• Capitol: Sacramento
• Largest City: Los Angeles
• Nickname: The Golden State
• State Bird: California Quail
• State Tree: Redwood
• State Flower: California Poppy
• Land Area: 163,700 square miles
• Motto: Eureka (I have found it)
• Name derivation: from a 15th Century Spanish Romance Novel Las Sergas de Esplandian, believed first used in context of the 'place' by the Spanish explorer, Cortez

Beginnings [1]

On February 2, 1848, the far-flung province of California so long the outpost of Spanish advance on the Pacific, passed out of the possession of Mexico into the hands of the United States. This change of sovereignty was the inevitable result of forces set in operation a full half century before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally recognized an accomplished fact.

American interest in California was first aroused by those New England "merchant adventurers" of the latter 18th and early 19th centuries, who transformed commerce into sheer romance and left behind them a record of accomplishment and daring that has not yet faded from American tradition. In the beginning, these New Englanders were drawn to California by the fur trade of the northwest coast, and the opening of commercial relations with the Chinese Empire.

The origin of this three-cornered New England-Northwest-Chinese trade dates back to the year of American independence. In 1776, while the colony of Alta California was still in swaddling clothes, two vessels sailed from Plymouth Harbor, England — starting point of so many famous voyages in the world's history — to explore the northwest coast of America and the islands of the Pacific. The command of this undertaking was entrusted to Captain James Cook, a navigator of the true Elizabethan type, in whose soul lived the same shrewd instincts of the sea and the same bold love of adventure that had lured Drake around the world, and sent Hawkins into the forbidden waters of the Spanish Main two hundred years before.

Upon reaching the northwest coast, after a prolonged stay among the South Pacific Islands, Cook found the natives of Nootka Sound, and of other places where his vessels touched, eager to trade with the Englishmen. For this purpose, according to the chronicler of the expedition, the Indians brought

"skins of various animals, such as wolves, foxes, bears, deer, raccoons, polecats, martins, and in particular of the sea otters, which are found at the islands East of Kamtschatka." "The fur of these animals," the writer continued, "is certainly softer and finer than that of any others we know of and, therefore, the discovery of this part of the Continent of North America, where so valuable an article of commerce may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference."

The sailors bought the skins from the Indians for a few trinkets of insignificant value, and used them as bed coverings for protection against the cold of the higher latitudes. When the expedition reached China, however, the furs, even though badly worn and in most cases infested with vermin, commanded extraordinary prices. The sea otter skins which the sailors had secured were especially in demand, and the Chinese readily gave over a hundred dollars apiece for them. So profitable, indeed, was the trade that the members of the expedition were with difficulty restrained from seizing the vessels and sailing back to the American coasts for a full cargo of furs, instead of completing the voyage to England.

The results of Cook's voyage were not made public until 1784; but some time before the publication of his official journals the opportunities offered by the northwest fur trade were revealed to a few Americans (among whom were Robert Morris, John Paul Jones, and Thomas Jefferson) by a very remarkable adventurer, John Ledyard, who had served as corporal on Cook's expedition. Several attempts were made to take advantage of the new field by Morris and Ledyard; but misfortune dogged the latter's steps, so that he never succeeded in reaching the northwest coast again. Before 1790, however, British and Russian traders, profiting from Cook's discovery, were visiting the coast in such numbers that the Spanish government became alarmed and made a futile effort to shut out the interlopers. The chief result of these activities was the Nootka Sound controversy and the end of Spain's policy of exclusion north of California.

In the meantime the Revolutionary War had come to a close, leaving the American States face to face with serious problems of government and equally grave economic difficulties. The commercial situation touched especially the merchant and shipping interests of New England, forcing them to look abroad for markets and to develop new lines of commercial enterprise if they were to prevent complete stagnation of trade. As a result of this condition, a certain William Shaw, supercargo of the Empress of China, sailed from Boston early in 1784 for the Orient. Reaching Macao, the port of entry for Canton, Shaw disposed of his cargo to good advantage and thus opened an entirely new field for American commerce.

For more than half a century the trade thus begun not only enriched the merchants of the Atlantic seaboard, but also exerted a very profound influence upon the course of California history. Shortly after Shaw's successful venture a company of Boston merchants, headed by Joseph Barrell, conceived the idea of enlarging the New England-Chinese commerce so as to include the northwest coast. In keeping with this plan the company sent two vessels to the Pacific in 1787. These were the Columbia, under John Kendrick, and the Lady Washington, under Robert Grey.

1. transcribed from Cleland, Robert Glass, PhD, A History of California: The American Period, New York, 1922, The Macmillan Company.