degree of latitude, was, for a long time, universally credited, and excited many speculations. The supposed river was first, as Torquemada says, generally believed to be the long-sought Strait of Anian. It was then, upon the strength of a statement made by the captain of a Manilla ship, in 1620, universally considered as the western mouth of a passage, or channel, connecting the ocean with the northern extremity of the Californian Gulf; and, accordingly, during the remainder of the seventeenth century, California was represented, on all maps, as an island, of which Cape Blanco was the northern end. When this error had been corrected, the existence of a great river, flowing from the centre of America into the Pacific, under the 43d parallel, was again affirmed by some geographers; while others again placed at this point the western entrance of a passage leading to the Atlantic. It is now certain that no such stream or channel as that which Aguilar is reported to have seen, falls into the Pacific within three degrees of the 43d parallel; although the mouths of two small rivers are situated near the point where that line crosses the western coast of the continent. Several head-lands project into the ocean, not far from the positions assigned to the Capes Blanco and San Sebastian. The former may have been the promontory, in latitude of 42 degrees 52 minutes, on which Vancouver, in 1792, bestowed the name of Cape Orford. On comparing the accounts of Vizcaino's voyage with those of Cabrillo's, it appears that the same, or very nearly the same, portions of the American coast were seen by both commanders. The expedition of Vizcaino was, however, conducted in a much more efficient manner than the other; and a mass of valuable information, respecting the geography of the western side of California, was collected, in the shape of notes, plans, and sketches, upon which were founded the first maps of that coast approaching to correctness. Vizcaino, after his return to Mexico, endeavored to prevail upon the viceroy to establish colonies and garrisons on the western side of California, at places which he recommended, in order to facilitate the trade with India, and to prevent the occupation of the American coasts by people of other nations. His efforts, with this view, however, produced no effect, as the viceroys never encouraged such enterprises, being generally obliged to pay the costs themselves; and Vizcaino, in consequence, went to Spain, where, after many years of solicitation, he at length procured the royal mandate, and a promise of means for the execution of his projects. Armed with these, he hastened back to Mexico, and began his preparations; but, while thus engaged, he was seized with a sickness, of which he died in 1608, and the enterprise was then abandoned. The Spanish government, at the period of Vizcaino's expeditions, appears, indeed, to have been seriously interested in the exploration of the Pacific, with which object several voyages were made from Peru and Mexico. In 1595, Alvaro de Mendana discovered the group of islands in the southern division of that ocean, to which he gave the name of Islas de las Marquesas, (Islands of the Marchionesses,) in token of his admiration of the beauty and grace of their women. In 1605, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros visited many other islands in the same sea, not previously known, among which were, probably, those now called Otaheite and Owyhee: he also believed that he had ascertained the existence of a great southern continent, which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo; and, like Vizcaino, he spent many years at Madrid, in endeavors to obtain from the government the command of an expedition for the occupation of this new land. 96 CHAPTER III. 1608 TO 1768. The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole of this Period - Efforts of the English and the Dutch to find new Passages into the Pacific Discovery of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay - Discovery of the Passage around Cape Horn - Establishment of the Hudson's Bay Trading Company- Endeavors of the Spaniards to settle California unsuccessful — The Jesuits undertake the Reduction of California - Establishments of the Jesuits in the Peninsula, and their Expulsion from the Spanish Dominions. - For more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of Vizcaino, no attempt was made, by the Spaniards, to form establishments on the west coast of California, or to extend their discoveries in that part of America. Those countries, in the mean time, remained unknown, and almost entirely neglected, by the civilized world. The Spanish galleons, on their way from Manilla to Acapulco, annually passed along the coasts south of Cape Mendocino, which were described in Spanish works on the navigation of the Pacific; and some spots, farther north, were, as will be hereafter particularly shown, visited by the Russians, in their exploring and trading voyages from Kamtchatka: but no new information, of an exact nature, was obtained with regard to those regions, and they were represented on maps according to the fancy of the geographer, or to the degree of faith which he placed in the last fabrication respecting them. Numerous were the stories, gravely related and published in France and England, of powerful nations, of great rivers, of interior seas, and of navigable passages connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, north of California. The most remarkable of these stories is the account of the voyage of Admiral Fonté, already presented. Captain Coxton, a veteran bucanier, who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century, also declared that he had, in 1688, sailed from the North Pacific, far eastward, into the American continent, through a river which ran out of a great lake, called the Lake of Thoyaga, containing many islands, inhabited by a numerous and warlike population; and, upon the strength of the assertions of this worthy, the lake and river, as described by him, were laid down on many of the maps of that time. North-west America was, indeed, during the period here mentioned, the terra incognitissima, the favorite scene of extraordinary adventures and Utopian romances. Bacon there placed his Atlantis; and Brobdignag, agreeably to the very precise description of its locality furnished by its discoverer, the accomplished and veracious Captain Lemuel Gulliver, must have been situated near the Strait of Fuca. The Atlantic Ocean, and its American coasts, and the South Pacific, were, however, not neglected by the Europeans during the seventeenth century. Soon after the termination of Vizcaino's labors, settlements were made, in many places on the Atlantic, between the Gulfs of Mexico and of St. Lawrence, by the English, the French, and the Dutch, generally under the protection of charters from the governments of those nations, in which the territories of the several colonies were declared to extend from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific; and some of the most valuable of the West India Islands had fallen into the possession of the same powers. Many discoveries were likewise effected, within this period, on the coasts of the New World, and in the adjoining seas, some of which were of great and immediate importance, while the others served to strengthen the expectation that a north-west passage, or navigable channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, would be speedily found. Thus, in 1608, Henry Hudson discovered, or rediscovered, the strait, and the bay connected by it with the Atlantic, to both of which his name is now attached; and, eight years afterwards, the adventurous William Baffin penetrated, through the arm of that ocean now called Baffin's Bay, separating Greenland from America, into a passage extending westward, under the 74th parallel of latitude, where his ship was arrested by ice. The results of the voyages of Baffin, and other navigators, who followed the same course, were not calculated to increase the hope that the desired passage to the Pacific would be found opening into Baffin's Bay. Strong grounds were, however, afforded for the expectation that it might be discovered in one of the arms of Hudson's Bay which had not been completely explored; and, in consequence, the whole region surrounding the latter sea was, in 1669, granted, by King Charles II., to an association of merchants and gentlemen, styled - The Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay - with the object,* expressed in the charter, of encouraging the search for a northern passage to the Pacific. The most important discovery made in the seventeenth century was that of the open sea, south of Magellan's Strait, through which the Dutch navigators Lemaire and Van Schouten sailed, in 1616, from the Atlantic into the Pacific, around the island promontory named by them Cape Horn, in honor of their native city in Holland. By means of this new route, the perils and difficulties of the navigation between the two oceans were so much lessened, that voyages from Europe to the Pacific were no longer regarded as very hazardous enterprises; and the Spanish possessions and commerce on that ocean were ever after annoyed by the armed ships of nations at war with Spain, or by pirates and smugglers of various classes and denominations. The Gulf of California became the principal resort of the Dutch pirates, or, rather, privateers, who, under the name of Pichilingues,† kept the inhabitants of the adjacent coasts of Mexico in constant anxiety. For the purpose of dislodging these depredators, and also of obtaining advantages from the pearl fishery in the gulf, several attempts were made, by the government of Spain, and by individuals in Mexico, to establish colonies, garrisons, and fishing or trading posts, on the eastern side of the peninsula of California. The details of the expeditions for these purposes, made by Vicuña and Ortega in 1631, by Barriga and Porter in 1644, by Piñadero in 1664 and 1667, by Lucenilla in 1668, and by Atondo in 1683, are devoid of interest. Many pearls were obtained, among which are some of the most valuable in the regalia of Spain; but the establishments all failed from want of funds, from the extreme barrenness of the soil, and the determined hostility of the natives of the peninsula, and, above all, from the indolence and viciousness of the persons employed in the expeditions. In the last attempt of this kind, under the direction of Don Isidro de Atondo, a number of settlers, soldiers, and Jesuits, were carried out from Mexico, and distributed at points on the gulf where the establishments were to be formed; but these stations were all abandoned before the end of a year, and it was thereupon resolved, in a council of the chief * See Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter I, No. 1. So called from the Bay of Pichilingue, on the east coast of the Californian peninsula, which was the principal rendezvous of these Dutch pirates. |