September.
2
THE WEST SHORE.
Continued.)
HISTORICAL ADVENTURES ON THE
PACIFIC COAST.
THK shAK !H KOft I'MK I'AssA'iK 10 INDIA,
mME IN I KKI.OI'KKS.
MV MU. V. V. VICTOR.
The desire to find a shorter route to
India through the South seas, as the
Pacific continued to be called, had not
abated in Europe since the beginning
of the 16th century. English and Dutch
navigators were searching for it on the
eastern side of the continent, and Span
ish navigators, as we have seen, on the
western side. There was a fiction cur
rent, slatted by one Gasper Cortercal,
that there existed a strait beginning on
the coast of Labrador, through which
he had sailed into the Pacific, and
which he called .the Strait of Anian;
nor were there lacking those who still,
In the latter part of the century, insisted
that they knew such a strait to exist,
and that it opened into the Pacific In
latitude about 50". As the Spanish had
explored the coast almost as far north
as that, the opinion prevailed that they
might have overlooked it, or at least
might not quite have reached it; but
never that it did not exist. Many, in
deed, were the "sailors' yarns" people
were called upon to believe in those
days 0 pure adventure, when know
ledge had so little to do with the dis
covery of the New World. Some of
them furnish very curious reading at
the present time, especially one which
refers to an expedition from Callao, in
Peru, in 1640, to the North Pacific,
with the purpose of intercepting vessels
from "Boston in New England," which
were searching for ; northwest pass
age. The New England naval service
could not have been reckoned as very
formidable so soon after the landing of
the Pilgrim Fathers.
Hut to return to a period somewhat
earlier: The government of Mexico
had noticed with alarm the effort! made
by other nations to discover the passage
to India, and was also informed of the
rumored Straits of Anian. Therefore,
when Juan de Fuca, after the capture
of the galleon t had at length arrived in
Mexico, he was employed by (he Vice
roy to command an expedition for the
discovery of that strait, and instructed
lo fortify the entrance when found, in
order to prevent other nations, especi
ally the English, from passing through
it. The liiM expedition, made about
1590, resulted in nothing of importance;
but in 159J he repeated his attempt and
discovered, :i. be believed, the veritable
passage lo India, in latitude
otherwise the strait that bears his
adopted name, with a "San" before it,
alter the Spanish manner of "Saintmg"
everything. These are his own words
concerning the discover) : "Being en
tered thus far Into the said strait, and
being come into the Ninth Sea alreadv,
and finding the sea wide enough everv
where, and to be aliout thiry or forty
leagues wide at the mouth of the strait,
where I enured, I though! 1 hid well
discharged my office; and (hat not be
ing armed to resist the force of the
savage people that might happen, d
therefore set sail and returned to Aca
puleo." The tiicek navigator had indeed
"well discharged his oifice." Looking
at the discovery to-day, with modern
and Oregonian eyes and in connection
with trans continental railroads, Fuca
was not Wrong in his presumption.
The puiHsesof Qod and nature, as dis
played in the existence of Puget Sound
and the Strait of Fuca, bucked, as they
arc, by the mast wonderful mineral, ag
ricultural and commercial resources are
not to k doubted.
'OopfifaM tatfflj Kv LlawMti 411 ngtiu
uf rtuitlUbliig irwiAwl.
Fuca met the usual reward of dis-.
coverers neglect. Not only did the
Viceroy fail to reward him, but he was
equally unappreciated by the English,
lo whom, in resentment, he offered his
services. Strangely indifferent, too, the
Viceroy appeared for he made no at
tempt to survey or fortify the strait so
long sought, and as he had reason to
believe, at last found. Perhaps he
feared to invite attention to its existence.
In the meantime Philip II., changing
the national policy somewhat, was de
sirous of colonizing his American pos
sessions; but he made the mistake of
supposing that when he sent a colony
to Rio Grande del Norte he was actually
settling California ! In spile of latitude
and longitude, the width and extent of
the continent were quite beyond the
comprehension of the Spanish scientific
mind.
At the very close of the 16th century
active operations were resumed by
Mexico, with the object of surveying
and planting colonies along the coast of
the Pacific; and in these expeditions,
of which Viscanio was leader, settle
ments were made at various points
along the coast of California, as far
north as Monterey When this hail
been done, Viscanio continued his voy
age to the north, and meeting with
strong gales, took refuge in a hay in
latitude about 38 which he named
San Francisco; though, probably, not
the same bay entered by Drake, and
called San Francisco by moderns. Vis
canio was searching for traces of the
wreck of one of the Manilla galleons,
which was supposed to be in this vicin
ity, but he found nothing of her. He
continued his voyage again, until the
cold, strong winds in latitude 42', com
pelled him to put about, as his men
were nearly all down with scurvy. He
named a high, white bluff, Cape San
Sebastian the point of his retttnL It
Was not far enough north for JCape
Mlauco, and was probably mow
covcred when he saw it. Hut whether
it was Point St. George, near Crescent
City, or one of the pr nnontories further
north, it is certain that Viscanio saw
the Oregon coast in 1603. His pilot,
Flores, whose vessel had been separated
from him by the gale, and was driven
before it to the shelter of Cape Mendo
cino, had been in a more northern lati
tude. The account he gave of his voy
age is recorded as follows: "On the
19th of January, the pilot, Antonio
Flore, found that they were in the
latitude of 43, where the land formed
a cape or point, called by him Cape
Ultimo. From that point the land be
gan to turn to the northwest, and near
it was discovered a rapid and abundant
river, with ash-trees, willows, brambles,
and other trees of Castile on its banks,
which they endeavored to enter, but
could not, from the force of the current,
Ensign Martin de Aguilai , commander,
and Antonio Flores, the pilot, seeing
that they had already reached a higher
latitude than had been ordered by the
Viceroy, in his instructions, that the
capitana did not appear, and that the
number of the sick was very great,
agreed to return to Acapulco. It is
suppwit this river is the one leading
to a great city, which was discovered
bv the Dutch when they were driven
thither by storms, and that it is the
Strait of Anian, through which the
ship passed in sailing from the Xorth
Sea to the South Sea; and that the
city calletl uivera is in these parts;
and that this is the region referred to
in the account which His Majesty
read, and which induced him to order
this expedition"
This is the language of the historian
Torqucmada,and is interesting as show
ing the object of the expedition to have
been, so far as Phttip III. was con
cerned, the finding of one or more of
' those fabulous cities spoken of in the
wild fictions before referred to, which
were so much in fashion. Certainly, if
Aguilar and Flores were near enough
to recognize ash and willow trees on
the banks of the Coquille or the Ump
qua, they may reasonably claim to have
"discovered" the southern coast of
Oregon. The winter rains had swollen
these streams and accelerated their cur
rent, so it was no wonder the little
fragata could not enter. It was well
i'ui hex that she did not, or she might
never have been heard of more, such
were the hospitalities of the Indians of
that region.
The fame of this new "Strait of
Anian" spread abroad, and was for
some time credited as being it. As
late as 1620 the captain of a Manilla
vessel, pretending to examine it, de
clared his belief that it was the mouth
of a channel connecting with the Gulf
of California which theory would
make California an island; and so it
was represented on the Spanish mnps.
The hardships of this expedition of
Viscanio's "were" such that both Agui
lar and Flores died on the homeward
voyage, as well as many of the crews
of both vessels. Viscanio, himself, ar
rived home in safety, having sailed near
enough to the California coast to see
the verdure upon the hills, and to notice
the smoke from numerous fires, from
which he drew the inference that it
was a well-inhabited country. The
charts that he prepared of his surveys
were lost or destroyed, and thus was
rendered almost useless the labor and
expenditure of the expedition. I le died
while preparing for another visit to the
Oregon coast, after for a long time solic
iting the commission from his procras
tinating sovereign.
This was the last effort made by the
Spanish government to extend its dis
coveries, for a period of a hundred and
sixty years. During all chat time she
was losing rank as. a maritime power,
or as a power of any kind, and had to
look more to retaining what was already
hers, than to acquiring any new terri
tory. Her commerce was the spoil of
several of the navies of Europe, and
she was almost continually engaged at
war with one or more of her enemies.
Buccaneering was the name given to
that species of piracy which, during the
whole of the 17th century, spoiled the
commerce of Spain; and buccaneering
was the favorite enterprise of the Eng
lish, Dutch and French navigators.
The Dutch, indeed, ventured into the
Pacific, around the southern end of the
continent, which they named Cape
Horn, and carried off pearls from the
(iulf of California, to the great chagrin
of the Spanish authorities.
Fearing to make these articles on the
earliest history of the Pacific Coast too
long for the patience of newspaper
readers, I shall here pass over the in
teresting period of the settlement of the
Jesuits in Mexico and California, and
the founding of the numerous missions
as far north as Santa Clara, merely re
marking that the Spanish government,
despairing of reducing the country to
any degree of civilization by means of
military settlements, at last accepted
the offers of the Jesuits to undertake
the Christianizing of the Indians; and
when that work was accomplished as
far as possible, coolly ordered these mis
sionaries out of the country after its
immemorial policy of rewarding its
best servants with scorn and contumely.
The Franciscans followed them, estab
lishing all those missions north of the
California peninsula, and remained un
disturbed until the independence of
Mexico, in our centurv.
In the meantime another interloper,
and foe to the exclusive rights of Spain,
appeared upon the Pacific, by the way
of Behring's Straits and this was Peter
the Great. After subjugating North
ern Asia, be turned his attention to dis
covery in the North Seas, and to settling
the question whether Asia and America
were connected by an isthmus, or sep
arated by a strait. . He died, however
before the truth became known, and the
inquiry was prosecuted by his widow,
Catharine, with a good deal of vigor.
In 172S an expedition from the Kain
tschatka river, sailing along the coast of
Asia, northward, came into latitude
67 deg. 1S min.; or, into those straits
that now bear the name of their Russian
discoverer, though it was not for some
time that he was aware that he had
passed so close to the American coast,
for which he was looking. He made
two other attempts to find the coast of
America, in the latter of which he suc
ceeded. In July, 1741, he descried the
coast in latitude 6o, having first sighted
the snow-covered peak which he named
Mount St. Ellas, After this, be cruised
about until he discovered the peninsula
of Alaska, for which our government
so recently paid Russia a handsome
price.
But Behring paid his life for the dis
covery, as did very "many of his crew.
As winter approached, and storms set
in, the St. Peter, Behring's vessel, was
tossed ami buffeted about for two
months, during which time the crew
never rested. In November they fell
in with land a small, rocky island
and determined to pass the winter
ashore at all hazards. They were able
to land the ship's stores, and to build
some huts out of the ship's sails and spars
the ship going to pieces soon after.
Out of the fragments that came asho.re,
they built themselves more comfortable
shelter; but still, comfortless in that
latitude. Behring expired on the 8th
of December, and thirty of his crew
soon followed him, and were buried on
this rocky isle, which bears the name
of its unfortunate discoverer, and tics in
latitude 54 deg. 40 min., the old
boundary between Russia and Ore
gon 1
Little do readers of history reflect
upon the sacrifices made by all those
who first undertake to battle with the
wildncss of nature. Surgeon Steller, of
Behring's expedition, writing of those
months of storm, says: "The general
distress and mortality increased so fast,
that not only the sick died, but those
who pretended to he healthy, when
relieved from their posts, fainted ami
fell down dead; of which the scantiness
of the water, the want of biscuits ami
brandy, cold, wet, nakedness, vermin,
and terror, were not ihe least 1110
Causes enough, one should say, why
men should faint and fall down dead,
when relieved from watch or duty. U
is some comfort to know that what
were left of the crew of the St. Peter
succeeded in constructing a craft out at
the ship's remains, in which they sailed
safe home in the follow ing summer.
The object of the Russians in prose
cuting their discoveries was the fur
trade, which they made profitable in
those northern regions Later, they
established a post on the coast of Cult
fornia, north of San Francisco Bay, i
what is still called the Russian river
country, but no serious effort was made
to interfere with the Spanish title.
A Paget Sound paper says: Three
car loads of ship knees were carried to
Kalatna on the train Wednesday, fr
Portland. These knees arc an exec
lent example of Puget Sound produc
tion, and are simplv sample of wht
may be got here within the limits of
every town on the Sound. Men who
claim to have nothing to do can go out
Into the forest and dig up valuable MM
at any time of the year.