USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 6
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 6
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Along the banks of the main river and its northern branch, nature has provided a road, which, by some assistance from art at certain points, will be one of the best in the world ; on it wagons now proceed with little difficulty up the Platte, and through the South Pass to the head-waters of the Colorado, there called the Green River, whenee they continue northward across the ridge separating that river from the Lewis, the great south branch of the Columbia. The difficulties of the road in Oregon are greater, but they have already been partially overcome ; a light carriage was several years since driven from Missouri to the Falls of the Colum- bia ; and heavy wagons now perform the same journey. In order
* The Platte River, from its junction with the Missouri to its sources in the Wind River Mountains, has been accurately surveyed in the summer of 1842, by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army ; whose report of the survey, ac- companied by a large and beautiful map, and several views of scenery, published by order of the Senate, in 1843, is a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the geography of the central regions of the continent.
37
GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON.
to render the route safe and comparatively easy, the American government should, without delay, cause fortified posts to be established on the Platte, at distances of about two hundred miles apart, to serve as earavanserais for the protection and refreshment of travellers and emigrants.
North of the 50th parallel, the climate is more moist ; but its extreme coldness renders the country of little value for agriculture. The only part at which any settlement has been attempted, is that in the vicinity of the Red River of the North, where about five thousand persons, principally half-breeds and Indians, have been established by the Hudson's Bay Company ; but the success of the enterprise is as yet doubtful. This whole division of America is drained by streams entering Hudson's Bay or the Arctic Sea ; the principal are the Red River of the North, the Assinaboin, and the Saskatchawine, all emptying into Lake Winnipeg, which communi- cates by several channels with Hudson's Bay, and the Mississippi or Churchill's River, falling directly into that bay ; while the Arctic Sea receives, nearly under the 69th parallel of latitude, Back's or the great Fish River, the Coppermine and the Mackenzie, which latter carries off the waters from a territory almost equal in extent to that drained by the Columbia. The regions through which these rivers pass are generally so level that it is in many places difficult to trace the limits of the tracts from which the waters flow into the respective streams or basins : they contain numerous lakes, some of them very large, which are nearly all connected with each other, and with Hudson's Bay on the west, and the Arctic Sea on the north ; and the head-waters of the rivers supplying these reser- voirs are situated in the vicinity of the sources of the Missis- sippi, or those of the Missouri, or of the Columbia, or of the streams falling into Lake Superior. The rivers above-named are all navigable for great distances by boats, and they thus afford considerable advantages for commercial intercourse, which are not neglected by the British traders ; goods being now transported across the continent from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson's Bay or to Montreal, and vise versa, almost entirely by water. The principal pass in the Rocky Mountains, north of the 43d de- gree of latitude, through which all the communications between Canada and Hudson's Bay on the one side, and the Columbia on the other, are conducted, is that near the 53d degree, in which the northernmost source of the Columbia and the westernmost of the Athabasca are situated, as already mentioned.
RUSSIAN AMERICA.
RUSSIA claims, as already stated, in virtue of the discoveries and settlements of her subjects, and of treaties with the United States and Great Britain, all the Pacific coasts and islands of America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and the whole of the continent west of the 141st meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, which line passes through Mount Saint Elias. This power also claims the whole Asiatic coast of the Pacific, north of the 51st parallel, and all the islands of the Kurile group north of the southernmost point of one of them, called Urup, in the latitude of 45 degrees 50 minutes.
Of the interior of the part of the American Continent possessed by Russia, little is known. Several rivers flow from it, which have been traced to considerable distances ; but the country has not been generally explored, and from all accounts, it does not seem to merit the labor and expense which would be required for that purpose, as it presents, wherever it has been examined, nothing but mountains of rocks, snow and ice. The coasts of the continent, and the islands, have all been carefully surveyed ; and, with the exception of those on the Arctic Sea, very little remains to be learned about their geography. Of all these territories only small portions of some of the islands are fit for agriculture, or for any purpose useful to man, except fishing and hunting, for which objects exclusively are they frequented by people of civilized nations.
The direction and use of all these islands and parts of the American Continent, was, in 1779, granted by the emperor of Russia, for twenty years, to a great commercial association, en- titled the Russian American Company, whose charter has been successively renewed, in 1819 and 1839, for the same length of time, in each case. The inhabitants of the Kurile and Aleutian Archipelagoes, and of the large island of Kodiak on the cast side of the Peninsula of Aliaska, are regarded as the immediate sub-
39
GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
jects of this company ; in the service of which, every man between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, may be required to pass at least three years. The natives of the country adjacent to the two great bays, called Cook's Inlet and Prince William's Sound, are also under the control of the company, and are obliged to pay an annual tax in furs and skins, though they are not compelled to enter the regular service. All the other aborigines are regarded as independent, except that they are not allowed to trade with any other people than those of the Russian American Company. In 1836, the number of the Russians in the company's territories, was seven hundred and thirty ; the native subjects of the com- pany were fourteen hundred and forty-two creoles, or children of Russian fathers, by women of the country, and about eleven thousand aborigines of the Kurile, Aleutian and Kodiak Islands. The population of the other parts of these dominions, cannot be ascertained, but it must necessarily be very small when compared with the extent of the surface.
The establishments of the Russian American Company are devoted exclusively to the objects of the fur-trade. They consist of towns, forts, and factories, or trading posts, all situated on the coasts of the continent, or of the islands south of the 64th parallel, and are about twenty-six in number. The furs and skins are collected, either by hunters and fishermen in the regular ser- vice of the company, or as taxes from its subjects, or by trade with the independent aborigines ; and they are transported in the company's vessels from the principal places of deposit to Petro- pawlowsk in Kamtchatka, or to Ochotsk in Siberia, or by special permission of the Chinese government, to Canton, or sometimes to Europe : the supplies for the establishments, being received chiefly from Europe and Asia, by the same vessels. The number of vessels belonging to the company in 1840 was twelve, measuring together fifteen hundred and sixty-five tons.
The Russian American territories are divided into six districts, each of which is under the direction of an agent ; and they are all superintended by a governor-general, residing at Sitka, the capital of these possessions.
The District of Sitka comprehends all the coasts of the conti- nent, south and east of Mount Saint Elias, as far as the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, together with the adjacent islands of the north-west Archipelago north of the same parallel. The conti- nental coasts, opposite these islands, have, however, been leased by the Russian American Company, to the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, for the term of ten years, from the first of June, 1840, in consideration of an annual payment of two thousand seal skins to the former body. This arrangement was made in consequence
40
GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
of a dispute between the parties, with regard to the right of navi- gating the river Stikine, which enters the sea from the continent, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes, and is said to be naviga- ble to a great distance into the interior.
The northernmost group of islands of the north-west Archipe- lago, thus belonging to Russia, comprises six large, and many small islands, separated from each other and from the main land, by narrow but generally navigable channels. The large islands are - the Prince of Wales's Island, extending on the Pacific from the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, to that of 56 degrees 25 minutes, and the Duke of York's and Revillagigedo Island, be- tween it and the continent, on the west - farther north, on the open ocean, the Islands of King George the Third, the largest and most southern of which is called Baranof's Island, and the north- ern, Tchichagof's Island - and east of these latter, Admiralty Island, Douglas Island, and some others of less extent.
Opposite the western end of the channel, separating Baranof's from Tchichagof's Island, is a small island, consisting of a single and beautiful conical peak, rising from the ocean, which received from its Spanish discoverers, in 1775, the name of Mount San Jacinto, but is better known by the English appellation of Mount Edgecumb ; a narrow passage, called Norfolk Sound, separates it from Baranof's Island, on the shore of which stands Sitka or New Archangel, the capital of Russian America. This is a small town of wooden houses, covered mostly with iron, protected, or rather overlooked by batteries, and inhabited by about a thou- sand persons, of whom nearly one half are Russians, the major- ity of the others being Creoles. Attached to the establishment are a hospital, a ship-yard, a foundry, and shops for various me- chanical employments. Sitka, moreover, though thus remote from all civilized countries, contains several schools, in which the child- ren are instructed at the expense of the company, a library of two thousand volumes, a cabinet of natural history, and an observatory, in which are the instruments most necessary for astronomical and magnetic observations.
The District of Kodiak comprises all the coasts from the north- west Archipelago northward and westward to the southern ex- tremity of the Peninsula of Aliaska, and the adjacent islands, as also a portion of the coast of the Sea of Kamtchatka, on the north-west side of Aliaska. The largest island is Kodiak, situated near the east coast of Aliaska, from which it is separated by the Strait of Sche- likof ; on its north-east side is St. Pauls, an inconsiderable place, formerly the capital of Russian America. North of Kodiak, a great arm of the ocean, called by the English Cook's Inlet, and by the Russians the Gulf of Kenay, stretches northwardly into the con-
41
GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
unent from the latitude of 59 degrees to that of 61 degrees 20 minutes ; east of which, and separated from it by a peninsula, is another great bay, filled with islands, called Prince William's Sound by the English, and the Gulf of Tschugatsch by the Rus- . sians. Each of these bays was minutely examined by Cook in 1778, and by Vancouver in 1794, in search of a passage leading to the Alantic ; and several good harbors were thus found in them, on which the Russians have formed trading establishments.
About a hundred miles east of Prince William's Sound, Mount Saint Elias, the highest peak in North America, rises nearly eighteen thousand feet in perpendicular elevation from the shore of the Pacific, under the parallel of 61 degrees, surrounded by mountains, also of great height. Farther south-east is another stupendous peak, called Mount Fairweather ; and many lofty pin- nacles, all volcanoes or of volcanic formation, may be seen from the coasts of Prince William's Sound and Cook's Inlet, and in the Peninsula of Aliaska. At the foot of Mount Saint Elias, on the east, is Admiralty or Bering's Bay, in which the unfortunate navi- gator, Bering, is believed to have first anchored during his voyage from Kamtchatka to America in 1741. On the western side of the base of Mount Saint Elias is Comptroller's Bay, into which empties the Copper River, the only large stream flowing into that part of the Pacific.
The Northern or Michaelof District, includes all the coasts and islands of America on the Sea of Kamtchatka, north of Bristol Bay ; on which, however, the only establishments are those situated on the shores of the great Gulf called Norton's Sound. The prin- cipal post is Fort Saint Michael on the south-east side of Norton's Sound, near Stuart's Island, to which furs, skins, oil and ivory are brought by the Esquimaux and Tchukskies, from the large islands near Bering's Straits, and even from the coasts of the Arctic Sea. From this part of the American coasts several expeditions have been recently made by the Russians into the interior, in which two large rivers have been discovered and traced to a con- siderable distance from their mouths; these are the Kwickpak, entering the Sea of Kamtchatka, near the 63d degree of latitude, and the Kuskokwim, falling into the same sea, under the 60th par- allel.
Aliaska is a long and generally narrow peninsula, stretching south-westward from the continent, which it joins under the 59th parallel, to the latitude of 54 1-2 degrees ; it is simply a chain of volcanic mountains, running through the Pacific. About its southern extremity on the east is the small group of the Schuma- gin Islands, so named from one of Bering's crew, who died there in 1741; and from the same extremity, as if in continuation of the 6
42
GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
peninsula, a line of volcanic islands forming the Aleutian Archi- pelago, stretches westward across the ocean, to the vicinity of the opposite Asiatic Peninsula of Kamtchatka.
The District of Unalashka includes the westernmost of the Aleutian, called the Fox Islands, among which are Unimak, Una- lashka and Umnak, the largest of the Archipelago; as also the Pribulow Islands, lying a little farther north, on the west side of Aliaska. The principal settlement of the Russians is Illilluk, on the bay of Samagoondha, on the north-east side of Unalashka, which is also the residence of a bishop of the Greek church.
The District of Atcha comprises the remainder of the Aleutian Islands, which are all small, and are divided into three groups ; the Rat, the Andreanowsky, and the Commodore Islands. The westernmost of the last named group, near the coast of Kamt- chatka, bears the name of Bering's Isle, in commemoration of the shipwreck and death of Bering, which took place there in the winter of 1741, while he was on his return from the American coast.
The Sea of Kamtchatka or Bering's Sea, is the division of the Pacific, extending from the Aleutian Islands, northward to Bering's Strait ; it contains many islands, some of them large, but all un- inhabitable. Bering's Strait, fifty-one miles in width, between Cape Prince of Wales, the north-western extremity of America, and East Cape or Tchukotskoi Ross, the north-easternmost point of Asia, in latitude of 65 1-2 degrees, forms the only northern communication between the waters of the Pacific and those of the Arctic Sea ; and through it, consequently, must pass any vessel which may succeed in effecting a northern voyage from the Atlan- tie to the Pacific, or vice versa.
The part of Asia west of the Sea of Kamtchatka, like that of America on its eastern side, is a waste of rocks, covered almost always with snow ; and is traversed by a great chain of volcanic mountains, extending southward, through the sea, to the 51st par- allel, and thus forming the peninsula of Kamtchatka. The only place in Kamtchatka, worthy of notiec here, is Petropawlowsk or Petropaulski, or the Harbor of Peter and Paul, situated on the north side of the Bay of Avatscha, which joins the Pacific in the latitude of 53 degrees 58 minutes ; it is a small town, containing not more than a thousand inhabitants. The part of the sea west of Kamtchatka, is called the Gulf of Ochotsk ; at its north-eastern extremity, stands Ochotsk, another small town, which shares with Petropawlowsk, the trade of the Russian American coasts. South- ward from Kamtchatka, are the Kurile Islands, and south of these the Japan Islands, all parts of the same volcanic system of moun- tains.
HISTORY
OF
OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, AND
THE OTHER COUNTRIES
ON THE
NORTH-WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.
HISTORY
OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, ETC.
CHAPTER I.
To 1543.
Preliminary Observations - Efforts of the Spaniards to discover Western Passages to India - Successive Discoveries of the West Indies, the North American Continent, the Eastern Passage to India, Brazil, and the Pacific Ocean - Search for a navigable Passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans - Sup- posed Discovery of such a Passage, called the Strait of Anian - Discovery of Magellan's Strait and the Western Passage to India - Conquest of Mexico by Cortés, who endeavors to discover new Countries farther north-west - Voyages of Maldonado, Hurtado de Mendoza, Grijalva, and Becerra - Discovery of Cali- fornia - Expedition of Cortés to California - Pretended Discoveries of Friar Marcos de Niza - Voyages of Ulloa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo - Expeditions of Coronado and Soto - The Spaniards desist from their Efforts to explore the North- West Coasts of America.
THE western coasts of North America were first explored by the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century. In order to convey a clear idea of the circumstances which led to their discovery, as well as of the claims and pretensions based upon it, a general view will be here presented of the proceedings and objects of Europeans with regard to the New World, from the period when its existence was ascertained, to that in which the exploration of its north-west coasts was begun.
The islands found by Columbus, in his voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, were supposed to be situated in the immediate vicinity of . Asia, the eastern limits of which were then unknown ; and their dis- covery was the result of endeavors to reach, by a western course, the shores of India, from which Europe chiefly derived its gold, silks, pre- cious stones, and spices, and those of China and Japan, of the wealth of which empires vague accounts had been brought by travellers.
With the same objects in view, the Portuguese had been long engaged in exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa southward and eastward, in search of some channel or sea, by which their ships
.
46
TREATY OF PARTITION OF THE OCEAN. [1494.
might enter the Indian Ocean; being encouraged in their exertions by the Bull of Pope Nicholas V., issued in 1454, assuring to them the exclusive rights of navigation, trade, fishery, and conquest, in all seas and countries which they might find in that course, not before occupied by a Christian prince or people. They had, however, not reached the southern extremity of Africa when Columbus returned from his first voyage across the Atlantic; and, immediately after- wards, the united Spanish sovereigns procured from Pope Alex- ander VI. Bulls, granting to them and their successors, forever, exclusive privileges with regard to the seas and countries which might be found by navigating towards the west, similar to those conferred on the Portuguese, as to seas and countries east of the Atlantic.
Upon these extraordinary commissions, as bases, was founded the celebrated Treaty of Partition of the Ocean, concluded at Torde- sillas, on the 7th of June, 1494, between the sovereigns of Spain and the king of Portugal, then the greatest maritime powers of Europe. By this treaty, the Portuguese were to enjoy and possess the exclusive rights of discovery, trade, conquest, and dominion, in all the seas and territories not previously belonging to a Christian prince or people, east of a meridian line passing three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands ; and the Spaniards were to possess the same rights, in all seas and all pagan lands west of that line; no provision being made for the contingency of the meeting of the parties proceeding in these opposite direc- tions. 'The two nations having thus, under the guaranty of the highest authority recognized in Europe, settled the conditions on which they were to appropriate to themselves, respectively, nearly all the sea and nearly all the land on the globe, without regard for the wishes or claims of any other people, each continued its search for a navigable passage to India, generally, though not always, within the limits assigned to it.
' In this search the Portuguese were soon successful ; for, in 1499, they sailed around the southern extremity of Africa, to India, where they established their dominion or their influence over many of those regions. They also, about the same time, obtained possession of Brazil, the coasts of which were found to extend east of the meridian of partition, to the great regret and constant annoyance of the Spaniards, who had hoped, by the treaty of 1494, to secure to themselves the exclusive sovereignty of all the countries on the western side of the Atlantic.
47
THE STRAIT OF ANIAN.
1500.]
The English, however, disregarding the Papal prohibitions, imme- diately entered the career of discovery in the west ; and, under their flag, John Cabot, first of all Europeans, reached the American conti- nent in 1497. They were soon followed by the French, who, during the early part of the sixteenth century, made numerous expeditions across the Atlantic ; and the Portuguese, notwithstanding the restric- tions of the treaty of partition, also endeavored to find a passage to India in the same direction. It was, indeed, long believed that Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, who explored the coasts of Labrador in 1499 and 1500, had actually sailed through a narrow channel, named by him the Strait of Anian,* westward from the Atlantic, nearly in the course of the 58th parallel of latitude, into another great sea, communicating with the Indian Ocean. This channel may have been the same, now called Hudson's Strait, con- necting the Atlantic with Hudson's Bay, the discovery of which is generally attributed to Sebastian Cabot ; it was certainly known as the Strait of Labrador long before its entrance by the navigator whose name it bears. The belief in the existence of such a north- west passage to India, joining the Atlantic in the position assigned to the mouth of Cortereal's Strait of Anian, caused many voyages to be made to the coasts of northern America, on both sides, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many false reports to be circulated of the discovery of the desired channel; the effects of which reports, in promoting the exploration of those coasts, will be hereafter shown.
* " It is stated in several collections of voyages, that the name of Anian was given to the strait supposed to have been discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, in honor of two brothers, who accompanied him ; but there are no grounds for such a supposition. * * In the earliest maps, Ania is marked as the name of the north-westernmost part of America. Ani, in the Japanese language, is said to signify brother ; hence, probably, the mistake." (Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions, by John Barrow, page 45.) - In an article on the subject of a north-west passage, in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816, supposed to have been written by Barrow, it is asserted that Cortereal "named the Strait of Anian, not in honor of two brothers who accompanied him, but because he deemed it to be the eastern extremity of a strait whose western end, opening into the Pacific, had already received that name." The value of this assertion may be estimated from the fact, that the ocean on the western side of America was not discovered by Europeans until thirteen years after Cortereal's voyage and death. The review abounds in similar errors.
Many of the most important errors in Barrow's Chronological History have been exposed by Mr. R. Biddle, in his admirable Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, to which the reader is referred for the most exact accounts, so far as they can be obtained, of these early voyages to the north-west coasts of the Atlantic. A concise and clear view of the results of these voyages will be found in the first chapter of Bancroft's History of the United States.
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