Science and its times vol 4

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Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery

Science

and Its Times

V O L U M E

1 7 0 0 - 1 7 9 94

Neil Schlager, EditorJosh Lauer, Associate Editor

Produced by Schlager Information Group

Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery

Science

and Its Times

V O L U M E

1 7 0 0 - 1 7 9 94

Science and Its Times

V O L U M E4

1 7 0 0 - 1 7 9 9

NEIL SCHLAGER, Editor JOSH LAUER, Associate Editor

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Preface ix

Advisory Board xi

Contributors xiii

Introduction: 1700-1799 xv

Chronology: 1700-1799 xix

Exploration and Discovery Chronology of Key Events 1

Overview 2

Topical Essays Voyage Into Mystery: The European Discovery of Easter Island 4

First Scientific Exploration of the Amazon River Led by Charles-Marie de La Condamine 6

Encountering Tahiti: Samuel Wallis and the Voyage of the Dolphin 8

George Vancouver Charts the Pacific Coast of North America from California to Alaska 11

Pedro Vial Charts the Santa Fe Trail and Opens the Southwest to Exploration and Trade 14

Vitus Bering’s Explorations of the Far Northern Pacific 17

Alexander Mackenzie Becomes the First European to Cross the Continent of North America at Its Widest Part 19

The Explorations of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Verendrye 22

Captain Cook Discovers the Ends of the Earth 24

Samuel Hearne Is the First European to Reach the Arctic Ocean by Land Route 27

Mungo Park’s African Adventures 29

James Bruce Explores the Blue Nile to Its Source and Rekindles Europeans’ Fascination with the Nile 31

The North Pacific Voyages of the Comte de La Pérouse 33

Carsten Niebuhr Describes the Near East 35

Antoine de Bruni Charts the Tasmanian Coast 37

Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum Mark the First Systematic Study in Archeology 39

The Birth of Alpinism 42

John Frere Discovers Prehistoric Tools in England 44

John Byron’s Record-Setting Circumnavigation on the Dolphin 47

The Origin of Human Flight 49

The Rosetta Stone Is Discovered by Napoleonic Soldiers 53

Biographical Sketches 56

Biographical Mentions 77

Bibliography of Primary Source Documents 84

Life Sciences and Medicine Chronology of Key Events 85

Overview 86

Topical Essays Natural Theology 88

The Mechanical Philosophy: Mechanistic and Materialistic Conceptions of Life 90

The Search for New Systems of Classification 93

The Great Debate: Preformation versus Epigenesis 95

The Spontaneous-Generation Debate 99

Abraham Trembley and the Hydra 102

Advances in Botany 104

Toward the Science of Entomology 107

Experimental Physiology in the 1700s 109

Marie François Xavier Bichat and the Tissue Doctrine of General Anatomy 114

Neurology in the 1700s 116

Contents

The Science of Human Nature 119

Uncovering the Relationship Between Anatomy and Disease 121

Mesmerism: A Theory of the Soul 123

Scurvy and the Foundations of the Science of Nutrition 125

Percivall Pott and the Chimney Sweeps’ Cancer 127

The Rise and Practice of Inoculation in the 1700s 130

Developments in Public Health 132

The Growth of Hospitals in the 1700s 135

Obstetrics in the 1700s 137

Surgery in the 1700s 139

Eighteenth-Century Advances in Dentistry 144

Biographical Sketches 147

Biographical Mentions 182

Bibliography of Primary Source Documents 195

Mathematics Chronology of Key Events 199

Overview 200

Topical Essays France’s Ecole Polytechnique Becomes The Most Influential Mathematics Institution of Its Time 202

Eighteenth-Century Advances in Statistics and Probability Theory 205

Key Mathematical Symbols Begin to Find General Use 207

Eighteenth-Century Advances in Understanding π 209

Women in Eighteenth-Century Mathematics 211

The Growing Use of Complex Numbers in Mathematics 213

The Elaboration of the Calculus 216

Mathematics and the Eighteenth-Century Physical World 219

Enlightenment-Age Advances in Dynamics and Celestial Mechanics 222

Advances in the Study of Curves and Surfaces 224

The Birth of Graph Theory: Leonhard Euler and the Königsberg Bridge Problem 227 Mathematicians and Enlightenment Society 229

The Algebraization of Analysis 232

Mathematicians Reconsider Euclid’s Parallel Postulate 234

Symmetry and Solutions of Polynomial Equations 236

Mathematical Textbooks and Teaching during the 1700s 238

Chinese and Japanese Mathematical Studies of the 1700s 241

Biographical Sketches 243

Biographical Mentions 261

Bibliography of Primary Source Documents 265

Physical Sciences Chronology of Key Events 269

Overview 270

Topical Essays The Rise of Experiment 272

The Cultural Context of Newtonianism 274

Astronomers Argue for the Existence of God 277

Edmond Halley Successfully Predicts the Return of the Great Comet of 1682 279

William Herschel and the Discovery of the Planet Uranus 282

Laplace Theorizes That the Solar System Originated from a Cloud of Gas 285

The Work and Impact of Benjamin Banneker 288

The Emergence of Swedish Chemists during the Eighteenth Century 291

The Rise and Fall of the Phlogiston Theory of Fire 293

Geology and Chemistry Emerge as Distinct Disciplines 296

Johann Gottlob Lehmann Advances the Understanding of Rock Formations 298

Abraham Gottlob Werner’s Neptunist Stratigraphy: An Incorrect Theory Advances the Geological Sciences 301

Genesis vs Geology 303

The French Revolution and the Crisis of Science 306

Joseph Priestley Isolates Many New Gases and Begins a European Craze for Soda Water 308

Daniel Bernoulli Establishes the Field of Hydrodynamics 311

The Cavendish Experiment and the Quest to Determine the Gravitational Constant 313

Sparks and Lightning: Electrical theories from the “Electrician” Dufay to the Scientist Coulomb 316

Eighteenth-Century Development of Temperature Scales 320

Joseph Black’s Pioneering Discoveries about Heat 322

The Flow of Heat 325

Ernst Chladni’s Researches in Acoustics 327

Eighteenth-Century Meteorological Theory and Experiment 329

Contents

1700-1799

Biographical Sketches 332

Biographical Mentions 357

Bibliography of Primary Source Documents 370

Technology and Invention

Chronology of Key Events 373

Overview 374

Topical Essays

The Social Impact of the Industrial

Revolution 376

New Machine Tools Are a Catalyst for

the Industrial Revolution 382 The Industrialization of Agriculture 386

Music and the Mechanical Arts 391

Advances in Publishing and Book-Making 394

Inventions for Daily Life 397

The Steam Engine Powers the Industrial

Revolution 399

Key Inventions in the Textile Industry Help

Usher in the Industrial Revolution 403 The Invention of the Chronometer 405

Advances in Construction and Building

Design during the Eighteenth Century 408 Balloons Carry Humans 411

The Beginning of the Age of Canal

Building in Great Britain 414

Britain and America Battle for Technological

Prowess in the Eighteenth Century 416

The Development of a Patent System to

Protect Inventions 419 Biographical Sketches 423 Biographical Mentions 440 Bibliography of Primary Source Documents 449

General Bibliography 451

Index 455

Contents

1700-1799

The interaction of science and society is

increasingly a focal point of high schoolstudies, and with good reason: by explor-ing the achievements of science within their his-

torical context, students can better understand a

given event, era, or culture This

cross-discipli-nary approach to science is at the heart of

Sci-ence and Its Times.

Readers of Science and Its Times will find a

comprehensive treatment of the history of

sci-ence, including specific events, issues, and trends

through history as well as the scientists who set

in motion—or who were influenced by—those

events From the ancient world’s invention of the

plowshare and development of seafaring vessels;

to the Renaissance-era conflict between the

Catholic Church and scientists advocating a

sun-centered solar system; to the development of

modern surgery in the nineteenth century; and

to the mass migration of European scientists to

the United States as a result of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi

regime in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s,

science’s involvement in human progress—and

sometimes brutality—is indisputable

While science has had an enormous impact

on society, that impact has often worked in the

opposite direction, with social norms greatly

influencing the course of scientific achievement

through the ages In the same way, just as history

can not be viewed as an unbroken line of

ever-expanding progress, neither can science be seen

as a string of ever-more amazing triumphs Science

and Its Times aims to present the history of science

within its historical context—a context marked

not only by genius and stunning invention but

also by war, disease, bigotry, and persecution

Format of the Series

Science and Its Times is divided into seven

volumes, each covering a distinct time period:

Volume 1: 2000 B.C-699 A.D.Volume 2: 700-1449Volume 3: 1450-1699Volume 4: 1700-1799Volume 5: 1800-1899Volume 6: 1900-1949Volume 7: 1950-presentDividing the history of science according tosuch strict chronological subsets has its owndrawbacks Many scientific events—and scien-tists themselves—overlap two different timeperiods Also, throughout history it has beencommon for the impact of a certain scientificadvancement to fall much later than theadvancement itself Readers looking for informa-tion about a topic should begin their search bychecking the index at the back of each volume

Readers perusing more than one volume mayfind the same scientist featured in two differentvolumes

Readers should also be aware that many entists worked in more than one discipline dur-ing their lives In such cases, scientists may befeatured in two different chapters in the samevolume To facilitate searches for a specific per-son or subject, main entries on a given person orsubject are indicated by bold-faced page num-bers in the index

sci-Within each volume, material is dividedinto chapters according to subject area For vol-umes 5, 6, and 7, these areas are: Explorationand Discovery, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Med-icine, Physical Sciences, and Technology andInvention For volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4, readerswill find that the Life Sciences and Medicinechapters have been combined into a single sec-tion, reflecting the historical union of these dis-ciplines before 1800

Preface

Arrangement of Volume 4: 1700-1799

Volume 4 begins with two notable sections

in the frontmatter: a general introduction to ence and society during the period, and a gener-

sci-al chronology that presents key scientific eventsduring the period alongside key world historicalevents

The volume is then organized into fivechapters, corresponding to the five subject areaslisted above in “Format of the Series.” Withineach chapter, readers will find the followingentry types:

Chronology of Key Events: Notable

events in the subject area during theperiod are featured in this section

Overview: This essay provides an overview

of important trends, issues, and scientists in thesubject area during the period

Topical Essays: Ranging between 1,500

and 2,000 words, these essays discuss notableevents, issues, and trends in a given subject area

Each essay includes a Further Reading sectionthat points users to additional sources of infor-mation on the topic, including books, articles,and web sites

Biographical Sketches: Key scientists

dur-ing the era are featured in entries rangdur-ingbetween 500 and 1,000 words in length

Biographical Mentions: Additional brief

biographical entries on notable scientists duringthe era

Bibliography of Primary Source ments: These annotated bibliographic listings

Docu-feature key books and articles pertaining to thesubject area

Following the final chapter are two tional sections: a general bibliography of sourcesrelated to the history of science, and a generalsubject index Readers are urged to make heavyuse of the index, because many scientists andtopics are discussed in several different entries

addi-A note should be made about the ment of individual entries within each chapter:while the long and short biographical sketchesare arranged alphabetically according to the sci-entist’s surname, the topical essays lend them-selves to no such easy arrangement Again, read-ers looking for a specific topic should consultthe index Readers wanting to browse the list ofessays in a given subject area can refer to thetable of contents in the book’s frontmatter

arrange-Additional Features

Throughout each volume readers will findsidebars whose purpose is to feature interestingevents or issues that otherwise might be over-looked These sidebars add an engaging element tothe more straightforward presentation of scienceand its times in the rest of the entries In addition,each volume contains photographs, illustrations,and maps scattered throughout the chapters

Comments and Suggestions

Your comments on this series and tions for future editions are welcome Please

sugges-write: The Editor, Science and Its Times, Gale

Group, 27500 Drake Road, Farmington Hills,

MI 48331

Preface

1700-1799

Amir Alexander

Research Fellow Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies UCLA

Amy Sue Bix

Associate Professor of History Iowa State University

Phillip H Gochenour

Freelance Editor and Writer

Brook Ellen Hall

Professor of Biology California State University at Sacramento

Contributors

Judson Knight

Freelance Writer

Lyndall Landauer

Professor of History Lake Tahoe Community College

David Tulloch

Graduate Student Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Roger Turner

Brown University

A Bowdoin Van Riper

Adjunct Professor of History Southern Polytechnic State University

Stephanie Watson

Freelance Writer

Karol Kovalovich Weaver

Instructor, Department of History Bloomsburg University

Giselle Weiss

Freelance Writer

A.J Wright

Librarian Department of Anesthesiology School of Medicine

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Michael T Yancey

Freelance Writer

Contributors

1700-1799

The Age of Enlightenment Carries the

Scientific Revolution Forward

During the sixteenth and seventeenth turies the way educated people viewed the nat-

cen-ural world and their relationship to it underwent

a radical transformation Known as the Scientific

Revolution, this change was based on the work

of such scientists and philosophers as Francis

Bacon, Robert Boyle, Nicolas Copernicus, René

Descartes, Galileo Galilei, William Harvey,

Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Leibniz, and John

Locke It reached its crowning achievement with

the publication of Isaac Newton’s laws of motion

in 1687

As a result of the Scientific Revolution, bythe beginning of the eighteenth century people

had great confidence in the ability of reason to

explain the natural world They believed that

scientific methods (such as those that had led to

Newton’s achievements in physics) could give

rational explanations for all phenomena Not

only were Newton, Leibniz, and Locke still alive

as the new century began, but Newton and

Leib-niz subsequently published major new works

They were joined by others who shared their

faith in rational explanations, and who were

attracted by the continuing success of this new

empirical approach Devoting themselves

sys-tematically to problems in science and

technolo-gy, they critiqued, applied, and expanded this

new way of thinking about the world and

humanity’s place in it Knowledge expanded and

practical applications of science grew at an

unprecedented rate Because of this intellectual

ferment and the progress that came from it, the

eighteenth century is known as the Age of

Enlightenment

Major discoveries about the composition ofthe physical world, made by men like Henry

Cavendish, Joseph Priestley, and Joseph Black,

were interpreted and synthesized into a cal framework by Antoine Lavoisier, who estab-lished chemistry as a distinct science The mod-ern science of biology began to take shape asnew systems of nomenclature and classificationwere developed by Carolus Linnaeus The orga-nization of knowledge in both these fields facili-tated learning and understanding

theoreti-In the life sciences, the century saw cant progress in the understanding of photosyn-thesis, plant hybridization, the role of nerves inmuscle contractions, and the electrical basis ofnervous impulses The science of nutrition waslaunched by Rumford, and inoculation for theprevention of smallpox was developed byEdward Jenner

signifi-Mathematics continued to play a significantrole in the development of the physical sciences,and much progress came as scientists foundmathematical expressions for much of the physi-cal world During the eighteenth century, PierreLaplace and Joseph Lagrange made particularlysignificant contributions in statistics, probabilitytheory, calculus, and analysis

Similar strides were made in the physicalsciences The work of Joseph Black, BenjaminThompson (Count Rumford), and others led toimportant progress in the understanding of heatand its transfer; Benjamin Franklin and LuigiGalvani provided an understanding of electrici-ty; and Daniel Bernoulli laid the foundations ofthe science of hydrodynamics

New Technology Leads to the Industrial Revolution

Applying this new scientific knowledge totechnology led to new processes and inventions

Life was made easier by such inventions as theflushing toilet and bifocal spectacles Benjamin

Introduction: 1700–1799

Franklin invented the kitchen stove, liberatingwomen and servants from the difficulty of cook-ing on the open hearth

The production of manufactured goods wasgreatly enhanced by the development of efficientsteam power, the blast furnace, and the hydraulicpress Inventions like the flying shuttle, the spin-ning jenny, the power loom, and Eli Whitney’scotton gin improved textile weaving These (andother) inventions led to a new industrial system

in which work was concentrated into a singlefactory that employed many workers, replacingtraditional cottage industries in which work wasdone by individuals in their homes The Indus-trial Revolution had begun, and the way peoplelived and worked was changed forever

During the eighteenth century, the tion of an accurate marine chronometer, devel-opment of navigational quadrants, and othernew technology that aided navigation signifi-cantly increased exploration of the world andled to an expansion of worldwide trade Of par-ticular importance were the circumnavigations

inven-of the globe by Captain James Cook On land,exploration of California, Alaska, and theAfrican interior began during this time Theregion beyond the Appalachian Mountains wasopened for settlement through the efforts of pio-neers such as Daniel Boone Nor were the heav-ens neglected — hot air balloons were first usedfor human transportation during this time

Adverse Effects of the Growth of Science and Technology

The extensive progress in science and nology during the Enlightenment createdchange that was sometimes painful Whileexpanding industrialization and trade enlargedthe middle class of merchants and manufactur-ers and improved their living conditions, thechange from piece-work manufacture in thehome to factory production had negative conse-quences for many people The shift spurred thedevelopment of industrial cities, whose rapidgrowth produced squalid slums with a variety ofhealth and social problems

tech-Back on the farm, the development of tific agriculture and better equipment reducedthe need for farm workers (“freeing” them forfactory work) Furthermore, the expanding woolmarket encouraged wealthy farmers to convertmuch of the open land previously used forgrowing crops into sheep pasture Enclosure, as

scien-it was called, left many small farmers wscien-ithout

the means to survive, and their farms were tively dissolved Entire communities, such as thecrofting (cooperative farming) towns of Scot-land, were abandoned, and the population wasforced to seek a means of livelihood elsewhere,often in the teeming industrial cities Many emi-grated to America, where they served as animpetus for westward expansion

effec-A particularly cruel effect of technologicalprogress was the rise of slavery, especially in theAmerican South Ironically, in the closingdecades of the eighteenth century, slavery wasbecoming an economic liability, especially in theSouthern states Slaves were expensive, andthere were no crops that could overcome inprofits what they cost to maintain, howeverpoorly Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, anddeseeding it (except for Sea Island cotton, whichcould only be grown along the coast) was sotime-consuming that it was hardly worth theeffort to plant it Eli Whitney’s invention of thecotton gin in 1793 changed everything Sudden-

ly cotton seeds could be removed quickly andeasily, and even the hard-to-seed inland varietiesbecame highly profitable Cotton became a cashcrop almost overnight, when farmers realizedthey could sell to the British textile industry,whose demand for cotton to feed their mills wasinsatiable This assured the South’s reliance onslave labor for the next 60 years

Religion was especially influenced by thedeveloping scientific (and quasi-scientific) ideas

of the Enlightenment The church had

dominat-ed life in the West before the Scientific tion, yet its influence was gradually diminished

Revolu-by the emergence of science, with its belief thatnature was both rational and understandable.Among intellectuals, there was a rise in deism,the belief that God created but then withdrewfrom the world, and in atheism, the denial ofGod’s existence Geology, which became a sepa-rate scientific discipline during the eighteenthcentury, resulted in widespread debate on theaccuracy of the biblical creation story in Genesis.Although the Catholic Church and otherdenominations remained strong, a decreasingconfidence in established church doctrine and awish for a more individualized, less formal, reli-gious expression grew The founding of Method-ism in England and the Great Awakening revival

in America were direct results

Science, Technology, and Politics

In the political arena, the eighteenth

centu-ry was not a peaceful one While monarchy

Introduction

1700-1799

remained the most widespread means of

govern-ment in the West, the middle class began to

demand freedom from arbitrary hereditary rule

This led to two major revolutions: the American

colonists against England, resulting in the birth

of a new self-governing nation; and the middle

class and peasants of France against the king and

the ancien régime, resulting in years of turmoil,

and eventually the usurpation of power by

Napoleon

Because industrial and scientific growth wasconcentrated in France and England, these

nations became the primary world powers Their

competition for territory, natural resources, and

markets caused a number of costly and

destruc-tive wars, in which new technology increased

casualties These included the War of Spanish

Succession, the Seven Years’ War (fought as the

French and Indian War in America), and the

Napoleonic Wars These political realities

affect-ed science directly Governments financaffect-ed the

development of new technologies because of

their potential contribution to the national

econ-omy and possible application to warfare, a

prac-tice that has remained in effect ever since

Cultural Effects of Scientific Thought

The eighteenth century foreshadowed theprofound effect that science and technology

would have on all areas of human endeavor in

succeeding centuries Enlightenment philosophy

was deeply influenced by the widespread

confi-dence in new scientific ideas and the rationality

of all things, including economic, social, and

political matters Philosophical systems

devel-oped either in support of these new ideas or in

reaction to them John Locke’s ideas formed the

philosophical bases of the American and French

revolutions The writings of François Voltaire,

Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, David Hume,

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, and

George Berkeley were widely read in the

eigh-teenth century and remain influential today

Their works are part of the foundation on which

our understanding of truth rests, and they

influ-ence our understanding of ourselves and the

world around us In addition, the economic

principles of Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith

were instrumental in justifying laissez-faire

poli-cies and the spread of the Industrial Revolution

Music, literature, and art also developedgreatly during the Age of Enlightenment

Changes in these fields reflected a cultural

response to the Scientific Revolution and theEnlightenment Styles evolved from a concentra-tion on mathematical form and precision (theBaroque era) through a nostalgic return to sim-pler ideals (the Classical period) into an idyllicfocus on the natural world (the Romantic style)

Some historians argue that music reached itshighest point during the eighteenth century withthe introduction of the concerto, symphony,sonata, and opera in their modern forms; theinvention of the piano; and the compositions ofJohann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friederich Han-del, Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, WolfgangAmadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven

The principal visual artists of the eighteenthcentury portrayed people and the natural worldrealistically They included Thomas Gainsbor-ough and Joshua Reynolds in England, Jacques-Louis David (who portrayed French patrioticfervor) and Jean-Baptiste Chardin in France,Francisco Goya (whose works involve socialcriticism) in Spain, and Gilbert Stuart and JohnSingleton Copley in America

Prose forms, especially the essay, weredeveloped into effective means for influencingpolitical thought and disseminating scientificand other ideas Joseph Addison, Denis Diderot,and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were particularlysuccessful essayists; Jonathan Swift and FrançiosVoltaire were especially adept with satire TheEnglish novel flourished with such authors asDaniel Defoe and Henry Fielding The ScotsmanRobert Burns made colloquial poetry an accept-able form A strong Romantic movement devel-oped at the end of the century, especially inpoetry Its practitioners, who were stronglyinfluenced by the scientific observations of thenaturalists, included Friedrich Schiller, JohannWolfgang von Goethe, William Wordsworth,William Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The effort to codify all knowledge cally also led to the publication of Samuel John-

scientifi-son’s Dictionary in England and Encyclopédie in

France Both were the first of their kind; the ter was regarded as the Bible of the Enlighten-

lat-ment The first daily newspaper, the Daily

Courant, debuted in England in 1702 By the

end of the century, public newspapers werecommonplace among in France and the Ameri-can colonies as well The Enlightenment ideal ofknowledge and rational discovery was being dis-seminated to the people

J WILLIAM MONCRIEF

Introduction

1700-1799

1700-21 Power struggles consume

Europe, as the continent is embroiled in

the War of the Spanish Succession

1714) and the Great Northern War

(1700-1721)

1701 Frederick III, elector of

Branden-berg, establishes the kingdom of Prussia

with himself as King Frederick I

1707 England and Scotland form the

United Kingdom of Great Britain,

combin-ing the Scottish cross of St Andrew and

the English cross of St George to form the

Union Jack

1714 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invents

the first accurate thermometer, along with

the scale which bears his name, in 1730;

Réné Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur

develops his own thermometer and scale;

and in 1742 Anders Celsius introduces the

centigrade scale later adopted

internation-ally by scientists

1728 Daniel Bernoulli, studying the

mathematics of oscillations, is the first to

suggest the usefulness of resolving a

com-pound motion into motions of translation

and rotation

1735 Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus

outlines his system for classifying living

things, with a binomial nomenclature that

includes generic and specific names

1740-48 The War of the Austrian

Succes-sion, involving numerous European

nations, results in the establishment of

Prussia as a major European power

1750s-70s The Enlightenment spawns

great works, including the Encyclopédie of

Diderot and d’Alembert (1751-72), Samuel

Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755), David Hume’s An Enquiry Concern-

ing Human Understanding (1758), Voltaire’s Candide (1759), Rousseau’s Du contrat social (1762), and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776).

1756-91 Meteoric career of WolfgangAmadeus Mozart, who was born sixyears after Bach’s death in 1750, andwho in 1787 taught a young Ludwig vanBeethoven

1756-63 The first worldwide conflict ofmodern times, the Seven Years War, isfought in Europe, North America, andIndia, resulting in establishment of Britain

as world’s leading colonial power andPrussia as an up-and-coming force on theEuropean continent

1768 Lazzaro Spallanzani, who threeyears earlier had published data refutingthe theory of spontaneous generation,concludes that boiling a sealed containerprevents microorganisms from enteringand spoiling its contents

1768 Captain James Cook embarks onthe first of three voyages over the nexttwelve years, which included expeditions

to the Pacific, the ice fields of Antarctica,and the northern Pacific coasts of NorthAmerica and Asia

1769 James Watt obtains the first patentfor his steam engine, which improves onideas developed by Thomas Newcomenhalf a century earlier and is the first suchengine to function as a “prime mover”

rather than as a mere pump

Chronology: 1700–1799

1774 Joseph Priestley, an Englishchemist, discovers oxygen.

1775-83 Britain’s colonies in NorthAmerica revolt against the mother country,declare independence (1776), and securevictory after an eight-year war

1781 German-English astronomer WilliamHerschel discovers Uranus, the first planetdiscovered in historic times

1783 Jean François Pilatre de Rozier andthe François Laurent, marquis d’Arlandesbecome the first human beings ever to fly,

in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon

1787 The United States Constitution isratified, formally establishing the newnation

1789 The French Revolution begins

1792 France declares itself a republic; ayear later, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinetteare executed, and the Reign of Terrorbegins

1793 Eli Whitney invents the first cottongin, which greatly stimulates the U.S cot-ton industry—and helps perpetuate slav-ery in the process

1795 Gaspar Monge makes public hismethod for representing a solid in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensionalplane—i.e., descriptive geometry, a mili-tary secret that had long been guarded bythe French government

1799 The corrupt Directory, whichassumed power in 1795 and ended theReign of Terror in France, is replaced bythe Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte

Chronology

1700-1799

Exploration and Discovery

1741 Thirteen years after his first voyage

of exploration in the sea channel between

Siberia and Alaska that bears his name,

Vitus Bering discovers the Alaskan

main-land and Aleutian ismain-lands

1743 French explorer Charles-Marie de

La Condamine leads the first scientific

ex-ploration of the Amazon River

1748 Excavation of Pompeii, destroyed by

a volcano some 1,700 years before, begins

1767 Samuel Wallis leads the first

Euro-pean expedition to Tahiti

1768 Captain James Cook embarks on

the first of three voyages over the next

twelve years, which will include

expedi-tions to the Pacific, the ice fields of

Antarc-tica, and the northern Pacific coasts of

North America and Asia

1769 Junipero Serra explores California

and establishes the first Spanish mission at

San Diego; over the next seven years, he

also establishes missions at Los Angeles

and San Francisco

1783 Jean François Pilatre de Rozier andthe François Laurent, marquis d’Arlandesbecome the first human beings ever to fly,

in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon

1786 Michel-Gabriel Paccard and JacquesBalmat become the first to reach the sum-mit of Mont Blanc

1792 George Vancouver charts the Pacificcoast of North America from California toAlaska

1792 Pedro Vial establishes the Santa FeTrail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and

St Louis, Missouri

1796 Mungo Park explores the Africaninterior and is the first European to dis-cover the Niger River

1799 Soldiers in Napoleon’s army pying Egypt discover the Rosetta Stone,whose translation two decades later willunlock the mystery of ancient hieroglyph-ics

Exploration and Discovery 1700-1799

Background

Explorers throughout history have been driven

by a desire for discovery that has incorporated amultitude of objectives both personal and na-tionalistic From the conqueror to the adventur-

er, all types of explorers, both men and women,have traveled to the furthest corners of Earth Asman broadened his horizons, one of thestrongest forces driving further exploration be-came the pursuit of trade, especially in luxurygoods such as precious metals, jewels, furs, silk,aromatic scents, and spices In the 1600s organi-zations such as the East India Company madehistoric ocean voyages to the Orient and SouthPacific Trade soon led to permanent tradingposts and these in turn led to colonial occupa-tion such as the colonies founded in NorthAmerica By the end of the seventeenth centuryexplorers also began to venture forth for noblermotives—some as missionaries, others for thelove of travel, as well as those interested in satis-fying scientific curiosity

In the eighteenth century explorers madegreat strides in compiling more accurate geo-graphic and meteorological data and maps, andcontributed to political history and expansion,diplomacy, and geography Their expeditions alsohelped to dispel many myths and superstitions re-garding the oceans and continents of Earth Oth-ers traveled to expand the new sciences of mathe-matics, physics, and astronomy (all of which influ-enced navigation) Still others widened theknowledge of archaeology, geology, anthropology,ethnology, and other natural sciences

European Nations Explore the Pacific Ocean

Much European exploration had concentrated inprevious centuries on the Atlantic Ocean and thelands bordering its coastlines In the 1700s Eu-rope’s nations began to survey, explore, and layclaim to lands along and islands in the PacificOcean, the largest of Earth’s three great oceans

Prior to the eighteenth century the Pacific hadbeen a vast sea to be crossed by circumnaviga-tors and others seeking routes to the East or bymen seeking undiscovered continents Although

the search for the elusive terra australis, a

leg-endary southern continent filled with mythic,

fantasy creatures, still spurred voyages to the cific in the early and middle part of the century,more significant exploration was accomplished

Pa-by those seeking to learn more about the greatocean itself

The quest for terra australis led Dutch

Ad-miral Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) to the first

of many islands to be visited by Europeans OnEaster Day 1722 his voyage, sponsored by theWest Indian Company, resulted in the discovery

of Easter Island, and set the stage for future ages to the South Pacific Similarly, the BritishAdmiralty selected Captain Samuel Wallis(1728-1795) for a voyage of exploration to the

voy-South Pacific in search of terra australis Wallis

instead discovered Tahiti, introducing the island

to European society

The North Pacific was also explored duringthis time In 1728 and again in 1733-41, theRussian Navy sent Vitus Bering (1681-1741) onvoyages to map large portions of Russia’s coastsand northwestern North America These voyageshad a great impact on Russian trade in the area.The strait separating Asia from North America isnamed for Bering Also exploring the North Pacif-

ic was British Captain George Vancouver 1798), who surveyed and mapped the Pacificcoast from Alaska to Monterrey between 1790-

(1757-95 Vancouver’s voyage, its critical survey, rate soundings, and the coastal data returned had

accu-a tremendous impaccu-act on the expaccu-ansion of Britishcontrol of land and sea in the region

The French, long embroiled with politicaland national concerns at home, made their firstmajor ocean explorations in the 1700s—and thefirst French navigator to sail around the world on

a voyage of discovery was Louis-Antoine deBougainville (1729-1811), who spent a signifi-cant time in the South Pacific In 1785 Jean-François de Galaup, comte de la Pérouse (1741-1788?), explored the North Pacific from China toJapan On the return voyage via Australia, thecomte and his crew were lost at sea In an effort

to discover La Pérouse’s whereabouts, the Frenchsent Antoine de Bruni (1739-1793) to the SouthPacific, where he charted the Tasmanian andAustralian coasts and many of the region’s islandsbefore dying of scurvy De Bruni’s accurate mapsallowed France to lay claim to numerous islands

he discovered—France soon expanded its

territo-Exploration

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1700-1799

rial possessions to include many South Sea

is-lands His records of oceanographic and

meteo-rological data were invaluable to future mariners

and aided the French in planning trade routes

and military objectives in the South Pacific

The most significant Pacific explorer wasBritain’s Captain James Cook (1728-1779) His

three major voyages of discovery to the Pacific

yielded vital data for navigators, botanists, and

naturalists, and the medical sciences (especially

with regards to proper diet to prevent scurvy)

On his first voyage, Cook made important

celes-tial observations, circumnavigated New Zealand,

and explored the east coast of Australia; on his

second, he circumnavigated the globe from west

to east, discovered New Caledonia, the South

Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia, was the

first to travel below the Antarctic Circle, and his

voyage of over 60,000 miles (96,560 km) also

proved that terra australis did not exist; on his

third voyage, he proved the Northwest Passage

was not a practical route from the west and

dis-covered Hawaii, where he was killed during a

second visit The data collected on his voyages

provided a more realistic map of the globe

Over-all, as a single man, Cook had a tremendous

im-pact on the world he lived in and helped shift the

world’s focus from exploration to development

Europeans in North America and Africa

Although the Pacific was the region most visited

by explorers in the 1700s, other expeditions

were traveling to unexplored lands closer to

Eu-rope and its colonies From 1731-43, Pierre

Gaultier de La Vérendrye (1685-1749) led an

expedition team that included his sons on an

ex-tensive journey that established numerous forts

and trading posts throughout the northern half

of North America and spurred the fur trade and

Indian relations for his sponsors (Others who

influenced fur trade in the northernmost parts of

North America included seafarers Bering and

Vancouver.) From 1736-43 Frenchman

Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774) led the

first scientific exploration of the Amazon River

Other explorers blazed trails in North America

that aided expansion to the West—such as

Frenchman Pedro Vial (1746?-1814) who was

hired by the Spanish governor of Santa Fe to

es-tablish trade routes from there to St Louis, New

Orleans, and San Antonio (The 1803 signing of

the Louisiana Purchase would give American

settlers direct access to Vial’s Santa Fe Trail.)

Trailblazing translated to rivers in Africa,where in 1772 British explorer James Bruce

(1730-1794) became the first European to low the Blue Nile to where it converged with theWhite Nile in Ethiopia In 1795 ScotsmanMungo Park (1771-1806) located the NigerRiver and followed it over 1,000 miles (1,609km) through the African interior His adven-tures, which he published, and his description

fol-of Africa fueled Europe’s interest in the nent Another unique expedition was one spon-sored by the Danish government to the NearEast from 1761-67—the first European expedi-tion to that area of the world The only survivor,

conti-a Germconti-an explorer conti-and surveyor, wconti-as Cconti-arstenNiebuhr (1733-1815), who continued exploringeven after the deaths of his companions, return-ing to publish several important reports as well

as a three-volume set of notes from the tion’s naturalist Even the possibility of deathwas not a deterrent for the most intrepid of ad-venturers, and many were to follow in Niebuhr’sfootsteps in the nineteenth century

expedi-As European explorers traveled around theworld, other discoveries and firsts were madecloser to home The year 1786 saw the birth ofmodern mountaineering as three men made mo-mentous ascents of Mont Blanc in the Alps Thebirth of modern archaeology can be traced tothree separate events in the eighteenth centu-ry—the 1738-48 discovery and meticulous ex-cavation of the cities of Herculaneum and Pom-peii in Italy, covered since A.D 79 by volcanicdebris; the 1790 discovery and revolutionary in-terpretation of Stone Age tools on the lands ofJohn Frere (1740-1807) in England; and the

1795 discovery of the Rosetta Stone in Egypt byFrench soldiers in Napoleon’s army All threeevents had lasting impact on the science of ar-chaeology

Conclusion

By the end of the eighteenth century superstitionand hearsay about the world’s lands and oceanswere a thing of the past In the 1800s menturned to science, and governments turned tocolonial expansion Historic ocean voyages, epicadventures, and exhaustive expeditions rapidlyexpanded national boundaries and imperial do-mains as well as scientific knowledge in thefields of botany, zoology, ornithology, marine bi-ology, geology, and cultural anthropology By theend of the nineteenth century few areas of theworld remained undiscovered and unexplored

Voyage Into Mystery:

The European Discovery of Easter Island

Overview

Dutch Admiral Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729)made the first European discovery of Easter Is-land on Easter Day, April 5, 1722, and ended1,400 years of isolation on the island Triangularshaped, Easter Island or Rapa Nui as it is knownlocally, is located 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west

of the Chilean coast in the South Pacific Ocean

Over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the nearestpopulated center, Rapa Nui is one of the mostisolated settlements in the world The island issmall, only 60 square miles (155 sq km), and isbarren except for the hardy grasses that growthere, but is noted because of the large mysteri-ous statues or moai that dot the island Althoughthe discovery of this island was not consideredimportant at the time, it has since attracted theattention of archaeologists and scientists from allover the world

Background

It was largely the hunt for riches and commercethat led to the exploration of the South PacificOcean by Europeans It was commonly believed

there was a large super continent called terra

australis incognito in the Southern Hemisphere,

and many expeditions left for the Pacific insearch of it Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) was the first European to sight the Pacific

in 1513, and seven years later Ferdinand lan (1480?-1521) rounded South America andsailed across the Pacific Ocean It was the Span-ish, interested in trade, who led the initial explo-rations of the South Pacific from 1567-1606

Magel-The Dutch, who were excellent seamen, lowed Jakob Le Maire (1585-1616) was an en-trepreneur who explored the Pacific in 1615 and

fol-1616, followed by fellow Dutchman Abel man (1603-1659) in 1642, who worked for theEast Indian Company

Tas-Roggeveen’s voyage used the knowledge ofthe Dutchmen who preceded him, as well asthat of Englishmen William Dampier (1652?-1715) and Edward Davis In 1687 Dampier andDavis were in the Pacific in search of the south-ern continent and reported “seeing” a low sandyisland, and Davis said he could make out thefaint outline of mountains in the background

This was of particular interest to Roggeveen,

who had inherited from his deceased father therights to an expedition to the South Pacific withthe West Indian Company Retired from a posi-tion with the East Indian Company, Roggeveenrenewed the proposal with the rival West Indian

Company Desirous of finding terra australis and

aware of the accounts given by Dampier andDavis, the company approved the expeditionand provided Roggeveen with three ships, the

Arend, African Galley, and Thienhoven Roggeveen

and his crew of 233 departed from Holland onAugust 21, 1721

Crossing the Atlantic, they touched briefly

at the Falkland Islands, and sailed for Le MaireStrait and Cape Horn It was a three-week pas-sage to the Pacific during cold weather, whichcorrectly convinced Roggeveen there was a largelandmass in the polar region, but he thought it

was part of terra australis The next stop was the

Juan Fernandez Islands off Chile, whereRoggeveen was so enthralled that he planned toreturn and establish a settlement From these is-lands, Roggeveen sailed west, looking forDampier’s island

The crew aboard the African Galley was the

first to see the what was subsequently namedPaasch Eyland (Easter Island), on April 5, 1722.Excited, Roggeveen and his crew thought itcould indicate the presence of the elusive south-ern continent Staying offshore, they noticedsmoke coming up from various parts of the is-land the next day Roggeveen decided to send

the well-armed Arend and Thienhoven closer to

look for a suitable place to lay anchor With badweather on April 7, the ships were not able todrop anchor, but an islander did canoe out tovisit one of the ships The Dutch were amazed

by the totally nude man who boarded their ship

He was described as being well-built and tall,with tattoos all over his body The islander wasequally amazed by the Dutch, and marveled attheir well-built ship The crew sent him backwith two strings of blue beads, a small mirror,and a pair of scissors Following this, Roggeveenbrought his ships closer to the island and wasdisappointed to see it did not fit the description

of Dampier’s island On April 8, all ships set chor offshore, but the weather was still too bad

an-to go ashore, and the following day more landers came out to meet the Dutchmen They

is-Exploration

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1700-1799

too admired the Dutch ships, and were so bold

they stole the hats right off the men’s heads and

dove back into the ocean Roggeveen organized

a shore party of 134 men on the same day

While cautious, the crew was curious about the

island, as they could see on shore the huge

megaliths that have made the island famous

Impact

Rowing ashore on April 10, 1722, Roggeveen

and his crew climbed over the rocks that

cov-ered the shoreline and began marching into the

interior, but were deluged by a large gathering of

islanders As they were coming into formation,

Jacob heard shots fired from the back An

is-lander had tried to grab a musket from one of

the men, who in return struck him, while

anoth-er islandanoth-er grabbed at the coat of one of

Roggeveen’s men In defense, the islanders

picked up rocks and the nervous crewmembers

shot at them In the end, 10 to 12 of the

is-landers lay dead, while several more were

in-jured Settling down quickly, the islanders tried

to restore the peace by presenting Roggeveen

with large amounts of fruit and poultry

Rela-tions remained friendly, and Roggeveen was

shown around part of the island He noticed

about 20 well-made huts, and several

poorly-made canoes A lack of women and children

were also noticed Naturally, the statues were of

great interest to Roggeveen, with some of them

as a high as 30 feet (9.1 m), and carved inhuman form It was difficult for the Dutch tounderstand how the statues could have beenerected since there were no trees to providepoles for leverage Roggeveen concluded, incor-rectly, they were made of clay and surfaced instone Only remaining on the island one day, thethree ships sailed eastward in search of TerraAustralis, which Roggeveen was convinced must

be close

Roggeveen sailed on in search of the ern continent In mid-May he came to thefringes of the Tuamotus Islands, were he lost 10men in an altercation with local residents Hispoor luck continued, when he lost one of hisships on the reefs that surround the Tuamotus

south-The men became discouraged after sailing in thePacific for another month, still unable to find thecontinent A meeting was held, and Roggeveendecided to sail west for the Dutch outposts inBatavia (Jakarta)

Enroute to the outposts, Roggeveen passedthe island of Bora-Bora and then the Samoan Is-lands Roggeveen and his expedition were thefirst Europeans to see the Samoan Islands, butonly went ashore briefly to get fresh fruit andwater By this time the crew was ravaged byscurvy, which killed 140 crewmembers Passingbetween the island groups of Tuvalu and Kiri-

In an expedition intended to take the most rate measurements ever of Earth, a team ofFrench scientists were given permission as thefirst foreigners to be allowed into the New

accu-bati, they headed north of New Guinea and ontothe Moluccas, which were part of the Dutch EastIndies They arrived at Batavia in September

1722, where the rival East Indian Company fiscated their ships claiming they were trespass-ing on their territory Virtually taken prisoner,they were escorted back to the Netherlands bythe company Later, the East Indian Companywas taken to court and ordered to pay restitu-tion to Roggeveen and his crew

con-It was nearly 50 years before the island wasrevisited by Europeans, then by the Spanish, led

by Don Felipe Gonzalez, who arrived in 1770

They too noticed there were no women on theisland and suspected the islanders had under-ground hiding places It was also noticed by theSpanish that the moai were not made of clay, but

of stone Four years later the island was visited

by Captain James Cook (1728-1779), who ally saw the entrances to the underground caves,but was not permitted access It was on Cook’ssecond voyage (1772-75) to the Pacific that heproved the southern continent Terra Australisdid not exist The French arrived at Easter Island

actu-in 1786 and confirmed the existence of the caveswhen they were escorted through the hiddencaverns But disaster struck in 1862, when thePeruvians conducted a major slave raid on East-

er Island, taking more than 1,000 people Laterthey were forced to return their captives to theisland, but by then illness and disease had killedmost of them The survivors returned to the is-land only to spread smallpox to the remainingpopulation, reducing it to just 111

While European intrusion on the island haddevastating effects, its ecology and civilizationwere already in a state of crisis when the Euro-peans arrived Rapa Nui was once a sub-tropicalisland, thickly covered in palm trees and home

to many different bird species Polynesians, as ithas been determined, probably first came to the

World territories of the Spanish Empire for thepurpose of conducting scientific research At theend of years of work the expedition’s leader,Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774),undertook the first scientific expedition down

island around A.D.400 A rich and complex ety developed and the population swelled tonearly 10,000 Rival clans developed and eachbuilt moai for political as well as religious rea-sons A period of decline came in A.D 1500, asthe growing population put too much pressure

soci-on the island’s ecosystem, and all the palms werecut down to move moai or to supply fuel for theislanders As resources dwindled, wars followedand the population fell to approximately 2,000,while Easter Island was reduced rock and grass.After a long and colorful history Chile annexedEaster Island in 1888 The islanders became fullChilean citizens in 1965, when a civilian gover-nor was appointed to the island

Since Roggeveen did not find the southerncontinent, his sponsors considered his expedi-tion a failure, though Roggeveen, along with ex-plorers like Captain Cook, contributed greatly toEuropean knowledge of the South Pacific.Roggeveen’s findings inspired the imaginations

of laypersons and scientists alike, and gists have learned much about the lives andtravels of ancient humans from Easter Island.The moai have long been the subject of fascina-tion and controversy, with some even suggestingthe giant megaliths were built by aliens EasterIsland’s fate also serves as a reminder of Earth’sfragility, and the responsibility we have to pre-serve and protect it for future generations

archaeolo-KYLA MASLANIEC

Further Reading

Bohlander, Richard E., ed World Explorers and ers New York: Macmillan, 1992.

Discover-Heyerdahl, Thor Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.

Chicago: Rand McNally, 1958.

Orliac, Catherine, with Michel Orliac Easter Island: tery of the Stone Giants Translated by Paul G Bahn.

Mys-New York: H N Abrams, 1995.

the length of the Amazon River from its

headwa-ters in the Andes Mountains to its mouth on the

Atlantic Ocean Previous explorers to the area

were military or government agents acting on

behalf of the Spanish or Portuguese authority in

the New World or clergy accompanying them

La Condamine’s exploration, which occurred

over the course of 4 months in 1743, focused on

observing the river and its environment The

ex-pedition would turn out to be the main

achieve-ment of the original mission

Background

In the first half of the eighteenth century

physi-cists, geographers, and astronomers had come to

the conclusion that the various forces acting on

Earth as it spun on its axis changed its shape

from the perfect sphere it was long assumed to

be Two conflicting theories arose as to how that

shape was imperfect English physicist Sir Isaac

Newton (1642-1727) calculated that the planet

flattened out at the poles and bulged at the

equator A conflicting theory was put forward by

two French astronomers, Giovanni Domenico

Cassini (1625-1712) and his son Jacques

(1677-1756), who made measurements demonstrating

that Earth was elongated at the poles and drew

in at the equator The French Academy of

Sci-ences decided to settle the matter by sending

two expeditions out to make the same

measure-ments where they would show the greatest

dif-ference One team was sent to northern

Scandi-navia to make the measurements close to the

North Pole The other team, led by the

mathe-matician Charles-Marie de La Condamine,

would go to northern Peru, where the equator

passed through the Andes Mountains in South

America Each expedition would take accurate

measurements of the distance covered by one

degree of latitude and compare the

measure-ments back at the Academy of Sciences in Paris

La Condamine’s team was given dented permission from the Spanish Crown to

unprece-travel into its South American territories to

con-duct their research In May 1735 they sailed

from France to what is now Colombia, and from

there traveled to the Isthmus of Panama, where

they crossed overland to the Pacific Ocean

From there they sailed to the northern portion

of the Peru Territory (now Ecuador) and

ascend-ed the mountains to the city of Quito, where

they would make their measurements Delays

plagued the expedition: accusations of

espi-onage, meddling colonial officials, disputes over

the participation of Spanish scientists, and death

threats In the middle of all their delays word rived from France that the Arctic expedition hadreturned, and their data confirmed Newton’stheory that Earth flattened at the poles La Con-damine’s team continued its work, and in 1743they made their last measurements The expedi-tion split up with only La Condamine making animmediate return to France

ar-La Condamine chose to make his way back

to France by embarking on a mapping tion down the Amazon River He chose a routethat began at the furthest navigable reaches of theMarañón river and proceeded through the dan-gerous pass at Pongo of Manseriche for the ex-pressed purpose of seeing the pass In June 1743

expedi-La Condamine and his native Andean guides leftfrom the river port of Jáen in what is now north-ern Peru, about 100 miles (160.9 km) from thePacific coast of South America Traveling on a raftbuilt by his guides, La Condamine had severalclose calls with not only his life but also the eightyears of research and scientific instruments hewas transporting back to France However, dur-ing the expedition’s arrival in South America LaCondamine had been introduced to latex madefrom the sap of the rubber tree Early on in thetrip he was able to make rubber-treated sheets ofcloth into waterproof bags that he used to protecthis scientific instruments from the tropical mois-ture After passing through the Pongo ofManseriche, where the river narrowed from1,500 to 150 feet (457 to 45.7 m) across, LaCondamine again almost lost his raft and workbefore emerging out of the mountains and ontothe flat plain of the Amazon basin

The raft arrived at a settlement on the river

at Borja, where a priest provided him with amap of the area and accompanied him for thenext portion of the voyage At Borja the expedi-tion changed from rafts to two large canoes, each

44 feet (13.4 m) long and 3 feet (0.9 m) across

Safer in the new canoes and with rowers dling day and night, La Condamine took up thetask of mapping and measuring the river In lateJuly the team reached the place where the largeUcayali River meets the Amazon and observedthe Omaguas, a tribe first encountered by themissionary Padre Fritz years before La Con-damine noted the Omagua practice of placingthe heads of newborn babies between woodenboards to squeeze them into a rounder shapeand their cultivation of hallucinogenic seeds forritual uses By early August the expedition hadentered Portuguese territory and the mission ofSão Paulo, where European influences were

pad-Exploration

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1700-1799

During the seventeenth century scientists madesignificant discoveries in the fields of mathemat-ics, physics, and astronomy—fields necessary forthe improvement of navigation These advancesled to the development of the chronometer (atimepiece used to determine longitude), modifi-

strong and La Condamine saw brick buildingsand women wearing clothing imported fromEngland From there they continued down-stream with more than 1,200 miles (1,931 km)ahead of them to the Atlantic Below where theRio Negro meets the Amazon, La Condamineobserved the influences of the Atlantic tide onthe river The tides coming in from the ocean,still 700 miles (1,126 km) downriver, createdtwo currents on the river, one at the surface andanother in the opposite direction below Alongwith the movements of the river, La Condaminerecorded the animals he saw living along theriver, including crocodiles, monkeys, vampirebats, anacondas, parrots, and frogs used by theriver’s inhabitants for their deadly poison

On September 19, 1743, almost fourmonths since setting out on the river, La Con-damine reached the city of Grão Pará, nowcalled Belém, near the mouth of the river Afterseveral months in Grão Pará, La Condaminecontinued on to Cayenne, in what is nowFrench Guyana, by way of the mouth of theriver He took another canoe with 22 rowers toexplore Marajó Island at the very end of theriver Beyond the island the canoe crossed theriver at it’s widest point and reached the flat-lands of Macapá, which he observed was at 3°

north latitude and would have served just aswell for the French Academy’s expedition as thePeruvian Andes while being far more accessible

From Cayenne La Condamine was able to get aship back to Europe, where he arrived at theFrench Academy of Sciences on February 23,

1745, almost 10 years after he had left

In 1766 the British Admiralty appointedSamuel Wallis (1728-1795) to command a voyage

of exploration to the South Pacific, continuing the

was in disagreement with members of the emy over the meaning of his data His precisecalculations and mathematical corrections of theexisting maps and measurements in SouthAmerica improved navigation, and his explo-rations of the river’s tributaries and islands madeimportant corrections to the imperfect maps ofthe day As a mathematician, his expeditiondown the Amazon ushered in a new era of scien-tific endeavor in the New World and helped tostimulate the scientific explorations of the nine-teenth century

Acad-Not least of La Condamine’s observations ofthe natural life in the Amazon was his ingeniousapplication of rubber as a waterproofing treat-ment for textiles This would be the first of manyapplications of rubber that would provide abooming economy and great changes through-out the Amazon basin La Condamine observed.Some of his observations of the natural and cul-tural life of the region are still accurate today,but they are also notable as a record of what haschanged in the last 250 years in what is now athreatened and contested part of the world In

1743 he already observed the loss of native guages and beliefs to Spanish and Portuguese in-cursions into the indigenous culture He notedinsufficient efforts to protect the native Amazo-nians from the same European diseases that pose

lan-a threlan-at to the few tribes thlan-at still lan-avoid outsidecontact even today

GEORGE SUAREZ

Further Reading

Palmatary, Helen Constance The River of the Amazons: Its Discovery and Early Exploration, 1500-1743 New

York: Carlton Press, 1965.

Smith, Anthony Explorers of the Amazon New York:

Viking, 1990.

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

Encountering Tahiti: Samuel Wallis

search for the elusive terra australis—the great

southern continent and huge, theoretical

land-mass then thought to occupy much of the largely

unexplored Southern Hemisphere While Wallis

did not find the continent of Australia, he did land

in Tahiti, bringing this lush island’s inhabitants

perhaps their first contact with European society

Background

By 1766 European explorers had searched for

new lands for nearly 300 years, driven primarily

by the desire for new trade routes or territory

that might provide new wealth These voyages

revolutionized European understanding of

world geography—discovering North and South

America, charting the coasts of Asia and Africa,

and dispelling myths about boiling temperatures

near the equator and ferocious sea monsters indistant parts of the ocean

England, Spain, Portugal, and France hadall established colonies in the New World, andvoyages across the Atlantic and around the Cape

of Good Hope to Asia and the East Indies hadbecome relatively uneventful But the PacificOcean remained largely unknown apart from ahandful of Spanish settlements along the westcoast of South America and ports on the main-land of Asia that were occasionally visited bytrading ships Spanish and Dutch explorers inthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries hadstumbled across a few islands in the South Pacif-

ic and the coasts of Australia and South Island ofNew Zealand But these discoveries were vaguelydocumented and woven into the myth and mys-tery of the times

Lack of knowledge, however, did not mean

a dearth of theories about what might exist onthe fringes of the known world The notion that

a great continent existed at the bottom of theworld dated back to ancient times, when theGreeks argued that a landmass around the SouthPole must exist to balance the continents in theNorthern Hemisphere Most Europeans of theeighteenth century still believed a continent had

to exist somewhere in the yet unexplored gions Mapmakers and geographers of the time

re-called it terra australis incognita—the unknown southern land, or terra australis nondum

cognita—the southern land not yet known.

For more than a century, despite occasionalvoyages into the Pacific, England had concentrat-

ed its colonization efforts in North America

However, in the mid-1760s England decided topursue new markets in the unexplored Pacific,hoping to find the lost southern continent Thefirst expedition sailed secretly in March 1764under the command of John Byron (1723-1786)

The Dolphin completed her clandestine voyage,

and brought back useful information suggesting

that terra australis incognita did indeed exist.

With this information, the British government

decided to send the Dolphin out again under the

command of Captain Samuel Wallis

Wallis sailed from Plymouth on August 22,

1766, accompanied by the Swallow, commanded

by Philip Carteret (1733-1796) Wallis had orders

to first establish a base in the Falkland Islands togive England a political advantage in their furtherexploration of the Pacific Then, he was to contin-

ue sailing until he reached 100–120° longitude—

the possible site of terra australis If land was

found, he was to return to England If land was

not found, the Dolphin was to continue exploring

in search of islands and return to England by way

of China and the East Indies

The Dolphin was outfitted with a still for

pro-ducing fresh water, a forge for ship repairs, and3,000 (1,361 kg) pounds of “soup” (a concen-trated syrup of oranges and lemons) for prevent-ing scurvy The crew of 150 included many sea-soned and experienced men from the first voyage

of the Dolphin, as well as the usual assortment of

uneducated men from England’s lower classes

One sailor named George Robinson kept a nal that is one of the best travel accounts kept by

jour-eighteenth-century explorers The Swallow,

how-ever, was not as lucky The ship was already 30years old, and poorly provisioned, relying on the

the Dolphin for most of her supplies

Accompa-nying these two ships was a store-vessel that was

to drop supplies at Port Egmont on the FalklandIslands before returning to England

Three months after leaving England, thegroup reached the Atlantic entrance to the Strait

of Magellan During the next four months,fierce, frigid winds and rough seas slowed their

pace Both the Dolphin and the Swallow were in

serious trouble many times After struggling tostay together, the ships became separated inheavy fog just as they entered the Pacific The

Dolphin, a much faster and better built ship,

sailed ahead while an easterly current sucked the

slower Swallow back into the strait The two

ships did not meet again; the captains pursuedthe search for a southern continent indepen-dently Wallis, instead of following the well-es-tablished sea route northward along the coast ofChile, headed northwestward, traversing a vast,little-known area of the South Pacific Carteret,upset at Wallis for what he thought was a delib-erate desertion, sailed farther to the south

Six weeks into the Pacific, the Dolphin had

encountered no signs of land, and the monthsaboard the ship with little in the way of freshfood or exercise began to take its toll on thecrew Wallis was unusual among ship captains inhis attention to the health and well being of hismen However, in spite of the crew washingdown the ship everyday with vinegar and airingthe hammocks, the crew “looked very pale andMeager,” and many were suffering from scurvy.During the following weeks, islands weresighted Many were inhospitable coral atolls orguarded by hostile natives On occasion theywere able to land and trade nails and beads forwater and coconuts The crew’s desperation rose

as their food and water dwindled One day,however, they spied a mountain in the distance,shrouded in clouds Beyond it, far to the south,rose what appeared to be a mountain range Theelated men believed they had reached the fabled

terra australis and sailed on through the night

thinking they had made the most important covery since Christopher Columbus (c 1451-1506) landed in the New World

dis-The next morning Wallis’s crew sighted amassive mountain that looked to be 7,000 feet(2,133 m) high, stretching for several miles Thelandscape was thickly covered with trees, con-tained brilliant green flora, and had manystreams entering the ocean Wallis assumed thatthe mountain was just the tip of the southernpeninsula, or perhaps an island off the sought-after southern continent’s coast Recognizing theimportance of this find, Wallis named it King

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

& Discovery

1700-1799

Overview

George Vancouver (1757-1798) was an English

sea captain and member of several expeditions to

the South Pacific and the coast of North America

George’s Island in honor of the British king The

island’s native name was Tahiti

As the Dolphin sailed closer, dozens of

ca-noes paddled out from shore Robinson noted,

“they lookt at our ship with great astonishment

holding a sort of council of war amongst them.”

The Dolphin crew showed their friendly

inten-tions by dangling beads and trinkets over the

side, while the islanders waved plantain

branch-es Nearly 800 men and 150 canoes lined up

alongside the unfamiliar vessel Finally, a party

came aboard the ship The encounter ended

with Wallis firing a canon over the ship and the

delegation jumping overboard

After a few more skirmishes during the nextfew weeks, Wallis was eventually able to establish

friendly relations with the islanders and anchor in

one of the island’s bays Wallis himself was

per-sonally welcomed by Obera, the Queen of Tahiti,

and from that point on a brisk trade ensued,

ex-changing nails, clothing, and pots and pans for

fresh food and water Although Wallis soon

real-ized that Tahiti was probably not the southern

continent, the crew spent another five weeks in

Tahiti resting, repairing the ship, and planting a

garden before continuing their voyage The men,

aided by Robinson’s sensitivity to the local

inhabi-tants, were able to leave a positive impression

be-hind, an unusual occurrence for the times

Impact

Having found a place of such beauty and

abun-dance, Wallis decided to return to England to

re-port his findings rather than continuing his

search for terra australis On the return trip the

Dolphin made stops in present-day Tonga and

Indonesia, and also located a group of islands

west of Samoa and north of Fiji now known as

the Wallis Archipelago The Dolphin completed

her circumnavigation by sailing around the Cape

in the late eighteenth century He was tal in the gathering and dissemination of knowl-edge about the Pacific Coast of the continent ofNorth America On several visits to the area, he

instrumen-of Good Hope, arriving back in England on May

20, 1768

Wallis’s news of Tahiti aroused the interest ofthe British government, which decided that theisland would be a suitable spot to send scientists

to observe the Transit of Venus, a major nomical event whose measurements would helpdetermine the distance from the Earth to theSun Later that year Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was sent to Tahiti with scientists and natu-ralists on the first of his three voyages in search

astro-of the elusive southern continent In 1773 Wallis

published his Account of the Voyage Undertaken for

Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere,

de-tailing his circumnavigation of the world

The Swallow also eventually made it to

Tahi-ti, nearly four months behind the Dolphin and

after an arduous journey filled with extremehardship The crew was assisted by the French,who repaired damage to the ship, gave themfood and water, and offered navigational help

After landing in Tahiti and discovering that lis and his crew had already sailed back to Eng-

Wal-land, Carteret and the Swallow did the same.

Although the voyages of the Dolphin and the

Swallow failed to prove the existence of terra tralis, their voyages opened a previously un-

aus-known part of the South Pacific Thanks to proved navigational capability, the ships safelytraveled thousands of square miles of open sea,and brought back to European society the news

im-of previously unknown lands and peoples

LESLIE HUTCHINSON

Further Reading

Beaglehole, J.C The Exploration of the Pacific Palo Alto,

CA: Stanford University Press, 1934.

Sharp, Andrew Discovery of the Pacific Islands Oxford,

England: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Withey, Lynne Voyages of Discovery New York: William

Morrow and Company, 1987.

George Vancouver Charts the Pacific Coast

of North America from California to Alaska

explored it, met with natives and the Spanish, andsurveyed and mapped its features from Alaska toMonterey in California His work helped to estab-lish the claim of Great Britain to ownership ofwestern Canada He also studied and chartedmany Pacific Ocean islands, including Hawaii,and made allies of natives for England everywhere.

He proved that a practical and usable NorthwestPassage through North America did not exist

Background

George Vancouver sailed on Captain JamesCook’s (1728-1779) second and third voyages ofdiscovery to the Pacific Ocean from 1776 to

1780 He served on Royal Navy ships in theNorth Sea and the Caribbean Sea, learning thetechnical aspects of surveying, mapping, andcharting these areas By the time he became theleader of a new expedition in 1790, he had agreat deal of experience and had visited manylands and seas

In 1790 Vancouver obtained command of

an expedition to the Pacific Ocean His flagship

was called Discovery, a newly built namesake of

the ship Captain Cook had sailed to Hawaii adecade earlier Vancouver’s expedition was in-structed to survey the western coast of NorthAmerica, meet with Spanish representatives inCanada in order to formally receive propertySpain had taken from the British, try again to lo-cate a Northwest Passage, and attempt to com-

plete Cook’s survey of the Hawaiian Islands

Dis-covery, accompanied by a smaller ship called Chatham, sailed on April 11, 1791.

They arrived in Hawaii in the fall and spent

the winter there Then, in March 1792 Discovery and Chatham sailed north After 2,000 miles

(3,219 km), they reached Cape Mendocino onthe northwest coast of North America, about

300 miles (483 km) north of San Francisco Bay

It was a good place to replenish the ship’s freshwater, wood, and fresh stores When these taskswere complete, they began to survey the ruggedcoastline moving northward toward Alaska

Their pattern of work was to move toward theland each morning, sailing close to shore, slowlyand safely, making charts and drawings of thecoast as they went At night they would stand offshore a few miles to avoid contact with the rocksand reefs that are prevalent on this rugged coast

About 100 miles (161 km) north of CapeMendocino, Vancouver’s ships entered a largewaterway between two expanses of land calledthe Straits of Juan de Fuca They found an an-

chorage, and Vancouver recorded their positionand a description of the land around them Aftercareening and cleaning the hulls of both ships,replenishing their water, wood and whatevergame they could find, the ships moved west intothe strait and discovered a complex of bays andrivers that Vancouver named for one of his offi-cers, Peter Puget The company spent the nextmonth surveying Puget Sound, which was diffi-cult and time consuming because of its complexarrangements of bays, inlets, rivers, and islands.When the task was finished, they sailed back tothe Straits of Juan de Fuca and turned north upanother inland waterway east of a landmass, un-certain of where it would lead When theyreached its northern end, it was clear that theland to the west was a large island and not part

of the continent It was later named VancouverIsland in Vancouver’s honor On this voyage,Vancouver sighted the summit of a tall mountainand named it Mount Rainier after Peter Rainier,

a fellow navigator He also reiterated GreatBritain’s claim to the whole area

In August 1792 Vancouver reached NootkaSound on the west coast of Vancouver Island andmet with the Spanish, who still disputed theownership of the area with Great Britain Van-couver was fully aware that England and Spainwere at odds over who had the right to controland exploit this land England had long ago de-clared that any country wishing to maintain avalid claim on any land in the world had to es-tablish a colony there and to physically controlthe land before their ownership rights were rec-ognized by the rest of Europe Spain had claimed

so much land on this coast that they had neverbeen able to control, exploit, or even explore all

of it They did not agree with the informal rulesthe British had proclaimed, but were willing tonegotiate, especially since they had lost theirright to this northern part of the land in a strug-gle with England Vancouver represented theBritish government in the negotiations Whilethere, he sent one of his ships to search for agroup of islands that the Spanish called LosMajos, or Islas de Mesas They were not wherethe Spanish said they were It was clear that theSpanish had seen some islands, perhaps theHawaiian Islands, but had the location wrong.Negotiations with the Spanish came to astandstill until the arrival of further instructionsfrom London and Madrid, so Vancouver sailed

for California On the way, he sent Chatham into

the river, now called the Columbia River, to

sur-vey, as Discovery was too large Both ships

ar-rived in San Francisco Bay in November 1792

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

They spent ten days in this area, which had been

settled and claimed by the Spanish for 20 years

They received help, food, and friendship from

Spanish authorities, missionaries, and citizens

Vancouver also sailed the 100 miles (161 km)

south to Monterey Bay, surveying as he went

The rest of that winter of 1792-93 was spent in

Hawaiian waters The following summer,

Discov-ery and Chatham sailed back to the west coast of

America and completed the survey They took a

trip as far north as Cook Inlet in Alaska,

search-ing for the west end of the fabled Northwest

Pas-sage Vancouver came to the conclusion that this

fabled passage did not exist

Impact

Vancouver detailed his voyages in five books and

was halfway through the sixth when he died in

1798 The importance of this work was clear,

and his friends made sure that his Voyage of

Dis-covery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the

World in the years 1790-1795 was published It

appeared in 1798 complete with narrative,

charts, maps, and drawings It had a tremendous

impact on the expansion of British control of

land and sea, though at first it did not receive

much attention because England and other

countries in Europe were involved in a war with

France and its leader Napoleon After the war

was over in the early nineteenth century,

Van-couver’s work was reprinted in three volumes

and was circulated widely

The accurate soundings and coastal tion in Vancouver’s book were invaluable They in-

informa-cluded the location of dangerous rocks and

off-shore islands, sandbars, entrances to bays, and the

location of viable, usable harbors This

ground-breaking work gave the English a significant claim

to the northwest coast, at least enough to satisfy

the king and his countrymen With its meticulous

detail, the book enabled many other would-be

ex-plorers to sail to that far away coast to see how it

could be exploited Possibilities for expansion of

the fur trade were clear for any who could make

the enterprise work British and American ship

owners and traders turned their attention to it, as

did the Russians, who established a settlement in

Alaska in the 1790s The Spanish were affected in

that they could now see the extent and complexity

of the land they had claimed for 200 years but had

never been able to explore, much less control At

the time, the Americans could support little effort

to obtain the area as they were still establishing

their new country They were in no position to

fight the British or the Spanish for control of the

western coast of the continent, but they had ways claimed it, and many had their eyes on it

al-Little American exploration was undertaken untilthe Lewis and Clark expedition reached the area

in 1805 Puget Sound was also shown to have atremendous potential for fishing and fur-trading

While Vancouver was not the first to explore theColumbia River, another English sailor, Captain

Robert Gray on the ship Columbia, did the initial exploration of it Vancouver later sent Chatham up

the river to make a cursory survey of it, and theship’s findings were included in his book Thisriver, about 100 miles (161 km) south of PugetSound is today an important waterway and is thedividing line between the states of Oregon andWashington

In the nineteenth and early twentieth turies, Vancouver’s work was often overshad-owed by the dramatic events that surroundedthe voyages of Captain Cook, but modern histo-rians have given him his proper place in thecompany of explorers Vancouver’s survey of thePacific Coast was the most arduous undertaken

cen-to that time, the accuracy of his notations wasremarkable, and his descriptions of the terrainwere realistic and precise One hundred yearslater, his charts were still the best and mosttrusted by those who sailed the west coast ofNorth America, Canada and Alaska

George Vancouver’s contributions to theworld cover several fields: exploration, politicalhistory, diplomacy, and geography He exploredsome of the most inaccessible places in the Pacif-

ic Ocean He settled problems with Spain andcame close to obtaining control of the HawaiianIslands for England He made the shape of thewest coast of the North American continentknown, and his surveys were the only accurateinformation on the region for many years Fiftyyears later, they were used in a dispute betweenthe United States and Great Britain over claims

to Oregon, Washington, and Western Canada

LYNDALL LANDAUER

Further Reading

Anderson, Bern The Life and Voyages of Captain George W.

Vancouver, Surveyor of the Sea Toronto: University of

Toronto Press, 1960.

Batman, Richard The Outer Coast San Diego: Harcourt

Brace Jovanovich, 1985.

Godwin, George Vancouver, A Life New York: D

Apple-ton & Co, 1931.

Vancouver, George Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World in the years 1790 to 1795 3

vols London: G.G & J Robinson, 1798.

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

Pedro Vial Charts the Santa Fe Trail and Opens the Southwest to Exploration and Trade

Overview

By the mid-eighteenth century the Spanish habited most of the settlements in the AmericanSouthwest and had begun exploring routes east

in-of them, looking for new trade opportunitiesand invading enemies The French had alreadysent many representatives across the barren, In-dian-protected West in search of gold, silver, andtrade At the same time, Americans who had set-tled the New England colonies were movingwestward, looking for land, trading opportuni-ties, and natural resources No one, however,had established a mapped, straightforward trailfrom west to east Aware of the encroachingAmericans, the persistent French, and the need

to access other cities more easily, Spain blazedthe first established trade route In 1786 theSpanish governor of New Mexico hired PedroVial (1746?-1814), a Frenchman known for hisrapport with Indians and a resourceful explorer’sspirit, to blaze routes to St Louis, New Orleans,and San Antonio from New Mexico Immediate-

ly following Vial’s successful journeys to each ofthese cities, by 1803 the Santa Fe Trail was thickwith traders and eventually American settlers,heading to Santa Fe and beyond

Background

By the sixteenth century the Spanish, in search

of gold, riches, and new colonies, had venturednorth from early settlements in Florida Theytraveled through Missouri and westward andeventually penetrated New Mexico, Arizona, andCalifornia By 1609 the Spanish had settled intoSanta Fe, New Mexico, a remote outpost at theedge of the Sangre de Cristo mountains Theonly main commercial route to Santa Fe was theChihuahuan Trail, which connected to Chi-huahua, Mexico, nearly 600 miles (965.6 km)south Resources were scarce in Santa Fe, so theSpanish traded frequently with nearby AmericanIndian tribes, such as the Pueblo, the Co-manche, the Navajo, and the Apache The tribes,however, attacked and raided the Spanish settle-ment It was a hostile relationship, but the Span-ish needed the Indians for their goods and theirknowledge of the frontier

With settlements in Louisiana, Illinois, andMissouri, the French had already explored the

main trade routes of the Midwest: the Missouri,Ohio, and Red Rivers Looking for rumoredgold, silver, and turquoise mines and a route tothe “western” (Pacific) sea and Asia, French fron-tiersman eventually traveled overland, and somemade it as far as New Mexico The Spanish,however, were not welcoming to these Frenchtravelers and frequently imprisoned them (ship-ping them as far as Mexico City) or simply killedthem French who sailed to the shores of Texaswere fought back when attempting to movewest The Spanish refused to accept any foreigngoods—except Indian goods—and punishedany person with this “contraband” in their pos-session Finally, in 1739 Paul and Pierre Mallet,two Frenchmen from Canada, traveled down theMissouri and across Nebraska, Kansas, andsouthwestern Colorado, and were received atSanta Fe safely News of the unusual kindness ofthe Spanish toward the Mallets reached theFrench city of New Orleans, so more expedi-tions were launched toward Santa Fe

The Spanish, however, were growing vous Frenchmen were venturing across Texas andNew Mexico in search of horses, and the Spanishfeared an invasion All this stopped, however, afterthe French and Indian War (also called the SevenYears’ War) in 1763 The Spanish assumed control

ner-of Louisiana by 1769 which provided an great centive to set up a trade route to the prosperouseast It was much closer than Mexico, and theFrench threat seemed all but gone

in-American settlement in the east, by 1776,was swelling The Spanish were aware of “Ken-tuckians,” as they called the early Americans,moving west They saw Louisiana as a barrier tothe spreading pioneers, and knew that establish-ing a trade route from Santa Fe was extremelyimportant to do before the Americans could Up

to this point in history, several men—includingsome French, a few Spanish and several Indiansover thousands of years—had traversed theplains from east and north to Santa Fe, but anestablished, mapped route did not exist In

1786, the governor of New Mexico sent Pierre(Pedro) Vial on an expedition to blaze a trailfrom Santa Fe to San Antonio, in the hopes ofconnecting the isolated Santa Fe to the east.Pedro Vial, born Pierre Vial and originallyfrom Lyons, France, was an expert gunsmith

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

who had traveled throughout the plains

fron-tier and Texas and became familiar with the

ways and language of many of the Indian tribes

along the route For any European traveling

through the wild country, attacks from Indians

were the most dangerous challenge; these

at-tacks had prevented any established trade route

up to the time of Vial’s departure So in 1786

Juan Bautista de Anza, the governor of New

Mexico, sent Vial out with one man and

provi-sions to map a course from Santa Fe to San

An-tonio, Texas

Vial, who is guessed to have been 40 yearsold, set out to travel through friendly Indian

hamlets that he knew of, stopping along

water-ways and springs en route He became very ill

early in the journey, fell from his horse, and

trav-eled 150 miles (241.4 km) out of the way to a

Comanche Indian camp For two months the

Comanche cared for him and brought him back

to health He continued on, negotiating with

other tribes along the way—Apache, Tawakoni,

more Comanche—and getting advice on the

route to San Antonio

During this series of encounters, Vial wasskillfully assuring the tribes that any Spanish

traders they might encounter in the future

would be friendly This was an important

achievement on Vial’s journey, since the Spanish

relationship with tribes in New Mexico

histori-cally had been violent The guarantee of a safepassage through the eastern Indian country was

as vital as mapping the terrain Vial was so cessful in this public relations effort that manyIndians accompanied him along his journey Hereached San Antonio, turned around, and fol-lowed the exact same route back to Santa Fe, ar-riving May 26, 1787, with a crowd of Co-manche at his side Overall, the journey tooknearly seven and a half months and coveredsome 1,157 miles (1,862 km)

suc-Immediately upon Vial’s return, the nor sent out another explorer, José Mares, toretrace most of Vial’s steps (and take advantage

gover-of the Indian relationships Vial had lished) but in a more efficient manner TheSpaniards wanted to know the fastest routepossible, and Mares completed the round trip

estab-in 845 miles (1,360 km), nearly 125 miles (201km) less than Vial

Satisfied by Mares’s efficient route, and stillfeeling the pressures of the Americans’ feverishtrading along the Mississippi and Missouririvers, the Spanish felt they needed to press far-ther east The governor of New Mexico, Fernan-

do Concha, sent Vial back out, this time towardNatchitoches, a Louisiana outpost just north ofNew Orleans Vial left on June 24, 1788, withseveral companions, including cavalrymen andlocal New Mexicans He once again followed

routes that had water, sat with Indian tribes, andsmoked with them, offering them gifts Theyskirted along the Red River, staying in Co-manche, Wichita, and Taovaya villages and sev-eral well-established Tawakoni villages that be-came popular stopovers for future travelers.

Vial encountered herds of wild mustangs,deer, and wild boar, and he traversed canyons,rivers, and rocky passes They reached Natchi-toches in 663 miles (1,067 km) after 26 days,turned south through San Antonio, and arrivedback in Santa Fe on June 24, 1789 Althoughmany of the expedition party were ill, probablyfrom malaria, they cut their return trip to 632miles (1,017 km) and 23 days Vial’s compan-ions included two literate diarists, who keptmore detailed records of the tribes and terrainthey encountered than Vial had kept on hisfirst expedition to San Antonio They also listedthe supplies that were traded with the Indians

en route Some of these items included

tobac-co, petticoat cloth, beads, chairs, spurs, soap,and hair ribbons And while the road fromSanta Fe to the east was now open, the Spanishdidn’t immediately start trading They weremore concerned with the increasing explo-ration by the Americans

The major towns east of Santa Fe included

St Louis, New Orleans, and San Antonio, all ofwhich were connected in some way to immenseriver systems Of these towns and their rivers,none was more important than St Louis, wherethe Missouri River connected the French in Illi-nois with the Americans all along the land east

of the Mississippi Once again, Governor cha rallied Vial for another explorative journey

Con-He departed on May 21, 1792, out of the smallvillage of Pecos, just outside of Santa Fe for St

Louis, with two men and four horses

They followed along the Colorado Riveruntil they reached southern Colorado and theArkansas River, and then turning north they fol-lowed the Canadian River They were almostkilled by a band of Kansas Indians until some ofthe tribe recognized Vial from his previous wan-derings and spared his life Stripped naked, theywere held captive for several days They set outacross Kansas and Missouri until they reachedthe Missouri River and sailed into St Louis onOctober 3, 1792 After presenting the governorwith a letter from Concha, announcing the pur-pose of Vial’s trip, he stayed until June 14, 1793

The trip took 82 days and covered 1,100 miles(1,770 km)

When Vial began his return, so manymonths later, he had resupplied with hats, hand-kerchiefs, razors, shirts, trousers, mosquito nets,gunflints, soap, mirrors, and bullets They sailedupriver on a pirogue with four rowers, until theymet a Pawnee village, where they stayed andtraded for a couple weeks, establishing a solid re-lationship with the tribe Vial returned to Santa

Fe on November 16, 1793, completing whatwould be his last groundbreaking expedition

Impact

Vial’s expeditions signaled both an end and a ginning: the gradual end of Spanish authority inthe United States and the beginning of Americanconquest of the area west of the Mississippi In

be-1797, with the Spanish growing more wary ofAmerican and French explorers taking advan-tage of their new trade routes, Vial left for a Co-manche village, where he lived until 1803 Thatsame year, the Americans signed the LouisianaPurchase, which doubled the size of the existingUnited States territory and gave the Americanscontrol of Louisiana and direct access to theSanta Fe Trail Trappers and traders soon fre-quented the trail, heading to the West and Santa

Fe, which had earned a reputation as a paradise

of jewels and gold, where all nationalities mixed

in a kind climate Of course, the route was notwithout hazards, as not everyone had a friendlyrelationship with the tribes along the route

In 1821, the year of Mexican dence from Spain, the restricted trade barriersset up by Spain disappeared, Spanish rule re-treated, and Santa Fe became a western tradingdestination for the entire country By 1822William Buckle led the first wagon train from

indepen-St Louis along Vial’s Santa Fe Trail, and kickedoff a massive migration of American pioneers.These early traders carried goods on mules,covering about 12 miles (19.3 km) a day, mak-ing the typical trip in six to eight weeks.Kansas City was en route, and it soon flour-ished with the trail traffic By 1860 more than9,000 men and women, 28,000 oxen, and3,000 wagons had traversed the trail By 1866this number had doubled By the end of thenineteenth century, the railroad laid its tracksacross the prairie and the trail opened up toeveryone, not just hardy adventurers

& Discovery

1700-1799

Overview

On voyages in 1728 and again from 1733 until

1741, Vitus Bering (1681-1741) explored the

northernmost reaches of the Pacific Ocean On

these voyages he discovered (rediscovered,

actu-ally) the Bering Strait, which separates Asia from

North America He also mapped large portions

of Russia’s north and east coasts as well as

north-westernmost North America Because of his

work, Russia was able to lay claim to Alaska, a

long stretch of the North American Pacific coast,

and the fur trade encompassed by this area

Background

European exploration of North America started

on its east coast, primarily because the nations

conducting this exploration were on the Atlantic

Ocean and this was the easiest path for them to

follow Because of this, the western coast of

North America was explored primarily by the

Spanish (who had crossed Central America to

the Pacific Ocean), but they did not generally

explore north of San Francisco Bay Voyages to

the north were blocked by ice and poor weather,

severely limiting exploration in this direction As

the eighteenth century opened, the coast of

America’s Northwest was completely unmapped

and unexplored by Europeans

Europeans were, however, interested in ploring this area The major seafaring nations

ex-wanted an east-to-west sea passage across North

America, which they hoped would enable them

to find a shorter route to the Far East Russia,

however, was another story While Britain,

France, and Holland tried to push across the top

of North America in search of the Northwest

Passage, Russia wanted to open a Northeast

Pas-sage that would link the Russian West to its

ports and potential trading partners in the East

So Russian explorers pushed towards the Pacific

from the other direction

In 1648, a Cossack sailor named SemyonDeshnyov sailed with seven ships through the

Cather, Willa Death Comes to the Archbishop New York:

More than seventy years later Peter theGreat became intensely interested in finding asea passage between Russia and North America

In 1725 he sent Vitus Bering, a Dane serving inthe Russian Navy, on a voyage of discovery Set-ting off from the Kamchatka Peninsula, Beringsailed north along Russia’s east coast, mappingthe shoreline as he sailed, and passing success-fully into the Arctic Ocean Although thisproved conclusively that such a passage existed,

it was exceedingly foggy and he never actuallysighted North America Because of this, therewere those who still questioned his discovery

Not until 1732, when others in the RussianNavy made the same transit in good weather andsighted land to both east and west, was Bering’sdiscovery finally accepted

The next year, Catherine the Great gaveBering command of a more ambitious expedi-tion, the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-

1743 This expedition, one of the largest evermounted, employed over 1,000 people in ex-ploring and mapping northeast Russia, theAmerican Northwest, parts of the Russian Arcticcoast, and the northern Pacific coasts of Russiaand North America The expedition was bothphenomenally expensive and successful, return-ing staggering amounts of scientific information,maps, and other useful knowledge

In 1741, towards the end of the GreatNorthern Expedition, Bering and his crew be-came stranded for the winter on what is nowcalled Bering Island, not far from the coast ofKamchatka There, Bering and most of his crewdied of scurvy, other diseases, and injury duringthe long Arctic winter The expedition contin-ued for another two years, returning with maps

of the Russian Arctic and Pacific coasts, the

Loomis, Noel M and Abraham Nasatir Pedro Vial and the Road to Santa Fe Norman, OK: University of Okla-

homa Press, 1967.

Vitus Bering’s Explorations

of the Far Northern Pacific

Aleutian Islands, and much of the American cific coast.

Pa-Impact

The first and most fundamental result of Bering’sjourneys was Russia’s formal claim to what isnow Alaska and much of the Pacific Northwest

Because her ships reached these areas before anyrival European powers, Russia was able to claimthe land and all its wealth, establishing smallcolonies and stations on many islands and theAlaskan mainland Here the Russians traded andtrapped for valuable furs and skins, fished thewaters, and hunted seals and whales

Russia governed its North American ries for over a century In 1867, however, U.S Sec-retary of State William H Seward bought themfrom cash-poor Russia for what is now recognized

territo-as a ridiculously low price: $7 million At the time,the sale was publicly ridiculed and the territorywas referred to as Seward’s Folly or Seward’s Ice-box It would be another three decades before thisopinion changed, when gold was discovered

Russia had settled colonies in Alaska to lect furs and fish, just as the British and French

col-had done in North America This trade was crative and, in some years, perhaps a thousandships would dock at various colonies to ex-change supplies for trade goods However, even

lu-in the late nlu-ineteenth century, nobody thought itpossible that the frozen expanse held anythingother than game or lumber

Then the discovery of gold in Alaskasparked a gold rush, bringing thousands of peo-ple into the territory in just a few years Over thenext decades, other minerals were found as well,culminating in the discovery of huge petroleumreserves on the Alaskan north coast Gold andoil made Seward’s Folly a vital part of the Ameri-can economy, while its location near Russia gave

it exceptional strategic value

Little of this came without conflict,

howev-er At first, the conflict was a curious one: Russiawanted to sell Alaska badly, but the U.S had nodesire to purchase it At this time, the conflictwas between opposing sides in the U.S Con-gress When it was finally purchased, Congressthen refused to appropriate money to pay thefinal bill for months Then, feeling it a worthlessland of polar bears and glaciers, Congress re-

& Discovery

1700-1799

Overview

As an agent of the Northwest Company trading

furs in western Canada, Sir Alexander Mackenzie

(1755?-1820) became the first European to cross

the continent of North America at its widest part,

north of the Spanish territories in Mexico He

achieved this feat in two landmark expeditions:

exploring the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean

at Beaufort Sea (1789) in Western Canada and

traveling overland from Lake Athabasca to the

Pa-fused to maintain the new territory, letting it

lan-guish instead

The first international dispute came in

1881, when the U.S., Canada, and Britain began

wrangling over fishing and sealing rights in the

Bering Sea Claiming the entire sea as territorial

waters, the U.S tried to exclude other nations

from hunting and fishing in them An

interna-tional arbitration body decided decided against

the U.S in 1893, ruling that the Bering Sea was

open to all nations In 1911 the U.S., Canada,

and Japan signed a further agreement on seal

hunting in the Bering Sea Japan withdrew in

1941, leaving the U.S and Canada with an

terim agreement that was revised in 1956 to

in-clude the Soviet Union

During World War II, the waters first plored by Vitus Bering proved to be of military

ex-importance Trying to draw American attention

away from Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy

staged diversionary raids near the Aleutian

Is-lands These attacks continued throughout the

war, and included a Japanese invasion of some

is-lands During the Cold War, the Aleutians and the

Bering Sea were important for both American and

Soviet navies Nuclear submarines on both

scien-tific research and military missions routinely

passed through the Bering Straits to patrol

be-neath the Arctic icepack In fact, at least one class

of Soviet ballistic missile submarines was

de-signed specifically to operate under the ice,

breaking through if necessary to launch their

mis-siles against NATO These were pursued by U.S

attack submarines, although such pursuits were

difficult in the noisy waters beneath the drift ice

cific Ocean over the Canadian Rockies (1793)

While working towards expanding the reach ofthe Northwest Company, Mackenzie made newcontact with tribes that had never before seen Eu-ropeans and created new trading routes for fursand other goods in western Canada

of Russia because Russians had discovered andsettled it first Noting the low price of purchase,these politicians claimed that Alaska had beenstolen from the Russian people and should bereturned Whether driven by political ambition,sincere nationalistic feeling, economic calcula-tion, or a combination of the three, these claimsobviously went nowhere

Bering’s initial voyages of discovery resulted

in riches that he could not even have guessedwhen he first set forth to explore the Russian FarEast Although he did not realize it, his mapsand discoveries in the Bering Sea, and along theRussian and American Pacific coasts, would lead

to economic gain, military confrontation, cal dispute, and more

Michner, James Alaska New York: Random House, 1988.

Steller, Georg Wilhelm, and O.W Frost Journal of a Voyage With Bering 1741-1742 Stanford University Press, 1993.

Alexander Mackenzie Becomes the First European to Cross the Continent of North

America at Its Widest Part

Canada: the Hudson’s Bay Company, doing ness from outposts along the shores of the bay,and the Northwest Company, which had estab-lished trading posts in the country’s interior,where furs trapped by the Native Americantribes were exchanged for manufactured Euro-pean goods and rum Complex trading relation-ships between the tribes of North America al-ready existed, and independent traders and trap-pers had for years been infiltrating thecross-continental trade The royally charteredcompanies sought to expand that trade by creat-ing trading posts where the tribes could bringfurs for exchange and that would serve as ex-change centers in the company’s trade network.

busi-Alexander Mackenzie began working in theoffices of the Northwest Company at the age of

16 in the last days of the American war for pendence In the Montreal and Detroit offices ofthe company, he learned the fur trade and even-tually formed a venture that sent him out intothe interior of the country to make contact withthe Native American tribes that sold furs to thecompany

inde-Mackenzie established trading relationshipswith the tribes that lived in the Canadian interi-

or and founded trading posts along the riversthat led to Hudson’s Bay These posts were able

to intercept the river trade that otherwise wouldhave gone to the shores of Hudson’s Bay to betraded by the Hudson’s Bay Company, theNorthwest Company’s chief competitor

After gaining control over a large portion ofCanada for trade, Mackenzie established a trad-ing post on the shore of Lake Athabasca thatwould become the base for his later expeditions

to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans In the years fore the first trip north, Mackenzie gathered es-sential information about the geography ofnorthern Canada from the tribes that came totrade at the newly established Fort Chipewyan

be-On June 3, 1789, Mackenzie departed fromFort Chipewyan in canoes, traveling across LakeAthabasca and up the Slave River to Great SlaveLake, where he had been told he would find alarge river that would take him to the PacificOcean The expedition consisted of two canoes,

a group of trappers already familiar with thesouthern portion of their route, and a member

of the Chipewyan tribe named Nestabeck whomMackenzie called English Chief (Almost 20years earlier Nestabeck had accompanied theChipewyan leader Matonabbee when he guidedSamuel Hearne [1745-1792] on the overlandtrip from Hudson’s Bay to the Arctic Ocean

along the Coppermine River.) In early June icestill blocked some waterways in northern Cana-

da, and the expedition had difficulty finding thenorthbound outlet from Great Slave Lake Theexpedition spent the final week of June lookingthrough the lake’s icy marshes for the source ofthe river known by the Cree as “swiftly flowingwaters” and now known by Canadians as theMackenzie River

The river proved to be wide and navigable

as the Native Americans had described ing along the large river’s current, the expeditionwas able to cover about 75 miles (121 km) eachday By the middle of July the expedition noticedthat the river had taken a turn towards thenorthwest and that the Rocky Mountains still laybetween them and the Pacific Ocean As theycontinued north Mackenzie continued tradingwith Native American settlements he encoun-tered, exchanging their furs for ironware, rum,and tobacco and hoping through these trades tolearn more of the local geography Mackenzie’strading gifts with newly encountered tribes con-trasted with his management of his own expedi-tion members, who by July 8th were threatening

Travel-to abandon the demanding and relentlessMackenzie Mackenzie was able to get his men

to continue, and they canoed past abandonedInuit settlements and whale carcasses along theriver until they reached an island from whichthey could see nothing but ice-covered water for

6 miles (9.65 km) They reached the river’s delta

on the Arctic Ocean on the July 14, 1789 gational instruments clearly showed that theyhad not reached the Pacific When a rising tide

Navi-of saltwater swamped baggage they had left out

of the canoes, the disappointed crew returnedupriver, arriving back at Ft Chipewyan on Sep-tember 12, 1789

On his next expedition during 1792-93,Mackenzie again tried to reach the PacificOcean Taking a plan outlined by officials at theNorthwest Company five years earlier, Macken-zie set out to make contact with the Russian,Spanish, and newly independent Americantraders conducting business on the Pacific coast

of what is now British Columbia Mackenzie wasrumored to have wanted to proceed from the Pa-cific along the established Russian trading routes

to Siberia The trip would have been the tion of a 300-year-old goal of establishing a trad-ing route to transport North American goodsover the continent to the markets in Asia Russ-ian traders already had a firm presence thatwould extend as far south as California and weretaking North American furs across the pacific to

realiza-Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

the trading port of Kiatka There the furs were

sold to the caravans that carried them to Peking

and from there throughout China Rather than

evict the Russian traders from the Pacific coast as

the Spanish had tried to do, Mackenzie hoped

that through the Russians he could link their

trading network to Asia and create a series of

outposts from London to Montreal through Fort

Chipewyan to Kiatka and Peking

On October 10, 1792, the expedition begancanoeing west up the Peace River towards the

Continental Divide Stopping at existing trading

posts along the way, they continued to trade rum

and tobacco for furs and information The

trad-ing presence of the Canadians to the east and the

Russians on the coast to the west had

strength-ened contacts between tribes between the two

economic powers Before crossing the

Continen-tal Divide and beginning the descent to the

ocean, the expedition was met by members of a

western tribe that offered guidance in reaching

the Pacific in hopes of establishing a trading

re-lationship with the Northwest Company Unlike

the voyage to the Arctic Ocean, however, the

ex-plorers did not have the advantage of a large

river to carry them all the way downstream

After spending the winter in the newly

estab-lished Fort Fork, the expedition paddled

up-stream along the Peace and Parsnip Rivers at just

the time of year when they were overflowing

with melting snow from the mountains After

crossing the Continental Divide the expeditionwrongly thought they had reached the headwa-ters of the Columbia River To avoid going as farsouth as the mouth of the Columbia River at thepresent boundary between Washington state andOregon, the expedition decided instead to travelthe final 150 miles (241 km) to the Pacific over-land The expedition arrived at the coast on July

20, 1793

Impact

Once at the coast the expedition found no ian or Spanish traders, but instead Native Amer-icans who were hostile to the Europeans

Russ-Mackenzie established a defensive position on asmall island off the coast where he continuedtrading with nonhostile natives who approachedthem In the end Mackenzie’s voyage to the Pa-cific did not establish a strong trading relation-ship with Russia or even a thoroughfare acrossthe Rockies to transport good and settlers

Mackenzie’s explorations, however, did help

to develop a trade network for the NorthwestCompany His goals were financial rather thanscientific as he sought to expand the NorthwestCompany’s trading territory The Companywould continue to be a strong financial presence

in northwestern Canada well into the twentiethcentury That presence was due, in large part, toMackenzie’s efforts in expanding the company’s

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

A rock marked by Alexander Mackenzie near the Pacific Coast in Bella Coola, British Columbia (Corbis Corporation.

Reproduced with permission.)

England had many fur trading posts in Canada,and the French were eager for the profits of thefur trade as well The French resolved to find aroute from New France in eastern Canada to thefabled “Western Sea,” thought to be an outlet tothe Pacific Ocean, and to make their own mark

by establishing a string of forts in the westernCanadian wilderness La Vérendrye’s expedi-tions, though never reaching the Western Sea,were largely responsible for opening the centralinterior of Canada to French control

Background

Pierre de La Vérendrye was born in 1685 inTrois Rivières, on the banks of the St LawrenceRiver Entering the French army in 1697, LaVérendrye began his military career at the age of

12, and served in Canada and France After aperiod of peace between the English and French,

La Vérendrye returned to Canada to take up thefur trade, and accepted command of the LakeNipigon trading center in 1726 While at thefort he met a tribesman, Ochagach, from theKaministikwia River From him, La Vérendryeheard of a great lake and a river that flowed from

it through a “treeless country where roam greatherds of cattle,” leading to a “great salt sea.” Hisinterest sharpened, La Vérendrye decided to ex-plore this country and to find a route to theWestern Sea for France

presence in the Canadian interior, where itwould become a force for economic develop-ment even after the decline of the fur trade

of La Vérendrye, his cousin Christophe Dufrost,sieur de La Jemeraye, La Vérendrye’s sons, Jean-Baptiste, Pierre, and François, and a crew of 50men embarked for the west by canoe Vastamounts of supplies, such as tobacco, kettles,axes, saws, powder, and muskets were needed totrade with the tribes of the west The route wasnot an easy one, with rugged, difficult terrain.The expedition canoed 210 miles (336 km)west on the Ottawa River, onto the MattawaRiver and then the French River, averaging 20miles (32 km) a day Portages (land crossings)were many and very difficult because of theheavy load, as well as the constant annoyance ofbiting flies and mosquitoes Passing by the is-lands of northern Lake Huron they arrived atFort Michilimackinac between Lake Huron andLake Michigan, and enjoyed a brief rest beforemoving on After a month of storms and badweather they reached the Grand Portage on Au-gust 26, 1731, 40 miles (64.4 km) southwest ofFort Kaministikwia, the present site of ThunderBay, Ontario A difficult series of portages stoodbetween Lake Superior and Rainy Lake, where

La Vérendrye wanted to establish his first fort.The men broke into open mutiny as some feared

“evil spirits” and others did not want to continue

so late in the season La Vérendrye decided towinter at Kamistikwia with some of the men,while La Jemeraye pressed on to Rainy Lakewith Jean-Baptiste and the remaining crew

Gough, Barry First across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,

After canoeing 200 miles (320 km), Jean arrived

at Rainy Lake Fort St Pierre, named after La

Vérendrye, was built where the Rainy River

leaves Rainy Lake towards the Lake of the

Woods La Vérendrye, with the rest of the crew

and his two sons, resumed travel west on June 8,

1732, exactly one year after the expedition

began, and arrived at the new fort one month

later A profitable fur trade had developed and

the loyalties of the Cree, traditional enemies of

the Sioux, were won with gifts of guns and shot

Going west, with an escort of 50 Cree and

Mon-soni canoes, the expedition reached The Lake of

the Woods and followed along the present

Cana-dian-American border A peninsula that ran out

into the lake was chosen for the sight of their

second fort, named Fort St Charles after

Gover-nor Beauharnois The fort, located in

present-day Minnesota, was a good location for trade,

and La Vérendrye decided to winter at the fort

to help establish the fur trade

Early in April 1733 La Vérendrye sent a smallparty with La Jemeraye and Jean-Baptiste to ex-

plore the Maurepas (Winnipeg) River La Jemeraye

returned to the fort, where he later died, and Jean

went on and established Fort Maurepas at the

point where the Winnipeg River enters Lake

Win-nipeg La Vérendrye remained at Fort St Charles,

where he continued trade with the Cree and

Assiniboines The two tribes asked La Vérendrye

to allow his son, Jean-Baptiste, to join them in war

against the Sioux La Vérendrye agreed, failing to

distance himself from the tribal conflicts of the

Cree, Monsoni, Assiniboines and the Sioux

After spending the winter of 1734-35 inMontreal, La Vérendrye returned to Fort St

Charles on Sept 6, 1735, and sent Pierre and

François to Fort Maurepas on February 7, 1736,

for supplies Jean-Baptiste was sent to retrieve

sup-plies from Fort Michilimackinac on June 5, 1736

Due to Sioux attacks in the area, La Vérendrye

sent a party to retrace Jean’s route to the fort On

June 22, 1736, La Vérendrye met with news of his

son’s death, plus 20 others with him The Sioux

had attacked, and the men were found carefully

laid in a circle with their decapitated heads beside

them, wrapped in beaver skins

During the difficult winter of 1736-37 atFort St Charles, La Vérendrye learned about a

tribe further in the west called the Mandans

They were reported to be white and described as

living in forts and tilling the ground La

Vérendrye inquired about the great river the

Mandan lived on (Missouri River) and wondered

if it was the river of the west they were seeking

He was told it ran south and discharged into thePacific, where there were towns of white men

By this time La Vérendrye knew that the river ofthe west described by Ochagach was only theWinnipeg River, and the great sea was probablyLake Winnipeg La Vérendrye decided to make avoyage to the home of the Mandans Going back

to Montreal before he left for the west, LaVérendrye reached the forks of the Red andAssiniboine Rivers on September 24, 1738,where the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, nowstands Despite low waters the crew continued

up the Assiniboine a few days later, while LaVérendrye walked across the plains With riverlevels getting even lower, La Vérendrye stopped

on October 3, 1738, and erected Fort la Reine,now Portage la Prairie, Manitoba

On October 18, 1738, La Vérendrye, withAssiniboine guides, left for the Mandans Theytraveled towards the Pembina River, around theTurtle Mountains, and passed Bismarck, NorthDakota They met a Mandan chief on November

25, 1738, whose party took La Vérendrye to thefirst fort of the Mandan’s on November 30,

1738, near a small river about 15 miles (24 km)northeast of the Missouri River Further downriver there were five more villages The Mandansimpressed La Vérendrye, as they lived in largecomfortable homes arranged in neat little streetsinside a well-built fort However, La Vérendryewas disappointed that they were not white ashad been reported La Vérendrye remained onthe treeless plain for much of the winter, andlearned of other tribes even further to the west

of the Mandans Returning to Fort Reine on ruary 10, 1739, La Vérendrye was very ill andneeded time to recuperate

Feb-While at Fort Reine, La Vérendrye sent hisyoungest son, Louis Joseph, who joined thejourney after the death of his eldest brother, toinvestigate the shores of the major prairie lakesand to select sites for forts Louis traveled alongLake Manitoba to Lake Dauphin and marked outthe site for Fort Dauphin Going northwest tothe mouth of the Saskatchewan River, he stakedout a second site close to present-day GrandRapids, and then proceeded northwest onceagain Where the Carrot and Pasquia Rivers jointhe parent Saskatchewan River, Louis marked aspot for Fort Paskoyac, today known as The Pas,Manitoba, and then returned to Fort Reine forthe winter of 1739-40

The trip to the prairies was not profitablesince there were not many furs to be traded, and

Exploration

& Discovery

1700-1799

Almost half the globe was a mystery beforeJames Cook began his voyages By the time hewas finished, it was clear that there were nolarge landmasses left to be discovered on theplanet He proved that the legendary southern

continent, terra australis, did not exist and

showed that there was no practical NorthwestPassage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Cookalso discovered Hawaii, New Caledonia, andmany other remote islands He was the firstrecorded individual to travel below the AntarcticCircle His voyages made major contributions toscience, especially botany, and helped establishgood nutrition as the way to prevent scurvy

the expedition proceeded under a cloud of debt

After going to Montreal to clear up some legal sues involving his debtors, La Vérendrye re-turned to Fort Reine on October 13, 1741 Dur-ing this time, his son, Pierre, returned to theMandan and Horse tribes in the west and wasable to determine that the Missouri River was notthe river of the west, as it flowed south and intothe Gulf of Mexico, not the Western Sea Pierrereturned to Fort Reine with horses he receivedfrom the western tribes and was responsible forbringing the first horses to the Canadian Prairies

is-Wintering at Fort Reine in 1741-42, LaVérendrye sent Louis and François for a thirdexpedition to the Mandans, while he sent Pierre

to establish Fort Dauphin La Vérendrye’s twosons returned to the Mandans on May 19, 1742,and explored the Cheyenne and Missouri Riversand their tributaries Escorted by the Bow Indi-ans, whom they met during their explorations,the expedition reached the Rocky Mountains onJanuary 12, 1743, but news of a rival tribe in thearea forced the party to return to the Bow vil-lages on February 9, 1743 A leaden plate, with

an inscription, was buried by La Vérendrye’ssons at Pierre, North Dakota, on their way back

to Fort Reine, which was later unearthed by highschool students in 1913 The expedition re-turned to Fort Reine on July 2, 1743

Although the French government was happy with La Vérendrye’s efforts to find the

un-Background

All the inhabited continents had been ered before Captain James Cook (1728-1779)began his three major voyages of discovery, butnobody knew this fact Large portions of theSouthern Hemisphere remained unexplored

discov-Maps showed blank space or terra australis, a

legendary southern continent filled with fantasycreatures

Symmetry was one of the main argumentsfor the southern continent Should not there be

as much land in the Southern Hemisphere as inthe Northern? The known landmasses of theSouthern Hemisphere only amounted to about a

Western Sea, he and his expedition plished much They had, between 1731 and

accom-1747, covered almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km)and established a string of important tradingposts The forts he established set the founda-tion for the settling of the rugged CanadianWest The city of Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) is athriving community that still serves as the gate-way to the west, and is the capital city of Mani-toba Today, the Turtle Mountain ProvincialPark, located on the Canadian-American border,acts as a reminder of the explorations of LaVérendrye and his men In 1744 Pierre de LaVérendrye retired as Commandant of the West-ern Posts, but still planned to return west when

he died in Montreal on December 5, 1749

KYLA MASLANIEC

Further Reading

Bolander, Richard E., ed World Explorers and Discoverers.

New York: Macmillan, 1992.

Crouse, Nellis M La Vérendrye: Fur Trader and Explorer.

Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1956.

Kavanagh, Martin La Vérendrye: His Life and Times

Eng-land: Fletcher & Son, 1967.

Long, Morden H Knights Errant of the Wilderness: Tales of the Explorers of the Great North-West.Toronto: Macmil-

lan, 1919.

Syme, Ronald Fur Trader of the North: The Story of Pierre

de la Vérendrye New York: Morrow, 1973.