96 Mackenzie’s Voyages

ability; and her complete assurance that her rights in the
Pacific would not be infringed by other nations.

Conquest and plunder were of more importance to her
than enterprises looking to the future. Conquering and
occupying Cuba, Florida, Venezuela, and La Plata and
carrying off the wealth of Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and
the Philippines absorbed her energies, and drew her atten-
tion away for long periods from California and the North-
West Coast.

In 1762 the great territory of Louisiana was ceded by
France to Spain, which gave her possession of the whole
of North America west of the Mississippi, except possibly
some islands and a narrow coastal strip in Alaska to which
Russia might lay claim.

The Russians had been encroaching sinus the Aleutian
Islands since Bering’s voyages, 1725-40, revealed the great
wealth in sea-otter skins to be found in those waters. —

After the Peace of Paris, 1763, both France and Britain
began sending out exploring expeditions, which were con-
ducted in a manner that gave to them the character of
political movements.

Spain consequently bestirred herself. The coast was known
to about latitude 43° north, to which point Vizcaino had
attained in 1603. But Sir Francis Drake had been as far
north as 48° twenty-four years before Vizcaino’s voyage.
After having plundered the town of Guatulaco near Acapulco,
and desiring to avoid possible interception by the Spanish,
he sailed north with the intention of crossing the Pacific,
reaching latitude 48° north on 2 June. His men began to
suffer from the cold. Returning down the coast he finally
entered Drake’s Bay a few miles north of San Francisco, in
latitude 38°, where he remained from 17 June to 23 July.
The natives entreated him to remain as their king, “‘where-