf of California and
landed in a large bay which he named San Felipe, afterwards known as
the Bay of Cerralbo. From here he went to La Paz bay, which he so named
because of the peaceful character of the Indians, who received him
hospitably with presents of fish, game, and fruits. This was, it is
supposed, the place where Jimenez, the discoverer of California, lost
his life in 1533, and where Cortez planted his ill-fated colony two
years later. In entering the bay, the flagship ran on a shoal, and
they were obliged to cut away her masts and lighten her of her cargo of
provisions, a great part of which was wet and lost. Here Vizcaino landed
and built a stockade fort, and leaving the dismantled flagship and the
married men of his company under command of his lieutenant, Figueroa, he
sailed on October 3rd, with the San Jose and the lancha and eighty men
to explore the gulf. He encountered severe storms which separated his
vessels, and not having proper discipline among his men, had trouble
with the Indians of the coast, during which nineteen men were lost by
the overturning of the ship's long boat. He turned back to La Paz, where
his men, disheartened by the storms and the loss of their comrades,
demanded to be returned to New Spain. His stock of provisions was
running low, and putting the disaffected on the flagship and the
lancha, he sent them back, and with the San Jose and forty of the
more adventurous of the men, again sailed, on October 28th, for the
headwaters of the gulf. For sixty