We Have Endeavored In This
Sketch To Give, In A Clear And Concise Form, The Conditions Which
Preceded And Led Up To The Occupation Of California.
The importance of California in relation to the control of the Pacific
was early recognized by the great European powers, some of whom had but
small respect for the Bull of Pope Alexander VI dividing the New World
between Spain and Portugal.
England, France, and Russia sent repeated
expeditions into the Pacific. In 1646 the British Admiralty sent two
ships to look in Hudson's Bay for a northwest passage to the South Sea,
one of which bore the significant name of California. The voyage of
Francis Drake, 1577-1580, was a private venture, but at Drake's Bay he
proclaimed the sovereignty of Elizabeth, and named the country New
Albion. Two hundred years later (1792-1793) Captain George Vancouver
explored the coast of California down to thirty degrees of north
latitude (Ensenada de Todos Santos), which, he says, "is the
southernmost limit of New Albion, as discovered by Sir Francis Drake, or
New California, as the Spaniards frequently call it." Even after the
occupation and settlement by the Spaniards, so feeble were their
establishments that, as Vancouver reports to the Admiralty, it would
take but a small force to wrest from Spain this most valuable
possession. But though the growing feebleness of Spain presaged the time
when her hold upon America would be loosened, the standard of individual
heroism was not lowered, and the achievements of Portola and of Anza
rank with those of De Soto and Coronado.
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