Fray Antonio de la Ascension: A Brief Report of the Discovery in New Spain
(1620)Document Text
I
In the past year of 1602, by order of our very Catholic and most Christian King, Philip III, king of Spain, Don Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo, Count of Monterey, may he be in heaven, being viceroy of New Spain, two small ships and a frigate were equipped by his order and command in the port of Acapulco, which is in New Spain, on the coast of the South Sea. They were supplied with all necessary arms and provisions for a voyage of one year, the time it was thought this expedition would last. Sebastian Vizcaino went as captain and commander of the soldiers and vessels and Captain Toribio Gomez de Corban went as admiral. There embarked in these ships and the frigate two hundred persons, more or less, one hundred and fifty of them select and experienced soldiers, who were also very skilful sailors, to assist in whatever might present itself concerning affairs at sea as well as those of war on land, and to escort the general. Several famous captains and the ensign who had...
Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed. Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916.
