Fortún Ximénez Bertandoña (; died 1533) was a Spanish sailor of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

origin who led a mutiny during an early expedition along the Pacific Coast of Mexico and is the first

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an known to have landed in the Baja California peninsula. Ximénez was the pilot of a ship, the ''Concepción'', sent by

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

and captained by Diego de Becerra. The ship set out November 30, 1533, to travel north along the coast of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

from present-day Manzanillo, Colima, in search of two ships that had been lost without a trace on a similar voyage the previous year. The previous voyages had been in search of the "Strait of Anián" (the western end of the much-hoped-for

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

) and the Island of California, named for the mythical places in the romance novel, '' Las sergas de Esplandián'' previously published in Spain and popular among the

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

s. The fictional California was a terrestrial paradise populated only by dark-skinned women. During the voyage, Ximénez led a revolt in which the captain was killed. The mutineers then landed near present-day

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, which the mutineers believed to be the Island of California. Ximénez was killed in a clash with the local natives. The survivors returned to New Spain with the story of having black

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

s, which prompted further exploration of the "Island" of Santa Cruz, as Cortés named the peninsula. The stories of the survivors prompted several follow-up expeditions by Cortés in the following years, which resulted in very short-lived pearl fisheries.

Notes

Sources

*Caughey, John W. ''California'', second edition (Englewood: Prentice-Hall, 1953), 45–46. *Chapman, Charles E. ''A History of California: The Spanish Period'' (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1921), 50–51. * 1533 deaths History of Baja California Spanish explorers of North America Spanish sailors 16th-century Spanish people Explorers of Mexico Year of birth unknown Basque sailors {{NewSpain-stub

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