USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 7
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 7
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48
DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
[1513.
The Spaniards were, in the mean time, assiduously engaged in planting colonies in the countries newly found by them beyond the Atlantic, to which they gave the collective name of West Indies,* and in exploring the coasts in the vicinity of the islands first dis- covered, which were soon ascertained to be the borders of a vast continent. How far south this continent extended, and whether it was united, in the north, with Asia, or with the territories seen in that direction by the English and the Portuguese, remained to be deter- mined ; and, with those objects, the Spaniards persevered in their examinations, in which they were, moreover, encouraged by the constant assurances of the natives of the coasts and islands, respecting the existence of a great sea, and rich and powerful nations, towards the setting sun.
In 1513, this great sea was discovered, near the spot where Panamá now stands, by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the governor of the Spanish colony of Darien. It was naturally supposed to be the Southern Ocean, which bathed the shores of India; and, as its proximity to the Atlantic was at the same time ascertained, encour- agement was afforded for the hope that the two great waters would be found connected in a position the most favorable for navigation between Europe and Asia. The examinations of the Spaniards were, in consequence, directed particularly to the coasts of the Isthmus of Darien, and were conducted with great zeal and perse- verance, until the entire separation of the two oceans by land, in that quarter, had been proved. These researches were, however, also continued both north and south of the isthmus, until, at length, in 1520, Fernando Magalhaens, or Magellan, a Portuguese, in the naval service of Spain, discovered and sailed through the strait now bearing his name, into the sea found by Balboa, over which he pursued his voyage westward to India.
The great geographical question, as to the circumnavigation of the globe, was thus solved, though not in a manner entirely satisfac- tory to the Spaniards. The Strait of Magellan was intricate, and
* The name America was first applied to Brazil about the year 1508, either by Vespucci himself, or by Waldseemuller, a schoolmaster of the Vosges, (better known by his assumed appellation of Hylacomylus,) and was afterwards extended to the whole western continent. The Spaniards, however, carefully avoided the use of it in all their official documents and histories, in not one of which, anterior to the middle of the last century, can it be found. It was, in fact, a rule of Spanish policy never to allow the names of individuals, except of saints, to be applied to places in their dominions. We look in vain, on the maps of Spanish America, for memorials of Columbus, of Cortes, of Pizarro, and even of the royal Ferdinands, Charleses, or Philips; while the whole calendar of saints is exhausted on every province
49
THE SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE IN INDIA.
1518.]
the passage through it was attended with great difficulties and dangers ; besides which, it was itself almost as far from Europe as India by the eastern route. Other and more direct channels of communication between the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean might, indeed, be discovered : but the latter sea was found to be infinitely wider than had been supposed ; and, although the part of it crossed by Magellan was so little disturbed by storms that he was induced to name it the Pacific Ocean, yet he also observed that the winds blew over it invariably from eastern points. These circumstances depressed the hopes of the Spaniards with respect to the establish- ment of their power in Southern Asia, though they continued their expeditions to that part of the world by way of Magellan's Strait, and their search for new passages into the Pacific. Their expedi- tions to India brought them into collision with the Portuguese,* who had already made several settlements in the Molucca Islands, and had obtained from the Chinese, in 1518, the possession, under certain qualifications, of the important port of Macao, near Canton ; and many bloody conflicts took place, in consequence, between the subjects of those nations, in that distant quarter of the world, as well as many angry disputes between their governments, before the questions of right at issue could be settled.
In the mean time, other events occurred, which consoled the Spaniards for their disappointments with regard to India, and caused them to direct their attention more particularly to the New World.
Before the period of the departure of Magellan on his expedi- tion, the Spaniards had, in fact, derived from their discoveries beyond the Atlantic but few of the advantages which they anti- cipated. They had found and taken possession of countries
* Spain claimed the exclusive navigation, trade, and conquest, westward, to the extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, so as to include all the Molucca Islands and China; while the Portuguese insisted on exercising the same privileges, without competition, eastward as far as the Ladrone Islands; each on the ground that the meridian of partition, settled with regard to the Atlantic, in 1494, would, if continued on the other side of the globe, pass in such a manner as to place the portions claimed by itself within its own hemisphere. The question was discussed between the two courts directly, and by their commissioners who met at Badajos in 1523, but without arriving at any definite arrangement. At length, on the 22d of April, 1529, a treaty was concluded at Saragossa, by the terms of which the king of Spain sold all his rights to the Molnccas to the king of Portugal for 350,000 ducats of gold, ($3,080,000,) with the proviso that the latter might, by repaying the sum, be at liberty again to urge those rights. The sum was never repaid, and Spain did not again claim the islands ; though, for a long period afterwards, the Spanish empire was represented on Spanish maps as extending westward to the extremity of Malacca.
50
MEXICO CONQUERED BY THE SPANIARDS.
[1522.
extensive, rich in mines, productive in soil, and delightful in climate, but uncultivated, and thinly peopled by savages, who could neither by gentle nor by violent means be induced to labor regularly for others or for themselves; and, although the want of a working population was in part supplied by the introduction of negro slaves from Africa, there was little prospect that Spain would ever be much benefited by these distant colonies. While Magellan's ships were on their western route to India, however, the wealthy and powerful empire of Mexico, which had been discovered in 1518 by a party of Spaniards from Cuba, was conquered by Hernando Cortés ; and Spain immediately became the richest nation of Europe. The reports of the brilliant results of this conquest drew to the West Indies crowds of adventurers, all eager to acquire wealth and renown by similar means ; who, uniting in bands, under daring and experienced captains, ranged through both the western continents, seeking mines of precious metals to work, or rich nations to plunder. In this manner Peru was subjugated by Pizarro and his followers before 1535; the other expeditions were fruitless, as respects the principal objects in view, while, in the course of them, many distant shores and interior regions were explored, which would otherwise, perhaps, not have been visited for centuries. The acts of these demon heroes are recorded with minuteness in the stirring pages of the chronicles of their day; and curious narratives of several of their expeditions, written by persons engaged in them, have been pre- served by the assiduity of Spanish, Italian, English, and Dutch collectors of historical tracts.
The desire to discover new passages of communication for vessels between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, was also a strong motive for the expeditions of the Spaniards along the coasts of the New World ; and no one pursued this search with more zeal and perseverance than Hernando Cortés. Scarcely had he established the authority of his sovereign in Mexico, than he commenced the exploration of the adjoining seas and countries, with that object, as well as with the hope of finding other rich nations to subdue ; and in such enterprises he spent a great portion of his time and resources, during his residence in America. In prosecution of his plans, chiefly, the long and in most places narrow territory, connecting Mexico with the southern continent, was carefully examined, until it had been ascertained that the two seas were separated by land throughout the whole extent. He, at the same
51
PLANS OF CORTES FOR FURTHER CONQUESTS.
1528.]
time, employed vessels in surveying the coasts of the Mexican Gulf, and those of the Atlantic, farther north ; and he built others on the Pacific side, for similar purposes, two of which he sent, as early as 1526, to the East Indies, in aid of the armaments despatched thither from Spain, under Loyasa .*
The first expedition made by the Spaniards along the Pacific coasts, westward from Mexico, was conducted by Pedro Nuñez Maldonado, one of the officers of Cortes, who sailed from the mouth of the River of Zacatula in July, 1528, and passed nearly six months in surveying the shores between that point and the mouth of the River of Santiago, about a hundred leagues farther north- west. The territory of which this coast formed the southern border was then called Xalisco ; it was entirely unknown to the Europeans, and was inhabited by fierce tribes of savages, who had never been subdued by the Mexicans. Maldonado brought back flattering accounts of its fertility, and of the abundance of precious metals in its interior, which did not fail to excite the attention of his employer, as well as of others among their countrymen.
Cortés was at that time in Spain, whither he had gone in 1528, chiefly with the object of obtaining some more definite recognition of his powers and rights in the New World than had been hitherto granted. He was received at Madrid with the most signal honors by his sovereign, the celebrated emperor Charles V .; and, on his return to Mexico, he carried with him patents, confirming him as captain-general of that country, then called New Spain, and creating him a grandee of Castile, with the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca ; to which was attached the possession of vast tracts of country in America, including the port of Tehuantepec, on the Pacific. He also procured from the emperor a capitulation, or charter, empowering him to discover and conquer any islands in the
* The accounts of the early Spanish expeditions of discovery on the North Pacific side of America, contained in the present chapter, are derived from -the published letters of Coréts, and a number of letters and reports from him and other Spanish commanders, hitherto unpublished, copies of which, made from the originals in Madrid, were kindly placed at the disposition of the writer by W. H. Prescott, of Boston, the accomplished author of the Histories of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the Conquest of Mexico-the Historia General de las Indias, by Herrera - the Cronica de Nueva España, by Gomara - the Historia de la Conquista de Mexico, by Bernal Dias - the Raccolte de Viaggi, by Ramusio - the Collection of Voyages and Discoveries, by Hakluyt - the History of Voyages in the Pacific, by Burney - and the Introduction to the Journal of the Voyage made, in 1792, by Captains Galiano and Valdes, in the Spanish schooners Sutil and Mexicana, published at Madrid, by order of the government, in 1802, to which references will also be fre- quently made in the succeeding chapters.
52
NUÑO DE GUZMAN. [1530.
Pacific, or other countries west of Mexico, not within the limits assigned to any other Spanish governor; of which countries he and his heirs forever were to enjoy the government, and one twelfth of all the precious metals, pearls, and other advantages therefrom accruing, on condition of their treating the natives with kindness, and endeavoring to convert them to the Christian faith. The politic Charles did not, however, intrust such extensive powers to one so capable and ambitious as Cortés, without at the same time providing certain checks, by means of which the conqueror of Mexico might be effectually prevented from using his faculties for any other ends than enlarging the dominions of the crown of Castile. The expenses of all his expeditions were to be borne by himself ; and he could do little, if any thing, without the assent of the Audiencia, or Royal Court and Board of Administration, established at Mexico, the members of which were chosen from among his most bitter enemies.
The only governor in the New World with whose claims Cortés might have been supposed to interfere, by expeditions westward from Mexico, was Nuño de Guzman, the president of the Audiencia, who had obtained from the emperor the government of Panuco, the country on the Gulf of Mexico surrounding the spot now occupied by the town of Tampico, and also that of Xalisco, of which he had received accounts from Maldonado and other adven- turers. This person, one of the same stamp with Pizarro and Davila, had been assiduously engaged in undermining the authority and influence of Cortés ; and no sooner did he learn that his rival was returning to Mexico as captain-general, than he assembled all the troops under his command in the capital, and marched for Xalisco, where he remained many years, subduing the country, and exterminating its aboriginal inhabitants.
Cortés thus, on his arrival in Mexico in July, 1530, found himself deprived of the means not only of making expeditions of discov- ery, but also of maintaining his authority in the kingdom; and he was obliged to wait two years before he could send a single vessel out on the Pacific. At length, by the middle of the year 1532, he had two ships ready for sca, which he determined to despatch on an exploratory voyage, along the western coast, whilst the others were in progress of construction at Tehuantepec.
At that period, the whole castern coast of the American continent had been explored, but imperfectly by European navigators ; though no part of the interior, north of Mexico and the countries in its
53
UNCERTAINTY OF ACCOUNTS OF OLD VOYAGES.
1532.]
immediate vicinity, was known. The northernmost points occupied by the Spaniards were, - on the Atlantic side, Panuco, within a few miles of the Mexican Gulf, - and, on the Pacific side, Culiacan, which was founded by Nuño de Guzman, in 1530, at the entrance of the Gulf of California. Beyond Culiacan, towards the north and the west, the lands and the seas were entirely unexplored ; and between that place and the civilized portion of Mexico, extended a wide space of uncultivated country, including Xalisco, which was called, by the Spaniards, New Galicia. The ports occupied by the Span- iards on the Pacific side of Mexico, were Tehuantepec, the most eastern, at which Cortés had his arsenals and ship-yards ; Acapulco, the principal place of trade, and tl.e nearest to the capital; and Zacatula, and Aguatlan, on the confines of Xalisco, beyond which the coasts were little known.
Before entering upon the history of the Spanish discoveries on the North Pacific side of America, it should be observed, that the accounts of these and other expeditions by sea, made at that period, which have descended to us, are very obscure and inexact, especially as regards geographical positions ; so that it is generally difficult, and often impossible, to identify places by means of the descriptions given in them. This arises partly from the circumstance, that the accounts were nearly all written by priests, clerks, or other persons unacquainted with naval matters, who paid little attention to lati- tudes, longitudes, courses, and bearings, and were unable to record them properly ; and partly from the imperfection of the instruments then employed to determine the altitudes and relative distances of the heavenly bodies, which, even on land, and under the most favor- able conditions of the atmosphere, gave results far from accurate, and were entirely useless in a vessel on a rough sea, or in cloudy weather. This uncertainty as to the positions of places necessarily leads to confusion respecting their names ; and we accordingly find, in the account of each of these voyages along the same portion of the coast, a nomenclature of capes, bays, and islands, almost entirely dif- ferent from that contained in the narratives of all the other voyages.
The expedition of discovery, made, by order of Cortés, to the coasts north-west of Mexico, in 1532, was conducted by his kins- man, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who sailed from Tehuantepec in July of that year, with two vessels, one commanded by himself, the other by Juan de Mazuela. In the instructions drawn up by Cortés, of which a copy has been preserved, Mendoza was directed to sail within sight of the coast, and, at all convenient places, to land, and
54
VOYAGES OF MENDOZA, GRIJALVA, AND BECERRA. 1153%.
communicate with the natives, whom he was to conciliate by every means in his power. Should he find a country which seemed to be rich, or inhabited by civilized persons, he was immediately to return, or to send back one of his vessels, with the news .* Hurtado de Mendoza accordingly proceeded slowly along the shore of the continent, as far north-west as the 27th degree of latitude, where, finding his crew mutinous, he sent back one of his vessels, with the greater part of his men, and continued the voyage, with a small crew, in the other. The vessel sent back reached Culiacan River in great distress, and was there deserted by nearly all her men. Her commander then endeavored, with the remainder of his crew, to carry her to Acapulco : but she was stranded at the mouth of the River of Vanderas, near the point now called Cape Corrientes, and all on board, with the exception of three, were put to death by the natives of the country, after which the vessel was seized and plun- dered by Nuño de Guzman. As to the vessel in which Mendoza continued his voyage, a vague account was received, that she had been thrown on the coast far north, and that all her crew had perished.
Cortés did not receive the news of the loss of the vessel which had been sent back by Hurtado de Mendoza until the middle of the following year; and he then immediately despatched two ships from Tehuantepec, in search of the other vessel, under the command, respectively, of Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra. These ships left the port together, on the 30th of September, 1533, but were soon after separated. Grijalva, going far out, discovered a group of islands situated about fifty leagues from the coast, named by him Islands of St. Thomas, (the same now called the Revillagigedo Islands,) where he remained until the following spring, and then returned to Acapulco, without having seen any new part of the continent. Becerra, with the other ship, took his course north-westward along the shore of Xalisco, near which his crew mutinied, and he was murdered by the pilot, Fortuño Ximenes. The mutineers, under the command of the pilot, then steered directly west from the main-land, and soon reached a coast not before known, on which they landed, after anchoring their ship in a small bay, near the 23d degree of latitude. There, more than twenty of their number, including Ximenes, were
* Herrera, Decade v. book vii. - Manuscript letters and memorials from Cortés to the emperor, in 1539 and 1540; and from Nuno de Guzman, in 1535 and 1540.
55
CORTES LANDS IN CALIFORNIA.
1535.]
killed by the natives ; the survivors succeeded in carrying the vessel over to the little harbor of Chiametla, in Xalisco, where she also was seized by Nuño de Guzman.
These attempts of Cortés to make discoveries in the north-west, had, in the mean time, excited Nuño de Guzman to efforts with the same object ; and he had sent several parties of men in that direc- tion, one of which appears to have traced the western shore of the continent as far as the mouth of the river now called the Colorado, and to have first brought accounts of rich and populous countries and splendid cities in the interior. Guzman had also received large accessions to his forces from Mexico, and was making many settlements, one of which soon prospered, and became, in time, the city of Guadalaxara, the second in size in New Spain.
When Cortés became assured of the seizure of his vessels by Guzman, he addressed a complaint on the subject to the Audiencia ; whose decision being, however, not so determinate in his favor as he wished, he assembled a large body of troops, and marched with them to Chiametla, where he also ordered three vessels to be sent from Tehuantepec. On the approach of these forces, Guzman advanced to meet them, but no action ensued ; and Cortés, having been joined at Chiametla by his vessels, embarked in them, with a portion of his men, and set sail for the new country, found by Ximenes in the west, which was said to abound in the finest pearls. On the 3d of May, 1535, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, according to the Roman Catholic calendar, the squadron anchored in the bay, on the shore of which the murderers of Becerra had met their fate in the preceding year ; and, in honor of the day, the name of Santa Cruz was bestowed on the place, of which possession was solemnly taken for the Spanish sovereign.
The country thus claimed by Cortés for Spain, was the south-east part of the great peninsula, which projects from the American con- tinent on the Pacific side, in nearly the same direction, and between nearly the same parallels of latitude, as that of Florida on the Atlantic side. It soon after received the name of California, respecting the origin and meaning of which, many speculations - none of them satisfactory or even ingenious - have been offered. The bay called Santa Cruz by Cortés was probably the same now known as Port La Paz, about a hundred miles from the Pacific, near the 24th degree of latitude; though some accounts place it in the immediate vicinity of the southernmost point of the peninsula.
56
CORTES SUPERSEDED BY MENDOZA.
[1537.
On the shore of this bay, surrounded by bare mountains of rock, arid and forbidding in appearance, though not more so than the sandy waste about Vera Cruz, Cortés landed with a hundred and thirty men and forty horses, and then sent back two of his vessels to Chiametla, to bring over the remainder of the forces; hoping to find, in the interior of the new country, another Mexico, in the conquest of which he might employ his powerful energies. The vessels soon reappeared, with a portion of the troops, and were again despatched to the Mexican coast, from which only one of them returned, the other having been wrecked on her way. Cortés thereupon embarked, with seventy men, for Xalisco, from which he came back, after encountering the greatest dangers, just in time to prevent the total destruction by famine of those left at Santa Cruz.
In these operations, more than a year was consumed, without obtaining any promise of advantage. The new country, so far as it had been explored, was utterly barren, and, except that a few pearls were found on the coast, destitute of all attraction for the Spaniards. The officers of the expedition were discontented : of the men, a number had died from want and disease; the others were mutinous, and cursed "Cortés, his island, his bay, and his dis- covery." *
Meanwhile his wife, becoming alarmed by the reports of the ill success of the expedition, which had reached Mexico, sent a vessel to Santa Cruz, with letters entreating his immediate return ; and he, at the same time, learned that he had been superseded in the government of New Spain by Don Antonio de Mendoza, a noble- man of high rank and character, who had already made his entrance into the capital as viceroy.
The removal of Cortes from the government of the country which had, by his means, been added to the dominions of Spain, was a heavy blow ; particularly as he was, at that moment, much embar- rassed from want of funds, his private property having been seriously injured by the expenses of his recent expeditions, from which no advantage had been obtained. He was, in consequence, obliged to return to Mexico, where he arrived in the beginning of 1537, and, soon after, to recall from Santa Cruz his lieutenant, Francisco de Ulloa, with the forces which had been left there; and, not being able, at the time, to employ his vessels, he sent two of them, under Grijalva, to Peru, laden with arms, ammunition, and provisions, in
* Bernal Dias, chap. 192.
57
RAMBLES OF CABEZA-VACA.
1527.]
aid of his friend Francisco Pizarro, who was then in great difficulties, from an extensive insurrection of the natives .*
Cortés, nevertheless, still claimed the right, in virtue of his capitulation with the sovereign, and as admiral of the South Sea, to make expeditions on that ocean for his own benefit; and he resolved to prosecute the discovery of California, by which he still expected to retrieve his fortunes, so soon as he could obtain the requisite funds. The advancement of this claim, however, brought him into collision with the new viceroy, who was an enlightened and determined man, and who had likewise become interested in the exploration of the regions north-west of Mexico, by the accounts of some persons recently arrived from that quarter; and a violent con- troversy ensued between the two chiefs, which lasted until the conqueror quitted Mexico.
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