EIvDORADO 197 



discoveries and explorations on the Pacific Coast. Er- 

 rors may exist in the records of these pioneer adven- 

 turers, but in the main they are no doubt truthful. 

 Such explorers as Drake, Magellan, and Capt. Cook 

 and some of the more enterprising of the Latin race, 

 were men of high character, and were accompanied by 

 scientific men to record all observations worthy of 

 note. The first explorations of the Pacific Coast of 

 North America were made by the Spaniards in the 

 sixteenth century. After Hernando Cortez had com- 

 pleted the conquest of Mexico, he commenced explor- 

 ing the adjacent seas and countries, no doubt with the 

 hope of discovering lands richer than those he had 

 conquered, and which would afford new fields for 

 the exercise of his daring enterprise and undaunted 

 perseverance. 



He employed vessels in surveying the coast of the 

 Mexican Gulf and of the Atlantic more northerly. 

 Vessels were built upon the Pacific Coast for like 

 purposes, two of which, as early as 1526, were sent 

 to the East Indies. The first expedition of the Span- 

 iards sent along the western coast of Mexico was con- 

 ducted by an ofiicer under Cortez. Pie sailed from 

 the mouth of the Zacutula River, in July, 1528, and 

 was six months engaged in surveying the shores from 

 his starting place to the mouth of the Santiago River, 

 a hundred leagues farther northwest. The territory 

 he visited was then called Talisco, and was inhabited 

 by fierce tribes of men who had never been conquered 

 by the Mexicans. When the expedition returned, Cor- 

 tez was in Spain, whether he had gone to have his 

 title and powers more clearly defined. He returned in 

 1530 with full power to make discoveries and con- 



