Approaches to the Pacific Coast 

 nent. To reach it from Europe, therefore, it would 

 be necessary to pass around — either to the north or 

 to the south — one of the two great land masses of 

 the globe. Less than four years after Columbus 

 discovered the New World, John Cabot, sailing 

 a Bristol ship, reached the coast of Labrador (1497), 

 and from that time onward the English nation 

 seemed committed to the task of finding a north- 

 western passage to the Pacific Ocean. Untiring 

 explorers matched themselves in vain, however, 

 against the ice, until 1907, when the Norwegian 

 Amundsen completed his four years' voyage by 

 sailing into San Francisco Bay. (His ship now 

 rests within a stone's throw of the ocean in Golden 

 Gate Park.) As early as 1553, English ships were 

 sent to try out the possibilities of a northeastern 

 route, but again the accomplishment of the voyage 

 was long deferred, being effected by the Swedish 

 Nordenskjold in the Vega in 1879. 



The recommendation of the northeast and north- 

 west passages would have been their shortness — 

 had they been practicable. Of the open sea routes, 

 that by the Cape of Good Hope had been made 

 known by the voyages of Bartholomew Diaz (1487) 

 and Vasco da Gama (1498), but its extreme length 

 has always left it out of consideration as a wav 

 of getting to the American Pacific Coast. In 152(), 

 Magellan discovered the strait named after him, 

 and in 1578 Drake followed the southwestern route 

 into the Pacific Ocean. Drake's voyage may be 

 said to have opened the Pacific to Europeans of 

 every nationality, while his visit to California in 

 1579 pointed out what remained the only feasible 

 sea route to the coast for three centuries and a 

 third. 



The path thus indicated by hardy vovagers, pre- 

 pared to lose two-thirds of their num"ber on the 

 way, was no practicable road for colonization; and 

 hence the European foothold on the Pacific Coast 

 had to await the long and arduous process of in- 

 terior exploration. 



As might be supposed, the earliest land-approach 

 was not across the American continent at its widest 

 part. The first knowledge of the California coast 

 was a sequel to the conquest of Mexico. The ef- 

 forts of Cortes, persistent as they were, can scarcely 

 be called successful. The ships for the voyage had 

 to be built upon the Pacific side, and the two he 

 sent out in 1532 never returned. In 1533, the Con- 

 cepcion and San Ldzaro discovered the extremity 

 of the peninsula, but were otherwise unfortunate. 

 The expedition of 1535, led by Cortes himself, 

 4 



