Niza's report prompted Cortés to renewed efforts in his Californian enterprise, and in July, 1539, Francisco de Ulloa was sent from Acapulco with three vessels to prosecute the discoveries by water. Ulloa spent some time in the port of Santiago for repairs, lost one vessel in a gale near the entrance to the gulf, visited Santa Cruz, and then followed the main coast to the mouth of the Colorado, and returned along the coast of the Peninsula to Santa Cruz, where he arrived on the 18th of October. From this place he doubled the southern point of California, and sailed up the western coast to Cedros Island, and somewhat beyond. During the whole voyage he touched and named many places, whose names have seldom been retained, but some of which may be with tolerable certainty identified. In April the vessels separated, one returning by a quick passage to Colima. Ulloa himself with the other vessel attempted to continue his explorations northward, with what success is not known. According to Gomara and Bernal Diaz, he returned after several months spent in fruitless endeavors to reach more northern latitudes; other authorities state that he was never heard from. Preciado, who accompanied the expedition, wrote of it a detailed but not very clear narrative or journal. _Relatione dello scoprimento che nel nome di Dio va à far l'armata dell' illustrissimo Fernando Cortese_, etc. (Preciado's Relation), in _Ramusio_, tom. iii. 339-54, and in _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 397-424; _Gomara_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 292-3; _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 234; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. vi. lib. ix. cap. viii. et seq.; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. v. p. 856; _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, pp. xxii.-vi.; _Burney's Discov. South Sea_, vol. i. pp. 193-210; _Venegas_, _Noticia de la California_, quoted from _Gomara_, tom. i. pp. 159-61; _Clavigero_, _Storia della California_, tom. i. p. 151.