Before Relating The Story Of Portola's March, Let Us Consider For A Moment The Situation Of California In Its Relation To Spain And Other European Nations, And We Will Then Understand Why Spain Found It Necessary To Occupy The Country.

When Legaspi completed the conquest of the Philippines in 1565, he sent his flagship, the San Pedro, back to New Spain under command of his grandson, Felipe Salcedo, with orders to survey and chart a practicable route for ships returning from the Islands.

The San Pedro sailed from Cebu, June 1, 1565, and took her course east-northeast to the Ladrones, thence northward to latitude thirty-eight, thence sailing eastward, following the Kuroshiwo, the Black Current of Japan, they made a landfall on the coast of California about the latitude of Cape Mendocino. A sail of two thousand five hundred miles down the coasts of California and New Spain brought the voyagers to the port of Acapulco. This route was charted by the priests on board the San Pedro, and for nearly three centuries was the one followed by the galleons of Spain sailing from Manila to Acapulco. The voyage across the Pacific was a long one and ships in distress were obliged to put about and make for Japan. A harbor on the coast of California in which ships could find shelter and repair damages was greatly desired. A survey of the unknown coasts of the South Sea, as it was called, was ordered, and it was also suggested that the explorations be extended beyond the forty-second degree of north latitude, it being held that the coast was a part of the same continent as that of China, or only separated therefrom by the narrow strait of Anian, which was believed to open in latitude forty-two.

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