Francisco De Ulloa
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Francisco de Ulloa () (died 1540) was a Spanish explorer who explored the west coast of present-day
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
and the Baja California Peninsula under the commission of
Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...
. Ulloa's voyage was among the first to disprove the cartographic misconception of the existence of the Island of California.


Exploring career

It is not known whether Ulloa accompanied Cortés on his first expedition to the
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
. By the account of historian
Bernal Díaz del Castillo Bernal Díaz del Castillo ( 1492 – 3 February 1584) was a Spanish conquistador who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experienced ...
, he came to Mexico later while transporting letters to Cortés from his wife. According to some early historians, Ulloa was influential in helping subdue the
Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...
capital
Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...
by naval power. In 1539, at the private expense of Cortés, he embarked on an expedition in three small vessels, sailing north from
Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...
to explore the Pacific Coast, and to seek a sea route through the North American continent that supposedly led to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, proving the existence of a northern passage. The expedition left on July 8 sailing northwards along the coast and reaching the
Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...
six weeks later. Ulloa named it the "Sea of Cortés" in honor of his patron. When one of his ships was lost in a storm Ulloa paused to repair the other two ships, and then resumed his voyage on September 12, eventually reaching the head of the Gulf. Unable to find the through-continent route, Ulloa turned south and sailed along the eastern coast of the Baja California Peninsula, landing at the Bay of La Paz. After taking on supplies of wood and water Ulloa rounded the tip of the peninsula with great difficulty and sailed northward along the western shore in the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. The voyage eventually reached 28 degrees north near the Isla de Cedros. The fierce winds and high seas he encountered eventually stalled his progress. Accounts differ if Ulloa continued northward or if he turned around to return to New Spain. A personal letter to Cortés on April 5 seemed to indicate that he intended to continue northward, at which point his ship was lost. However, no records note the loss of his voyage, and the fact that later maps from the voyage of
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (; 1497 – January 3, 1543) was a Portuguese maritime explorer best known for investigations of the west coast of North America, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish Empire. He was the first European to explore presen ...
included detail of this part of the peninsula indicate that Ulloa returned to New Spain and was able to confer with cartographers. Díaz del Castillo maintains that Ulloa was able to return to port, and was stabbed to death by a soldier from his crew in 1540. However, in 1543, Cortés indicated that he believed Ulloa was alive as part of a legal investigation as to the whereabouts of the daughter of one of his former pilots, stating that "Ulloa had carried her off and could give the information better than he," casting further doubt on Ulloa's ultimate fate. Although his discoveries showed that Baja California is a
peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
, legends and maps depicting California as an island persisted intermittently into the 18th century, indicating that Ulloa was unable to convince explorers or cartographers of his discovery.


References


Further reading

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External links


Catholic Encyclopedia
Francisco de Ulloa
AmericanJourneys.org
Francisco de Ulloa {{DEFAULTSORT:Ulloa, Francisco de 1540 deaths People from New Spain Spanish explorers of North America Spanish explorers of the Pacific Year of birth unknown Explorers of Mexico