Approaches to the Pacific Coast 

 nia from the four corners of the earth. The records 

 of the council show that consideration was given 

 to the Russian advance eastward across Asia, and 

 to the French progress overland from Canada; to 

 the activities in the Pacific Ocean of the Dutch who 

 arrived by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 of the English who came round Cape Horn. 



The danger was in no sense chimerical. In the 

 first half of the eighteenth century such famous 

 sailors as William Dampier, Woodes Rogers, George 

 Shelvocke, and Lord Anson (1740) had, at diff'erent 

 times, lain off" the coast of Lower California in 

 watch for the Manila galleon. During the sixteenth 

 century the Russians had advanced from the Ural 

 Mountains to Kamchatka; and in 1741 Bering had 

 sailed to explore the coast of Alaska. Between 

 1737 and 1746 three English expeditions had re- 

 newed the eff'ort to find a northwest passage, with 

 the deliberate intention that "if a discovery should 

 be made of this passage, a considerable settlement 

 should be made in California." Meanwhile the 

 French advance from Canada across the American 

 continent had reached its farthest point west in 

 La Verendrye's discovery of the Rocky Mountains 

 in 1743. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1763— 

 which had witnessed transferences of colonial ter- 

 ritory on a colossal scale — the European powers set 

 themselves to the systematic exploration of the un- 

 occupied parts of the earth. Thus Byron, Wallis 

 and Carteret, and Cook all sailed for the Pacific 

 between 1764 and 1768, while the Russians sent 

 out Krenitzen and Levashef, in 1768-69, on an ex- 

 pedition that the Empress Catherine had set on 

 foot in 1764. 



The occupation of Alta California in 1769 was 

 but one of a number of steps taken by Spain, in 

 face of this general advance of European nations, 

 to protect her outlying possessions against aggres- 

 sion. The decision having been made, Galvez took 

 charge of despatching the necessary forces. These, 

 under command of Caspar de Portola, were divided 

 into four parts — two going by sea and two by land. 

 In June, 1769, San Diego was occupied and a year 

 later a post was established at Monterey. The ex- 

 perience of this expedition showed the hazard in- 

 volved in maintaining communication between 

 Mexico and Alta California by sea, and the im- 

 practicability of the land route up the length of 

 the Baja California peninsula. In these circum- 

 stances, Juan Bautista de Anza was directed, in 

 1773, to survey a route overland to California by 

 way of the Gila and Colorado rivers. This having 



