By Bill Wells

European Exploration

Hernando Cortez with his Indian allies seized Mexico in 1519, and in 1521 two of his soldiers deserted and headed north to Alta California possibly because of rumors of great wealth to be found there.  Legend has it that these two were the first Europeans to visit the Great Valley and to view the Sacramento River.  In April of 1879 two miners cutting down an old oak near the Middle Fork of the Feather River found an old manuscript buried inside the tree.  Ten years later in 1889 the miners showed it to a Spanish speaker and the manuscript was translated as the story of the two.  It was shipped to the Naval Museum in Madrid but apparently lost and as of yet has not resurfaced.

A Portuguese, Joao Rodriquez Cabrilho is probably the first European to venture up the California coast and in 1542 discovered San Diego Bay and sailed as far North as Monterey Bay before turning back and dying in an accident at San Miguel Island early in 1543.  The Spanish possibly still smarting that Columbus was Italian corrupted his name to Juan Cabrillo.

Francis Drake was possibly the first European to enter San Francisco Bay and anchored near what is now San Quentin prison in 1579.  (This is in dispute and some say he actually anchored in Drake’s Bay or Bodega Bay or even farther North).  In the 1930’s a brass plaque was discovered near San Quentin purportedly left there by Drake, in the 1990’s it was exposed as a fake.  The description later narratives left of the Indian culture Drake and his crew spent five weeks with is convincingly Coastal Maidu.  The Coastal Maidu inhabited the area from Duncan’s Point on the North Coast to the Northern side of the Golden Gate and included Bodega Bay, Drake’s Bay, and the North Bay area of Sausalito, San Rafael, Petaluma, and Cotati.

Continue reading A Short History of the California Delta Part 2 of 4 →