USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 14
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 14
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" La Perouse, Vancouver, Kotzebue, Beechey, &c.
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VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ.
[1774.
of the permission, and those who did so, for the most part, sunk into sloth and misery, or returned to the wilds, and resumed the savage life. In the latter cases, the Spaniards employed every means in their power to retake the fugitives, who were, indeed, often sent back by the barbarians, as unworthy of enjoying the privileges of freemen.
The Franciscans did not, like the Jesuits, exert themselves in procuring information respecting the countries in which they resided ; and nothing has been learnt from them of the geogra- phy or natural history of the part of California which they occupied. In 1775, Friars Font and Garzes travelled, by land, from Mexico, through Sonora, and the country of the Colorado River, to the mission of San Gabriel, in California, making observations on their way, with the view to the increase of intercourse between Mexico and the establishments in the latter region. They were, however, coldly received by their brethren, who informed them that they had no desire to have such communications opened ; and their journal was never made public. In the same year, Friars Dominguez and Escalante, of the same order, attempted to penetrate westward from Santa Fe, in New Mexico, to the Pacific ; but, after proceed- ing about half the distance, they turned back. The journals of both these expeditions are still preserved, in manuscript, in Mexico, where they have been consulted by Humboldt and other travellers ; but they are, from all accounts, of no value.
Between 1774 and 1779, three exploring voyages were made, by order of the Spanish government, in which the west coasts of America were examined, as far north as the 60th degree of latitude.
The first of these voyages was conducted by Ensign Juan Perez, who had been long employed in the Manilla trade, and afterwards in the vessels sailing between San Blas and the new establishments on the Californian coast. He was accompanied by Estevan Marti- nez, as pilot, and Friars Peña and Crespi, as chaplains, from whose journals, as well as from those of the commander, the following account of the voyage is derived .*
Perez sailed from San Blas in the corvette Santiago, on the 25th
* The authorities for the account of this expedition are - the Narrative composed by Perez for the viceroy - the Journal of Friar Tomas de la Pena - and the Observations of the pilot Martinez - manuscript copies of which have been procured from Madrid. The Journal of Friar Crespi was examined by Ihumboldt, who has given some par- ticulars derived from it in his Essay on Mexico. Of this voyage no account was ever given to the world until 1802, when a short notice of it appeared in the Introduction to the Journal of the Sutil and Mexicana.
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VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ.
1774.]
of January, 1774, with orders, from the viceroy of Mexico, to proceed, as soon as possible, northward, to the 60th degree of latitude, and then to survey the coasts of America from that paral- lel, southward, to Monterey, taking possession, for the king, of every place at which he might land. From San Blas he went first to San Diego, and thence to Monterey, from which latter place he took his departure, on the 16th of June, for the north. The weather, as usual in that part of the Pacific, proved stormy, the winds blowing almost constantly from the north-west; so that it was not until the 18th of July that the Santiago reached the 54th par- allel of latitude, under which land was first seen in the east. The coast thus observed was high and rocky, extending southward as far as the eye could penetrate, and terminating, in the north, in a point, to which Perez gave the name of Cape Santa Margarita. In the interior was seen a lofty, snow-covered range of mountains, which he called the Sierra de San Cristoval. On approaching the shore, the Spaniards could find no place where it would be safe to anchor ; and, on rounding the cape, the coast beyond it was found to stretch directly westward. By this time, the crew were beginning to show symptoms of scurvy, the weather was tempestuous, and the vessel was small, and badly provided in every respect ; under which cir- cumstances, it was determined that no attempt should be made to go farther north. The Spaniards accordingly steered southward, along the coast, for about a hundred miles, and were then driven off by a storm : before leaving it, however, they met some of the natives, in their canoes, with whom they traded, receiving sea-otter and other valuable skins in return for old clothes, knives, shells, and other trifles.
The land thus discovered was the west side of the large island afterwards named Queen Charlotte's Island by the British ; Cape Santa Margarita being the north-easternmost point, now called, on English maps, Cape North, at the entrance of Dixon's Channel. Many particulars respecting the people of these coasts are recorded in the journals of the Spaniards, which agree precisely with the accounts of subsequent navigators.
On the 9th of August, Perez again made the land, and discov- ered, under the parallel of 49 degrees 30 minutes, a deep bay, at the entrance of which he anchored, between two high points, one bearing six leagues north-west, the other two leagues south-east. Ere long, his vessel was surrounded by canoes, filled with natives of the country, who readily engaged in trade with his crew : they are
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VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ.
[1774.
represented, in the journal of Friar Peña, as having lighter complex- ions than other aborigines of America; like those farther north, they were clad in skins, their hats being, however, made of rushes, curiously plaited and painted, of a conical shape, with a knob on the top. To the surprise of the Spaniards, they had many knives, arrow-points, and other articles, of iron and copper, though it did not appear that they had held any intercourse with civilized people. To this bay Perez gave the name of Port San Lorenzo, in honor of the saint on whose day it was first seen; it is undoubtedly the same which, four years afterwards, received, from Captain Cook, the appellation of King George's or Nootka Sound. The point north-west of its entrance, called, by the Spaniards, Cape Santa Clara, is the Woody Point of the English ; and the other point - the Cape San Estevan of Perez - corresponds precisely, in situa- tion and all other particulars, as described, with the Point Breakers of the English navigator.
From Port San Lorenzo, the Spaniards sailed along the coast southward; and, in the latitude of 47 degrees 47 minutes, they beheld, at a distance in the interior, on the east, a lofty mountain, covered with snow, which they named Sierra de Santa Rosalia - probably the Mount Olympus of the English maps. Martinez, the pilot of the Santiago, many years after, thought proper to remem- ber that he had also observed, between the 48th and the 49th parallels, a wide opening in the land, and that he had given his own name to the point on the south side of its entrance. Of this observation no note appears in the journals of the voyage ; yet, upon the strength of the tardy recollection of the pilot, his country- men have claimed for him the merit of rediscovering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and have affixed the name of Cape Martinez, in their charts, to the point of the continent where that passage joins the Pacific. Continuing his voyage to the south, Perez, on the 21st of August, passed in sight of Cape Mendocino, the true latitude of which he first determined ; and, on the 27th, he arrived at Mon- terey, whence he, after some time, went on to San Blas.
In this voyage, the first made by the Spaniards along the north- west coasts of America after 1603, very little was learned, except that there was land, on the eastern side of the Pacific, as far north as the latitude of 54 degrees. The government of Spain, perhaps, acted wisely in concealing the accounts of the expedition, which reflected little honor on the courage or the science of its navigators ; but it has thereby deprived itself of the means of establishing
117
VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA.
1775.]
beyond question the claim of Perez to the discovery of the important harbor called Nootka Sound, which is now, by general consent, assigned to Captain Cook.
Immediately after the return of Perez to Mexico, the viceroy Bucareli (the same officer who, as governor of Buenos Ayres, had expelled the British from the Falkland Islands in 1770) ordered that another expedition should be made for the purpose of examining those coasts as far as the 65th degree of latitude, to which they were believed to extend continuously north-westward. With this object the Santiago was placed under the command of Captain Bruno Heceta, under whom Perez was to go as ensign; and she was to be accompanied by a small schooner, called the Sonora, of which Juan de Ayala was to have the command, and Antonio Maurelle to be pilot. These two vessels, having been equipped, and provided with the History of California by Venegas, and a chart of the whole north-west coast of America, constructed according to the fancy of the French geographer Bellin, in 1766,* sailed together from San Blas, on the 15th of March, 1775, in company with the schooner San Carlos, bound for Monterey. t Ere they had lost sight of the land, however, the captain of the San Carlos became delirious, in consequence of which Ayala was ordered to take his place, the command of the Sonora being transferred to Lieutenant Juan Fran- cisco de la Bodega y Quadra. These circumstances are mentioned, because, in nearly all the abstracts of the accounts of this voyage hitherto published, Ayala appears as the chief of the expedition ; whereas, in fact, he only accompanied the exploring vessels to a short distance from San Blas.
* Carte réduite de l'Ocean septentrional, compris entre l'Asie et l'Amérique, suivant les Découvertes faites par les Russes. Par N. Bellin. Paris, 1766.
t Of this expedition no less than five separate accounts are found among the manuscripts obtained from Madrid, viz .: the official narrative of the whole, drawn up for the viceroy of Mexico-the Journal of Bodega - part of the Journal of Heceta, showing his course after his parting with Bodega- a concise narrative by Bodega - and, lastly, the Journal of Maurelle, the pilot of the Sonora. A copy of Maurelle's Journal was obtained in Madrid, soon after the conclusion of the voyage, from which an English translation was published at London, in 1781, by the Hon. Daines Barrington, among his Miscellanies. This translation, though very inaccurate and incomplete, attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and from it, and the short account given in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, all the information respecting the voyage has been hitherto obtained. Bar- rington's Miscellanies is, however, a rare book ; and the notices of this expedition contained in the various memoirs, reports, correspondence, &c., relative to the north- west coast, are, for the most part, taken directly, or at second hand, from the abstracts of the Journal, given by Fleurieu in his instructions to La Perouse, and his Intro- duction to the Journal of Marchand, which are both filled with errors.
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VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA.
[1775.
The exploring vessels, after parting with the San Carlos, doubled Cape Mendocino, and, on the 10th of June, anchored in a small roadstead beyond that promontory, in the latitude of 41 degrees 10 minutes. The officers, priests, and a portion of the men, imme- diately landed, and took possession of the country, in the name of their sovereign, with religious solemnities, bestowing upon the harbor the name of Port Trinidad; and they then engaged in repairing their vessels and obtaining a supply of water, which afforded them employment for nine days.
During this period, the Spaniards held frequent communications with the people of the country, who dwelt principally on the banks of a small stream, named by the navigators Rio de las Tortolas, - Pigeon River, -from the multitude of those birds in its vicinity. The Indians conducted themselves uniformly in the most peace- able manner, and appeared to be, on the whole, an inoffensive and industrious race. They were clothed, for the most part, in skins, and armed with bows and arrows, in the use of which they were very expert; their arrows were, in general, tipped with copper or iron, of which metals they had knives and other implements - whence procured the Spaniards could not learn. No signs of religious feelings, or ceremonies of any kind, could be discovered among them, unless their howling over the bodies of the dead may be considered in that light.
Having completed their arrangements, Heceta and Bodega sailed from Port Trinidad on the 19th of June, leaving a cross erected near the shore, with an inscription, setting forth the fact of their having visited the place and taken possession of it for their sove- reign : this monument the Indians promised to respect; and they kept their word, for Vancouver found it there untouched in 1793. The Spaniards considered the discovery of the place important : the harbor being, according to their journals, safe and spacious, and presenting facilities for communication between vessels and the shore ; and the surrounding country fruitful and agreeable. Van- couver, however, gives a much less favorable view of the harbor, which he pronounces to be in no respect a secure retreat for vessels, as it is entirely open to the south-west winds, which blow on that coast with the utmost violence at certain seasons of the year. The other accounts of the Spaniards, respecting the place and its inhabitants, are, in general, confirmed by those of the British navigator.
The Spaniards, after leaving Port Trinidad, were obliged to keep
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VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA.
1775.]
at a distance from the coast for three weeks, at the end of which time they again came in sight of it, in the latitude of 43 degrees 27 minutes. From that parallel they examined the shore towards the south, in search of the strait said to have been discovered by Juan de Fuca in 1592, the entrance of which was placed, in Bellin's chart, between the 47th and the 48th degrees of latitude ; and, having satisfied themselves that no such opening existed there, the two vessels cast anchor near the land, though at some distance from each other, in order to obtain water and to trade with the natives.
Here a severe misfortune befell the schooner on the 14th of July. Seven of her men, who had been sent ashore in her only boat, though well armed, were attacked and murdered, immediately on landing, by the natives; and the schooner was herself in much danger of being taken by those savages, who surrounded her, during the whole day, in great numbers, in their canoes, and were with difficulty prevented from boarding her. In commemoration of this melancholy event, the place at which it occurred was called Punta de Martires - Martyr's Point ; it is in the latitude of 47 degrees 20 minutes, and on English maps is called Grenville's Point. A small island, situated a few miles farther north, the only one de- serving that name between Cape Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, was also named Isla de Dolores - Isle of Sorrows : twelve years afterwards, this same isle received, from the captain of the ship Imperial Eagle, of Ostend, the appellation of Destruction Island, in consequence of a similar massacre of some of his crew by the Indians, on the main land opposite.
This disaster, together with the wretched condition of the schooner, and the appearance of scurvy in the crews of both ves- sels, occasioned a debate among the officers, as to the propriety of continuing the voyage. The commander, Heceta, was desirous to return to Monterey, in which, however, he was opposed by his own pilot, Juan Perez, and by Bodega, the captain, and Maurelle, the pilot, of the schooner; and, their opinions having been given, as usual in the Spanish service, in writing, the unwilling assent of the commander was obtained, and the voyage towards the north was resumed on the 20th of July. Ere they had proceeded far in that direction, the vessels were separated in a storm ; whereupon Heceta seized the opportunity to go back to Monterey, whilst Bodega per- severed in his determination to accomplish, as far as possible, the objects of the expedition.
Heceta, after parting with the schooner, made the land near the
120
HECETA DISCOVERS A GREAT RIVER.
[1775.
50th degree of latitude, (on the south-west side of the great island of Vancouver and Quadra,) and, passing by the Port San Lorenzo, (Nootka Sound,) discovered in the previous year by Perez, he came on the coast of the continent near the 48th parallel, without observ- ing the intermediate entrance of the Strait of Fuca, for which he, however, sought between the 47th and 48th parallels. Thence he ran along the shore towards the south, and, on the 15th of August, arrived opposite an opening, in the latitude of 46 degrees 17 min- utes, from which rushed a current so strong as to prevent his enter- ing it. This circumstance convinced him that it was the mouth of some great river, or, perhaps, of the Strait of Fuca, which might have been erroneously placed on his chart: he, in consequence, remained in its vicinity another day, in the hope of ascertaining the true character of the place ; but, being still unable to enter the opening, he continued his voyage towards the south .*
On the opening in the coast thus discovered Heceta bestowed the name of Ensenada de Asuncion + - Assumption Inlet ; calling the point on its north side Cape San Roque, and that on the south Cape Frondoso - Leafy Cape. In the charts published at Mexico, soon after the conclusion of the voyage, the entrance is, however, called Enseñada de Heceta - Heceta's Inlet - and Rio de San Roque - River of St. Roc. It was, undoubtedly, the mouth of the greatest river on the western side of America ; the same which was, in 1792, first entered by the ship Columbia, from Boston, under the command of Robert Gray, and has ever since been called the Columbia. The evidence of its first discovery by Heceta, on the 15th of August, 1775, is unquestionable.
From Assumption Inlet, Heceta continued his course, along the shore of the continent, towards the south, and arrived at Monterey, with nearly two thirds of his men sick, on the 30th of August. In his journal, he particularly describes many places on this part of the coast which are now well known ; such as - the remarkable promon- tory, in the latitude of 452 degrees, with small, rocky islets in front, named by him Cape Falcon, the Cape Lookout of our maps - the flat-topped mountain, overhanging the ocean, a little farther south, noted, in his journal, as La Mesa, or The Table, which, in 1805,
* See extract from the Journal of Heceta, among the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter E, in the latter part of this volume.
t The 15th of August is the day of the Assumption, and the 16th is the day of St. Roque, or Roc, and St. Jacinto, or Hyacinth, according to the Roman Catholic calendar.
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VOYAGE OF BODEGA AND MAURELLE.
1775.]
received, from Lewis and Clarke, the name of Clarke's Point of View-and the numerous rocky points and reefs bordering the shore, between those places and Cape Mendocino.
Meanwhile, Bodega and Maurelle, in their little vessel, were striving, if possible, to reach the 65th degree of latitude, agreeably to the instructions of the viceroy. With this object, after their separation from Heceta, they advanced towards the north, without seeing land, until they had passed the 56th degree of latitude, when they unexpectedly beheld it, on the 16th of August, at a great dis- tance in the north, and much nearer on the east ; though, by Bellin's chart, and their own calculations, they should have been one hundred and thirty-five leagues from any part of America. Steering towards the east, they discovered a lofty mountain, rising from the ocean in the form of a beautiful cone, and covered with snow, occupying the whole of what seemed to be a peninsula, projecting from the main land of an extensive and elevated ter- ritory : this mountain immediately received the name of San Jacinto, in honor of St. Hyacinth, on whose day it was discovered, the pro- jecting point of land which it occupied being called Cape Engaño, or False Cape. In the angles between this supposed peninsula and the main land were two bays, or sounds, of which the northernmost was named Port Remedios, and the other Port Guadelupe, after the two celebrated shrines in the vicinity of the city of Mexico. There is no difficulty in identifying any of these places, as described in the journals of the Spanish voyage. They are situated on the west side of the largest island of the group distinguished, on English maps, as King George III.'s Archipelago : Mount San Jacinto was, three years afterwards, named by Cook Mount Edgecumb; Port Remedios is the Bay of Islands of the same navigator, and Port Guadelupe is the Norfolk Sound of the English geographers. The two bays have since been found to com- municate with each other by a narrow passage, which completely separates the main land from the mountain. The Spaniards landed on the shore of Port Remedios, where they took possession of the country agreeably to the formalities prescribed, and obtained some water and salmon for the supply of their vessel. While thus en- gaged, they were surrounded by a crowd of natives of the country, who appeared to be more savage and determined than those of any other part of the coast, and also to entertain very distinct ideas of their own superior rights of property and domain. Thus the Spaniards were obliged to pay, not only for the fish, but also for
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122
THE SPANIARDS ON THEIR RETURN.
[1775.
the water taken away by them; and the cross, and other marks which they planted on the shore, were torn up immediately on their departure, and treated with every indignity by the savages.
The voyage was resumed on the 20th of August, and was con- tinued along the coast, to the 58th degree of latitude, beyond which it was found impossible to proceed, as nearly all on board were, from fatigue and sickness, incapable of performing duty, whilst the winds were daily increasing in violence, and rendering greater exertions necessary. They accordingly, on the 22d, turned towards the south ; and, having passed Mount San Jacinto, they approached the coast, in order to seek for the Rio de Reyes, the great river through which Admiral Fonté was said to have penetrated far into the interior of the American continent, in 1640. " With this intent," writes Maurelle, in his journal, " we examined every bay and recess of the coast, and sailed around every head-land, lying to, during the night, in order that we might not miss this entrance ; after which exer- tions, we may safely pronounce that no such passage is to be found." This conclusion was certainly correct, but it was as certainly not established by the exertions of the Spaniards on this occasion : for, in the first place, they confined their search to the part of the coast north of the 54th parallel, whereas, in the account of Fonte's voyage, the Rio de Reyes is made to enter the Pacific under the 53d ; and, had their observations been as minute as Maurelle represents them, several passages would have been found, leading from the ocean towards the north and east, for the complete examination of any one of which, more time would have been required than was spent by the Spaniards in their whole search. Of the many openings in that part of the coast, the only one penetrated by these navigators was the extensive bay, named, by them, Port Bucareli, in the latitude of 552 degrees, on the west side of the largest island of the group called, on English maps, the Prince of Wales's Archipelago, where they landed, and took possession, on the 24th of August. Thence proceeding south- ward, they made the north-east extremity of Queen Charlotte's Island, which had received, from Perez, in the preceding year, the name of Cape Santa Margarita ; and they observed, immediately north of that point, the wide passage which they called Entrada de Perez - the Dixon's Entrance of the English maps, separating Queen Charlotte's from the Prince of Wales's Islands.
From Cape Santa Margarita, the Spaniards sailed slowly towards the south, frequently seeing the land, though always at too great a
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RETURN OF BODEGA.
1775.]
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 Orford 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 Blas, where they arrived on the 20th of November, after a voyage of more than eight months.
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