1542 - Cabrillo and Orange County? San Juan Capistrano Visitor Series Part 1
Way back in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to what is now the coast of California. For context, at about this time Queen Elizabeth I of England was 9 years old, the first contact between Japan and the West occurred when a Portuguese trading vessel that intended to trade with China was blown off course and landed in Japan and Michelangelo had just completed his last fresco in the Sistine Chapel. While sailing along the coast of California, Cabrillo and the men under his command may very well have been the first Europeans to observe what is now Orange County. Cabrillo, who was from Spain , came to North America in 1514 and participated as a conquistador (soldier) with Hernán Cortés in the Spanish wars of conquest over the Aztecs and later with Pedro de Alvarado in the conquest over the indigenous groups living in what is now Guatamala. For his services as a conquistador, his superior made him a encomendero, rewarding him with la...