94 SANDFOED FLEMING ON 



(6) Geographical Discoveries in the Pacific. 



It was uot until ueavly seven years after the death of Cohimbus that the Pacific 

 Ocean was seen by Europeans from the newly discovered continent. Yasco Nunez de 

 Balbao crossed the Isthmus of Darien and was the first to behold the great ocean. This 

 took place upon September 25th, 1513. Six years later, Ferdinand of Magellan emerged 

 from the strait which bears his name, and crossed the ocean to the Philippine Islands. The 

 first Englishman to navigate the Pacific was Sir Francis Drake, who was also the first of 

 his countrymen to circumnavigate the globe. In 15t9, Drake, in the hope of finding a 

 shorter way home from the Pacific than by doubling Cape Horn, explored the Pacific 

 coast of North America as far north as latitude 48" N., and it was Drake who gave the name 

 of "New Albion" to the western portion of North America, now known as Oregon and 

 Washington Territories. The coast, at a lovi'er latitude, had been visited by Spanish 

 navigators ; by Ferrelo in 1543, by Francisco de Gali in 1584, and by Vizcaino and 

 Aguilar in 1603. 



For more than two centuries after Drake's discoveries, no European navigators have 

 claimed to reach a higher latitude on the Pacific coast, if we except Juan de Fu.ca, 

 whose voyage by most historians is considered apocryphal. 



(T) Ficlilious Discoveries of Waterways Ihrovgh the Conlinent. 



The efforts, above described, to find a navigable passage between Europe and Asia 

 through north-western America, were undertaken from the Atlantic side of the continent. 

 If less activity prevailed on the Pacific side, it cannot be said that any attempt from the 

 western coast was looked upon as inexpedient ; indeed at this date a remarkable phase 

 in the history of geography may be noticed. The imagination of navigators, as it were, 

 was allowed to run riot ; if the actual explorations were limited, in number and extent, 

 theorizing went on, and several curious fictions were proj^agated, some of which have 

 been placed on record. Among those which gained currency, one may here be alluded 

 to, as typical of other similar narrations, and for the further reason that the memory of 

 its author has been perpetuated in the strait bearing his name. 



A mariner of Greek birth, Juan de Fuca, claimed to haAœ discovered in 1592 a 

 navigable strait connecting the two oceans. He represented that it was to be found on 

 the western coast, in latitude 47° or 48°, and that it had its outlet in the North Sea, through 

 channels not far from Hudson Bay. He described the Pacific inlet of the strait to 

 be thirty or forty leagues wide, increasing in width inland to a much broader expanse 

 of water, through which, after twenty-six days sailing north and north-east he got into 

 the North Sea. 



There was a general idea among navigators that there ought to be s\ich a passage, 

 and consequently the fiction, as it subsequently proved, of Juan de Fuca, with other 

 spurious narratives gained ready credence. The wish evidently assisted the belief, for 

 there remained a firm impression on the minds of cartographers, up to a date later than 

 the middle of the Eighteenth Century, that the continent of North America in its northern 

 part was intersected by channels, inland seas, and water passages in such a manner as 

 would admit of ships passing from one ocean to the other. In illustration of this 



