Approaches to the Pacific Coast 

 landed at the bay of Santa Cruz, possibly La Paz, 

 but failed in the purpose of establishing a colony. 

 Finally, the supreme effort of Cortes, the expedi- 

 tion under Francisco de Ulloa in 1539, succeeded 

 so far as to explore the Gulf of California to its 

 head and the outer coast of the peninsula for about 

 half its length. The viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, 

 next took up the burden of northward exploration. 

 To co-operate with Coronado in the search for 

 the famous Seven Cities of Cibola he sent Hernando 

 d'Alarcon, in 1540, by sea to the head of the gulf. 

 Mendoza had no better fortune than Cortes in dis- 

 covering fabulous lands and cities, but by his next 

 venture, the expedition of Cabrillo and Ferrelo in 

 1542, the California coast was explored to Cape 

 Mendocino. The return of Ferrelo marks the con- 

 clusion of the first period of California exploration. 



Whatever the policy of Spain may have been 

 at any time in regard to the northern Pacific Coast, 

 her activities upon it may be traced in practically 

 every instance to the movements of foreigners. 

 Even the explorations of Cortes, inevitable as they 

 would appear, seem to have been influenced by 

 his discovery in 1524 that a foreign-built ship 

 — presumably Portuguese from India — had been 

 wrecked upon the Jalisco coast. It was, similarly, 

 the voyage of Drake, followed by that of Cavendish 

 in 1588, that impelled the Spanish government to 

 a new burst of energy. The voyages of Sebastian 

 Vizcaino in 1596 and 1602 were the Spanish re- 

 sponse to the English incursions into the Pacific 

 Ocean. Vizcaino was directed to search for a 

 harbor that would serve as a refuge or port of 

 call for the Philippine ships on the return voyage 

 from Manila, and to discover the strait that was 

 supposed to lead to the Atlantic Ocean. On the 

 second voyage he reached the vicinity of Cape 

 Blanco (without finding the strait) and visited and 

 described the ports of San Diego and Monterey, 

 but a hundred and sixty-five years were to elapse 

 before the government was moved to act upon his 

 recommendation that these places should be occu- 

 pied. 



The council that met in the City of Mexico in 

 1768 to take measures for the occupation of Alta 

 California recognized as the reason for the under- 

 taking the approaches of foreign powers towards 

 this unoccupied territory. To Joseph Galvez, 

 visitador-general — one of the most remarkable fig- 

 ures in American history — and the other members 

 of the junta it seemed as if the English, French, 

 Russians, and Dutch were converging upon Califor- 



5 



