History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 11

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 11

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

By the same methods the Jesuits had practiced in Lower California, did the Franciscans seek to establish their missions on a firmer footing, suffering frequently from the hostility of the natives, but gradually overcoming all obstacles and creating populous and prosperous missions and towns. The mission of San Diego was founded July 16, 1769; San Carlos, at Monterey, August 3, 1770; San Antonio de Padua, July 14, 1771 ; San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, September 8, 1771; San Luis Obispo, in September, 1772. Father Serra then went to Mexico for reinforcements and sup- plies, and returned the next spring by sea, having sent Captain Juan Bautista Anza with some soldiers to open an overland route by which more rapid and certain commu- nication could be maintained with the home country. In 1774 Captain Anza returned to Mexico for more soldiers, priests and supplies, and after the arrival of these it was determined to enlarge the field of operations to the northward. The San Carlos was dispatched to see if the Bay of San Francisco could be entered from the ocean, and in June, 1775, the little vessel sailed safely through the Golden Gate and cast anchor where so many thousand vessels have since been securely sheltered. On the seven- teenth of September, 1776, the presidio (fort) was established at San Francisco, and on the tenth of October the misson of Dolores was founded, followed in quick succession by those of San Juan Capistrano and Santa Clara.

From this time the missions grew rapidly in power and wealth, and pueblos (towns) sprang up, occupied chiefly by the families of soldiers who had served their terms in the army and preferred to remain in California. Gradually population in- creased, until in 1802 Humboldt estimated it at 1,300, to which he added 15,562 con- verted Indians, taking no account of the wild or unsubdued tribes, which we know from other sources largely outnumbered those brought within the influence of the mis- sions. By 1822, the year Mexico declared her independence of Spain, twenty-one missions had been founded and were in a prosperous condition. Two years later Mexico adopted a republican form of government, and from that time dates the down- fall of the missionary system. The Franciscans had complete control of the land, claiming it as trustees for the benefit of converted natives, and discouraged all at- tempts at colonization as calculated to weaken their power and frustrate their designs. When, therefore, in 1824, the Mexican congress passed a colonization act, giving the

Digitized by Google

PACIFIC COAST.

governor of California power to make grants of land to actual settlers, it was considered a direct and fatal blow at the mission monopoly. From this time the missions were a leading element in Mexican politics, and they gradually declined before the encroach- ments of the civil power until, in 1845, the property which had survived the pillage and decay of the previous ten years was sold at auction, and the missions were at an end. A year later the inauguration of the Bear Flag war by Fremont was followed by the conquest of the country from Mexico, and California, redeemed from anarchy misrule and revolution, became a portion of the United States.

CHAPTER VII.

DISCOVERIES WESTWARD FROM THE ATLANTIC.

Foreign claims in America-Florida, Mexico, California, Alaska, Louisiana, Canada, and the English Colonie s -- Treaty of Ryswick-Treaty of Utrecht-Sale of Louisiana to Spain-Carver's Explorations on the Mississippi -Oregon, the River of the West-Origin of the Name-Journey of Samuel Hearne to the Arctic Ocean- England offers a Reward for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage.

To understand in their full significance the motives and acts of the various nations contending for dominion in the Pacific, the status of their claims throughout America must be kept carefully in view. England had colonies along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Carolina and had full possession of the vast region about Hudson's bay. France held possession of Louisiana, extending from the mouth of the Mississippi in- definitely northward and westward, and of the St. Lawrence and the great region lying to the westward embraced under the general title of Canada, and by exploring to the west along and beyond the great lakes and north along the Mississippi, had thus united Canada and Louisiana and rendered the Alleghanies the extreme western limit of England's Atlantic colonies. Spain had undisputed possession of Central America. Mexico, California and Florida ; while Russia claimed Alaska and the adjacent islands, The boundary line between these various possessions was extremely uncertain and con- tinued to be for years a fruitful source of trouble and a theme for diplomatic contro- versy.

In 1697 the treaty of Ryswick was concluded, which was intended to define, as clearly as the knowledge of American geography would permit, the boundaries of these various possessions. Spanish Florida was then limited on the north by the Carolina colonies, while its western limit was left exceedingly indefinite, conflicting severely with the French claim to Louisiana. North of Florida and west of the Alleghanies France claimed the entire country, either as a portion of Louisiana or Canada, includ- ing Hudson's bay, the latter claim being based upon the explorations of Labrador by Cortereal. At the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, following a disastrous struggle with

Digitized by Google

PACIFIC COAST.

Great Britain, France relinquished her claim to Hudson's bay, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. During the next quarter of a century the energetic Frenchmen estab- lished a chain of forts and settlements from Quebec to New Orleans, taking absolute and actual possession of the country and cutting off the westward extension of Florida on the one hand and the northeastern limits of Mexico and California on the other.

Thus matters stood until the disastrous war between England and France involved the American colonies in bloody strife and turned over the exposed settlements to the tender mercies of the Indian tomahawk and scalping knife. Worsted in the strife, France, after her colonial star was stricken from the sky by the gallant Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, but before the final seal to her defeat was affixed by the treaty of Paris, secretly conveyed to Spain her province of Louisiana, and thus robbed her victorious enemy of one of the greatest fruits of her conquest. The terms of the conveyance, made in 1762, defined the western and southern limit of Louisiana and the eastern and northern boundary of Mexico and California, to follow the course of the Sabine river from its mouth to latitude 32 degrees, thence north to the Red river, and following that stream to longitude 23 degrees, thence north to the Arkansas and up that river to latitude 42 degrees, which line it followed to the Pacific. It was thus that even after the acquisition of Canada, England found her possessions bounded on the west by the great "Father of Waters." This was the situation in America when the Russians opened the Alaskan fur trade and Spain perfected her claim to Cali- fornia by planting there the missions of St. Francis.

It was now a century since the Hudson's Bay Company was chartered, and it had not yet discovered the northwest passage, though that was the leading object stated in the charter ; nor, indeed, had the company made any earnest effort so to do. The belief still obtained that the Straits of Anian existed, or, at least, that some great river, such a stream, possibly, as the Rio de los Reyes, could be found flowing into the Pacific, which was navigable eastward to within a few miles of some harbor accessible to vessels from the Atlantic. If either of these existed, they were naturally to be looked for in the region dominated by the great fur monopoly. The discovery of such a means of communication was earnestly desired by the English crown, yet the com- pany was sufficiently powerful to prevent or at least render fruitless all efforts to explore its dominions. All explorations that gave any new geographical light were conducted beyond the company's domain and contrary to its desires.

It has been shown how the headwaters of the Mississippi had been visited by French missionaries and explorers, both from Canada and Louisiana, who had estab- lished a fur trade with the natives of considerable value. Immediately after Canada fell into the hands of the English, an expedition was made into that region by Captain Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who had served with distinction in the war against France so recently brought to a successful termination. He left Boston in 1766, and traveling by the way of Detroit and Fort Michilimacinac, reached the headwaters of the Mississippi. The object of his journey, as stated in his account, was, "after gaining a knowledge of the manners, customs, languages, soil and natural productions of the different nations that inhabit the back of the Mississippi, to ascer- tain the breadth of the vast continent which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, in its broadest part, between the 43d and 46th degrees of north latitude. Had

Digitized by Google

PACIFIC COAST.

I been able to accomplish this, I intended to have proposed to the government to establish a post in some of those parts, about the Straits of Anian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis Drake, of course belongs to the English. This I am con- vinced, would greatly facilitate the discovery of a northwest passage, or communication between Hudson's bay and the Pacific ocean." His idea that the Straits of Anian, or any other passage inland from the Pacific, had been discovered by Drake was an exceedingly erroneous one.

Just how far west Carver penetrated is uncertain, and his claim of a residence of five months in that region is a doubtful one, since the accounts of the manners and cus- toms of the natives given in his narrative (published twenty-five years later in London at the suggestion of a number of gentlemen who hoped the proceeds of its sale would be sufficient to relieve the author's necessities ; he died in 1780, in penury), are but translations into English of the writings of Hennepin, Lahontan, Charlevoix and other French explorers. To him, however, must be credited the first use of the name " Oregon," which is given in the following connection : "From these natives, together with my own observations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America-viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River Bourbon (Red River of the North), and the Oregon, or River of the West-have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other ; [This is practically correct, and this point, somewhere in Western Minnesota, is probably the limit of his westward journey.] the latter, how- ever, is rather further west. This shows that these parts are the highest in North America ; and it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three quarters of the world, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans, at the dis- tance of two thousand miles from their sources, for in their passage from this spot to the Bay of St. Lawrence, east, to the Bay of Mexico, south, to Hudson's Bay, north, and to the bay at the Straits of Anian, west, each of these traverse upwards of two thousand miles."

It will be observed that Carver lays no claim to having visited even the head- waters of the "Oregon, or River of the West," and the probability is that all he knew of it was gathered from the same works of the French explorers which had supplied the other leading features of his book, though, possibly, like them, he may have heard such a stream spoken of by the Indians. In many of these French narratives to which he had access, a belief. is asserted in the existence of a large stream flowing westward from the vicinity of the headwaters of the Mississippi into the Pacific, founded upon information given by the natives ; and on many maps of the eighteenth century such a stream was indicated, bearing variously the names "River of the West," "River Thegayo" " Rio de los Reyes," and " River of Aguilar" (the one whose mouth Aguilar reported having seen in latitude 43 degrees. in the year 1603.) All that was new in Carver's account was the name "Oregon," and of that he fails to give us any idea of its meaning or origin. Many theories have been advanced, plausible and even possible, but none of them susceptible of proof, and the probabilities are that the word is one of Carver's own invention. The fact that he stands sponsor for the name of this great region, is all that entitles Carver and his plagiarisms to any notice

Digitized by Google

----

PACIFIC COAST.

in this volume whatever. The first definite account of the River of the West was one given by a Yazoo Indian to Lepagn Dupratz, a French traveler, many years before Carver's journey. The Indian asserted that he had ascended the Missouri north- westerly to its source, and that beyond this he encountered another great river flowing towards the setting sun, down which he passed until his progress was arrested by hos- tilities existing between the tribes living along the stream. He participated in the war, and in a certain battle his party captured a woman of a tribe living further west, from whom he learned that the river entered a great water where ships had been seen sailing and in them were men with beards and white faces. There is nothing improb- able in this narrative, in the light of ascertained geographical facts, unless it be the portion relating to ships; even that is possible, or may, perhaps, be simply an embel- lishment of the story by the Indian or Dupratz. Several maps published about fifteen years prior to Carver's journey, on the authority of this narrative, had marked upon them such a stream with the name " Great River of the West" attached to it. This fully accounts for the valiant captain's knowledge of such a stream, though it clears up none of the darkness surrounding the title " Oregon."

In 1771 the Hudson's Bay Company sent Samuel Hearne on a tour of explora- tion of the regions lying to the westward of the bay, for the purpose of finding a rich mine of copper which the Indians had frequently spoken of and whose name translated into English, was The Far-off Metal River. He was also instructed to determine the question of a passage westward from Hudson's bay, in whose existence the directors had now no faith whatever, and in consequence were anxious to make a showing of great zeal in searching for it. Hearne discovered Great Slave lake and its connecting rivers and lakes, finally reaching the Coppermine river and following the stream to its point of discharge into the Arctic ocean. This body of water he conceived and re- ported to be a great inland sea of a character similar to Hudson's bay, between which two bodies of water there was evidently no connecting passage. He also learned from the natives that the land extended a great distance further west, beyond high moun- tains. The result of his journey, since it tended to prove that no passage to the Pacific from Hudson's bay could be possible, was quickly communicated to the British Admi- ralty by the company, though the journal kept by Hearne was not published for the benefit of the public till twenty years later.

The Admiralty were now satisfied that a further search for a strait leading west- ward from Hudson's bay would be futile; but still hoped that a navigable passage could be found leading from Baffin's bay into the sea discovered by Hearne and still another one from this new ocean into the Pacific. Parliament had in 1845 offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone discovering a passage from Hudson's bay, which the company had carefully rendered nugatory, and now Parliament, in 1776, again passed an act offering a like reward to any English vessel entering and passing through any strait, or in any direction, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, north of latitude 52 degrees, which was about the southern limit of Hudson's bay. This led to a series of voyages by English navigators in the Pacific ocean, stimulated especially by the reports which about that time reached England of voyages and settlements made by representatives of Spain. The era of positive discoveries in Oregon was coming on apace.

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER VIII.

EXPLORATIONS BY LAND AND SEA.

Struggle Between England and Spain for Dominion on the Pacific Coast -- Juan Perez Discovers Port San Lorenzo or Nootka Sound-Martinez Claims to Have Seen the Straits of Fuca -- Spanish Explorers Take Possession of the Country at the Bay of Trinidad-Fruitless Search for the Straits of Fuca -- Heceta Discovers the Mouth of the Columbia and Names it San Roque Inlet -- Bodega takes Formal Possession on George III.'s Archipelago and Searches for the Rio de los Reyes -- He also takes Possession on Prince of Wales Island -- Vain Search for Aguilar's River on the Coast of Oregon -- Discovery of Bodega Bay -- Practical Result of these Voyages and England's Solicitude -- Voyage of Captain James Cook -- Discovery of Hawaiian Islands-Cook at Nootka Sound-He Passes Through Behring's Straits into the Arctic Ocean-Death of Cook -- Return of the Expedi- tion -Arteaga and Bodega Follow Cook's Route.

The proceedings of the Spanish nation which had aroused England to such un- usual activity in exploring the northwest, were the colonization of California by the Franciscans which has already been spoken of, and several voyages and efforts to take possession of the coast still further to the north which were made soon afterwards. The struggle between England and Spain for dominion in the unexplored portion of the New World had begun in earnest, and was embittered by the chagrin of the latter at the manner in which Louisiana had slipped from her clutch when France sold it to Spain just as it was about to be snatched from her grasp.

The first of these voyages, and it must be remembered the first voyage of explora - tion undertaken by Spain along the northern coast for one hundred and seventy-one years, was that of Juan Perez, who was instructed to sail as far north as the 60th par- allel, and to then explore the coast southward, landing at all convenient places to take possession of the country in the name of the king of Spain. On the twenty-fifth of January, 1774, Perez sailed from San Blas in the corvette Santiago, piloted by Estivan Martinez, and stopped both at San Diego and Monterey, sailing from the latter port on the sixteenth of June. Thirty-two days later he espied the first land seen since leav- ing Monterey, in latitude 54 degrees, probably the west coast of Queen Charlotte's island. Simptoms of scurvy beginning to be observed among the crew, and being but poorly supplied with the requisites for a long voyage, Perez decided not to attempt further progress north in his little vessel, and so coasted along to the southward. He proceeded about a hundred miles, encountering a number of natives in their canoes. with whom he drove a profitable trade in furs, and was then driven to sea by a storm. He again discovered land on the ninth of August, casting anchor at the entrance of a deep bay in latitude 49 degrees and 30 minutes upon which, following the custom which has plastered the map of the Pacific coast with "Sans" and "Santas," he bestowed. the name Port San Lorenzo, because it was discovered upon the day specially de- voted to that saint in the Roman calendar. It was beyond doubt the harbor on the west coast of Vancouver island now known as King George's or Nootka sound. Hav-

Digitized by Google

PACIFIC COAST.

ing enjoyed a profitable trade with the natives, who are represented as being of a much lighter complexion than other native Americans, Perez weighed anchor and sailed again to the southward. In latitude 47 degrees and 47 minutes a lofty, snow-crowned peak was observed, which was christened Sierra de Santa Rosalia, being, probably, the one subsequently named Mount Olympus by English explorers. On the twenty- first of August Perez arrived off Cape Mendocino, whose exact latitude he then de- termined, and a week later dropped anchor in the harbor of Monterey. This voyage added but little to the geographical knowledge of the coast, since no thorough explora- tions were made and land was observed only in a few places. In the journal of the voyage nothing is said of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and yet, many years later and long after the strait had been entered by the English and Puget sound explored, the pilot of the Santiago, Martinez, asserted that he had observed a wide opening in the land between latitudes 48 and 49 degrees, and that he had honored the point of land on the south side of the entrance with his own name. Upon the strength of this long-de- layed assertion, Spanish geographers entered upon their charts as Cape Martinez the point of land now universally known as Cape Flattery.

The return of Perez with the information that America extended at least as far north as the latitude 54 degrees, determined the Mexican viceroy to dispatch another expedition in quest of still further discoveries as far as the 65th parallel. The Santiago, commanded by Bruno Heceta and piloted by Perez, and the Sonora, a small schooner under the command of Juan de Ayala and having Antonio Manrelle for a pilot, sailed from San Blas March 15, 1775, being supplied with the latest chart of the Pacific, in which the reports of the various voyages were woven together by the fertile imagination of Bellin, a French geographer. They were accompanied as far as Monterey by the San Carlos, to which vessel Ayala was transferred before reaching that port, and the command of the Sonora devolved upon Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra.

-- --

Sailing from Monterey to the northward, the two vessels doubled Cape Mendocino and anchored on the tenth of June in a roadstead, which was named Port Trinidad, for the usual reason that the day was the one devoted to the Trinity on the calendar, that fertile source of Spanish nomenclature. Nine days later the voyage up the coast was resumed, though not until the Spaniards had landed and with proper solemnity and religious ceremonies taken possession of the country in the name of their sovereign, including the planting of a cross with appropriate inscriptions as a testimonial monu- ment of their visit. They described the harbor as being safe, spacious and a valuable one to commerce, and the contiguous country agreeable in climate and having a fruitful soil ; and this discovery was considered by Spanish authorities to be an exceedingly valuable one.

Having kept out to sea for three weeks, they again sighted land in latitude 48 de- grees and 27 minutes, just south of the Straits of Fuca. Since the Greek pilot had located his passage between latitudes 47 and 48 degrees, as will be remembered, in which locality it was indicated on their chart, the explorers naturally coasted to the southward in searching for it, thus sailing directly away from its entrance. A careful examination of the coast revealed no such passage, and, satisfied that it had no exis- tence, they cast anchor near a small island off the coast in latitude 47 degrees and 20

Digitized by Google

- ---

i 1

PACIFIC COAST.

minutes. Here seven of the Sonora's crew, who were sent to the mainland to procure water in the only boat the vessel carried, were killed by the natives ; and the island was christened Isla de Dolores, or Island of Sorrows, being the same one afterwards called Destruction Island by an English captain, because of a similar fate which befel a portion of his crew.

Disheartened by this disaster and observing alarming symptoms of scurvy among his crews, Heceta desired to return, but at the urgent solicitation of the other officers reluctantly consented to continue the voyage northward. A few days later a severe storm parted the vessels, and Heceta then abandoned the enterprise and started to return with the Santiago to Monterey. He soon observed land on the ocean side of Vancouver island, in latitude 50 degrees, and passing by Port San Lorenzo and the entrance to Juan de Fuca straits without observing them, he again saw the coast in the 48th parallel, south of which he once more searched for the passage he had so carelessly overlooked. On the fifteenth of August, 1775, he came opposite an opening in the land in latitude 46 degrees and 17 minutes, through which poured a stream of water so forcibly as to prevent him from entering. Satisfied that he was at the outlet to a great river, or, possibly, the Straits of Fuca, though too far south for this according to his chart, Heceta waited a day with the hope of effecting an entrance; but in this he was doomed to disappointment, and abandoning the effort he continued his voyage to Monterey, carefully observing the intervening coast, of which his journal contains extremely accurate descriptions. The Catholic calendar was again brought into requisition to supply a name for this new discovery, and since the fifteenth of August was the day of the Assumption, Heceta called it Enseñada de Asuncion (Assumption inlet); the sixteenth being set apart to Saint Roc, he called the northern promontory Cape San Roque, while to the low land on the south side of the entrance he gave the name Cape Frondoso (Leafy cape). Beyond question this was the first discovery of the mouth of the mighty Columbia, and Mexican charts, published soon after the return of Heceta, had indicated upon them an entrance to the land at that point, variously denominated Enseñada de Heceta, and Rio de San Roque.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 11

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: