My name in Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. I am a mercenary seaman and shipbuilder. I am a navigator and explorer, known for exploring the West Coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire. After the conquest of Mexico, I remained in the Spanish service as an officer under Pedro de Alvarado. With Alvarado, I explored through lower New Spain and into Guatemala.
I am the first European explorer to navigate the coast of California in the United States. I also helped find the city of Oaxaca in Mexico. I am searching for the Strait of Anián that connects the Pacific Ocean to Hudson Bay, providing a route for the Northwest Passage for trade.
In the battle between the Spanish and the Aztecs, I fought as captain of crossbowmen. Metal weapons, good tactics, and …show more content…
The ships I use for this trade are constructed in Guatemala using my ideas that I brought back from Spain.
Pedro de Alvarado selected me to build ships to explore the Pacific because of my skills as a leader and businessman. He wanted to use the ships to create a trading route between Central America and the Spice Islands off of Asia. When Alvarado died, I was prompted to lead one of two expeditions to explore the Pacific. I accepted and soon set out to explore the coast of New Spain.
One hundred and three days into the journey, my ships entered San Diego bay. This is where I claimed the land for Spain. I described the bay as "a closed and very good port," which I then decided to call San Miguel. We were exploring for a while until storms forced the ships to turn back. Because of this bad weather, I decided to go into the Channel Islands. While being there, we got into a brief fight with natives, which caused me to completely shatter a leg. Following this incident, I knew my life was going to come to an end very soon, so I quickly assigned someone aboard the ship to take over for me and direct the ship back to Mexico