1543. J EXPEDITION OF SOTO. 65 



From the accounts of this expedition which have been preserved, 

 it is not easy to determine precisely how far north the American 

 coast was discovered. The most northern point of land mentioned 

 in those accounts is the Cape of Perils, which, though there" placed 

 under the 41st parallel, was probably the same soon after called 

 Cape Mendocino, in the latitude of 40 degrees 20 minutes. Other 

 authors, however, whose opinions are entitled to respect, pronounce 

 the 43d parallel to be the northern limit of the discoveries made by 

 the Spaniards in 1543.* 



Whilst these expeditions to the north-western parts of America 

 were in progress, Hernando de Soto, and his band of Spanish 

 adventurers, were performing their celebrated march, in quest of 

 mines and plunder, through the regions extending north of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, which were then known by the general name of Florida. 

 Without attempting- here to trace the line of their wanderings, 

 suffice it to say, that they traversed, in various directions, the vast 

 territories now composing the Southern and South- Western States 

 of the American Federal Union, and descended the Mississippi in 

 boats, from the vicinity of the mouth of the Arkansas to the Mex- 

 ican Gulf, on which they continued their voyage, along the coast, 

 to Panuco. From the accounts of the few who survived the toils 

 and perils of that memorable enterprise, taken together with those 

 collected by Cabeza-Vaca and Vazquez de Coronado, concerning 

 the territories which they had respectively visited, it was considered 

 certain that neither wealthy nations, nor navigable passages of com- 

 munication between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, were to be 

 found north of Mexico, unless beyond the 40th parallel of latitude. 



The Spaniards, having arrived at these conclusions, for some time 

 desisted from attempting to explore the north western section of 

 the continent ; and circumstances, meanwhile, occurred, which 

 impressed their government with the belief that the discovery of any 

 passage facilitating the entrance of European vessels into the Pacific, 

 would be deleterious to the power and interests of Spain in the New 

 World. 



* Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 35. See, also, Burney's 

 History of Voyages in the Pacific, vol. i. p. 220. 



9 



