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Show THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 9 northwest coast to San Francisco. This last estab-lishment, the most northern of all the Spanish posses-sions of the new continent, is almost under the same parallel with the small town of Taos in New Mexico. It is not more than 300 leagues distant from it; and though Father Escalante, in his apostolical excur-sions in 1777, advanced along the western bank of the river Zagnananas toward the mountains de los Gua-caros, no traveler has yet come from New Mexico to the coast of New California. This fact must appear re-markable to those who know, from the history of the conquest of America, the spirit of enterprise and the wonderful courage with which the Spaniards were ani-mated in the sixteenth century. Hernan Cortez landed for the first time on the coast of Mexico in the district of Chalchinhcuecan in 1519, and in the space of four years had already constructed vessels on the coast of the South Sea at Zacatula and Tehuantepec. In 1537, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca appeared with two of his companions, worn out with fatigue, naked, and covered with wounds, on the coast of Culiacan, oppo-site the peninsula of California. He had landed with Panfilo Narvaez in Florida, and after two years' ex-cursions, wandering over all Louisiana and the north-ern part of Mexico, he arrived at the shore of the great ocean in Sonora. This space, which Nuiiez went over, is almost as great as that of the route followed by Captain Lewis from the banks of the Mississippi to Nootka and the mouth of the river Columbia.* * " This wonderful journey of Captain Lewis was undertaken under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson, who by this important ser- |