as Cape Mendocino, named in honor of the Viceroy
Mendoza.

These great expeditions of De Soto and Coronado,
undertaken for the exploration of the interior of the
present United States a century and a half before
La Salle, and over two centuries and a half before
Lewis and Clark, were the natural outflow of the
marvellous experiences of Cortés and of Pizarro in
Mexico and Peru, and mark the highest reach of
Spanish energy in our own country; nor have they
ever been surpassed as exhibitions of skilful leader-
ship and enduring labor by any similar enterprises
by the French or English in North America. Their
results were keenly disappointing at the time, but
in the record of the exploration of the globe they
occupy a high and honorable place among the great
enterprises of history.

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