divine than human to saile by the west into the east where spices grow, by a way that was never known before. By his fame and report there increaseth in my heart a flame of desire to attempt some notable thing, and understanding by reason of the sphere that, if I should sail by way of northwest, I should, by a shorter tract, come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two caravels to be furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage, which was as far as I remember here. In the year 1496, in the beginning of summer, I began therefore to saile toward the northwest, not thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay and from thence to turn toward India." Having discovered the route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, sailing eastward, Portugal next engaged in the daring enterprise of finding a way to the same destination by sailing around the northern shores of North America. It is said that as early as 1463-4 a voyage in this direction was made by John Vaz Cortereal, who sailed into these northern seas and discovered the Terrade Bac-Calhoas (the land of codfish), afterward called Newfoundland.

After the voyage of Sebastian Cabota to those northern seas, the next, as far as known, was that of Gaspar Cortereal, who sailed from the Azores in 1500. Of this voyage Ramusio says: "In the part of the new world which runs to the northwest opposite to our habitable continent of Europe, some navigators have sailed, the first of whom, as far as can be ascertained, was Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, who arrived in the year 1500, with two caravels, thinking that he might discover some strait through which he might pass, by a shorter voyage than around Africa, to the Spice Islands.

"They prosecuted their voyage in those seas until they arrived at a region of extreme cold, and in the latitude of sixty degrees north they discovered a river filled with ice to which they gave the name of Rio Nevado—that is, Snow River. They had not courage, however, to proceed further." Although this voyage was not a success in discovering a northwest passage, as was expected, Gaspar Cortereal still believed that such a passage existed, and in pursuance of that conviction he sailed again from Lisbon, May 15, 1504, on a second voyage with two vessels. In the vicinity of Greenland these vessels were separated by bad weather. Cortereal with his caravel disappeared, and after long delay in searching for him his consort returned to Lisbon and reported his loss.

In the history of these voyages Cortereal was credited with having discovered a strait to which the name of Anian was given. Whether so named because of two brothers of that name who accompanied the expedition, or that a province in the northwest corner of America was called Ania, or because on early maps there was marked an Asiatic province of that name, or that an island off the coast of China was reported to be named Anian, is still a matter

of uncertainty. The origin of the name is thus referred to by Hakluyt: "An excellent learned man of Portingale, of singular gravety, authorite and experience, told me very lately that one Annus Cortereal, captayne of the Yle Torcera about the yeare 1574, which is not above eight years past, sent a shippe to discover the northwest passage of America and that same shippe arriving on the coast of the saide America, in fiftie-eighte degrees of latitude, founde a great entrance exceeding deepe and broade without all impediment of ice, into which they passed about twenty leagues, and found it alwaies to trende toward the south, the land lying lowe and plaine on eyther side, and they persuaded themselves surely that there was a way open into the South Sea."

The origin of the name Anian has therefore never been precisely determined. In like manner the straits of that name existed only in the imagination of the bold navigators who for three centuries wished to find a shorter route to the East Indies by sailing westward. It was natural that Gaspar Cortereal, in 1504, should have believed he had found these straits, when, after sailing around the Coast of Labrador he entered Hudson's Bay and thus penetrated almost into the heart of North America. The short season in these northern latitudes and frozen seas did not permit him to make a thorough investigation of the possibilities of sailing still further to the westward, and he was more excusable for reporting the discovery of a Northwest passage than were many others who claimed to have made the same discovery either by the wilful circulation of reports they knew to be false or by the exercise of a vivid imagination which led them to believe that the Gulf of California, or the Bay of San Francisco, or other bodies of water into which they had entered on the Pacific Coast, or Chesapeake or Delaware Bay on the Atlantic was the entrance to the much sought for and desired means of water communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Along with fabulous reports of rich cities like Cibolo, sought for by Coronado in New Mexico and Arizona, the Fountain of Youth, for the discovery of which Ponce de Leon penetrated the everglades of Florida and Fernando de Soto the swamps of Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, of mines of gold, silver and precious stones, for which the Spaniards roamed over all of South and a large part of North America, many stories were told of the finding of the "Straits of Anian" which were proved from time to time to be fictitious, yet these stories only stimulated further efforts in the same direction and for the same purpose. Whether the reputed discovery of those straits by Juan de Fuca in 1592 be true or false has long been a mooted question. In the history of that discovery as related by Michael Lok, Senior, British consul at Aleppo, it is stated that Juan de Fuca, whose real name was Apostolus Valerianus, was at one time a Greek pilot, and was in the Spanish service forty years. In 1592 the

Viceroy of Mexico sent him on a voyage of discovery to the northwest coast of America. "Hee followed the coast of California and Oregon, etc., until hee came to the latitude of forty-seven degrees, and there finding that the land trended North and North East, with a broad Inlet of Sea between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, hee entered thereinto, sayling therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometimes North West and North East and North and also East and South East Ward, and very much broader sea than was at said entrance, and he passed divers islands in that sayling. "And at the entrance of the said strait there is on the North West coast thereof a great Headland or Island with an exceeding high Pinnacle or spired rock like a pillar thereupon.

"Hee went on land in divers places and saw some people on land, clad in Beasts' skins, and that the land is very fruitful and rich of Gold, Silver, Pearls, and other things like Nova Spain. And also hee said that hee being entered thus farre into said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the Sea wide enough everywhere, and to be about thirtie or fortie leagues wide in the mouth of the strait where he entered, hee thought hee had now well discharged his office and done the thing hee was sent to doe, and that hee not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that might happen, hee therefore set sayle and returned homewards againe towards Nova Spain, where he arrived at Acapulco, Anno 1592.'

Commenting on this passage, the late Rear Admiral T. S. Phelps, of the United States Navy, in his Reminiscences of Seattle, says: "By this brief history it appears that Juan de Fuca, in twenty days, sailed from the Pacific through the strait bearing his name, then by Canal de Haro, through the Gulf of Georgia and Johnson's Strait, and finally reached the ocean by the Goleto Channel; when, supposing he had arrived in the Atlantic, through the long sought Northwest passage, and being satisfied with his discovery, he retraced his steps, and during a period of one hundred and ninety-seven years rested under the imputation of having coined the story of his discovery out of the material found in his own fertile brain, and it was as late as 1789 before his veracity became established in the rediscovery of the strait by Captain Kendrick, on the American sloop Washington. Even the famous Captain Cook, who went in stays and headed seaward, while his eyes were unconsciously resting on the identical passage he was seeking, died in the belief that it existed only in the imagination of its reputed discoverer.

"To the present day doubts exist in the minds of some writers regarding De Fuca's credibility, and much adverse criticism has been indulged in by later navigators concerning his reliability, consequent in a great measure upon the obscure wording of the paragraph, ‘And at the entrance of the said strait there is on the northwest coast thereof a great headland or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle or spired rock like a pillar thereupon.'

"This description apparently applies to the western entrance of the strait under consideration, and the locality of the 'high Pinnacle or spired rock' is naturally ascribed to a position on the northwest side of the entrance near Vancouver's Island, where to all observers an object of this description never did exist.

"All doubt on this subject is at once removed by applying the paragraph in question to the western entrance of Johnson's Straits, or rather, to the Goleto Channel at the northwest end of Vancouver's Island, where it properly belongs, and then on Mt. Lemon, near the southwest end of Galiano Island, a remarkable promontory, twelve hundred feet high, we find a solution of the difficulty, and that ‘at the entrance of said strait'-calling the various bodies of water separating Vancouver from the mainland as one continuous strait 'there is on the Northwest coast thereof a great headland or Island with an exceeding high Pinnacle or spired rock like a pillar thereon,' which fully answers the description and reconciles the paragraph with the truth as we find it in nature."

It is sufficient in this place to say that the best efforts of the most distinguished navigators of the Spanish, English, Dutch, French and Portuguese nations were exerted in the persistent endeavor to find a passage by water through the North American continent. The long continued search for the "Strait of Anian" was followed in more recent years by the efforts of modern seamen, quite as brave, persevering and heroic as were Columbus and his successors, in sailing into unknown seas and enduring the severities of Arctic. winters in order that they might find a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The lives of Sir John Franklin and many others have been sacrificed in the interests of science, discovery and navigation in the frozen seas around the North Pole, and in fruitless efforts, thus far, to find a new and nearer route to the sunny shores of "old Japan," and the rich cities of a civilization which antedates by thousands of years our western or modern intelligence.

Water communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific around the northern coasts of North America was eventually discovered and traversed 1851-1854 by some of these intrepid explorers, more particularly by Sir Robert John McClure of the English navy, but because it is obstructed by fields and mountains of ice and subject to the rigors of a high northern latitude, it has never been available for commercial purposes. Later on, in 18781879, an eastern passage around northern Europe and Asia from the west to the east was effected by the Swedish navigator Nordenskiold after three centuries of unsuccessful efforts.

CHAPTER IV.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES IN THE NEW WORLD.

Strange as it may appear, the discovery of America was a disappointment to Christopher Columbus. He had hoped to find, by sailing westward, a direct route to the East Indies. This was the great object of his ambition. Instead of this, he found the new world an obstacle in his path. Of its extent, beauty or immense natural resources, and of its importance to succeeding generations, he knew nothing whatever.

The envy, malice and jealousy of his associates made the closing years. of his life miserable. At one time he was sent back to Spain in irons by unworthy men who had been placed, temporarily, over the greatest navigator of modern times. He suffered from the neglect and ingratitude of the Spanish government which had been immortalized by his genius and enterprise.

As Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land, though he had led the Israelites for forty days through the wilderness, so Columbus was not allowed to see or realize the greatness of the work he had so successfully accomplished. In like manner Abraham Lincoln was not suffered to see the blessings and benefits resulting from a reunited country, although he had conducted it through one of the most bloody and expensive wars ever waged in human history.

But the discovery of America was the beginning of a long series of exploring expeditions, both by land and water, which were conducted with extraordinary vigor and enterprise for more than one hundred years after the initial event took place in 1492. These explorations not only brought to light the character and extent of the new world, but they resulted in new discoveries elsewhere, and in penetrating into every part of the globe and making known seas and islands never before heard of, with tribes and races of men which, prior to these discoveries, had only existed in the imagination of the people of the old or civilized world.

These expeditions were sent out by Spain, France, England, Holland and other European nations, who were all eager to reap some of the rich harvest expected from the conquest of lands that were the possible or reputed possessors of fabulous wealth in gold and silver, pearls, precious stones and gems, spices and other products of labor, or gifts of a beneficent nature that were supposed to be lavished upon these unknown and undeveloped countries. These lands and seas were supposed to possess untold wealth, and imagination ran wild in its efforts to picture the riches that might be derived from their acquisition and control.

The people of Spain, inspired by their success in overcoming the Moors,