Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.
By Harry Kelsey. San Marino:
Huntington Library, 1986. Bibliography. Maps and Illustrations. Index. 261
pages. $25.00.
Reviewed by Warren A. Beck, Professor of History at California
State University, Fullerton, and co-author of California: A
History of the Golden State and A Historical Atlas of California.
Biography? This is a biography! The author, who is chief
curator of history at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, has
written what will stand as the definitive biography of Cabrillo for many years.
This is a study based upon facts carefully gathered and made use of in such a
way that the reader can really know the subject. One of the first things a
reviewer does is look at an author's sources. In this case Kelsey has used all
of the voluminous printed material available on Cabrillo and about Spain's
conquest of the West Indies, Mexico and Central America. More importantly, this
biographer has worked extensively among the documents to be found in the
archives of Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, and the United States, and even the
Netherlands. Furthermore, after examining all of this valuable material with
meticulous care, when the author still lacked documentation, he has used
scholarly deduction wisely to make his case.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo has been something of a shadowy
figure in the history of California-usually bursting upon the scene to lead the
first maritime exploration of the coast. There have been many questions about
his nationality, his early career, the exact route of his explorations along the
California coast, and the details of his death. This work answers all of them
and provides the readers with everything they wanted to know about Cabrillo-and
much more.
The author proves conclusively that Cabrillo was Spanish and
not Portuguese, as has been usually claimed. Kelsey, along with historians
Maurice Holmes and W. Michael Mathes, shows that there is no material on anyone
named Cabrillo in the Lisbon Archives and even quotes a Portuguese historian
that "the name Cabrillo is not known in Portugal." (6). This biographer
attributes the myth of Cabrillo's Portuguese birth to a statement by the early
Spanish chronicler, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, which most historians have
accepted without question.
In the past, laborers in Clio's vineyard have concentrated
upon Cabrillo's voyage along the California coast in 1542-1543. This work
details the subject's background and shows that he was one of Panfilo de
Narvaez's crossbowmen in Cuba in 1510 or 1511. From there he was with Cortes in
the conquest of Mexico and was a lieutenant of Pedro de Alvarado aiding the
Spanish settlement of Central America. Rewarded for his services with extensive
land grants, Cabrillo became one of the richest men in Guatemala. His wealth
came from his land, gold mines, shipbuilding, and, above all, mercantile
ventures.
In addition to furnishing hitherto missing details of
Cabrillo's life, this book has a wealth of material on many aspects of the
Spanish conquests of the New World. The story of the conquistador as businessman
is well told; there is a great deal on the problems mariners of the day faced
along with the hazards of life aboard the ships of the day. One tidbit which
this reviewer was fascinated by was the discussion of the weather and the
description of the snow around Monterey Bay.
The final chapter, "Looking for Cabrillo," details the
historiography surrounding the author's work and reads like a good detective
story. In other words, this is a biography anyone interested in early California
or Spanish colonial history must have. Naturally, this reviewer did find
shortcomings in this fine work but the only one worthy of mention is the lack of
maps of colonial Guatemala and the explorations along the California coast.
