Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo brought the first European explorers to the west coast of the United States more than four centuries ago. This biography traces Cabrillo's rise from a ragged childhood in the streets of Seville to a position of power and wealth as one of the richest landholders and most intrepid adventurers in the New World. There have been many biographical essays, but this is the first full-scale biography of Cabrillo based on original research. Working from the earliest published accounts, through thousands of pages of unpublished documents—especially the rich collections of the Huntington Library—Kelsey presents us with a vivid account of Cabrillo's life and times.

Harry Kelsey is the former chief curator of history at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He is also the author of The Doctrina and Confesionario of Juan Cortes, Frontier Capitalist: The Life of John Evans, and Sir Frances Drake: The Queen's Pirate.