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A Voyage of Exploration at Cabrillo National Monument. Climbing out of his boat and onto shore in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped into history as the first European to set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States.
- Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo - A Voyage of Exploration
- Cabrillo’s Early Life
- A Businessman in The Spanish “Encomienda” System
- Why Explore California?
- Exploring California
- The Voyage’s Impact
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition that explored what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico on June 27, 1542. Three months later he arrived at "a very good enclosed port," which is known today as San Diego Bay. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvad...
Born in Spain, Cabrillo was a conquistador in his youth. The term “conquistador” is the name applied to the mostly Spanish soldiers who explored, conquered, and settled in the New World. We know little of Cabrillo's early years until 1519, when his name appears in the ranks of those who served in the army of famous conquistador Hernan Cortes. In th...
By the mid-1530s, Cabrillo established himself as a leading citizen of Guatemala's primary town, Santiago. Cabrillo was one of the Spanish-born men who benefited from the “encomienda” system in the New World. In this system, the king of Spain granted long term leases for land that often came with the right to use forced Indigenous labor. In Spanish...
The Governor of Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, selected Cabrillo to build and provision ships to explore the Pacific because of his skills as a leader and businessman. Alvarado planned to use the ships to establish a trading route between Central America and the Spice Islands (modern day Indonesia) . When Alvarado died during an Indian uprising, his...
One hundred and three days into the journey, Cabrillo's ships entered San Diego Bay. He probably landed at Ballast Point (visible from the Visitor Center) where he claimed the land for Spain, though no Europeans settled in the area at that time. Cabrillo described the bay as "a closed and very good port," which he called San Miguel. The name San Mi...
While Cabrillo's contemporaries considered the expedition a failure, it left behind our first written glimpse of the west coast of North America from a newcomer’s perspective. There was no known lasting Spanish impact on Kumeyaay culture until the fort and mission system was established in 1769. Future Spanish explorers used Cabrillo’s records to b...
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (Portuguese: João Rodrigues Cabrilho; c. 1497 – January 3, 1543) was an Portuguese maritime explorer best known for investigations of the West Coast of North America, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish Empire.
As the park’s namesake, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to explore what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo..
Cabrillo National Monument, established in 1913, commemorates Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's voyage of discovery. A heroic statue of Cabrillo looks out over the bay that he first sailed into on September 28, 1542.
The park commemorates the voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the first European to chart the West Coast of what is now the United States. The park includes the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, illuminated in 1855, and 21 military fortifications which protected San Diego harbor in World War I and World War II.
Cabrillo National Monument (Spanish: Monumento nacional Cabrillo) is at the southern tip of the Point Loma Peninsula in San Diego, California, United States. It commemorates the landing of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542.
