The San Diego Garden Fair - Committee of One Hundred

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDvastness of the ocean or the lands constitutingits shore. It took some time, about anothertwenty years, before an expedition went toinvestigate the magnitude of Balboa's claim.They went north to see what these mythicalproperties were. A Portuguese, Juan RodriguezCabrillo, a man of adventurous mind, in theservice of Spain, headed the party, and we learnfrom our historians·that in the year 1542 hesailed into what is now San Die~ harbor. Fora long time it was called San Miguel, and notuntil many years after was the name San Diegogiven to it, a name it still holds.Early in the next century, in 1602, Vizcainoand his band. formed the second party to runup the west coast of the North American continent.For chronological comparison it may bestated that this was at a time before Samuelde Cham~lain carried the Lilies of France upthe St. Lawrence and up the Richelieu intowhat is now American territory, exploring thelake which still bears his name. Vizcaino hadeven landed before Hudson carried the Dutchflag into New York harbor and before theEnglish pilgrims landed at Plymouth and startedthe English colony in New England. In thatway the history of the western coast had a veryea!:ry beginning.Unfortunately the state of affairs in Spain inparticular and In Europe in general was such asto give very little·promise for the early developmentof these remote Spanish possessions.Internal dissensions and troubles in other colonieswere the direct cause. Moreover, to makematters worse, extensive European wars con-[4]