San Jose del Cabo was for hundreds of years, the only community here at the tip fo the Baja California Peninsula. With its natural fresh water oasis flowing into palm-lined lagoons at the oceans edge, the area supported Indian communities and hundreds of species of wildlife for thousands of years before colonization by the Spanish. During the pre-colonial period it was a watering and provisioning stop for Spanish galleons. The heavy ships laden with treasure, silks and spices from the east were the ‘big game fish’ then for pirates like Sir Francis Drake who came looking for ‘donations’ to his favorite charity (himself) and his majesty the "Virgin" Queen Elizabeth. San Jose del Cabo was finally settled in 1730 with a Jesuit mission and fort to help stabilize the region against these marauders.
As the years went by, explorers like Cabrillo and Vizcaino, cannoned warships, whaling ships, and clipper traders running the West Coast all stopped and often left, leaving crew behind. Some of the old families in Todos Santos, La Paz and San Jose del Cabo have English and French derived surnames from ancestors who were buccaneers before jumping ship and becoming ranchers and fishermen.
San Jose del Cabo for hundreds of years has been an outpost on the tip of the Baja California peninsula. Up until twenty years ago Cabo San Lucas was just a few farmhouses, some scrawny cattle roaming the dirt roads and a fish cannery. There was only an eighteen-mile dirt road connecting it to the only town nearby, San Jose del Cabo. The complete San Jose del Cabo article by David Mandich continues... |
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San Jose del Cabo - A Brief History
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Spanish galleons first visited Estero San Jose at the mouth of the Rio San Jose to obtain fresh water near the end of their lengthy voyages from the Philippines to Acapulco in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. As pirate raids along the coast between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz became a problem, the need for a permanent Spanish settlement at the tip of the cape became increasingly urgent. The growing unrest among the Guaycura and Pericu Indians south of Loreto also threatened to engulf mission communities to the north. As a result, the Spanish were forced to send armed troops to the Cape region to quell the Indian uprisings in 1723, 1725 and 1729.
In 1730, Jesuit Padre Nicholas Tamaral traveled south from Mission La Purisima and founded Mission San Jose del Cabo on a mesa overlooking the Rio San Jose some 5 km. north of the current town site. Due to the overwhelming presence of mosquitoes at this site, Tamaral soon moved the mission to the mouth of the estuary on a rise flanked by Cerro del Vigia and Cerro de la Cruz.Tamaral and the Pericus got along fine until he pronounced an injunction against Polygamy, a long tradition in Pericu society.
After Tamaral punished a Pericu Shaman for violating the anti-polygamy decree, the Indians rebelled and burned both the San Jose and Santiago missions in October of 1734. Tamaral was killed in the attack. Shortly thereafter the Spanish established a presidio, which served the dual purpose of protecting the community from insurgent Indians and the estuary from English pirates. San Jose del Cabo History Article continues . . . |
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