The New International Encyclopædia/Vizcaino, Sebastian

VIZCAINO, veth'ka-e'no, Sebastian (e.1550-1615). A. Spanish explorer, born in Huelva. He became chief pilot of New Spain, and in 1596-97 attempted unsuccessfully to explore Lower California. In 1602-03 he explored and carefully surveyed the coast north of Cape Mendocino, discovered a bay, which he named Monterey in honor of the Viceroy, and dispatched northward from Cape Orford a vessel which sailed to 46° north latitude, and reached the mouth of a large river, probably the Columbia. The observations made by him on the California coast were used by Enrico Martinez in constructing thirty-two charts, which are still preserved in the archives of the Council of the Indies. His reports on his two voyages to California were published by Torque-mada in Monarquia Indiana (Madrid, 1615), and the greater part of them can be found in Burney's Collection of Voyages to the South Sea (London, 1811).