Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Coastal middens largely contain the remains of mussels, abalone, chitons, barnacles,
seabirds, marine mammals, and fish, while inland middens feature the bones of deer,
skunks, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and gophers.
Aside from the middens and written records from Spanish explorers, missionar-
ies, and anthropologists, we know little about these people and how they lived. Tra-
gically, their culture vanished soon after contact with the Europeans. Within a few
decades, thousands succumbed to European diseases for which they had no immunity.
Many of those who survived such diseases as whooping cough and measles were driv-
en from their lands, converted to Christianity, and put to work raising cattle within the
mission system.
Spanish Exploration & the Mission Period
In 1542, Spain hired Portuguese navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to sail the Cali-
fornia coast in search of riches and a water route between the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans. The first European to see Big Sur and the Santa Lucia Range, Cabrillo re-
marked, “There are mountains which seem to reach the heavens, and the sea beats on
them; sailing along close to land, it appears as though they would fall on the ships.”
He also encountered Monterey Bay, naming it Bahia de los Pinos (Bay of Pines).
In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo's expedition and nearly 20 years before pilgrims
landed at Plymouth Rock, Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaíno sailed coastal Cali-
fornia. His expedition spent two weeks surveying Monterey and Carmel Bays, pro-
claiming both to be excellent safe harbors. Vizcaíno named the coast Monte-Rey after
Spain's new viceroy, the count of Monte-Rey. Vizcaíno's glowing reports and fears
that Russian explorers were encroaching south along the coast from Alaska prompted
Spain to claim Monterey Bay as its own.
