USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 12
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 12
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It is now certain that no such stream or channel as that which Aguilar is reported to have seen, falls into the Pacific within three degrees of the 43d parallel; although the mouths of two small rivers are situated near the point where that line crosses the western coast of the continent. Several head-lands project into the ocean, not far from the positions assigned to the Capes Blanco and San Sebastian. The former may have been the promontory, in latitude of 42 degrees 52 minutes, on which Vancouver, in 1792, bestowed the name of Cape Orford.
On comparing the accounts of Vizcaino's voyage with those of Cabrillo's, it appears that the same, or very nearly the same, por- tions of the American coast were seen by both commanders. The expedition of Vizcaino was, however, conducted in a much more efficient manner than the other ; and a mass of valuable informa- tion, respecting the geography of the western side of California, was collected, in the shape of notes, plans, and sketches, upon which were founded the first maps of that coast approaching to correctness.
Vizcaino, after his return to Mexico, endeavored to prevail upon the viceroy to establish colonies and garrisons on the western side of California, at places which he recommended, in order to facili- tate the trade with India, and to prevent the occupation of the American coasts by people of other nations. His efforts, with this view, however, produced no effect, as the viceroys never encouraged such enterprises, being generally obliged to pay the costs them- selves ; and Vizcaino, in consequence, went to Spain, where, after many years of solicitation, he at length procured the royal mandate,
95
DEATH OF VIZCAINO.
1608.]
and a promise of means for the execution of his projects. Armed with these, he hastened back to Mexico, and began his prepara- tions ; but, while thus engaged, he was seized with a sickness, of which he died in 1608, and the enterprise was then aban- doned.
The Spanish government, at the period of Vizcaino's expeditions, appears, indeed, to have been seriously interested in the exploration of the Pacific, with which object several voyages were made from Peru and Mexico. In 1595, Alvaro de Mendana discovered the group of islands in the southern division of that ocean, to which he gave the name of Islas de las Marquesas, (Islands of the Mar- chionesses,) in token of his admiration of the beauty and grace of their women. In 1605, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros visited many other islands in the same sea, not previously known, among which were, probably, those now called Otaheite and Owyhee : he also believed that he had ascertained the existence of a great southern continent, which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo ; and, like Vizcaino, he spent many years at Madrid, in endeavors to obtain from the government the command of an expedition for the occu- pation of this new land.
96
CHAPTER III.
1608 To 1768.
The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole of this Period - Efforts of the English and the Dutch to find new Passages into the Pacific - Discovery of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay - Discovery of the Passage around Cape Horn - Establishment of the Hudson's Bay Trading Com- pany - Endeavors of the Spaniards to settle California unsuccessful - The Jesuits undertake the Reduction of California - Establishments of the Jesuits in the Peninsula, and their Expulsion from the Spanish Dominions.
FOR more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of Vizcaino, no attempt was made, by the Spaniards, to form estab- lishments on the west coast of California, or to extend their discoveries in that part of America.
Those countries, in the mean time, remained unknown, and almost entirely neglected, by the civilized world. The Spanish galleons, on their way from Manilla to Acapulco, annually passed along the coasts south of Cape Mendocino, which were described in Spanish works on the navigation of the Pacific ; and some spots, farther north, were, as will be hereafter particularly shown, visited by the Russians, in their exploring and trading voyages from Kamt- chatka : but no new information, of an exact nature, was obtained with regard to those regions, and they were represented on maps according to the fancy of the geographer, or to the degree of faith which he placed in the last fabrication respecting them. Numerous were the stories, gravely related and published in France and England, of powerful nations, of great rivers, of interior seas, and of navigable passages connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, north of California. The most remarkable of these stories is the account of the voyage of Admiral Fonte, already presented. Captain Coxton, a veteran bucanier, who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century, also declared that he had, in 1688, sailed from the North Pacific, far eastward, into the American continent, through a river which ran out of a great lake, called the Lake of Thoyaga, containing many islands, inhabited by a numerous
97
HUDSON'S BAY AND BAFFIN'S BAY DISCOVERED.
1616.]
and warlike population ; and, upon the strength of the assertions of this worthy, the lake and river, as described by him, were laid down on many of the maps of that time. North-west America was, indeed, during the period here mentioned, the terra incognitissima, the favorite scene of extraordinary adventures and Utopian ro- mances. Bacon there placed his Atlantis ; and Brobdignag, agree- ably to the very precise description of its locality furnished by its discoverer, the accomplished and veracious Captain Lemuel Gulli- ver, must have been situated near the Strait of Fuca.
The Atlantic Ocean, and its American coasts, and the South Pacific, were, however, not neglected by the Europeans during the seventeenth century. Soon after the termination of Vizcaino's labors, settlements were made, in many places on the Atlantic, between the Gulfs of Mexico and of St. Lawrence, by the English, the French, and the Dutch, generally under the protection of charters from the governments of those nations, in which the territories of the several colonies were declared to extend from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific; and some of the most valuable of the West India Islands had fallen into the possession of the same powers.
Many discoveries were likewise effected, within this period, on the coasts of the New World, and in the adjoining seas, some of which were of great and immediate importance, while the others served to strengthen the expectation that a north-west passage, or navigable channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, would be speedily found. Thus, in 1608, Henry Hudson discovered, or rediscovered, the strait, and the bay connected by it with the Atlantic, to both of which his name is now attached ; and, eight years afterwards, the adventu- rous William Baffin penetrated, through the arm of that ocean now called Baffin's Bay, separating Greenland from America, into a passage extending westward, under the 74th parallel of latitude, where his ship was arrested by ice.
The results of the voyages of Baffin, and other navigators, who followed the same course, were not calculated to increase the hope that the desired passage to the Pacific would be found opening into Baffin's Bay. Strong grounds were, however, afforded for the expectation that it might be discovered in one of the arms of Hudson's Bay which had not been completely explored ; and, in consequence, the whole region surrounding the latter sea was, in 1669, granted, by King Charles II., to an association of merchants 13
98
PASSAGE AROUND CAPE HORN DISCOVERED.
[1616.
and gentlemen, styled - The Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay-with the object,* expressed in the charter, of encouraging the search for a northern passage to the Pacific.
The most important discovery made in the seventeenth century was that of the open sea, south of Magellan's Strait, through which the Dutch navigators Lemaire and Van Schouten sailed, in 1616, from the Atlantic into the Pacific, around the island promontory named by them Cape Horn, in honor of their native city in Holland. By means of this new route, the perils and difficulties of the navigation between the two oceans were so much lessened, that voyages from Europe to the Pacific were no longer regarded as very hazardous enterprises ; and the Spanish possessions and commerce on that ocean were ever after annoyed by the armed ships of nations at war with Spain, or by pirates and smugglers of various classes and denominations.
The Gulf of California became the principal resort of the Dutch pirates, or, rather, privateers, who, under the name of Pichilingues,t kept the inhabitants of the adjacent coasts of Mexico in constant anxiety. For the purpose of dislodging these depredators, and also of obtaining advantages from the pearl fishery in the gulf, several attempts were made, by the government of Spain, and by individ- uals in Mexico, to establish colonies, garrisons, and fishing or trading posts, on the eastern side of the peninsula of California. The details of the expeditions for these purposes, made by Vicuña and Ortega in 1631, by Barriga and Porter in 1644, by Piñadero in 1664 and 1667, by Lucenilla in 1668, and by Atondo in 1683, are devoid of interest. Many pearls were obtained, among which are some of the most valuable in the regalia of Spain ; but the establishments all failed from want of funds, from the extreme barrenness of the soil, and the determined hostility of the natives of the peninsula, and, above all, from the indolence and viciousness of the persons employed in the expeditions. In the last attempt of this kind, under the direction of Don Isidro de Atondo, a number of settlers, soldiers, and Jesuits, were carried out from Mexico, and distributed at points on the gulf where the establishments were to be formed ; but these stations were all abandoned before the end of a year, and it was thereupon resolved, in a council of the chief
* See Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter I, No. 1.
t So called from the Bay of Pichilingue, on the east coast of the Californian peninsula, which was the principal rendezvous of these Dutch pirates.
99
JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA.
1683.]
authorities of Mexico, that the reduction of California by such means was impracticable.
The Jesuits, who had accompanied Atondo to California, while concurring in this opinion with the council, nevertheless insisted that the desired political objects might be attained by a different course, namely, by the civilization and conversion to Christianity of the natives of that country ; and this task they offered them- selves to undertake, doubting not that their labors would be crowned with the same success which had attended them in Paraguay. Their proposition was, as might have been expected, coldly received by the authorities, who could gain nothing by its exccution. The Jesuits, however, not being disheartened by this refusal, perambu- lated the whole country, preaching, and exhorting all to contribute to the accomplishment of an enterprise so pious and so politic. By such means, and by the cooperation of their brethren in Europe, they raised a small fund ; and finally, in 1697, they procured royal warrants, authorizing them to enter upon the reduction of California for the king, and to do all that might tend to that object at their own expense. On receiving these warrants, Father Salvatierra, the chief missionary, immediately sailed, with a few laborers and sol- diers, to the land which was to be the scene of their operations. There he was soon after joined by Fathers Kuhn, (a German, called, by the Spaniards, Kino,) Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, all men of courage and education, and enthusiastically devoted to the cause in which they were engaged ; and, in November, 1697, the first establishment, called Loreto, was founded on the eastern side of the peninsula, about two hundred miles from the Pacific.
The Jesuits, on entering California, had to encounter the same perils and obstacles which had rendered ineffectual all the other attempts to occupy that country. They were attacked by the natives, to whose ferocity several of the fathers fell victims; the land was so barren, that it scarcely yielded the means of sustaining life to the most industrious agriculturist, for which reason the set- tlements were all located near the sea, in order that the necessary food might be procured by fishing ; and the persons employed in their service, being drawn from the most miserable classes in Mexico, were always indolent and insubordinate, and generally preferred loitering on the shore, in search of pearls, to engaging in the regular labors required for the support of settlers in a new region. The operations of the Jesuits were also, for some time, confined within the narrowest limits, from want of funds. Their
100
JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA.
[1702.
brethren and friends occasionally made remittances to them, in money or goods ; and the king was persuaded to assign, for their use, a small annual allowance: but the Mexican treasury, which was charged with the payment of this allowance, was seldom able to meet their drafts when presented ; and the assistance derived from all these sources was much diminished in value before it reached those for whom it was destined. Embarrassments of this nature occurred in 1702, at the commencement of the undertaking, in consequence of the great costs of the expeditions from Mexico for the occupation of Texas, and the establishment of garrisons at Pensacola and other places in Florida, as checks upon the French.
By perseverance and kindness, however, rather than by any other means, the Jesuits overcame all the difficulties to which they were exposed ; and within sixty years after their entrance into Cal- ifornia, they had formed sixteen principal establishments, called missions, extending in a chain along the eastern side of the penin- sula from Cape San Lucas to the head of the gulf. Each of these missions comprised a church, a fort garrisoned by a few soldiers, and some stores and dwelling-houses, all under the entire control of the resident Jesuit ; and it formed the centre of a district containing several rancherias, or villages of converted Indians. The principal mission or capital was Loreto ; south of it was La Paz, the port of communication with Mexico, probably the same place called Santa Cruz by Cortes, where he endeavored to plant a colony in 1535 ; and near Cape San Lucas was San Jose, at which an attempt was made to provide means for the repair and refreshment of vessels employed in the Philippine trade. No establishments were formed on the west coast, which does not seem to have been visited by the Jesuits, except on one occasion, in 1716. The villages were each under the superintendence of Indians selected for the purpose, of whom one possessed the powers of a governor, another took care of the church or chapel, and a third summoned the inhabitants to prayers and reported the delinquents. The children were taught to speak, read, write, and sing, in Spanish, and were initiated into the doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. The converts were directed in their labors by the fathers; each being generally allowed to retain the fruits of his industry, though he was at the same time made to understand that he could not claim them as his property. Immigration from other countries, except of Jesuits, was as far as possible prevented ; the efforts of the mission- aries being, in California as in Paraguay, devoted exclusively to the
101
JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA.
1760.]
improvement of the natives, and their union into a species of com- monwealth, under the guidance of their preceptors.
The Jesuits also in California, as in Paraguay and elsewhere, exerted themselves assiduously in acquiring a knowledge of the geography, natural history, and languages of the country. They surveyed the whole coast of the Californian Gulf, determining with exactness the relative positions of the principal points on it ; and in 1709, Father Kuhn ascertained beyond doubt the fact of the con- nection of the peninsula with the continent, which had been denied for a century. Indeed, as regards the eastern and middle parts of the peninsula, nearly all the information which we possess at the present day has been derived through the labors of these mission- aries. On all those subjects, the results of their researches were communicated to the world through the Lettres edifiantes et curi- euses, published, from time to time, at Paris, by learned members of their order, and afterwards more fully in their History of California,* which appeared at Madrid in 1757, and has been translated into all the languages of Western Europe.
In the mean time, - that is to say, ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century,- the power of Spain had, from a variety of causes, been constantly declining. Her resources, and those of her colonies, had, within that period, been materially reduced ; in mari- time force she had fallen far below England and France, and a large portion of America, including valuable and extensive terri- tories, which had been long occupied by her subjects, had passed into the hands of her rivals or enemies. Her government, indeed, resisted, as long as possible, these intrusions and encroachments, as they were considered, of other nations upon territories of which Spain claimed exclusive possession in virtue of the papal grant of 1493, as well as of prior discovery ; and never, until forced by absolute necessity, did the court of Madrid recognize the claim of any other power, except Portugal, to occupy countries in the New World, or to navigate the Western Atlantic, or any part of the Pacific. The earliest recognition of such a right by Spain was
* Noticia de California y de su Conquista espiritual y temporal. - This work, though usually attributed to Venegas, is doubtless chiefly due to the labors of Father Andres Marcos Burriel. The portions relating to the proceedings of the Jesuits in California are highly interesting, and bear every internal mark of truth and authenticity. The observations on the policy of the Spanish government towards its American posses- sions are replete with wisdom, and indicate more liberality, as well as boldness, on the part of the authors, than could have been reasonably expected, considering the circumstances under which they were written and published.
102
DECLINE OF THE SPANISH POWER.
[1763.
made in the American treaty, as it was called, concluded with Great Britain in 1670, by which it was agreed that the British king should have and enjoy forever, with plenary right of sovereignty and property, all lands, regions, islands, and colonies, possessed by him or his subjects in the West Indies, or in any part of America ; with the understanding, however, that the subjects of neither power should trade with, or sail to, any place in those countries belonging to the other, unless forced thither by stress of weather or pursuit by enemies or pirates. These stipulations were renewed and con- firmed by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, in which the queen of England, moreover, engaged to give assistance to the Spaniards for the restoration of the ancient limits of their dominions in the West Indies, as they were in the time of King Charles II. of Spain ; and it was by common consent established, as a chief and funda- mental rule, that the exercise of navigation and commerce in the Spanish West Indies should remain as it was in the time of that king, who died in 1700.
The terms of these, and all other treaties on the same subject, between Great Britain and Spain, were, however, so vague, that they served rather to increase than to prevent disputes. The meaning of the expression Spanish West Indies never could be fixed to the satisfaction of both the parties ; and it was impossible for them, in any case of alleged trespass by either upon the rights of the other, to agree as to what were the limits of their respective dominions, or what was the state of their navigation and commerce at the time of the death of King Charles II., or at any other time. The British colonies were, nevertheless, constantly advancing and absorbing those of other European powers, and all the attempts of the Spaniards to check their prosperity were ineffectual.
The French, by their occupation of Louisiana and the western half of St. Domingo, also gave great uneasiness to the Spaniards for some time; but the political interests of the two nations had become so closely involved, by the family ties between their sove- reigns, that Spain, as the weaker, in this and in the other cases, was obliged to submit to the influence and encroachments of her powerful ally.
At length, in 1763, peace was restored among these three great powers. Spain recovered from France New Orleans and the part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi; while the remainder of Louisiana, together with Florida, Canada, and all the other French possessions on the North American continent, became the property
103
FAMILY COMPACT.
1762.]
of Great Britain. The interests of France in the New World were so small, after these arrangements, that they could scarcely of them- selves afford grounds for dispute between her and Spain ; and the two crowns were, moreover, supposed to be firmly united by a treaty celebrated in history as the Family Compact, concluded in 1762, through the agency, chiefly, of the duke de Choiseul, prime minister of France, by which the sovereigns of those kingdoms guarantied to each other all their dominions in every part of the world, and engaged to consider as their common enemy any nation which should become the enemy of either.
The claims of Spain to the sovereignty of the western side of America were never made the subject of controversy with any other state until 1790; but her pretensions to the exclusive navi- gation of the Pacific, though upheld by her government even after that period, had long before ceased to be regarded with respect by the rest of the world. The free-traders, freebooters, and bucaniers,- that is to say, the smugglers and pirates,-of Great Britain, France, and Holland, led the way into that ocean, which they continued to infest during the whole of the seventeenth and a part of the eighteenth centuries : they were followed by the armed squadrons of those nations, with one or other of which Spain was almost always at war ; and during the intervals of peace came the exploring ships of the same powers, whose voyages, though at first ostensibly scientific, were, with good reason, considered at Madrid as ominous of evil to the dominion of Spain in America .*
These exploring voyages became more frequent, and their objects were avowedly political as well as scientific, after the peace of 1763 ; about which time, moreover, they were rendered more safe, expeditious, and effective in every respect, by the introduction of the reflecting quadrant and the chronometer into use on board the public ships of all the maritime nations of Europe, except Spain and Portugal. Between that year and 1779 the Pacific and the southern oceans were annually swept by well-appointed ships of Great Britain or France, under able navigators, whose journals were published immediately on the conclusion of their voyages, in the
Lord Lansdowne, in a speech in the British House of Lords, December 13, 1790, on the subject of the convention then recently concluded with Spain, said -" Sir Benjamin Keene, [ambassador from Great Britain at Madrid from 1754 to 1757,] one of the ablest foreign ministers this country ever had, used to say, that, if the Span- iards vexed us in the first instance, we had means enough to vex them in return, without infringing treaties ; and the first step he would recommend would be to send out ships of discovery to the South Sea."
104
ALARMS OF THE COURT OF MADRID
[1765.
most authentic manner possible, illustrated by maps, plans, tables, views of scenery, and portraits of natives, all conspiring to afford the most exact ideas of the objects and places described in the narratives. New lands and new objects and channels of com- mercial and political enterprise were thus opened to all ; and new principles of national right, adverse to the subsistence of the exclusive system so long maintained by the Spanish government, were established and recognized among all other states.
The voyages of the British exploring ships were, until 1778, con- fined to the southern parts of the ocean ; but the Spanish govern- ment had been constantly in dread of their appearance in the North Pacific, particularly as a navigable communication between that ocean and the Atlantic, in the north, was again generally believed to exist. The acquisition of Canada by Great Britain rendered the discovery of such a passage much more important to that power, as there was less danger that any other nation should derive advantages from it, to the injury of British interests ; while Spain, becoming possessed of Louisiana, which was supposed to extend indefinitely northward, had thus additional reasons for viewing with dissatisfaction any attempts of her rival to advance westward across the continent.
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