PLATO

Fall 2018
California Here We Come and Other Important Maps
Tom Loo, Coordinator Allison Woram, Co-Coordinator

December 05, 2018 Week 11 Steven Chasen, Discussion Leader

California Here We Come

Origin of Name California

The first mention of California is as an island in Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo’s novel of
chivalry Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Exploits of Esplandián or The Adventures of
Esplandián) published in 1510. It was described by de Montalvo as being east of Asia, and
was populated by black Amazons who used gold tools and weapons. It is believed that
Queen Calafia who ruled over the island, which was named after her, was a pagan, who
trains an army of Amazons that will fight for the Muslims against the Christians during the
siege of Constantinople.
Calafia is believed to have been derived from the Arabic word Khalifa, meaning religious
leader, also called Caliph in English. In the novel, she is captured by the Christians and
converted to Christianity.
The name California was not invented, however, by Rodríguez de Montalvo, but goes back,
at least, to La Chanson de Roland in France, in which it appeared already with the form
"Califerne".

Is California really an island?

A few years after its discovery in the 16th century, California already appeared on the map
with a reasonably accurate shape. However, a century later it was transformed into an
island: a shape that was maintained in virtually all the maps of the 17th century. Even the
discovery of a land route to the would-be ‘island’ was not enough to dispel the myth. The
cause for this confusion may well lie in the very secrecy of Spanish cartography, which was
hidden from outsiders due to its high strategic value – the maps of Vizcaíno’s, voyage to
California were only published 200 years later. Often, the only way for foreign nations to
access this information was through theft and subterfuge, and early maps of the island of
California claim to be based on charts obtained from the Spanish. Through this channel, an
unverified suggestion by a Spanish cartographer could have been transformed into a far-
reaching myth that would last for well over a century

Plunder was commonplace, and Spanish maps were a hot commodity. They were also a
state secret. It's generally accepted that the Dutch captured a ship en route, and the charts
were waylaid to Amsterdam. What we know for sure is that the maps were widely copied.
In 1543, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was the first to chart the coast of California. A year later,
Battista Agnese already represented Cabrillo’s discoveries (correctly, as a peninsula) in a
new version of his atlas.

Battista Agnese: Atlas (1544)

Ortelius’ 1612 atlas was still showing California as a peninsula, now separated from the
mainland by the mouth of the Colorado River.

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Abraham Ortelius: Atlas (1612)

The earliest Spanish maps from the 16th century show a continuous coastline, but a
Carmelite friar, Antonio de la Ascensiòn, accompanied Sebastian Vizcaíno on his West Coast
expedition of 1602-03 and apparently drew a map depicting California as an island around
1620.

In 1622 the book Descriptio Indiae Occidentalis by Antonio de Herrera first shows a sea to
the north, joined to the Gulf of California. This might well be the first representation of
California as an island (though closer to land than those that followed), and probably
became the template for the creation of the myth.

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Descriptio Indiae Occidentalis. Antonio de Herrera (1622)

In the 17th century the assumption that California was an island would consolidate. Even
what appear to be working documents, such as this sketch, depict the island and even adds
topographic detail to its fictitious regions.

Sketches of the Pacific coast (17th century)

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Also in 1622 the British mathematician Henry Briggs published an influential article
accompanied by a map that clearly showed California as an island. Briggs' map was widely
copied by European cartographers for more than a century.

1625 Henry Briggs refers to "the large and goodly island of California" and was influential in spreading
that geographical misconception

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As late as 1692, the island of California was still ingrained into the collective consciousness
and appeared in all published maps, such as this one by Coronelli.

Vincenzo Coronelli: Atlas (1692)

It was not until Jesuit Father Eusebio Kino’s map entitled “A Passage by Land to California,”
informed by his travels between 1698 and 1701, that this cartographic blunder was exposed.
Even so, it took another half century for the the island to attach itself back on to North
America on maps — the maps lagged behind reality and became a cartographic phenomenon
that defied the science of mapping. The island of imagination won over terrestrial reality and
resulted in some of the most beautiful maps ever produced.

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Kino - A Passage By Land to California - English Version 1731

Even after this, maps still showed some hesitation: thie map by Jaillot is carefully drawn so
as not to explicitly support either of the two possibilities.

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Alexis Jaillot: Atlas (1719)

Enough was enough in 1747, when King Ferdinand VI of Spain issued a royal decree
proclaiming, "California is not an island."

An important map of California in five different states, ranging from roughly 1656 to 1767.
Engraved by the important French cartographer Robert De Vaugondy, for the c. 1770
edition of the Denis Diderot (1713-84) Encyclopedie. The map explores the confused state
of California cartography in the late 18th century. It examines the gradual discovery of
California through various seminal mappings. Initially it uses the work of Italian
cartographer Matheau Neron Pecci (1604) which correctly presumed that the main body of
California extended southward into a peninsula. The next map illustrated, by N. Sanson in
1656, displays in insular California. Map no. III, by Guillaume de L'Isle (1700) reattaches
California to the mainland, returning to the early peninsular theory. Next, Vaugondy
exhibits part of the seminal Kino Map. The final map, produced by unnamed Jesuits c. 1767
is a somewhat accurate depiction of the Baja California peninsula. These maps all predate
the discoveries of Captain Cook's voyages and hence Diderot's work was as much
speculative as historical.

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1772 Vaugondy - Diderot Map of California in five states, California as Island

The representation of California as an island was present on a few Asian maps even into the
1860s.

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Sato 1865

Questions

1. Why would The Exploits of Esplandián have more influence on Spanish explorers
than explorers from other European Countries?
2. What were the strategic benefits of considering California as an island for the
Spainish?
3. What were the strategic benefits of considering California as an island for the
English in relation to the Strait of Anián and the Northwest Passage?
4. What were the strategic benefits of considering California as an island for the
Dutch?
5. Why is the Island of California shown with two different tops, flat or fingered?
6. Father Antonio de la Ascensiòn was trained as a cosmographer before becoming a
priest. How might this have influenced his mapping California as an Island?

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Other Reading

California, Calafia, Khalif: The Origin of the Name "California"

https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/california-calafia-khalif-the-origin-of-the-name-california

California Explorers
http://factcards.califa.org/exp/expmenu.html

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and the discovery of California

https://www.historiadelnuevomundo.com/index.php/en/2017/10/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo-and-the-
discovery-of-california

Glen McLaughlin Map Collection: California as an Island - about 750 maps

https://library.stanford.edu/collections/glen-mclaughlin-map-collection-california-island

Malaspina Expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaspina_Expedition

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