AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.

IX. JOHN DE FUCA.

WHEN the existence of a western continent was known to the maritime nations of Europe, one great object of their inquiry was to find, through some openings which appeared in it, a passage to India and China. For this purpose several expensive and unsuccessful voyages were made; and every hint which could throw any light on the subject was eagerly sought and attended to by those who considered its importance.

JOHN DE FUCA* was a Greek, born in the Island of Cephalonia, in the Adriatic Gulf. He had been employed in the service of Spain, in the West Indies, as a mariner and pilot, above forty years. Having lost his fortune, amounting, as he said, to sixty thousand ducats, when the Acapulco ship was taken by Captain Cavendish, an Englishman, and being disappointed of the recompense

* [Commonly known by that name, though properly called Apostolos Valerianos.-Purchas, iii., 849.-H.]

which he had expected from the court of Spain, he returned in disgust to his native country by the way of Italy, that he might spend the evening of his life in peace and poverty among his friends.

At Florence he met with John Douglas,* an Englishman, and went with him to Venice. There Douglas introduced him to Michael Lock, who had been consul of the Turkey Company† at Aleppo, and was then occasionally resident in Venice (A.D. 1596).

In conversation with Mr. Lock, De Fuca gave him the following account of his adven

tures.

"That he had been sent by the Viceroy of Mexico, as pilot of three small vessels, to discover the Straits of Anian on the western coast of America, through which it was conjectured that a passage might be found into some of the deep bays on the eastern side of the continent. This voyage was frustrated by

* [Douglas is called "a famous mariner," and was then on his way to pilot a Venetian ship to England.-H.]

+ [The first charter of this company was granted in 1581 to Edward Osborn (the first governor), Thomas Smith (afterward governor), and others, with the privilege of an exclusive trade to Turkey for seven years. It was made a perpetual corporation, with the power of regular succession, in 1605.-Anderson's History of Commerce, fol. i., 423 and 468.-H.]

the misconduct of the commander and the mutiny of the seamen.

"In 1592 the viceroy sent him again, with the command of a caravel and a pinnace, on the same enterprise. Between the latitudes of 47° and 48° N. he discovered an inlet, into which he entered and sailed more than twenty days. At the entrance was a great headland, with an exceedingly high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar. Within the strait the land stretched N.W., and also E. and S.E. It was much wider within than at the entrance, and contained many islands. The inhabitants were clad in the skins of beasts. The land appeared to be fertile like that of New-Spain, and was rich in gold and silver. Supposing that he had accomplished the intention of the voyage and penetrated into the North Sea, but not being strong enough to resist the force of the numerous savages who appeared on the shore, he returned to Acapulco before the expiration of the year."

Such was the account given by De Fuca; and Mr. Lock was so impressed with the sincerity of the relation and the advantages which his countrymen might derive from a knowledge of this strait, that he earnestly, urged him to enter into the service of Queen

He

Elizabeth and perfect the discovery. succeeded so far as to obtain a promise from the Greek, though sixty years old, that, if the queen would furnish him with one ship of forty tons and a pinnace, he would undertake the voyage. He was the more easily persuaded to this by a hope that the queen would make him some recompense for the loss of his fortune by Captain Cavendish.

Mr. Lock wrote to the Lord-treasurer Cecil, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Mr. Hakluyt, requesting that they would forward the scheme, and that one hundred pounds might be advanced to bring De Fuca to England. The scheme was approved, but the money was not advanced. Lock was so much engaged in it that he would have sent him to England at his own expense, but he was then endeavouring to recover at law his demands from the Turkey Company, and could not disburse the money. The pilot therefore returned to Cephalonia, and Lock kept up a correspondence with him till 1602, when he heard of his death.

Though this account, preserved by Purchas,* bears sufficient marks of authenticity, yet it has been rejected as fabulous for nearly * Lib. iv., chap. xx., p. 849.

two centuries, and is treated so even by the very candid Dr. Forster.* Recent voyages, however, have established the existence of the strait,† and De Fuca is no longer to be considered as an impostor, though the gold and silver in his account were but conjectural.

The strait which now bears his name is formed by land which is supposed to be the continent of America on one side, and by a very extensive cluster of islands on the other. Its southern entrance lies in lat. 48° 20′ N., long. 124° W. from Greenwich, and is about seven leagues wide. On the larboard side, which

* Northern Voyages, p. 451.*

† The strait was entered by a boat's crew from an English exploring vessel, the Felice, in 1788, who went some thirty leagues in it. The appearances singularly corresponded with the account of De Fuca. The next year it was for the first time sailed through, to its northwestern outlet in the Pacific Ocean, by an American sloop, the Washington.—Meares's Voyage to the Northwestern Coast of America, p. 178 and lvi., 4to, London, 1790. Meares was in this expedition, and gives in his work a plate representing the entrance of De Fuca's Straits, and in the accompanying maps traces the route of the Washington. He found it in latitude 47° 30′ to 48° 30' north, and in longitude 235° to 235° 30' east of London. See also Greenhow's Report on the Northwest Coast, 1840.-H.]

* [Dr. Forster states his opinion very cautiously. "This relation of De Fuca's in many instances seems to be rather fabulous, which renders the remaining part of it very suspicious," 1. c.-H.]