* From Hakluyt's Voyages. The spelling has been modernised.


This seems to have been the very first visit of Europeans to the
mouth of the Colorado, but as Ulloa did not see the river, and only
surmised that there might be one there, it cannot be considered in
any way a discovery. It has been supposed by some that Friar Juan de
la Asumpcion, in 1538, might have reached the Colorado in his deep
river which he could not cross, but this river was more likely a
branch of the Yaqui, for the friar was told that ten days beyond, to
the north, there was another larger river settled by many people,
whose houses had three stories, and whose villages were enclosed.
This describes the Rio Grande and its southern settlements perfectly,
so that, had he been on the Colorado, or even the Gila, the Rio
Grande could not have been described as "ten days to the north."
Ulloa took possession formally, according to Spanish custom, and then
sailed southward again. Though he had not found the great river, he
had determined one important geographical point: that Lower
California was not, as had been supposed, an island, but was a
peninsula; nevertheless for a full century thereafter it was
considered an island. Had Ulloa followed up the rush of the current
he would have been the discoverer of the Colorado River, but in spite
of his marvelling at the fury of it he did not seem to consider an
investigation worth while; or he may have been afraid of wrecking his
ships. His inertia left it for a bolder man, who was soon in his
wake. But the intrepid soul of Cortes must have been sorely
disappointed at the meagre results of this, his last expedition,
which had cost him a large sum, and compelled the pawning of his
wife's jewels. The discovery of the mouth of a great river would have
bestowed on this voyage a more romantic importance, and would