Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed up the California Coast in 1542. a log of his travels was kept by Juan Paez in which many places and people were described. Historians have his description of Las Canoas, the place of the canoes, but they differ as to its location. Some say the Malibu Lagoon just north of Los Angeles is the place, while others argue for Point Mugu, another forty five miles further north near Ventura. Using his data, the corrected data from modern cartographers, and the map, you decide where Cabrillo found the villages with all the canoes.

Cabrillo Map Game - Can you answer these questions from the map and the interactive map game?

  1. Find Malibu and Point Mugu on the map.
  2. What geographical features make these likely sites for a large indian village?

Using the table, try to determine where Cabrillo was when his longitude was.... And his latitude was... How about when he was at... and...

Where do you thing Las Canoas was located?

For further reading see The Rediscovery of The Pueblo de las Coanoas by Ronald L. Rindge, The Malibu Historical Society (1985) where this data was obtained. The issue of where Cabrillo actually was followed him to his grave. From his data no one is even sure on which island he is buried.