Benton County, Oregon - Chapter 1: Discovery of the Pacific, 1885

Chapter 1: Discovery of the Pacific

Prehistoric - The New World Divided between Spain and Portugal - Discovery of the South Sea - Voyage of Magellan - Naming the Pacific - Cortereal and the Straits of Anian.

Intense gloom enshrouds the history of the Pacific coast prior to the sixteenth century. The investigations of the geologist have revealed how the great inland arms of the ocean gradually became land-locked seas whose receding waters left behind the deposit of alluvium brought down from the mountains by the thousands of small streams pouring into them, by which process were evolved the great fertile valleys whose names have become the synonyms of abundance ; but of its history they are silent. The patient researches of the archaeologist have here and there cast a faint ray of light into the encircling gloom, but the fleeting outlines thus momentarily revealed serve but to confuse the mind and render more intense the deep shadow hanging over all. What races of human beings have acted here the great drama of life, their wars, customs, manner of living, religious beliefs and the degree of civilization they attained, are all hidden by an impenetrable veil. Here and there a voiceless skeleton disentoombed from its resting place for centuries far beneath the verdant carpet of the earth it once trod, silently points to ages long before the stony lips of the Sphynx were carved or the mighty Atlantis sunk beneath the seething billows of a convulsed ocean; yet of those ages it reveals naught but the simple fact of their existence.

Rude monuments of rocks and mounds of earth, a few rough carvings in the rocky walls of towering cliffs and crude paintings on the surface of huge stones, objects of superstitious awe and reverence to the simple natives, speak of races now passed away, of whom the aborigines of to-day know nothing except the faint allusion made to them in the legends of their ancestors. These traditions also speak of the presence long years ago of a race of pale faced people who visited these shores in ships, yet so intangible are they that scarcely a theory can be founded upon them; certainly nothing positive can be proved. That the Chinese or the Tartars in the years of their great warlike strength and foreign conquests may have visited the western coast of America is far from improbable ; in fact archaeologists have discovered many evidences of such visits in the crumbled ruins of Mexico, Central America and Peru, and in the customs and religious ceremonies of the people whom the conquering swords of Cortes and Pizarro so ruthlessly slaughtered ; but Oregon and Washington offer but little testimony either to confirm or confute the theory. It is quite possible, and even probable, that the traditions referred to had their rise in the visits of the early Spanish explorers. Leaving these mysteries to be revealed by the investigations of the future, let us step from out the shadow upon the lighted plain of authentic record.

Immediately upon the return of Columbus in the spring of 1493, with the startling intelligence that he had reached India in his voyage westward, for such was his belief at that time, the Spanish sovereigns applied to the Pope, who then arrogated to himself not only the spiritual but the temporal sovereignty of the universe, for special grants and privileges in all lands thus discovered. Formerly the head of the church had bestowed upon Portugal, which had for a century past been the foremost nation in making voyages of exploration and discovery, sovereign rights in the south and east, similar to those Spain now desired in the west. With an arrogance such as none but the ruler of a universe can display and a munificence to be expected only from one bestowing that which he does not possess or which costs him nothing, the successor of Peter and God's representative upon earth drew a line from pole to pole across the globe one hundred leagues west of the Azores, and assigned to Portugal all newly-discovered lands lying east of it and to Spain all lying to the westward. This partition was unsatisfactory to ambitious Portugal, and after two years of wrangling the obliging Pope moved his dividing line 270 leagues farther west.

Though the Portuguese were obedient to the Pontiff's decree and left Spain in undisputed possession of all its western discoveries, not ceasing, however, to make many voyages of exploration, this was far from being the case with the English. The sovereigns of that " tight little isle" were wont to be very independent in their conduct, and had been accustomed for some time to show little respect for the temporal authority of the Pope when it conflicted too strongly with their personal, political or territorial interests. It can well be imagined, then, that this partition of the undiscovered world into equal portions between Spain and Portugal did not deter England from making voyages of discovery to the new world and claiming sovereign rights over all lands explored, a claim which neither the Pope nor his two pet subjects dared to dispute. Following in the footsteps of her island neighbor and immemorial enemy, France, and Holland also, ignored the papal bull and in later years grasped eagerly after their share of the prize.

And what was this land towards which the eyes of the great nations of Europe were turned ? It was, as they supposed, the west coast of India, the wonderful island oi Zipango and the fabulously wealthy land of Cathay described by Marco Polo. Here was to be found the "gold of Ophir" which had enriched the kingdom of the mighty Solomon, diamonds and precious stones in abundance, and the fountain of perpetual youth. Imagination and legend had peopled it with wonderful nations and cities and had stored it with a wealth of precious stones and metals such as the known portions of the globe never possessed. Love of dominion and cupidity, that great ruling power in human nature, led them forward in the contest.

From 1492 to 1513, when Vasco Nunez gazed from the mountains upon the vast "South Sea," many voyages of discovery were made, and the Atlantic coast of America was explored by the Spanish, Portuguese and English navigators from sunny Brazil as far north as the icy shores of Labrador. These voyages had satisfied geographers that not the India of the east, but a new continent, probably a great eastern extension of Asia, had been found by Columbus, and that this must be crossed or circumnavigated before reaching the hoarded treasures of Cathay. Indeed as early as 1498 Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese, reached India by sailing eastward around the Cape of Good Hope, and it was plainly evident that between that point (Calcutta) and the farthest point yet reached to the westward lay many wide leagues of land and water, unexplored and unknown. The idea prevailed that a great sea existed to the southwast beyond this new land of America, an idea which was strengthened and supported by statements of the natives carried as slaves to Europe in every returning vessel, and, indeed, several efforts had been made to pass into this unknown sea by going southward along the coast of America. The title of "America" had been applied to the southern half of our continent which was at first supposed to be separate and distinct from the northern half, or Asia, as it was believed to be.

It was a quiet day in September, 1513, that Vasco Nufiez de Balboa gazed from the mountain tops of Central America upon the sleeping waters of the Pacific, upon which the eye of a Caucasian then rested for the first time. Having crossed the narrow isthmus joining the two Americas from his starting point at the Spanish settlement of Antigua on the gulf of Uraba, he was guided by a native to a point from which he saw the unknown ocean glistening in the sun far beneath him. As at that point the isthmus runs east and west, the Atlantic beating against its shores on the north and the Pacific lapping its sandy beach on the south, he christened the latter the u South Sea," while the Atlantic was by way of contrast named the " North Sea ;" though this latter title was soon transferred to a supposed ocean lying north of America, separated from the South sea by a narrow isthmus similar to that of Panama, and connected with it by a short strait, as will appear further on.

The announcement that this great " South Sea" actually existed led to increased exertions to discover a route by which vessels could pass around America and traverse the unknown ocean in search of the Indies. It soon became evident that America united with the supposed land of Asia lying north of it to form a either new continent hitherto entirely unknown, or a great southeastern extension of Asia equally a stranger to geography. Exertions to discover the supposed southern passage to the great South sea were then redoubled, and in five years were crowned with complete success. A Portuguese navigator, a native of Oporto, but sailing under the Spanish flag, commanded the first vessel that plowed Pacific waters, and to this expedition is due the further honor of making the first complete navigation of the globe, proving conclusively what all geographers of the time had learned to believe, that the world was round and could be encompassed by the traveler by going either east or west. The name of this celebrated navigator, whose voyage was second only to the one made by Columbus in 1492 in the knowledge it revealed of the earth's geography, was Ferdinaudo de Magalhaens, spelled Magallanes by the Spaniards and by English authors given as Magellan. He had made several voyages for Portugal rift the Cape of Good Hope, but becoming dissatisfied had left his native land and entered the service of Spain, to again attempt for that nation the effort of reaching the east by sailing westward. His special destination was the Moluccas, then claimed by Spain, and to aid him on his voyage he possessed a chart upon which was designated a passage into the South sea ; but instead of the open sea which it actually is, this chart exhibited a narrow strait piercing the body of the southern half of America. The origin of this chart and the authority for marking upon it such an utterly incorrect geographical feature, are unknown ; but the probabilities are that the chart embraced the idea of some geographer as to what the nature of the desired passage into the South sea must be, and was founded solely upon theory. That this was probably the case is supported by the fact that a somewhat similar passage was supposed to lead through North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In fact it took nearly three centuries to prove the Straits of Anian to be utterly fabulous and mythical.

On the twentieth of September, 1519, Magellan sailed from San Lucar with five vessels and 265 men, reached Rio de Janeiro on the Brazilian coast December 13, and coasted thence to the southward, carefully exploring every promising bay and inlet. When he reached the broad estuary of the Rio de la Plata, he thought surely the longsought strait had been discovered, but all efforts to pass through the continent by that route were completely unsuccessful. There was no passage through the huge rocky wall of the Andes. Abandoning the attempt he sailed again southward, reaching Port St. Julian, about 49° south latitude, on the thirty-first of March, where he remained five months. August 24, 1520, he again resumed his search, and on the twenty-first of October reached Cabo de las Virgenes, at the entrance of the long-sought straits, having lost one vessel by shipwreck and one by desertion. With the remaining three he passed through, naming the land to the southward " Terre del Fuego," because of the many fires seen burning there. Upon the strait itself he bestowed the title " Vitorio," the name of one of his ships, though it has always properly been known as the Straits of Magellan. His passage through them of thirty-six days was a tempestuous and dangerous one, and when his vessel's prow cleaved the waters of the great unplowed sea on the twenty-seventh of November, the contrast between its quiet and smiling waters and the foam-lashed breakers of the tortuous strait was so great and so suggestive that he bestowed the name Pacific upon it. This circumstance and title are recorded in an account of the voyage written in Italian by Antonio Pigafretta, afterward Caviliere di Rhodi, who accompanied the great explorer.

Immediately upon entering the Pacific ocean Magellan steered to the northwest to reach a warmer climate, crossed the line February 13, 1521, arrived at the Ladrones March 6, and at the Philippines on the sixteenth of the same month. Here he was killed in a battle with the natives April 27, and the survivors of the expedition, numbering 115 men, continued the voyage under the leadership of Caraballo. They touched at Borneo and other islands, and reached the goal of their voyage, the Moluccas, on the eighth of November. One of the vessels, the Vitorio, in command of Sebastian del Cano, sailed again westward from the Moluccas, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached San Lucar September 6, 1522, with only eighteen survivors of the 265 who started upon the expedition, having been gone three years and accomplished the first complete circumnavigation of the globe. The new ocean was variously known for a number of years as South sea, Magellan's sea and Pacific ocean, the last title gradually superseding the others until it became universal.

Pacific Coast

This wonderful voyage naturally altered the popular idea of the new land which Columbus had discovered. The vast extent of the Pacific ocean and its apparently unlimited stretch to the northward convinced the map makers that their former idea was erroneous, and that the new land, or " Novus Mundus" as the name appears on many ancient maps, could not possibly be an eastern extension of Asia. They then came to believe that America and Novus Mundus were united by the Isthmus of Panama to form an entirely new continent, and that the true Asia lay still further to the west across the new ocean. The direct and natural result of this idea was a belief that a passage into the Pacific could be discovered by sailing around the north end of Novus Mundus as easily as Magellan had found one by going to the southward of America. In fact such a passage as this was supposed to have been discovered in the year 1500 by the Portuguese navigator, Gaspar Cortereal, the first explorer of the coast of Labrador. He passed through a strait into a sea which he believed and reported to be connected with the Indian ocean. This mistaken idea was not so proven until modern explorers demonstrated the fact that no such passage exists south of the ice-bound waters of the Arctic ocean. He had in fact passed through the straits and entered the bay afterwards entered and named by Hudson in his own honor. Upon the maps for many years straits of this character, leading indefinitely westward, were marked and called Straits of Labrador until their extent and the character of the sea into which they led were revealed by the later explorations of Hudson and others. The name Cortereal bestowed upon them, however, was Straits of Anian, though what was the significance of the title has never been satisfactorily explained. The Straits of Anian seemed in later years to become entirely disassociated in the minds of explorers from the Straits of Labrador or Hudson, and the universal idea of them seems to have been that of a narrow passage from sea to sea, between the continents of America and Asia. What caused this peculiar notion it is impossible to state, and the supposed passage is now universally referred to by historians as the "Fabulous Straits of Anian." To find it the English, French and Spanish searched diligently along the Atlantic coast, while the Spaniards, alone, sailing northward from the Pacific coast of Mexico, explored along our western shore for more than two centuries before the belief in its existence was finally abandoned.

Leaving the former and the results of their voyages to be referred to briefly further on, let us turn our attention to those voyages in the Pacific which made known to the world the geography of the northern Pacific coast.