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Union County, OR AGHP
CHAPTER I.
(1513 - 1543.)
Balboa Crosses the Continent and Discovers the Pacific Ocean - Pioneer Explorations on the West Coast of North America. Adjacent to the Isthmus and Working Northward - Magellan Passes Through the Strait which Bears his Name, Enters and Nominates the Pacific Ocean - Cortez Discovers and Subjugates Mexico - Voyages of Mendoza, Grijalva, Becarra, Ulloa, Alarcon, Cabrillo, and Ferrelo on the West Coast of America - The Pacific Coast Examined from Panama Northward to Cape Mendocino.
VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, Spanish Governor of Antiqua, the province bordering the Gulf of Darien, to avert arrest upon charges of oppression and abuse of authority, conceived the thought of conciliating his King by bold acts of discovery. Through the natives he had learned of the sea extending to the south, and of the great wealth of Peru. Those reports stimulated his overland march westward in search of the South Sea and the wealthy provinces upon its coast. On the 1st of September, 1513, with 190 picked men, he sailed northward to Coyba. On the 6th, the party landed and commenced their march across the isthmus. On the 26th, from the mountain ridge, they discovered the "Great South Sea." On the 29th of September, 1513, Balboa took formal possession of these Indies, the "and and seas," for the sovereign King and Queen of Castile and Aragon, and named the bay Gulf of San Miguel. Having completed the ceremonial of taking the sea, Balboa returned to Antigua. In his many conflicts with the natives, he had not experienced a single defeat, nor lost a single man. He bore with him pearls and precious metals, evidences of the wealth and importance of his great discovery, and received an enthusiastic welcome. The result of the expedition created a sensation in Spain hardly second to the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus.
At that early period in the development of geographic science, the belief prevailed that the American continents were extensions eastward of Asia, - were portions of the Indies. The latter were the imagined lands of pearls and precious gems, of gold and of silver, and fabulous wealth. The great South Sea, that vast continuity of waters beyond the ideal boundary or measured limit of the Atlantic Ocean or North Sea, led directly to these opulent and luxurious fields. Hence Balboa's discovery was of the greatest importance, and became the great incentive to new and grander explorations. Under the direction of Balboa, small vessels were constructed at the Gulf of San Miguel, for the examination of adjacent coasts and islands. In 1517, Bartolomé Hurtardo, in canoes, cruised along the coast as far north as Costa Rica. In 1519, Gaspar de Espinosa founded the city of Panama. He sent an expedition northward, which reached the Gulf of Nicoya, in Nicaragua. In January, 1522, Cil Gonzales Davilla, with a fleet of four vessels, sailed from Panama. Having reached the Gulf of Nicoya, Davilla headed a land party and discovered Lake Nicaragua, while Pilot Andres Nino, in one of the vessels, proceeded westward, discovered and named the Gulf of Fronseca, and, it is claimed, entered the Gulf of Tehuantepec.
(11)
But the great desideratum of the Spanish government was to find a westward route to the Moluccas or Spice Islands of India. For this purpose, in October, 1515, Juan Diaz de Solis sailed from Spain. He discovered the river La Plata; ascending it, was killed by natives, and his vessels returned to Spain. A year after the return of the ill-fated Solis expedition, Magellan submitted to the Emperor, Charles V., his proposition to reach the Moluccas by sailing westward from Spain.
Fernando Magellan, or, according to his true Portuguese name, Fernao de Magalhaes (entitled to be styled the "First Circumnavigator,) though death defeated his completing in a single voyage the world's circumnavigation) had for many years been in the Portuguese service in the East Indies. He had been the associate with Serrano in command of the ships sent out under Abrue for the discovery of the Spice Islands. Soured with his sovereign, and insulted by what he deemed a slight, he entered the service of Spain. Assigned by Charles V. the command of five ships, with the rank of Captain-General, Magellan set sail from Lucar, September 21, 1519, "to find a western route from Spain to the Spice Islands of India."
In October, 1520, he entered the strait now bearing his name. On the 27th of November, 1520, he sailed out into that vast open sea, to which he gave the name Pacific Ocean. Heading northwest, Magellan crossed the equator February 13, 1521, and reached the Ladrone Islands March 6th, from whence he sailed from the Philippines. On the 26th of April, 1521, on the Island of Matan, he was killed in a conflict with the natives. Sebastian del Cano, in command of the Vittaria, one of Magellan's fleet, returned to Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Lucar September 6, 1522. Charles V. received him with great honors, granted to him a globe for his crest, and the motto "Primus circumdediste me." Thus Del Cano, the subordinate of Magellan, completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. His chief has projected the expedition to prove that it could be done. While in the service of Portugal, Magellan had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and had sailed eastward to those islands, where he met his untimely death. In the two voyages he had traversed earth's entire circumference, - had completed the world's circumnavigation.
The length of the voyage, the difficulties and dangers attending a passage through the Strait of Magellan, prevented any hasty or spontaneous increase of commerce from that great discovery. It doubtless stimulated Spanish navigators to seek shorter and more direct communication between the two oceans. Dominion upon the American hemisphere, and the control of the commerce of the East Indies, where the great objects sought by Spanish adventurers.
In the meantime (1517 - 1521), Hernando Cortez had conquered and reduced Mexico, Spanish supremacy securely established, he projected an exploration of the adjacent seas and countries.
As early as 1522, in letters
to his sovereign, Cortez alludes to three ports on the Pacific coast discovered
by him, viz.: Tehuantepect, Tutulepec (about 100 miles west, but in about
the same latitude) and Azcatula in eighteen degrees north, where a garrison
under Pedro de Alvarado and a settlement had been established. At this
port three vessels were immediately ordered to be built for northern discovery
and exploration This enterprise was abruptly suspended by Cortez' departure
to Central America to quell an insurrection. Not until 1526 were the vessels
completed, at which time they were joined by another from the Strait of
Magellan under Gueoerra, and ordered by the Emperor of Spain to the Moluccas
Islands to relieve a Spanish fleet. Previous to starting in October, 1527,
those
built by Cortez had made a coast voyage under Alvero de Saavedra to Santiago, in Colima, a port discovered three years before by a land expedition under Francisco Cortez. The fleet, under command of Saavedra, safely arrived at the Moluccas Islands. Cortez' purposes are best portrayed in his own letter to the Emperor. They also exhibit the animus of his cotemporaries. He thus announced his object: "The sailing north and then west, and finally south until he should reach India; this would secure the exploration of the South Sea, with its coast and islands, and finding of a northern passage by water from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
"In one of three places where I have discovered the sea, there shall be built two caravels of medium size, and two brigantines, the two former for discovery and the latter for coasting." "In search of the said strait, because if it exists it cannot be hidden to these in the South Sea, or to those in the North Sea, since the former will follow the coast until they find the strait or join the land with that discovered by Magalhaes (India), and the others in the North Sea, as I have said, until they join it to Bacallaos. Thus on one side or the other the secret will not fail to be revealed." Cortez' personal interest and investments laid in the south. These he abandoned to gratify an ambition to discover "the strait," to shorten the voyage between Spain and the Indies, to open direct communication between Spain and the East India Islands, via Mexico. Such discoveries would necessarily add rich islands, coasts and seas, to the Spanish Empire.
In 1528, Cortez ordered five vessels to be built, to replace the fleet which had sailed to the Moluccas. These vessels were never completed. Cortez returned to Spain in consequence of complaints against him; the Emperor Charles V. appointed him Captain-General of New Spain, with the title of Marquis of Oaxaca. New Spain embraced a vast area of territory, with Tehuantepec as its port on the Pacific Ocean. In 1530, Cortez, on his return to New Spain, found his authority resisted by Nuno de Guzman, Governor of Panuco (the present province of Tempico), whose jurisdiction had been extended to the Pacific Ocean by the Emperor's grant of the province of Xalisco. The contest with Guzman necessarily suspended Cortez' explorations. Notstanding these disappointments, these failures of projected enterprises, yet prior to the year 1532, the western coast from Panama to Zacatula had been thoroughly explored; the voyage had been made to Colima; land explorations had penetrated as far northward as San Blas; ship-building had been successfully pursued at several ports on the Mexican coast, and voyages had been made between Mexico and the East Indies.
In 1532, Cortez fitted out an
expedition from Tehuantepec of two vessels under command of his kinsman,
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, with instructions to sail northward within sight
of the coast and to land at all convenient places. Mendoza reached latitude
twenty-seven north, when a mutiny occurred, which obliged him to send back
one of his vessels. The returning vessel in great distress reached Culiacan
river, and was then deserted by her entire crew. Mendoza, in attempting
to reach Acapulco, was wrecked near Cape Corrientes and killed by the natives.
His vessel was seized and plundered by Guzman. In 1533, two vessels went
in search of the missing vessel, respectively commanded by Hernando Grijalva
and Diego Becerra. Grijalva, sailing seaward, discovered the Revilla Gigedo
Islands. Becerra followed the coast of Xalisco northward until murdered
by his pilot, Ximenas. The mutineers then sailed westward, reaching a coast
in latitude twenty-three degrees north, where Ximenas and most of the crew
were murdered by the natives. The survivors crossed to Chiametla, a little
harbor on the coast of Xalisco, where the vessel was seized by Guzman.
Guzman's repeated acts of
hostility provoked Cortez to complain to the Spanish court. Dissatisfied with its decision he determined to redress his own wrongs. Troops were marched to Chiametla, and three vessels ordered from Tehuantepec. Upon the arrival of the vessels, without having encountered Guzman, Cortez sailed westward to the land on which Ximenas had been murdered, the southern portion of the peninsula of Lower California. On the 3d of May, 1535, he took formal possession of that territory, named it Santa Cruz. The reports of the wealth of the cities of the interior prompted Cortez to dispatch new expeditions to the California coasts. By the arrival of Don Antonia de Mendoza as Viceroy of New Spain, Cortez had been superseded as Captain-General, but still continued voyages and made discoveries in the North Pacific Ocean or upon the coasts of the South Sea. In 1539, he organized an expedition consisting of three vessels, of which he appointed Francisco de Ulloa commander. Ulloa sailed from Acapulco July 8, 1539, explored the Gulf of California to its extreme head, determined that the outlet before supposed to exist to the north was a great inland arm of the sea penetrating the continent, and that Lower California was a peninsula. Thence, pursuing his voyage southward, he doubled the peninsula and followed the coast northward to Cape Engana, latitude twenty-nine degrees north. From thence Ulloa sent one of the vessels back to Acapulco, and the other sailing northward was never heard of. Ulloa commanded the last of the maritime expeditions fitted out by Hernando Cortez. He projected another, to consist of five vessels, to the command of which he had assigned his son, Don Luis, Mendoza interfered, a quarrel ensued, and in 1540 Cortez departed for Spain to submit his grievances in person to the Emperor.
In 1539, the Viceroy Mendoza sent Marcos de Niza, provincial of the Order of Franciscans in Mexico, and Honorata, an associate priest, on a tour of exploration into the interior, which had been reported to contain populous and wealthy cities. A year later Niza wrote a glowing letter, asserting the existence of a country north of thirty-five degrees north latitude, abounding in gold, silver and precious stones, inhabited by a more civilized race than the Mexicans. Cibola, the city from which Niza wrote, contained 20,000 large stone houses, four stories high, adorned with jewels. Other cities farther to the north, which he had not seen, were represented as more populous and wealthy. The natives at first were hostile to his coming, but that hostility had been succeeded by a desire to embrace Christianity.
Consequent upon Niza's report, Mendoza organized land and naval expeditions to penetrate to the interior and verify the story. Two ships under the command of Fernando de Alarcon sailed May 9, 1540, arrived at the mouth of the Colorado river in August, ascending it in boats to the distance of eighty-five leagues. Alarcon hearing nothing of wealthy citizens, returned. In his exploration, Alarcon has gone four degrees further north than the latitude reached by Ulloa. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado commanded Menoza's land expedition. After a march of three months he reached Cibola. He found seven small towns, but none possessing the wealth pictured by Niza. After learning how severely he and others had been deceived by the fabulous stories as to wealthy cities and tribes in the interior, he prosecuted his march, on a tour of exploration, advancing probably to the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
Mendoza, emulating the efforts
and fame of his predecessor in discovering new lands and seas, determined
upon continuing the examination of the California coat. Two vessels were
assigned to the command of Juan Roderiquez de Cabrillo, a Portuguese,
with Bartolomé Ferrelo as pilot. On June 27, 1542, they sailed from Natividad, crossed the Gulf of California, rounded Cape San Lucas, and continued coasting northward, discovered San Diego Bay in September (which Cabrillo named San Miguel), the Bay of Monterey, which he named Bay of Pines, and reaching Punta de los Reyes, latitude thirty-seven degrees ten minutes north, there anchored. From here he was driven in a storm south to the Island of San Miguel as named by him (now Bernardo), where he died January 5, 1543. Cabrillo appointed Pilot Ferrelo to succeed him in the command, and requested that the voyage should be further prosecuted. Ferrelo sailed northward. In forty degrees north, he saw mountains covered with snow, and a cape between, to which he gave the name of Mendocino (1), in honor of the Viceroy. Having reached latitude forty-four degrees north, he headed south for natividad. The result of this voyage was the determination of the coast line of California to latitude forty-three degrees north.
From the result of land explorations of Coronado, in search of wealthy cities, and the voyage of Cabrillo and Ferrelo, Mendoza had become satisfied that there were no rich cities in the interior, and that there was no strait or water-passage between mexico and forty-two degrees north latitude from the Pacific into the Atlantic Ocean.
The west coast of North America had been thoroughly examined from Panama northward to Cape Mendocino. No regions had been discovered, the wealth of which tempted the avarice of the Spaniards. With Ferrelo's voyage, explorations of the North Pacific coast was for the time being suspended. In Spanish nomenclature, "Coast of California in the South Sea" was applied to the territory north of Cap San Lucas and extended indefinitely northward. Mexico was known as New Spain. North of Mexico, where discoveries had been made, the whole coast was claimed by Spain under the name of California.
(1) Prof. Davidson, U.S. Coast
Survey, says:
"It is generally stated that
Juan Roderiquez Cabrillo named this cape in honor of Don Antonio de Mendoza,
the Viceroy of Mexico. But the highest latitude he reached was Punta de
Los Reyes, to which he in reality applied that name. It is quite probable
that under the ice of the rocks of this cape, Ferrelo, the pilot and successor
of Cabrillo, anchored in the last of February, 1543, and named Cabo de
Fortunas (Cape of Perils), although he places his position in latitude
forty-three degrees north. The next day he may have been off Trinidad head
experiencing heavy northerly weather, and his observations might have placed
him in latitude forty-four degrees; but with his vessels, adverse currents,
and a dead-beat-to-windward, he could not have made a degree of latitude
in a day. Here he turned back, passed the Golden Gate march 3d, and reached
the Island of Santa Cruz on the 5th." (Davidson's Coast Pilot, p. 97.)