USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 20
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 20
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The instructions, of which an English copy or version - dated China, December 24th, 1787, and signed The Merchant Proprietors --- is appended to the Memorial, contain general directions for the conduct of the voyage, but no allusion whatsoever to the acquisition of lands, the erection of buildings, or the formation of settlements or establishments of any kind, in America or elsewhere. The Felice was to go to Nootka Sound, from which she was to make trips northward and southward, for the purposes of trade and explora- tion ; the Iphigenia was to sail first to Cook's River, and thence to trade along the coasts, southward, to Nootka, where she was ex- pected to arrive in September : all the furs collected were then to be placed in one of the vessels, and brought to Macao, the other vessel remaining, until the spring, either on the American coast or at the Sandwich Islands. These instructions conclude with the following remarkable order to the commanders of the vessels : - " Should you, in the course of your voyage, meet with any Russian, English, or Spanish vessels, you will treat them with civility and friendship, and allow them, if authorized, to examine your papers ; but you must, at the same time, guard against surprise. Should they attempt to seize you, or even to carry you out of your way, you will prevent it by every means in your power, and repel force by force. You will, on your arrival in the first port, protest, before a proper officer, against such illegal procedure, and ascertain, as nearly as you can, the value of your vessel and cargo, sending your protest, with a full account of the transaction, to us at China. Should you, in such a conflict, have the superiority, you will take possession of the vessel that attacked you, and bring both, with the
174
MEARES ARRIVES AT NOOTKA.
[1788.
officers and crew, to China, that they may be condemned as legal prizes, and the crews punished as pirates."
The latter part of these instructions, independently of numerous other circumstances connected with the expedition, is sufficient, alone, to show that the owners of the Felice and Iphigenia meant to represent them as Portuguese vessels. As British vessels, they could not legally navigate the North Pacific Ocean, being unpro- vided with licenses or authority from the South Sea or the East India Company : if found so doing, they would be subject to seizure, and their officers and crew to punishment; and it was, doubtless, in order to evade such penalties, to which they might have been subjected by coming in contact with the vessels of the King George's Sound Company, that their commanders were directed to take, and bring to a Portuguese port, for trial before Portuguese courts, any English vessels which should attempt to arrest them in their voyages.
From Macao the Iphigenia went to Cook's River, at which place, and others farther south-east, she passed the summer in trading. The Felice sailed direct to Nootka Sound, where her crew imme- diately began the construction of a small vessel, on the shore of Friendly Cove, near which was situated the village of Maquinna, the king of the surrounding country. Meares, being desirous, whilst this work was in progress, to take a voyage along the coast to the south, made arrangements with Maquinna, who, as related in the narrative of the expedition, " most readily consented to grant us a spot of ground in his territory, whereon an house might be built, for the accommodation of the people we intended to leave behind, and also promised us his assistance and protection for the party who were destined to remain at Nootka during our absence. In return for this kindness, and to insure the continuance of it, the chief was presented with a pair of pistols, which he had regarded with an eye of solicitation ever since our arrival. Upon this spot a house, suf- ficiently capacious to contain all the party intended to be left at the sound, was erected ; a strong breastwork was thrown up around it, enclosing a considerable area of ground, which, with one piece of cannon, placed in such a manner as to command the cove and village of Nootka, formed a fortification sufficient to secure the party from any intrusion."
That this spot of ground was granted by Maquinna, and was to be occupied by Meares, only for temporary purposes, is clear from
175
MEARES AT THE STRAIT OF FUCA.
1788.]
the above statement ; and Meares nowhere in his narrative pretends that he acquired permanent possession of it, or of any other land in America. On the contrary, he expressly says that, " as a bribe to secure Maquinna's attachment, he was promised that, when we finally left the coast, he should enter into full possession of the house, and all the goods thereunto belonging." In the Memorial addressed to his government, however, Meares declares that, "im- mediately on his arrival at Nootka Sound, he purchased from Maquinna, the chief of the district surrounding that place, a spot of ground, whereon he built an house, for his occasional residence, as well as for the more convenient pursuit of his trade among the natives, and hoisted British colors thereon." Of this asserted purchase of land and erection of buildings at Nootka, no evidence or mention whatsoever is to be found among the documents sub- mitted with the Memorial to the British ministry, except in the deposition of William Graham, of Grub Street, a seaman of the Felice, taken in London after the date of the Memorial.
Having completed these arrangements, Meares sailed from Nootka in the Felice, leaving a part of his crew employed in building the small vessel, and proceeded to the entrance of the passage supposed to be the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which, as he expressly states in the Dissertation prefixed to his narrative, had been discovered in the preceding year by Berkeley. The following extract from his narrative will serve still further to show what value is to be placed on his testimony in matters in which his own reputation or interests are involved : -
" June 29th. At noon the latitude was 48 degrees 39 minutes north, at which time we had a complete view of an inlet, whose entrance appeared very extensive, bearing east-south-east, distant about six leagues. We endeavored to keep up with the shore as much as possible, in order to have a perfect view of the land. This was an object of particular anxiety, as the part of the coast along which we were now sailing had not been seen by Captain Cook, and we knew no other navigator, said to have been this way, except Maurelle ; and his chart, which we now had on board, convinced us that he had either never seen this part of the coast, or that he had purposely misrepresented it. By three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the entrance of the great inlet, which appeared to be twelve or fourteen leagues broad. From the mast head, it was observed to stretch to the east by the north, and a clear and unbounded horizon was seen, in this direction, as far as the eye
176
MEARES SEEKS FOR THE GREAT RIVER.
[1788.
could reach. The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait, which we shall call by the name of its original discoverer, John de Fuca."
To examine the passage, -- of which he thus claims the discovery, after having distinctly assigned the merit of it to another, - Meares sent his mate, Duffin, with a party of men, in a boat. In a few days the boat returned, with several of her crew disabled by wounds received in a conflict with the natives on the northern shore. "She had sailed," writes Meares, " near thirty leagues up the strait ; and, at that distance from the sea, it was fifteen leagues broad, with a clear horizon stretching to the east for fifteen leagues more." Yet, from Duffin's journal, which is given entire in Mr. Meares's work, it seems that the boat did not advance ten miles within the strait ; and we now know that the width of the passage nowhere, within thirty leagues of its mouth, exceeds five leagues.
From the entrance of this passage, which has ever since been distinguished by the name of Strait of Fuca, Meares sailed along the shore of the continent, towards the south. His object was to examine the opening in the coast, laid down on Spanish charts in his possession, near the 46th degree of latitude, under the name Rio de San Roque, or River of Saint Roc, which had been first observed by Heceta, on the 16th of August, 1775, as mentioned in the account of that voyage .* Proceeding in this course, he, on the 5th of July, remarked a headland, in the latitude of 46 degrees 47 minutes, which he named Cape Shoalwater ; on the following day, he writes in his journal, -
" At half past ten, being within three leagues of Cape Shoalwater, we had a perfect view of it; and, with the glasses, we traced the line of coast to the southward, which presented no opening that promised any thing like an harbor. An high, bluff promontory bore off us south-cast, at the distance of only four leagues, for which we steered to double, with the hope that between it and Cape Shoalwater we should find some sort of harbor. We now discovered distant land beyond this promontory, and we pleased ourselves with the expectation of its being Cape St. Roc of the Spaniards, near which they are said to have found a good port. By half past eleven, we doubled this cape, at the distance of three miles, having a clear and perfect view of the shore in every part, on which we did not discern a living creature, or the least trace of habitable life. A prodigious casterly swell rolled on the shore, and
* Page 120.
177
MEARES DOES NOT FIND THE GREAT RIVER.
1788.]
the soundings gradually decreased from forty to sixteen fathoms, over a hard, sandy bottom. After we had rounded the promontory, a large bay, as we had imagined, opened to our view, that bore a very promising appearance, and into which we steered with every en- couraging expectation. The high land that formed the boundaries of the bay was at a great distance, and a flat, level country occu- pied the intervening space ; the bay itself took rather a westerly direction. As we steered in, the water shoaled to nine, eight, and seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck, right ahead, and, from the mast head, they were observed to extend across the bay ; we therefore hauled out, and directed our course to the opposite shore, to see if there was any channel, or if we could discover any port. The name of Cape Disappointment was given to the promontory, and the bay obtained the title of Deception Bay. By an indifferent meridian observation, it lies in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes north, and in the computed longitude of 235 degrees 34 minutes east.
" We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. To those of Maurelle we made continual reference, but without deriving any information or assistance from them. We now reached the opposite side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us ; and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of shelter for the ship, we bore up for a distant headland, keeping our course within two miles of the shore." This distant headland, in the latitude of 45 degrees 37 minutes, named by Meares Cape Lookout, and probably the same called by the Spaniards Cape Falcon, was the southernmost point seen by him; thence he re- turned to the Strait of Fuca, without again observing the land, having, as he conceived, " traced every part of the coast, which unfavorable weather had prevented Captain Cook from approaching."
The language of Mr. Meares in the preceding extracts, though somewhat ungrammatical, is yet clear and explicit. He records with satisfaction his conviction, founded on his own observations, that " no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts ; " in token of which conviction, he assigns the names of Deception Bay and Cape Disappointment to the places on the American coast, near the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, where the mouth of the river should have been found, according to the Spanish charts. Yet, strange though it may appear, the com- missioners, appointed by the British government, in 1826, to treat
23
178
MEARES RETURNS TO CHINA.
[1788.
with the plenipotentiary of the United States at London, on the subject of the claims of the respective parties to territories on the north-west side of America, insisted that Meares, on this occasion, discovered the great River Columbia, which actually enters the Pacific at Deception Bay, and cited, in proof of their assertion, the very parts of his narrative above extracted .*
On his way back to Nootka, Meares visited the two large bays, called by the natives Clyoquot and Nittinat, and by himself Port Cox and Port Effingham, situated a little north-west of the entrance of Fuca's Strait, where, he declares in his Memorial to Parliament, " he obtained from Wicanish, the chief of the surrounding districts, in consequence of considerable presents, the promise of a free and exclusive trade with the natives of the district, as also permission to build any storehouses or other edifices which he might judge necessary ; and he also acquired the same privileges of exclu- sive trade from Tatooche, the chief of the country bordering upon the Strait of Fuca, and purchased from him a tract of land within the said strait, which one of his officers took possession of, in the king's name, calling the same Tatooche, in honor of the chief." These purchases and cessions of territory are not, however, in any manner noticed, either in the documents annexed to the Memorial, or in the narrative of the voyage, which is most tediously minute as to the circumstances of Mr. Meares's interviews with those chiefs.
At the end of July, Meares returned to Nootka Sound, where the Iphigenia soon after arrived from the northern coasts, laden with furs. The small vessel, which had been begun at Friendly Cove, was then launched, and received the name of the North-West America ; and Meares, considering the season as not too far ad- vanced for a voyage across the Pacific, transferred to the Felice all the furs which had been collected, and sailed in her, on the 28th of September, for China, leaving directions that the Iphigenia and the North-West America should proceed to the Sandwich Islands for the winter, and return in the following spring to Nootka, where he would rejoin them.
Before the departure of Meares from Nootka, two other vessels entered the sound, whose voyages merit particular attention.
Immediately after the recognition of the independence of the United States of America, the citizens of that republic resumed the
* See British statement, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, letter H.
179
AMERICANS ENGAGE IN TRADE IN THE PACIFIC.
1787.]
whale and seal fishery around Cape Horn, which they had carried on before the revolution, and also engaged in the direct trade with India and China. In the latter countries, however, they labored under great disadvantages, from the inferiority in value of the articles carried thither to those brought back by them, in conse- quence of which they were obliged to take out large quantities of specie, in order to obtain full homeward cargoes. With the view of obviating this inequality, some merchants of Boston, in 1787, formed an association for the purpose of combining the fur trade of the North Pacific with the China trade, as attempted by the King George's Sound Company of London ; and in such an enter- prise they certainly had reason to anticipate success, as, with industry and nautical skill unsurpassed by any other nation, the Americans were free from the restrictions imposed on British subjects by the charters of the South Sea and East India Com- panies .*
In prosecution of this scheme, the ship Columbia, of two hundred and twenty tons, and the sloop Washington, of ninety tons, were fitted out at Boston in the summer of 1787, and laden with blan- kets, knives, iron bars, copper pans, and other articles proper for the trade with the Indians on the north-west coasts. The Columbia was commanded by John Kendrick, to whom was intrusted the
* The first American citizens who engaged in the whaling and sealing business around Cape Horn, after the peace of 1783, were the Nantucket men, as will be here- after more particularly stated.
The first American vessel which entered the port of Canton was the ship Empress of China, from New York, commanded by Daniel Parker, with Samuel Shaw as supercargo : she arrived in China in the latter part of the summer of 1784, and returned to New York in May of the following year. Mr. Shaw was appointed consul of the United States at Canton in January, 1796; and, on the 31st of Decem- ber of the same year, he addressed to his government, from Canton, an interesting memoir on the state of commerce at that place, which still remains, with many other communications from him, unpublished, in the archives of the Department of State at Washington. In 1787, not less than five American vessels were employed in the trade with China; among them were the Canton, under Captain Thomas Truxton, who afterwards distinguished himself in the naval service of his country, and the old frigate Alliance, so celebrated during the war of the revolution, which had been sold by order of Congress, and fitted out as a trading vessel, under the command of John Reed. The Alliance entered Canton on the 29th of December, 1787; and her arrival at that season caused much astonishment, as it had been previously considered impos- sible for a vessel to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to China between October and April, on account of the violence of the winds, blowing constantly, during that period, from the north-east. Reed, however, had steered eastward from the Cape of Good Hope, to the southern extremity of Van Dieman's Land, around the east coasts of which island, and of New Holland, he sailed into the China Sea; and the course thus pointed out by him has been since often taken, especially by American vessels.
-
180
VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. [1788.
direction of the expedition; and her mate was Joseph Ingraham, whose name will often appear in the following pages. The master of the Washington was Robert Gray. They were provided with sea letters issued by the federal government, agreeably to a resolution of Congress, and with passports from the state of Massa- chusetts ; and they received letters from the Spanish minister plenipotentiary in the United States, recommending them to the attention of the authorities of his nation on the Pacific coasts. They, moreover, carried out, for distribution at such places as they might visit, a number of small copper coins, then recently issued by the state of Massachusetts,* and likewise medals of copper, struck expressly for the purpose, of one of which a representation is here given.
BY
C
J.BARRELL.
TOO
ON.
FOR THE PACIFI
S.BROWN, C.BULFINCH.
J.DARBY, C.HATCH,
COMMAN
CK.
J.M.PINTARD.
AT BOSTON
1787.
ED
BY
JKI
ICA
The two vessels sailed together from Boston on the 30th of September, 1787 : thence they proceeded to the Cape Verd Islands, and thence to the Falkland Islands, in each of which places they procured refreshments ; and, in January, 1788, they doubled Cape Horn, immediately after which they were separated during a violent gale. The Washington, continuing her course through the Pacific, made the north-west coast in August, 1788, near the 46th degree of latitude, where she was in danger of destruction, having grounded while attempting to enter an opening, which was, most probably, the mouth of the great river afterwards named by Gray the Columbia. She was also attacked there by the savages, who killed one of her men, and wounded the mate ; but she escaped without further injury, and, on the 17th of September, reached Nootka
* Alexander Mackenzie, in July, 1793, found, in the possession of a native of the country east of the Strait of Fuca, a " halfpenny of the state of Massachusetts Bay, coined in 1787," which was doubtless one of those taken out by Kendrick and Gray.
181
VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON.
1788.]
Sound, where the Felice and Iphigenia were lying, as already mentioned .* The Columbia did not enter the sound until some days afterwards. She had been seriously injured in the storm which separated her from her consort; and Kendrick was obliged, in consequence, to put into the harbor of the Island of Juan Fer- nandez, where he was received with great kindness, and aided in refitting his vessel, by Don Blas Gonzales, the commandant of the Spanish garrison. The repairs having been completed, the Columbia continued her voyage, and arrived at Nootka, which had been selected as the place of rendezvous, without further accident, in October.
Soon after the arrival of the Columbia at Nootka, the Iphigenia and North-West America took their departure for the Sandwich Islands, where they remained until the spring of 1789. The two American vessels spent the winter in the sound, where the Columbia also lay during the whole of the following summer, whilst the important events related in the next chapter were in progress.
* Meares, in his narrative, gives the following account of the arrival of the Washington at Nootka Sound : -
" September 17th, 1788. - A sail was seen in the offing. The long-boat was imme- diately sent to her assistance, which, instead of the British vessel we expected, conveyed into the sound a sloop named the Washington, from Boston, in New England, of about one hundred tons' burthen. Mr. Gray, the master, informed us that he had sailed, in company with his consort, the Columbia, a ship of three hundred tons, in the month of August, 1787, being equipped, under the patronage of Congress, to examine the coast of America, and to open a fur trade between New England and this part of the American continent, in order to provide funds for their China ships, to enable them to return home teas and China goods. The vessels were separated in a heavy gale of wind, in the latitude of 59 south, and had not seen each other since the period of their separation ; but, as King George's Sound was the place of ren- dezvous appointed for them, the Columbia, if she was safe, was every day expected to join her consort at Nootka. Mr. Gray informed me that he had put into an harbor on the coast of New Albion, where he got on shore, and was in danger of being lost on the bar; he was also attacked by the natives, had one man killed, and one of his officers wounded, and thought himself fortunate in having been able to make his escape. This harbor could only admit vessels of small size, and must lie somewhere near the cape to which we had given the name of Cape Lookout."
That this harbor was the mouth of the great river since called the Columbia, is most probable from its situation, and because there is no evidence or reason to suppose that Gray visited that part of the coast on any other occasion prior to his meeting with Vancouver, on the 29th of April, 1792, as will be related in the eleventh chapter.
182
CHAPTER VIII.
1788 AND 1789.
Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the North Pacific - Voyage of Observation by Martinez and Haro to the Russian American Settlements - Remonstrances of the Court of Madrid to that of St. Petersburg, against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power - Martinez and Haro sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of Nootka Sound - Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez - Captain Gray, in the Washington, explores the East Coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and en- ters the Strait of Fuca - Return of the Columbia to the United States.
HAVING, in the preceding chapter, presented a sketch of the geo- graphical discoveries effected on the north-west coasts of America, in the interval between the time of Cook's last voyage and the year 1790, we now proceed to relate the important events of a political nature, which occurred on those coasts during the latter part of the same period. These events have been variously represented - or rather misrepresented - by the historians to whom reference is usu- ally made for information respecting them ; * and ample proofs will be here offered, that the most essential circumstances have been ex- hibited in false forms, and under false colors, either designedly, or from indifference and want of research on the part of the authors.
The movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific were, from the beginning, regarded with dissatisfaction and mistrust by the court of Madrid. It was at first proposed to counteract them by monopolizing that branch of commerce ; for which object an agent was despatched to California, in 1786, with orders to collect all the
* Namely, the histories of England, by Bissett, Miller, Belsham, (in which latter the accounts are more fair and more nearly correct than in any other,) Hughes, Wade, and the Pictorial History of England - Schoell's Histoire des Traites de Paix - Bren- ton's Naval History of Great Britain, last edition - Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes - History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, by T. D. Cooley - Gifford's Life of William Pitt, &c. In the most recent of these works, namely, the Pictorial History of England, the account is farthest from the truth; the author has evidently not consulted any original evidence on the subject, except, possibly, the Memorial of Meares, or the abstract of that paper in the Annual Register.
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