The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913 Page: 72

72 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
regard to the safety of their possessions. Cook's third voyage was
made for the purpose of examining the northwest coast for a pas-
sage or strait to the Atlantic; this was not found, but the indirect
result of the voyage was the beginning of the fur trade on the
northwest coast by English and American ships. The opposition
of the Spanish authorities in Mexico to this trade led to the Nootka
Sound controversy which gave world-wide prominence to the north-
west coast and terminated Spain's claims to sovereignty north of
California. Before the Nootka affair had been finally settled be-
tween England and Spain the United States had acquired a first
footing on the Pacific through the discovery of the Columbia
River by Captain Gray on May 11, 1792. The next year, more-
over, the continent was crossed for the first time.
The progress of the French across the continent that gave con-
cern to Galvez and the junta of 1768 in the city of Mexico, reached
its farthest point west in La V6rendrye's discovery of the Rocky
Mountains in January, 1743. Years elapsed, however, before this
discovery was followed up, and then it was by English fur traders.
In 1769 Samuel Hearne was sent out by the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany and before his return in 1772 had reached the Arctic Ocean
at the mouth of the Coppermine River. In 1789 Alexander Mac-
kenzie, a member of the Northwest Company, explored to its
mouth the river that bears his name; four years later he crossed
the Canadian Rockies and reached the Pacific Ocean opposite
Queen Charlotte Island on the 22d of July, 1793.
It was not Mackenzie's route, however, but that of Lewis and
Clark that proved to be the long-sought substitute for the north-
westerly route to California. The line of approach in the latter
case was by the Missouri River, which had previously been ex-
plored as far as the Mandan nation in North Dakota by the sub-
jects of Spain in Upper Louisiana. Lewis and Clark made the
overland journey from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia
River and return between 1804 and 1806. In reality the Ameri-
can approach to California involves the entire history of the "west-
ward movement" from ocean to ocean. By this expedition, joined
with the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, it was advanced to the
Pacific Ocean. With the acquisition of Louisiana fur traders and
trappers overran the new territory and penetrated again beyond
the contiguous Spanish frontier. So by the end of the third de-