PACIFICATION OF TIERRA FIRME.
Three hundred and thirty-six years were occupied in the discovery of the western border of North America. From the time when, in 1501, the adventurous notary of Triana, Rodrigo de Bastidas, approached the Isthmus of Darien, in search of gold and pearls, till the year 1837, when Messrs Dease and Simpson, by order of the Hudson's Bay Company, completed the survey of the northern extremity, which bounds the Arctic Ocean, the intervening territory was discovered at intervals, and under widely different circumstances. During that time, under various immediate incentives, but with the broad principle of avarice underlying all, such parts of this territory as were conceived to be of sufficient value were seized, and the inhabitants made a prey to the rapacity of the invaders. Thus the purpose of the worthy notary Bastidas, the first Spaniard who visited the continent of North America, was pacific barter with the Indians; and his kind treatment was rewarded by a successful traffic. Next came Columbus, from the opposite direction, sailing southward along the coast of Honduras on his fourth voyage, in 1502. His was the nobler object of discovery. He was striving to get through or round this tierra firme which, standing between himself and his theory, persistently barred his progress westward. He had no time for barter, nor any inclination to plant settlements; he was looking for a strait or passage through or round these outer confines to the more opulent regions of India. But, unsuccessful in his laudable effort, he at length yielded to the clamorous cupidity of his crew. He permitted his brother, the Adelantado, to land and take possession of the country for the king of Spain, and, in the year following, to attempt a settlement at Veragua.
FIRST INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPEANS.
In 1506-8, Juan de Solis with Pinzon continued the search of Columbus, along the coast of Yucatan and Mexico, for a passage through to the southern ocean. The disastrous adventures of Alonzo de Ojeda, Diego de Nicuesa, and Juan de la Cosa, on the Isthmus of Darien, between the years 1507 and 1511, brought into more intimate contact the steel weapons of the chivalrous hidalgos with the naked bodies of the savages. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, after a toilsome journey across the Isthmus in 1513, was rewarded by the first view of the Pacific Ocean, of which he took possession for the king of Spain on the twenty-fifth of September. The white sails of Córdova Grijalva, and Garay, descried by the natives of Yucatan and Mexico in 1517-19, were quickly followed by Cortés and his keen-scented band of adventurers, who, received by the unsuspecting natives as gods, would have been dismissed by them as fiends had not the invasion culminated in the conquest of Mexico. During the years 1522-24, Cortés made expeditions to Tehuantepec, Panuco, and Central America; Gil Gonzales and Cristobal de Olid invaded Nicaragua and Honduras. Nuño de Guzman in 1530, with a large force, took possession of the entire northern country from the city of Mexico to the northern boundary of Sinaloa; and Cabeza de Vaca crossed the continent from Texas to Sinaloa in the years 1528-36. Journeys to the north were made by Cortés, Ulloa, Coronado, Mendoza, and Cabrillo between the years 1536 and 1542. Hundreds of Roman Catholic missionaries, ready to lay down their lives in their earnest anxiety for the souls of the Indians, spread out into the wilderness in every direction. During the latter part of the sixteenth century had place,—the expedition of Francisco de Ibarra to Sinaloa in 1556, the campaign of Hernando de Bazan against the Indians of Sinaloa in 1570, the adventures of Oxenham in Darien in 1575, the voyage round the world of Sir Francis Drake, touching upon the Northwest Coast in 1579; the expedition of Antonio de Espejo to New Mexico in 1583; Francisco de Gali's return from Macao to Mexico, by way of the Northwest Coast, in 1584; the voyage of Maldonado to the imaginary Straits of Anian in 1588; the expedition of Castaño de Sosa to New Mexico in 1590; the voyage of Juan de Fuca to the Straits of Anian in 1592; the wreck of the 'San Agustin' upon the Northwest Coast in 1595; the voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino towards California in 1596; the discoveries of Juan de Oñate in New Mexico in 1599, and many others. Intercourse with the natives was extended during the seventeenth century by the voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino from Mexico to California in 1602; by the expedition of Francisco de Ortega to Lower California in 1631; by the journey of Thomas Gage from Mexico to Guatemala in 1638; by the voyage round the world of William Dampier in 1679; by the reckless adventures of the Buccaneers from 1680 to 1690; by the expedition of Isidor de Otondo into Lower California in 1683; by the expedition of Father Kino to Sonora and Arizona in 1683; by the expeditions of Kino, Kappus, Mange, Bernal, Carrasco, Salvatierra, and others to Sonora and Arizona in 1694-9; and by the occupation of Lower California by the Jesuits, Salvatierra, Ugarte, Kino, and Piccolo, from 1697 to 1701. Voyages of circumnavigation were made by Dampier in 1703-4; by Rogers in 1708-11; by Shelvocke in 1719-22, and by Anson in 1740-4. Frondac made a voyage from China to California in 1709.
The first voyage through Bering Strait is supposed to have been made by Semun Deschneff and his companions in the year 1648, and purports to have explored the Asiatic coast from the river Kolyma to the south of the river Anadir, thus proving the separation of the continents of Asia and America. In 1711, a Russian Cossack, named Popoff, was sent from the fort on the Anadir river to subdue the rebellious Tschuktschi of Tschuktschi Noss, a point of land on the Asiatic coast near to the American continent. He there received from the natives the first intelligence of the proximity of the continent of America and the character of the inhabitants; an account of which will be given in another place. In 1741, Vitus Bering and Alexei Tschirikoff sailed in company, from Petropaulovski, for the opposite coast of America. They parted company during a storm, the latter reaching the coast in latitude fifty-six, and the former landing at Cape St Elias in latitude sixty degrees north. The earliest information concerning the Aleutian Islanders was obtained by the Russians in the year 1745, when Michael Nevodtsikoff sailed from the Kamtchatka river in pursuit of furs. A Russian commercial company, called the Promyschleniki, was formed, and other hunting and trading voyages followed. Lasareff visited six islands of the Andreanovski group in 1761; and the year following was made the discovery of the Alaskan Peninsula, supposed to be an island until after the survey of the coast by Captain Cook. Drusinin made a hunting expedition to Unalaska and the Fox Islands in 1763; and, during the same year, Stephen Glottoff visited the island of Kadiak. Korovin, Solovieff, Synd, Otseredin, Krenitzen, and other Russian fur-hunters spent the years 1762-5 among the Aleutian Islands, capturing sea-otters, seals, and foxes, and exchanging, with the natives, beads and iron utensils, for furs.
OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA.
A grand missionary movement, growing out of the religious rivalries of the two great orders of the Catholic Church, led to the original occupation of Upper California by Spaniards. The work of Christianizing Lower California was inaugurated by the Jesuits, under Fathers Salvatierra and Kino, in 1697. When the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico in 1767, their missions were turned over to the Franciscans. This so roused the zeal of the Dominicans that they immediately appealed to Spain, and in 1769 obtained an edict, giving them a due share in the missions of Lower California. The Franciscans, thinking it better to carry their efforts into new fields than to contend for predominance at home, generously offered to cede the whole of Lower California to the Dominicans, and themselves retire to the wild and distant regions of Upper California. This being agreed upon, two expeditions were organized to proceed northward simultaneously, one by water and the other by land. In January, 1769, the ship 'San Carlos,' commanded by Vicente Vila, was dispatched for San Diego, followed by the 'San Antonio,' under Juan Perez, and the 'San José,' which was unfortunately lost. The land expedition was separated into two divisions; the first under Rivera y Moncada departed from Mexico in March, and arrived at San Diego in May; the second under Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra reached San Diego in July, 1769. Portolá with his companions immediately set out by land for the Bay of Monterey; but, unwittingly passing it by, they continued northward until barred in their progress by the magnificent Bay of San Francisco. Unable to find the harbor of Monterey, they returned to San Diego in January, 1770. In April, Portolá made a second and more successful attempt, and arrived at Monterey in May. Meanwhile Perez and Junípero Serra accomplished the voyage by sea, sailing in the 'San Carlos.' In 1772, Pedro Fages and Juan Crespi proceeded from Monterey to explore the Bay of San Francisco. They were followed by Rivera y Moncada in 1774, and Palou and Ezeta in 1775; and in 1776, Moraga founded the Mission of Dolores. In 1775, Bodega y Quadra voyaged up the Californian coast to the fifty-eighth parallel. In 1776, Dominguez and Escalante made an expedition from Santa Fé to Monterey. Menonville journeyed to Oajaca in New Spain in 1777. In 1778, Captain Cook, in his third voyage round the world, touched along the Coast from Cape Flattery to Norton Sound; and in 1779, Bodega y Quadra, Maurelle, and Arteaga voyaged up the western coast to Mount St Elias. During the years 1785-8, voyages of circumnavigation were made by Dixon and Portlock, and by La Pérouse, all touching upon the Northwest Coast.
French Canadian traders were the first to penetrate the northern interior west of Hudson Bay. Their most distant station was on the Saskatchewan River, two thousand miles from civilization, in the heart of an unknown wilderness inhabited by savage men and beasts. These coureurs des bois or wood-rangers, as they were called, were admirably adapted, by their disposition and superior address, to conciliate the Indians and form settlements among them. Unrestrained, however, by control, they committed excesses which the French government could check only by prohibiting, under penalty of death, any but its authorized agents from trading within its territories. British merchants at New York soon entered into competition with the fur princes of Montreal. But, in 1670, a more formidable opposition arose in the organization of the Hudson's Bay Company, by Prince Rupert and other noblemen, under a charter of Charles II. which granted exclusive right to all the territory drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. Notwithstanding constant feuds with the French merchants regarding territorial limits, the company prospered from the beginning, paying annual dividends of twenty-five and fifty per cent. after many times increasing the capital stock. In 1676, the Canadians formed the Compagnie du Nord, in order the more successfully to resist encroachment. Upon the loss of Canada by the French in 1762, hostilities thickened between the companies, and the traffic for a time fell off. In 1784, the famous Northwest Company was formed by Canadian merchants, and the management entrusted to the Frobisher brothers and Simon M'Tavish. The head-quarters of the company were at Montreal, but annual meetings were held, with lordly state, at Fort William, on the shore of Lake Superior. The company consisted of twenty-three partners, and employed over two thousand clerks and servants. It exercised an almost feudal sway over a wide savage domain, and maintained a formidable competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, with which they were for two years in actual war. In 1813, they purchased, from the partners of John Jacob Astor, the settlement of Astoria on the Columbia River. In 1821, they united with the Hudson's Bay Company; and the charter covering the entire region occupied by both was renewed by act of Parliament. In 1762, some merchants of New Orleans organized a company which was commissioned by D'Abadie, director-general of Louisiana, under the name of Pierre Ligueste Laclède, Antoine Maxan, and Company. Their first post occupied the spot upon which the city of St Louis is now situated; and, under the auspices of the brothers Chouteau, they penetrated northwestward beyond the Rocky Mountains. In 1808, the Missouri Fur Company was formed at St Louis, consisting of the Chouteaus and others; and an expedition under Major Henry was sent across the Rocky Mountains, which established the first post on the Columbia River. Between the years 1825 and 1830, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company of St Louis extended their operations over California and Oregon, but at a loss of the lives of nearly one half of their employés. John Jacob Astor embarked in the fur trade at New York in 1784, purchasing at that time in Montreal. In 1808, he obtained a charter for the American Fur Company, which was, in 1811, merged into the Southwest Company. In 1809, Mr Astor conceived the project of establishing a transcontinental line of posts. His purpose was to concentrate the fur trade of the United States, and establish uninterrupted communication between the Pacific and the Atlantic. He made proposals of association to the Northwest Company, which were not only rejected, but an attempt was made by that association to anticipate Mr Astor in his operations, by making a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River. In 1810, the Pacific Fur Company was founded by Mr Astor, and an expedition dispatched overland by way of St Louis and the Missouri River. At the same time a vessel was sent round Cape Horn to the mouth of the Columbia; but, their adventure in that quarter proving unsuccessful, the company was dissolved, and the operations of Mr Astor were thereafter confined to the territory east of the Rocky Mountains.
THE GREAT NORTHWEST.
Samuel Hearne, an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, was the first European to reach the Arctic Ocean through the interior of the continent. He descended Coppermine River to its mouth in the year 1771. The Upper Misinipi River was first visited by Joseph Frobisher in 1775. Three years later, one Peter Pond penetrated to within thirty miles of Athabasca Lake, and established a trading post at that point. Four canoe-loads of merchandise were exchanged by him for more fine furs than his canoes could carry. Other adventurous traders soon followed; but not long afterwards the inevitable broils which always attended the early intercourse of Europeans and Indians, rose to such a height that, but for the appearance of that terrible scourge, the small-pox, the traders would have been extirpated. The ravages of this dire disease continued to depopulate the country until 1782, when traders again appeared among the Knisteneaux and Tinneh. The most northern division of the Northwest Company was at that time the Athabascan Lake region, where Alexander Mackenzie was the managing partner. His winter residence was at Fort Chipewyan, on Athabasca Lake. The Indians who traded at his establishment informed him of the existence of a large river flowing to the westward from Slave Lake. Thinking thereby to reach the Pacific Ocean, Mr Mackenzie, in the year 1789, set out upon an expedition to the west; and, descending the noble stream which bears his name, found himself, contrary to his expectations, upon the shores of the Arctic Sea. In 1793, he made a journey to the Pacific, ascending Peace River, and reaching the coast in latitude about fifty-two. The first expedition organized by the British government for the purpose of surveying the northern coast, was sent out under Lieutenants Franklin and Parry in 1819. During the year following, Franklin descended Coppermine River, and subsequently, in 1825, he made a journey down the Mackenzie. In 1808, D. W. Harmon, a partner in the Northwest Company, crossed the Rocky Mountains, at about the fifty-sixth parallel, to Fraser and Stuart Lakes. The accounts of the natives given by these travelers and their companions are essentially the same, and later voyagers have failed to throw much additional light upon the subject. John Meares, in 1788, visited the Straits of Fuca, Nootka Sound, and Cook Inlet; and, during the same year, two ships, sent out by Boston merchants, under Robert Gray and John Kendrick, entered Nootka Sound. Estevan Martinez and Gonzalo Haro, sent from Mexico to look after the interest of Spain in these regions, explored Prince William Sound, and visited Kadiak. During the same year, the Russians established a trading post at Copper River. In 1789, Joseph Billings visited the Aleutian Islands, and the Boston vessels explored the Eastern coast of Queen Charlotte Island. In 1790, Salvador Fidalgo was sent by the Mexican government to Nootka; and Monaldo explored the Straits of Juan de Fuca. In 1791, four ships belonging to Boston merchants, two Spanish ships, one French and several Russian vessels touched upon the Northwest Coast. The Spanish vessels were under the command of Alejandro Malespina; Etienne Marchand was the commander of the French ship. The 'Sutil y Mexicana' entered Nootka Sound in 1792; and during the same year, Vancouver commenced his explorations along the coast above Cape Flattery. In 1803-4, Baron Von Humboldt was making his searching investigations in Mexico; while the captive New Englander, Jewett, was dancing attendance to Maquina, king of the Nootkas. Lewis and Clark traversed the continent in 1805. In 1806, a Mr Fraser set out from Canada, and crossed the Rocky Mountains near the headwaters of the river which bears his name. He descended Fraser River to the lake which he also called after himself. There he built a fort and opened trade with the natives. Kotzebue visited the coast in 1816; and the Russian expedition under Kramchenko, Wasilieff, and Etolin, in 1822. Captain Morrel explored the Californian coast from San Diego to San Francisco in 1825; Captains Beechey and Lütke, the Northwest Coast in 1826; and Sir Edward Belcher in 1837. J. K. Townsend made an excursion west of the Rocky Mountains in 1834. In 1837, Dease and Simpson made an open boat voyage from the Mackenzie River, westward to Point Barrow, the farthest point made by Beechey from the opposite direction, thus reaching the Ultima Thule of northwestern discovery. Sir George Simpson crossed the continent in 1841, Fremont in 1843, and Paul Kane in 1845. Kushevaroff visited the coast in 1838, Laplace in 1839, Commodore Wilkes in 1841, and Captain Kellett in 1849. Following the discovery of gold, the country was deluged by adventurers. In 1853-4, commenced the series of explorations for a Pacific railway. The necessities of the natives were examined, and remnants of disappearing nations were collected upon reservations under government agents. The interior of Alaska was first penetrated by the employés of the Russian-American Fur Company. Malakoff ascended the Yukon in 1838; and, in 1842, Derabin established a fort upon that river. In 1849, W. H. Hooper made a boat expedition from Kotzebue Sound to the Mackenzie River; and, in 1866, William H. Dall and Frederick Whymper ascended the Yukon.