CALIFORNIA. 



fV, has no otiitr boiiiui:*, acLOiJinf; t" '''^ ftatiment of La 

 I'croufe, founded on l!ie opinion of the govtinoi of Won- 

 tcrrev, than ihofc of America ilfclf. 



the latitude of 43^, a ftcond cape or point, to whicli he- 



j;ave tlie name of Capo Blanco, and that the navigable in- 



kt or larj^c river which he difcovered is near this cape, and 



tliat it is a Urait which leads to a great city, named " Qui- 



11 .1 - 1 • /-^i 



nicnt m perfon _ , 



;iad encountering every knid ot danger, he at lengtn, \'./.. 

 in 1 !;)<), difcovered this pfniiiful.i, and furvcyed the greater 

 i.ari'uf the g'df w'nich feparatts it from New Mexico. 

 During a long period, however, this country was fo little 

 frequented, that even its form was unknown, and in moll 

 charts it wasreprefented as an ifljnd, and not as a peninlula. 

 In I54<'. Me:ido<;a, viceroy of fJrxico, difpatched Fnm- 

 cifco Marion to fenrch towards the well for the pretended 

 llrait of Aniai. ; but he advanced no higher than the lati- 

 tude of v;6", and made no difcovery. Tiiis fame projeft 

 was renewed in 1542, hy Rodrigncs de CabriUo : but this 

 whole expedition ferved oidy to explore a cape in the lati- 

 tude of 41^ Jo', which was denominated Capo Mendocino, 

 in honour of the Mexican viceroy. In J5;8, fir Francis 

 Drake found, thai in the latitude of 48'', there exifted 

 lands and men ; and after having recoiinoitercd the coaft 

 through an extent of 220 leagues, which terminatts in 37°, 

 he called the country which he had difcovered '« New Al- 

 bion," and took poiTeffi in of it in the name of Elizabeth, 

 queen of England. In the latitude of ;8° 30', he difco- 

 vered the harbour where he made fome (lay, and which has 

 prefei-ved his name. From an account of Drake's voyage, 

 publiihed in a trcatife entitled " The World encompaffed by 

 Fletcher," London, 16^3, 4to. it appears, that he gave to 

 the country which he difcovered the name of " New Al- 

 bion," for two reafons; firll, bccaufe from the nature of 

 the rocks and Ihoals with which the coaft. is fldrted, it pre- 

 fents the fame afpeft as that of England ; and fecondly, 

 becaufe it was reafouable and jull, that this land, till then 

 unknown, (hould bear the name of the country of the firll 

 navigator who landed there. In 1592, a Greek of the 

 iOand of Cephaloivia, Juan de Fuca, in the fervice of Spain, 

 difcovered towards the 48th parallel, a large (Irait by which 

 he pretended to have reached the Atlantic Ocean. Fuca's 

 Ilrait, or inlet, has been found again in our days ; but the 

 communication of the two oceans is neither better proved, 

 Eor more probable, and might perhaps exift only in his ac- 

 count. Sec Fuca's Strait. In i^'Jj, a galleon was fent 

 to make difcoveries on the fhore of California ; but tliL- vef- 



as he did not make a particular fearch for this inlet, no 

 conclufion can be drawn from his account againll its exift- 

 ence. Moll of the geographical and hydrographical charts 

 place Aguilar's inlet or liver to the fouthward of Capo 

 Blanco; but Tomas Lopez, in liis general chart of Ame- 

 rica, pubhflied in 177:!, lays it down 20 leagues to the 

 northward of that cape, in the latitude of 44°, with this fim- 

 ple indication, " Rio que con-e a I'oefle," river that runs to 

 the weil ; and he makes no mention of the great city 

 Quivira. In 1640, admiral Cartolomeo de Fuente, or lie-. 

 Fonte, is faiJ to have difcovered, towards the parallel of 

 i;,5°, the archipelago of San Lazaro, the river of Los 

 Reyes, fome great lakes, &c. and an eafy pafTage of com- 

 munication between the Great Ocean and the North At- 

 lantic Ocean. This difcovery, inierttd in an account, the 



authenticity of 



lich 



been contcfted, and in whii 



truth is blended with falfehood, has been confirmed by mo- 

 dern navi.iMtors, as to what regards the archipelago of S;\:i 

 Lazaro, and perhaps an interior lea ; but ilie communica- 

 tion of the two oceans is not better eflablilhed than that 

 which had been opened by Juan de Fuca. About the mid- 

 dle of the lall century, Jofcph Nicolas de Liile, and Phi- 

 lippe Buache, publifhed learned differtations and ingenious 

 fyllems for the purpofe of reconciling the difcoveries of De 

 Fuente on the N. W. coaft of America with what is kriowu 

 befides of that northern part of the new continent. Other 

 geographers and learned perfons have confiaered the ac- 

 count of De Fuente as counterfeit and apocryphal ; and 

 among the latter is Dr. Reinhold Forfter, who, with hio 

 fon George Forfter, accompanied captain Cook \\\ his fe- 

 cond voyage, and to whom vvc are indebted for an excellent 

 " Hiftorj' of the Voyages and Difcoveries, made in the 

 North." M. de la Peroufe alfo exprelTes hi-, thorough dif- 

 belief of the narrative afcribed to admiral le Futiite, and of 

 the reahty of any difcoveries in the contefted channel of San 

 Lazaro, or St. Lazarus. Mr. Mdet Mureau, on the con- 

 trary, acknowledges himfelf one of the ftrongeft partifars 

 for the exiftence of a north-weft pafTage. Indeed, when we 

 confider, that fince the queftion firft arofe concerning a north- 



fel was unfortunately loft in Port des los Reyes. In 1602, weft pafTage from Europe into the Pacific Ocean, many fci- 

 the Spa'iilh admiral, Sebaftian Vifcaino, or Bifcaino, was entific and capable men have been conftantly on the watch, 

 charged by count de Monterrey, viceroy of New Spain, to and eager to purfue the inquiry, it is not at all probable that 



explore, to the north of California, a harbour that might 

 afford an afylum to the galleons on their return from Ma- 

 nilla : he difcovered a commodious one, fafe and well fitu- 

 ated, in the latitude of ,^6° 40', to which he gave the name 

 of the viceroy Monterrey, and which is fince become the 

 principal fettlemtnt of the Spaniards on the N. W. coaft. 

 It is afterted, that a fmall veffel belonging to his fquadron, 

 commanded by Martin de Aguilar, found between 40 and 

 44 degrees, the mouth of a great river which bears his name 

 on the geographical maps. It is added, that, having fuc- 

 cecded in doubling cape Mendocino, which, till then, had 

 only been perceived, he difcovered on the ijth of January 

 1603, 30 leagues more to the northward than this cape, in 



fuch voyages as are related by Mureau, if really made, 

 Ihould not have been fully verified ; and that there fhould 

 remain no other traces of them than a kind of vague tradi- 

 tion. 



During almoft a whole century, if we except the con- 

 tefted voyage of De Fuente, the weft coaft of North Ame- 

 rica was not vifited by any of the nations by which it was 

 conquered, or by any of thofe which have been fince called 

 thither by the allurements of commerce. But a'thouglx 

 Spain made no maritime expedition, fhe did not neglett to 

 pufh by land her difcoveries towards the north ; and the ex- 

 curfions which (lie planned and ordered, st different periods, 

 led to a difcovery, to the caftward of California, of the 



rich 



