What impact did Hernando Cortes make when he discovered the Baja Peninsula in California?

In the spring of 1535, Hernán Cortés set sail for an island he believed to be "rich in pearls and gold" and "populated by women, without a single mate." When the conquistador made landfall on May 3 with a group of settlers, he established the town of Santa Cruz and set about searching for his spoils.

As it turned out, Cortés was not on an island. Instead, he had landed on the peninsula we know today as Baja California and, in the process, began the colonization of California - more than 250 years before the founding of San Diego in 1769.

Santa Cruz would not survive long. More than 20 colonists starved on the desert coast, and a hostile reception by the peninsula's native inhabitants compounded the settlement's troubles. Within two years, the colony - located at the present-day site of La Paz - was abandoned.

The story of Cortés' misadventure is told in W. Michael Mathes' The Conquistador in California, one of several books on display inside USC's Doheny Memorial Library as part of an exhibition honoring Mathes '62, a historian who died in August.