Note 4 — Part II

On maps of North America made in the first half of the eighteenth century may be seen the great Mer d’Ouest, or “Western Sea,” evidently an exaggeration of Puget Sound, to which only the entrance had then been discovered. The explorations of Martin Aguilar were made in January, 1603, in partial conjunction with Sebastian Vizcaino, who went along the California coast with two Spanish vessels, Aguilar being in command of one of the ships. Bancroft (Northeast Coast, i, p. 140–148) thinks that Aguilar went no farther than latitude 42°. The Russians (under the lead of Vitus Bering) made various discoveries on the Alaskan coasts before 1741, and afterward regularly hunted for furs in Alaska, sending this commodity directly, and by a shorter route, to China, where they carried on a highly profitable trade, although they undersold the English merchants there (Bancroft, ut supra, pp. 345, 346). ↑