A side-by-side comparison of communication in the 1600s and communication in 2012 would, of course, reveal striking differences. But just because colonizers and explorers relied on written communication and a spotty delivery system doesn’t mean that what they communicated was much different than what we send out via text messages, emails, and tweets. Historical evidence suggests that they could teach us a thing or two about marketing.
Take, for instance, one Sebastian Vizcaíno, a Spanish explorer. On December 16, 1602, he led three Spanish ships round today’s Point Pinos and entered a harbor, which Vizcaíno named after his patron — the viceroy of Mexico, Don Gaspár de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Count of Monte Rey. What we know today as Monterey Bay was an inhospitable place for Vizcaíno and his men, even in comparison to an arduous seven-month voyage. Fog and freezing cold served for a welcoming committee: no people were to be seen. Vizcaíno found an abandoned village nearby and assumed that the locals had moved inland for the season, seeking refuge from the cold. Whatever the reasons, the Monterey area was as uninviting and uninhabited a place as any imaginable in January of 1603. That is what Vizcaíno saw.
What he reported upon his return to Acapulco was quite different. Culleton explains:
Vizcaíno had been sent to find a good port. He located but two worthy of any name and he pictured one of them as perfect. To attract the Church, he peopled Monterey with numberless ideal Indians though he saw but one deserted rancheria. To entice colonists, he spoke of much fertile land while he stood on sand overlooked by mountains. While numb with cold he wrote that the climate was like Seville’s… So untrue was this picture that Portolá and Crespi [in 1769] failed to recognize the place.
Passing no judgement on poor, cold Vizcaíno, it is at least safe to say that his account of the area was misleading. In our day, he would be sued for false advertising and would likely become the subject of late night show comedy sketches.
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