USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 18
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 18
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On his arrival in this bay, Cook " honored it with the name of King George's Sound ; " but he " afterwards found that it was called Nootka, by the natives," and it has, accordingly, ever since been known as Nootka Sound. No word has, however, been since found in the language of the people of this country more nearly resembling Nootka than Yuquatl, the name applied by them to Friendly Cove. The bay is situated on the south-west side of the large Island of Vancouver and Quadra, which was, until 1790, supposed to be a part of the American continent; and it communicates with the Pacific by two openings, the southernmost of which, the only one affording a passage for large vessels, lies under the parallel of 49 degrees 33 minutes. This southern entrance is, undoubtedly, the Port San Lorenzo, in which the Spanish navigator Perez lay with his ship, the Santiago, on the 10th of August, 1774; and from that vessel, most probably, were stolen the two silver spoons of Spanish manufacture, which Cook saw at Nootka, in the possession of one of the natives. The place possesses many advantages, which will render it important, whenever that part of America shall be occupied, as it certainly will be, by an enterprising and industrious people.
It was Cook's intention, on leaving Nootka Sound, to proceed. as speedily as possible, to the part of the coast under the 65th degree of latitude, from which he was to commence his search for a passage to the Atlantic. The violence of the wind prevented him from approaching the land for some days, and he thus, to his regret, left unseen the place, near the 53d parallel, " where geog- raphers had placed the pretended Strait of Fonte. For my own part," he continues, " I gave no credit to such vague and improb- able stories, that carry their own confutation along with them ; nevertheless, I was very desirous of keeping the American coast aboard, in order to clear up this point beyond dispute." At length, on the 1st of May, he saw the land, about the 55th parallel; and, on the following day, he passed near the beautiful conical mountain,
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154
COOK BEGINS HIS SURVEY OF THE COAST.
[1778.
under the 57th, which had received from Bodega, in 1775, the name of Mount San Jacinto. This peak was called Mount Edgecumb by Cook, who also gave the appellation of Bay of Islands to the Port Remedios of the Spaniards, on its northern side.
After leaving these places, the English observed a wide opening on the east, called by them Cross Sound, and beyond it a very high mountain, which obtained the name of Mount Fairweather ; and, as the latter was situated near the 59th parallel, they had then advanced farther north than the Spaniards, or any other navigators, had proceeded from the south along that coast, and were entering upon the scenes of the labors of the Russians. Accordingly, as they ex- pected, on the 4th of the month, they beheld, rising from the shore in the north, at the distance of forty leagues, a stupendous pile of rocks and snow, which they immediately recognized as the Mount St. Elias, described in the accounts of Bering's voyage; and, as the coast from its base was found to "trend very much to the west, inclining hardly any thing to the north," Cook determined to com- mence his survey at that point, hoping soon to discover some strait, or arm of the ocean, through which he might pass around the north- western extremity of America, into the sea bathing the northern shores of the continent. Of the existence of such a passage he was assured by the Russian geographers, on whose maps the whole space between Mount St. Elias and Kamtchatka was represented as occupied by a collection of islands and channels.
With this expectation, the English advanced slowly along the coast, from the foot of Mount St. Elias, westward, to a considerable distance, and then south-westward, as far as the latitude of 54} degrees ; minutely examining, in their way, every sinuosity on the shores of the ocean, and particularly those of the two great gulfs, named by them Prince William's Sound and Cook's River, which stretch northwardly into the land from the 60th parallel. They were, however, in each instance, disappointed; for the coast was found to extend continuously on their right, bordered every where by lofty, snow-capped chains of mountains along the whole line thus surveyed : and, as Cook became convinced that these territories formed part of the American continent, which thus "extended farther to the west than, from the modern most reputable charts, he had reason to expect," he saw, with regret, that the probability of his finding a passage eastward into Baflin's or Hudson's Bays was materially diminished, if not entirely destroyed. He endeavored, in his course, to identify the places described in the narrative of
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155
COOK REACHES UNALASHKA.
1778.]
Bering's voyage; but this he found, almost always, impossible, though he assigned many of the names therein mentioned to spots which seemed to correspond, in some respects, with those so called by the Russians.
Whilst this survey was in progress, particularly at Prince Wil- liam's Sound, the ships were frequently visited by the natives of the surrounding country, who appeared to be of a different race from those seen farther south. They were as thievish as the Nootkans, though apparently less ferocious and revengeful; and Cook gives several examples of their extraordinary apathy and indifference, which appears, from all subsequent accounts, to be their most remarkable characteristic. They, also, were well acquainted with the use of iron and copper, of which metals, particularly of copper, they possessed knives, or spear-heads, rudely made. Among thein were likewise found many ornaments made of glass beads, which were evidently of European manufacture: yet the English could not learn that they had ever had direct intercourse with any civilized nation ; and Cook very justly concluded that the Russians " had never been among them, for, if that had been the case, we should hardly have found them clothed in such valuable skins as those of the sea otter."
Proceeding south-westward from Cook's River, along the western side of the peninsula of Aliaska, the English, on the 19th of June, fell in with a group of small islands, near the 55th parallel, which appeared to correspond, in position, with the Schumagin Islands of Bering ; and, while sailing amongst them, they obtained, from some natives, a note written on paper, in an unknown language, which they supposed to be Russian. Having reached the extremity of the land in that direction, they doubled the point, and, sailing again towards the east, they arrived, on the 27th, at a large island, which proved to be Unalashka, one of the Aleutian Archipelago, frequently mentioned in the accounts of the Russians as a place of resort for their traders : natives of the island only were found there ; but, as its position with reference to other points in America, and to Kamtchatka, was supposed to be represented with some approach to accuracy, on the chart published at St. Petersburg, the Eng- lish, after reaching it, were better able to determine their future course.
Being still anxious to discover, if possible, during that season, how far America extended to the north-west, Cook departed from Unalashka on the 2d of July, and, sailing northward along the coast,
156
COOK MEETS RUSSIAN TRADERS.
[1778.
he carefully examined all its bays and recesses, in search of a pas- sage towards the east, until he, at length, on the 9th of August, reached a point, in the latitude of 65 degrees 46 minutes, which his observations induced him to consider as the "north-western extremity of all America." This point he named Cape Prince of Wales, and thence proceeding westward, across a channel only fifty miles in breadth, he arrived at another point, supposed to be that described, in the account of Bering's first voyage, as the Tchukotskoi Noss, which was ascertained to be the easternmost spot in Asia, and was accordingly named East Cape. The passage separating these capes, which the Russians had called Bering's Strait, was suffered to retain that appellation, in honor of the navigator who first sailed through it.
Beyond Bering's Strait, the American coast was traced by the English, north-eastward upon the Arctic Sea, to Icy Cape, in the latitude of 70 degrees 29 minutes, where the progress of the ex- plorers was arrested by the ice. In like manner, the Asiatic coast was surveyed north-westward, to Cape North, in the latitude of 68 degrees 56 minutes, the farthermost point to which it was then pos- sible to advance in that direction ; and, the warm season being by this time ended, Cook judged it prudent to retire to the south, deferring the continuation of his researches until the ensuing summer. He accordingly repassed Bering's Strait, and on the 3d of October his ships were again anchored in the harbor of Sam- agoonda, on the north side of Unalashka.
From this place, Corporal Ledyard was despatched on an ex- ploring trip into the interior of the island, where he at length dis- covered some Russian traders, who accompanied him back to the ships. The chief of these traders, named Gerassim Ismyloff, was an old and experienced seaman, who had formed one of the party under Benyowsky, in their adventurous voyage from Kamtchatka to China, in 1770, and had since been engaged in the navigation and traffic between Asia and the Aleutian Islands. He readily ex- hibited to Cook the few charts in his possession, and communicated what he knew respecting the geography of that part of the world as well as was possible, considering that neither of the two under- stood a word of the language of the other. The information thus received from Ismyloff, however, only served to show the entire inaccuracy of the ideas of the Russians with regard to America, and to convince the English navigator of the importance of his own discoveries.
157
DEATH OF COOK.
1779.]
Leaving Unalashka on the 27th of October, the English ships continued their voyage southward to the Sandwich Islands, of which the two largest, called Owyhee and Mowee, (Hawaii and Mauai,) were first discovered in the latter part of November. They passed the winter on the western side of Owyhee, in a harbor called Kara- kooa Bay ; and there, on the 16th of February, 1779, the gallant and generous Cook was murdered by the natives, in an affray.
Captain Charles Clerke, who succeeded to the command of the expedition after this melancholy event, endeavored, in the summer of 1779, to effect a passage through the Arctic Sea to the Atlantic. With this view, he left the Sandwich Islands in March, and, on the 29th of April, reached the harbor of Petropawlowsk, in the Bay of Avatscha, the principal port of the Russians on the North Pacific, where the English were received with the utmost kindness by the officers of the government; and their ships were objects of the greatest curiosity to the people, being the first from any foreign country which had ever visited that part of the world. After some days spent in Kamtchatka, Clerke sailed for Bering's Strait, beyond which, however, he was unable to advance, in any direction, so far as in the preceding year, in consequence of the great accumulation of the ice. His health at that time being, moreover, in a very pre- carious state, he returned to Petropawlowsk, near which he died, on the 22d of August.
Lieutenant John Gore next assumed the direction of the enter- prise : but the ships were considered, by him and the other officers, unfit, from the bad condition of their bottoms and rigging, to en- counter the shocks of another season in that tempestuous quarter of the ocean ; and it was, thereupon, determined that they should direct their course immediately for England. They accordingly sailed from Petropawlowsk in October, and in the beginning of December they anchored at the mouth of the River Tygris, near Canton.
With the stay of the English ships in China are connected some circumstances, which gave additional importance to the discoveries effected in their expedition.
It has already been mentioned that, during the voyage along the north-west coasts of America, the officers and seamen had obtained from the natives at Nootka, Prince William's Sound, and other places which they visited, a quantity of furs, in exchange for knives, old clothes, buttons, and other trifles. These furs were collected,
158
THE ENGLISH SELL THEIR FURS AT CANTON. [1779.
for the most part, without any reference to their value as merchan- dise, and were used on board ship as clothes or bedding ; in conse- quence of which, many of them had become spoiled, and others were much injured, before the ships reached Petropawlowsk. At that place, a few skins were sold to the Russian traders, who were anxious to purchase the whole on similar terms; but the English officers, having, in the mean time, acquired information as to the high prices paid for furs in China, prevailed upon the seamen to retain those which they still possessed, until their arrival at Canton, where they were assured that a much better market would be found.
The hopes thus excited did not prove fallacious. The ships commanded by Gore were the only ones, with the exception of that under Benyowsky, in 1770, which had ever arrived at Canton directly from the coasts where furs were obtained ; and no sooner was the nature of the merchandise which they brought known in the city, than all became eager to purchase those precious objects of comfort and luxury, either for their own use or upon speculation. The Chinese, according to custom, began by offering prices much below the ordinary ; but the English, being on their guard, refused such terms, and, in the end, their whole stock of furs was sold for money and goods, to the amount of more than ten thousand dollars. The seamen, on witnessing these results, became, notwithstanding the previous length of their cruise, " possessed with a rage to return to the northern coasts, and, by another cargo of skins, to make their fortunes, which was, at one time, not far short of mutiny : " they were, however, restrained by their officers, and, after the com- pletion of the business at Canton, the ships sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to England, where they arrived in the beginning of October, 1780.
With regard to the novelty of the discoveries effected in this voyage, it will be scen, on comparing the course of the English ships with those taken by the Spaniards, in 1774 and 1775 -that Cook saw no part of the west coast of North America, south of Mount San Jacinto or Edgecumb, which had not been previously scen by Perez, Bodega, or Heceta; and, after passing that point, he was, as he frequently admits, aided, and in a measure guided, by the accounts of the Russian voyages. The observations of the English were, however, infinitely more minute, and more important, in their results, than those of any or all the other navigators who had pre-
159
RESULTS OF COOK'S DISCOVERIES.
1780.]
ceded them in the exploration of the North Pacific: for, by deter- mining accurately the positions of the principal points on the coasts of Asia and America, bounding that sea, they first afforded the . means of ascertaining the extent of those continents, and the degree of their proximity to each other, respecting which the most er- roncous ideas had been adopted ; and the comparative ease and security with which they executed this task, served to dispel the apprehensions, previously entertained, with regard to expeditions through that quarter of the ocean.
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160
CHAPTER VII.
1780 To 1789.
Commercial Results of Cook's Discoveries - Settlements of the Russians in America - Scheme of Ledyard for the Trade of the North Pacific - Voyage of La Perouse - Direct Trade between the American Coasts and Canton commenced - Voyages of the English Fur Traders -Re-discovery of the Strait of Fuca - Voyage of Meares, who endeavors to find a great River described by the Spaniards - First Voyages from the United States to the South Pacific, and to Canton - Voyage of the Columbia and Washington, under Kendrick and Gray, from Boston to the North Pacific.
WHILST Cook was engaged in his last expedition, Great Britain became involved in wars with the United States of America, France, and Spain ; and, as there was no prospect of a speedy termination of the contests at the time when the ships sent out under that commander returned to Europe, the British government considered it prudent to withhold from the world all information respecting their voyage. The regular journals of the ships, together with the private notes and memoranda of the officers and men which could be collected, were, in consequence, placed under the charge of the Board of Admiralty, and thus remained concealed until peace had been restored. Notwithstanding this care, however, many of the occurrences of the expedition became known, the importance, or the novelty, of which was such as to raise to the highest degree the curiosity of the public, not only in England, but in all other civilized countries.
The wars having been, at length, concluded, the regular journals of the expedition were published at London, in the winter of 1784-5, under the care of the learned Bishop Douglas, with a number of maps, charts, and other illustrative engravings; and it is now scarcely necessary to say, that the anticipations which had been formed as to the importance of their contents, were fully realized.
The information obtained during the voyage, respecting the abundance of animals of fine fur on the north-west coasts of America, and the high prices paid for their skins in China, became
161
STATE OF THE FUR TRADE.
1780.]
generally diffused before the publication of the journals, and it did not fail to attract the attention of enterprising men in all maritime countries. The trade in furs had been conducted, almost wholly, by the British and the Russians, between whom, however, there had been no opportunity for competition. The Russians procured their furs chiefly in the northern parts of their own empire; and they exported to China, by land, all such as were not required for their own use. The British market was supplied entirely from Hudson's Bay and Canada ; and a great portion of the skins there collected was sent to Russia, whence many of them found their way to China, though none had ever been shipped directly for the latter country. That the furs of Canada and Hudson's Bay might be sold advan- tageously at Canton was certain, from a comparison between the prices of those articles in London and in Canton ; and it was also clear that still greater profits might be secured by means of a direct trade between China and the north-west coasts of America, where the finest furs were to be obtained more easily than in any other part of the world. There could be, nevertheless, no doubt that, after the opening of such a trade, the prices in China would fall, while the difficulties and expenses of collecting the furs in America would be increased ; and it was, therefore, material that those who wished to reap the fullest harvests in this new field, should begin their labors as speedily as possible.
The Russians were the first to avail themselves of Cook's dis- coveries, respecting which they had derived much information during the stay of the British ships at Petropawlowsk and Unalash- ka. In 1781, an association was formed between Gregory Scheli- kof, Ivan Gollikof, and other principal fur merchants of Siberia and Kamtchatka, for the more extensive and effective conduct of their business ; and three vessels, equipped by them for a long voyage of trade and exploration, sailed from Ochotsk, in August, 1783, under the command of Schelikof. In this expedition they were absent three years, in the course of which the shores of the American continent and islands, between the south-west extremity of Aliaska and Prince William's Sound, were examined, and several colonies or factories were established, particularly on the large island of Kuktak, or Kodiak, near the entrance of the bay called Cook's River. Schelikof was a man of great intrepidity and perseverance, well acquainted with the business in which he was engaged, and apparently never troubled by scruples as to the morality or humanity of any measure, after he had satisfied himself of its expediency.
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162
LEDYARD'S SCHEME FOR THE FUR TRADE. [1782.
He and his followers are said to have exhibited the most barbarous dispositions in their treatment of the natives on the coasts, whole tribes of whom were put to death upon the slightest prospect of advantage from their destruction, and often through mere wanton- ness of cruelty.
In 1787, the Russians made establishments, also, on the shores of Cook's River ; and, in the following year, two vessels were sent from Asia by the trading association, under Ismylof (one of the men found by Cook at Unalashka) and Betscharef, who proceeded as far east as the bay at the foot of Mount St. Elias, called Yakutat by the natives, and Admiralty Bay by the English. It seems to have also been the object of these traders to take possession of Nootka Sound, in which, however, they were anticipated, as will be shown in the ensuing chapter.
The empress Catharine had likewise become anxious to acquire glory by an expedition for discoveries in the North Pacific ; but, as none of her subjects were qualified to conduct such an enterprise, she engaged for the purpose Captain Billings, an Englishman, who had accompanied Cook, as assistant astronomer, in his last voyage. Under his direction, two ships were built at Petropawlowsk ; but they could not be completed before 1790, when Billings began his voyage, as will be hereafter related.
Among other nations, the first attempt to engage in the direct trade between the north-west coasts of America and China appears to have been made by Mr. Bolts, an eminent English merchant, residing at Trieste, who, in 1781, equipped a vessel for that pur- pose, to be navigated under the imperial flag of Germany ; but he was obliged, from some unknown cause, to abandon the under- taking.
A similar attempt was shortly after made, with no greater suc- cess, in the United States of America. John Ledyard, who has been already mentioned as one of the crew of Cook's ship during the last voyage of that navigator, having deserted, or rather es- caped, from a British frigate, in which he was serving against his countrymen, near New York, in 1782, prevailed on the celebrated merchant and financier, Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, to fit out a vessel, to be employed, under his direction, in the fur trade of the North Pacific. The pecuniary embarrassments of Mr. Morris, however, obliged him to abandon the enterprise before the vessel was ready for sca ; and Ledyard, finding his efforts to procure cooperation for that object unavailing in America, went to France in
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163
VOYAGE OF LA PÉROUSE.
1786.]
1784, where he, in concert with Paul Jones, endeavored to interest the government, or private capitalists, in his scheme.
The French gave no encouragement to Ledyard's plan for prose- cuting the fur trade ; and no private vessels were sent from that kingdom to the North Pacific until 1791 .* The government of France, however, was not unaware of the advantages which might be derived from this branch of commerce ; and their great naviga- tor, La Pérouse, on leaving his country for the Pacific, in 1785, was specially instructed to "explore the parts of the north-west coasts of America which had not been examined by Cook, and of which the Russian accounts gave no idea, in order to obtain infor- mation respecting the fur trade, and also to learn whether, in those unknown parts, some river or internal sea might not be found communicating with Hudson's Bay or Baffin's Bay."+
The multiplicity of objects, in every department of science, to which La Pérouse was required by his instructions to attend, during his voyage, prevented him from devoting more than three months to the north-west coasts of America; and, of that time, he spent one third at anchor, in a bay at the foot of Mount Fairweather, near which he first saw the coast, on the 23d of June, 1786. In this bay, called, by La Perouse, Port des Français, ¿ observations were made by the French in various points of science ; and they traded with the natives, of whose persons, language, arts, customs, &c., minute accounts are presented in the journals of the expedi-
After the failure of this scheme, Ledyard undertook, at the suggestion of Mr. Jefferson, then minister plenipotentiary of the United States in France, to proceed by land to Kamtchatka, thence by sea to Nootka Sound, or some other point on the west coast of North America, and thence across the continent, to the Atlantic states of the Federal Union. With this view, permission was obtained, through the agency of the celebrated Baron de Grimm, from the empress of Russia, for Ledyard to pass through her dominions; and, thus protected, as well as aided, by the govern- ment of that empire, he advanced as far as Irkutsk, in Siberia, on his way to Ochotsk, where he proposed to embark for America. At Irkutsk, however, he was arrested, by order of the empress, on the night of the 24th of February, 1788, and was thence conveyed to the frontiers of Poland, where he was liberated, with an injunction not again to set foot in the Russian territory. The reasons for his expul- sion are unknown; but it was probably occasioned by the representations of the members of the Russian American Trading Company, already mentioned, who wished to keep their proceedings secret. On the 15th of November following, Led- yard's irregular life was ended at Cairo, whither he had gone under the auspices of the African Association of London, on his way to seek for the sources of the Nile. - See the Biography of Ledyard, by Jared Sparks.
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