The clearest and most significant expression of Spanish fears of French interference appears in a 1751 series of memoirs by Don Fernando Sanchez Salvador, a captain of the Sonora and Sinaloa cavalry. Sanchez Salvador argued that France was eagerly seeking the Pacific. He warned that, in their exploration of the mountains around New Mexico, French scouts might find and descend the Colorado River. He contended that the river divided into two branches, one called the Carmelo River which he believed emptied into the Pacific Ocean on the coast of upper California.
From: The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire: 1713 - 1763 By Paul W. Mapp 2011
Oil painting by JamesWalker: http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3q2nb43s/?layout=metadata&brand=calisphere
No comments:
Post a Comment