They passed by the West Indies in quest of gold. Cortes and Pizarro found something of their hearts' desire in Mexico and Peru. So on they pressed down the west coast of South America and up the west coast of North America and across the Pacific; but the vigor of the Spaniard was about wasted. He hung helplessly to his outposts on the flanks of the Pacific Northwest. At the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century he rallied and sent vessels up and down the coast of Oregon; but his explorations were not determinate, and they were not followed by occupation. Early in the eighteenth century the Muscovite, advancing eastward across Siberia, had reached the shores of the Pacific, and soon gained a foothold on our northern shores, with designs on all this coast. England, too, was ready to have a hand in the contest for this last great territorial prize on the North American continent. Elated by her decisive victories over her mortal enemy, France, and, by the treaty of Paris, 1763, the proud possessor of all of the eastern half of this continent, of India, mistress of the seas, conscious also of the great advantages that the invention of the steam engine, the power loom and other machinery gave her, she dispatched explorers to scan the different quarters of the globe for new possessions. Captain Cook outlined the shores of Australia and of many other lands of the south seas, and in 1778 was off the Oregon coast. At the same time enterprising Britons were pressing westward along the Great Lakes and overland toward this still available portion of the continent. Thus, the progressive nations of the world were closing in on this last choice imperial domain of the temperate zone awaiting a pre-emptor--the possessor of which would be the natural master of the Pacific. At this critical juncture the then young American nation was fortunate in the spirit of maritime enterprise among the merchants of Boston. Seeking the profits of trade in furs which the voyage of Cook had revealed, they sent Captains Gray and Kendrick to the North Pacific coast, and in 1792 Gray, in the ship Columbia, performed the feat that secured to this country priority of right to the basin of the Columbia. Still more fortunate was this country at this time in having the prescient mind of Thomas Jefferson devoted to its interests. While Gray's vessel was lying in the Columbia he was getting up a subscription for sending explorers overland to the Pacific. Even ten years before this he had proposed an expedition to the Pacific under the leadership of George Rogers Clark. He then had it in mind to head off an English enterprise of which he had heard; but it was not until 1803, twenty years after his first effort in this direction, that Jefferson succeeded in getting the means for the first and by far the most important of our national exploring expeditions--the Lewis and Clark.