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Cristóbal Columbus seems to be the first who had notion of this peninsula, even without knowing himself of this, since it was spoken of an inhabited fantastic island only by women, reason why, between the legend, was related to Calafia, Mitologic queen where the name of California is come from. It happened a quarter of a century until the Peninsula is discovered by Fortún Jiménez and soon by Hernán Cortez, who didn't relate it to the island to which Columbus talked about and baptizes the gulf with the name of Sea of Courteous, and to La Paz, with the name of "Port and Valley of Santa Cruz", because he disembarked in there the 03 of May of 1535. In the exploration of the captain Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 natural ones were found, some of them contrasted enormously with the natives of the center of the country, since they were high, thin and they were in great physical shape, they called themselves Cochimíes, that means "North Men". The adventurers who treated, without success to conquer the Californian lands, but there were a group of noble missionaries Jesuitas, Franciscanos and Dominicos, that obtain something positive for the natives of the region, when them introduce their doctrine, practical lessons of agriculture and cattle ranch, and the construction of missions, with the purpose of attracting them and form population centers around the same ones. |
