1775.] RETURN OF BODEGA. 123 



distance to be able to make any useful observations, except as to the 

 general direction of the shores, until the 19th of September, when 

 they found themselves opposite the spot, near the 47th degree of 

 latitude, where their men had been murdered by the natives two 

 months before. Leaving that place, they next came on the coast 

 in the latitude of 45 degrees 27 minutes, from which parallel they 

 carefully examined the shores southward, to the 42d, in search of 

 the great river, said to have been seen by Martin de Aguilar, in 

 1603, as related in the account of Vizcaino's voyage. Their obser- 

 vations induced them to conclude that no such river entered the 

 Pacific from that part of the continent, though they perceived 

 strong currents outsetting from the land in several places ; they, 

 however, believed that they recognized the Cape Blanco of Aguilar, 

 near which the mouth of his river was said to be situated, in a high, 

 flat-topped promontory, with many white cliffs upon it, projecting 

 far into the sea, under the parallel of 42 degrees and 50 minutes — 

 the same, no doubt, afterwards named Cape Or ford by Vancouver. 

 Having completed this examination, they bore off to sea, and, 

 rounding Cape Mendocino, they, on the 3d of October, discovered 

 a bay a little north of the 38th degree of latitude, which they 

 entered, supposing it to be Port San Francisco ; but it proved to be 

 a smaller bay, not described in any previous account, and Bodega 

 accordingly bestowed on it his own name, which it still bears. 

 Having made a hasty survey of Port Bodega, the Spaniards sailed 

 to Monterey, and thence to San Bias, where they arrived on the 

 20th of November, after a voyage of more than eight months. 



In this expedition, the commander, Heceta, certainly acquired no 

 laurels, though he effected, at least, one discovery, from which a nation 

 more enterprising and powerful than Spain might have derived im- 

 portant advantages. Bodega and Maurelle, however, nobly vindicated 

 the character of their countrymen, by their constancy and persever- 

 ance in advancing through unknown seas, at a stormy period of the 

 year, in their small and miserably-equipped vessel, with a diminished 

 crew, the greater part of whom were laboring under that most debil- 

 itating and disheartening of diseases, the scurvy. Fortunately for 

 their reputation, a copy of Maurelle's journal escaped from its 

 prison-house in the archives of the Indies at Madrid, and was given 

 to the world, in an English version, before the appearance of any 

 other authentic account of the parts of the world which they had 

 explored ; and, by this means, together with the publication of their 

 chart about the same time, their claims as discoverers were estab- 



