good sailor. He shall carry out the order of the king." But it took time
to fit out such an expedition, and it was not until an afternoon in May,
1602, that Don Sebastian Vizcaino, on his flagship, the San Diego,
sailed out of the harbor of Acapulco into the broad Pacific. Closely
following him were his other ships, the San Thomas and Tres Reyes.

There had been solemn services at the cathedral that afternoon. Officers
and men had taken of the holy communion; and now their wives and
children stood on the island at the entrance of the harbor, watching the
white sails as they grew fainter and fainter and at last disappeared in
the haze of the coming night.

Then the watchers returned to their lonely homes with heavy hearts, for
in those days few came back who sailed out on the great South Sea.
Storms, battles with the natives, and scurvy made sad havoc among the
sailors.

Early in November Vizcaino entered "a famous port," which he named San
Diego, finding it, as Padre Ascension's journal says, "beautiful and
very grand, and all parts of it very convenient shelter from the winds."
After leaving San Diego, the next anchoring place was the island named
by Vizcaino for Santa Catalina, on whose feast day his ships entered the
pretty little harbor of Avalon.

The Spaniards were greatly pleased with the island and also with the
people, whom they described as being a large-figured, light-complexioned
race; all, men, women, and children, being well clothed in sealskins.
They had large dwellings, many towns, and fine canoes. What struck Padre
Ascension most strongly was their temple, of which he says: "There was
in the temple a large level court, and about this a circle surrounded by