Sebastian Vizcaino
Sebastián Vizcaíno (Extremadura or Huelva, 1547 or 1548 — Mexico City, 1627) was a Spanish merchant, soldier, explorer and diplomat who is remembered for having made a trip to map the coasts of the Pacific Ocean of present-day California and having been the first ambassador of Spain in Japan.
Biography
He was born in 1547 or 1548, his place of birth being unknown. The most widespread version considers that Vizcaíno was born somewhere in Extremadura, the Spanish region from which a good part of the conquerors of America left, although there are other versions, such as that he was from Huelva or even Basque, considering in the latter It was the case that Vizcaíno was not a surname, but a demonym, which would indicate that the explorer would have been born in Vizcaya. His family origin or social status is also unknown, although the hypothesis that the explorer was related to the viceroy of New Spain, Luis de Velasco y Castilla, who greatly favored his career, being perhaps half brother of the same
Military career and business activities
In 1580 he participated in the invasion of Portugal, at the head of a cavalry troop. In 1583 he moved to New Spain (Mexico) and in 1586 he traveled to Manila, Philippines, where he traded and served in the militia. He returned in 1589 to New Spain, where he made large profits by selling the merchandise he had acquired in the Orient.
In 1593 he was granted the disputed concession for pearl fishing in the Sea of Cortez, on the western shore of the Gulf of California. He managed to navigate successfully, between June and November 1596, with three ships to La Paz (today in Baja California Sur). He gave it its current name (he was known by Hernán Cortés as Santa Cruz ) and tried to establish a colony there and explore the Gulf coast from there. However, resupply problems, declining morale, and fire soon forced her abandonment. He too became a diplomat.
Exploring the California Coast
It is important to note that the first European navigator who crossed the waters of the Pacific Ocean coasts of the Californias, until reaching the northern part of the current state of California, had been the navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542.
In March 1602, Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, viceroy of New Spain and count of Monterrey, appointed Vizcaíno general to lead the exploration of the Californian coast in search of safe havens for the Manila galleon, also called the Nao de la China, which annually made the return trip from Manila to Acapulco. From May 5 of that year to February 21, 1603, he commanded three ships —San Diego, the flagship, Santo Tomás and Tres Reyes i>— with whom he explored the American coast from the port of Acapulco to Cape Mendocino further north, accompanied by the cosmographers Géronimo Martí Palacios and the Carmelite friars Andrés de la Asunción, Antonio de la Ascensión and Tomás de Aquino. During that trip they established the corresponding toponymy, drew up charts and maps and prepared detailed directions and diaries of the coast, which will be used for navigation in those places until the end of the 18th century. His surveys of the Californian coasts are admirable for their precision and accuracy of detail, and he was the first person to point out certain ecological features of the Californian coast, such as the Monterey cypress forests of Punta Lobos. He landed several times to try to invade in California and went inland, although it had to retreat due to the hostility of the Americans settled there.
They named the main geographical features, such as Lobos Point, Santa Catalina Island, Carmel Valley, Monterey Bay, Sierra Point or Coyote Point. Some ports and bays that had been named by Cabrillo almost sixty years before, were renamed by Vizcaíno on his voyage. Such are the cases of the ports of Ensenada, in present-day Mexico, and San Diego, California, which Cabrillo had called San Mateo and San Miguel, respectively. Vizcaíno renamed San Diego by coinciding with the festivity of the Christian saints of the day he arrived in the bay, on November 10, 1602, with the name of his own ship.
The commander of the ship Tres Reyes, Martín d'Aguilar, separated from Vizcaíno and continued along the coast in a northerly direction until he reached the coast of what is now the state of Oregon.
One of the results of Vizcaíno's voyage was a growing enthusiasm to establish a Spanish settlement in Monterrey, a settlement ultimately postponed for another 167 years.
The explorations of Vizcaíno were collected by Martín Fernández de Navarrete in the Collection of navigations and discoveries of the Spanish at the end of the 16th century.
Political career
Vizcaíno was appointed General of the Manila galleons in 1603, a privilege that was exchanged in 1604 for the mayoralty of Tehuantepec, New Spain, where the highway to unite the two Mexican coasts, whose construction had begun Hernán Cortés, was completed. This highway ran from Coatzacoalcos, on the Gulf of Mexico, to Tehuantepec, on the Pacific coast.
In 1607 he received the vacant command of the province of Ávalos. Eager to the Spanish Crown to establish trade relations with Japan, in 1611 he was appointed by Philip III ambassador to that court, he being the first European to hold that position in Japan.
In March 1611, he sailed from Acapulco aboard the ship San Francisco in the direction of Japan, where he established an embassy with Emperor Go-Mizunoo, mapped the coasts of that empire and searched, without success., the mythical fabulous islands of Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata. She returned to New Spain in January 1614. An account of that trip survives.
Back to New Spain
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Upon his return he retired to Sayula, Jalisco, to manage his assets. In October 1615 he led a troop on the coast of Colima that repulsed Joris van Spilbergen's Dutch corsairs, who were trying to take water and provisions in the town of Salahua. This skirmish is known as the Battle of Puerto de Santiago.
Due to the services rendered to the Spanish Crown, he was appointed mayor of Acapulco. In 1619 he left the administration of his property in the hands of his sons and retired to live in Mexico City, where he died in 1627.
Her legacy
Several places on the coast that he explored were named in his honor: Sebastián Vizcaíno Bay, on the eastern coast of the California peninsula, or the El Vizcaíno desert, in the same area of that peninsula. Two protected areas have recently been declared named after him: in 1988 the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve and in 1993 the El Vizcaíno Whale Sanctuary, both in Baja California Sur.
In addition, the today important cities of San Diego, Ensenada and La Paz, as well as the Californian county of Monterey still maintain the names with which he baptized them.
He is a direct ancestor of Carlos Vizcaíno, the maternal grandfather of the writer Juan Rulfo.