A NBW FIELD OF AMERICAN' HISTORY. 375 



ited with increasing frequency by foreigners, or persons whose blood 

 was neither Indian nor Spanish. England, the United States, Russia, and 

 France were the nations chiefly represented. " All had come from the 

 South, or West, or North, by the broad highway of the Pacific Ocean, 

 bounding the territory on the west, and leading to within a few miles 

 of the most inland Spanish settlements." The inland boundary— an arc 

 for the most part of sierras nevadas so far as could be seen, with a zone 

 of desert beyond still unknown — had never yet been crossed by man 

 of foreign race, nor trod, if we except the southern segment cut by a 

 line from San Gabriel to Mojave, by other than aboriginal feet. The 

 " grand advance movement " of fur-hunting pioneers began in 1826, 

 " when the inland barrier of mountain and desert was first passed, and 

 from that date the influx of foreigners by overland routes becomes a 

 topic of ever-growing importance." But no record of even tolerable 

 completeness exists or could be expected to exist concerning it. The 

 movement was generally directed farther north, but some of the trap- 

 pers found their way into California. Those foreigners who came to 

 stay seemed to enjoy an appreciation of their worth, and to have been 

 liked by the people, with less prejudice against them, perhaps, than 

 was felt against Mexicans. Citizenship, wives, and lands w^ere easily 

 obtained by those whose conduct was regular. " New-comers had to 

 comply with certain formalities, and they were occassionally reminded 

 that they were under surveillance, but no cases of oppression were re- 

 corded." The first recorded trip overland was made in 1826, by 

 Jedediah S. Smith, who went from the Great Salt Lake by the Virgin 

 and Colorado Rivers. Returning, he was the first to cross the Sierra 

 Nevada, in May and June, 1827. Science is interested in two of the 

 transient visitors of whom record is made in this period. The first 

 was David Douglas, the famous Scotch botanist, who, after having 

 spent five or six years in botanical researches in the North, came down 

 from the Columbia to investigate the flora of California, arriving at 

 Monterey in December, 1830. He had letters and influence, by the 

 aid of which he obtained permission to prosecute his researches for 

 six months, and, in fact, remained for twenty months. To return to 

 British Columbia, he had to take a roundabout voyage by way of 

 Honolulu. There was a current rumor in later years that he had 

 found on the roots of his California plants gold enough to make a 

 watch-seal ! He perished in 1834 by falling into a pit, where he was 

 trampled to death by a w ild bull that had fallen in before him. The 

 botanical results of his trip were published by Sir William Hooker in 

 1841. The other scientific visitor was Dr. Thomas Coulter, who in 

 1832 communicated to the London Geographical Society the results of 

 a trip fi-om Monterey via San Gabriel to the Rio Colorado and back, 

 made in 1832. He published a map, which included the country as 

 far north as the Bay of San Francisco and as far east as the Tule 

 Lakes. 



