History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 15

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

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 15

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In the fall of 1789, subsequent to the departure of Gray in the Columbia, Captain Kendrick passed with the Washington entirely through the Straits of Fuca and between Vancouver island and the mainland of British Columbia, the American flag being thus the first to wave over the waters of that great inland sea. It was this passage of the Washington which is referred to in the extract given above of the instructions of the lords of admiralty to Captain Vancouver.

In the spring of 1790 the Mexican viceroy dispatched a fleet to again take pos- session of Nootka, under the command of Captain Francisco Elisa, the fiery Martinez having been removed. Nootka was, therefore, in full possession of the Spaniards dur- ing the time England and Spain were conducting their negotiations. Upon resuming possession of Nootka, Spain began a series of short voyages of exploration, more par- ticularly to ascertain what settlements were being made by the Russians or other foreigners than to accomplish anything of geographical value. The most important of these was that of Lieutenant Quimper, who sailed from Nootka in the summer of 1790, in the Princess Royal, which had not yet been restored to Captain Colnett, and entered the Straits of Fuca a distance of 100 miles, carefully examining both shores of the passage. He penetrated into the entrance of Puget sound, but was prevented by lack of time from exploring the numerous arms which he observed branching off in all directions, many of them evidently extending inland to a great distance. Upon some of these he bestowed names, none of which are now used except Canal de Guemes and Canal de Haro.

The next most important was that of Captains Malaspina and Bustamente in the Descubierta and Atrevida. During the controversy over the Nootka seizures, the romance of Maldonado about the Straits of Anian was rescued from the obscurity into which it had long since passed, and received the endorsement of many able persons. In consequence of this the expedition was fitted out by Spain to ascertain the truth of the narrative, and was dispatched to the coast in the summer of 1791. Malaspina carefully explored the shore line in the region of the 60th parallel, where Maldonado located the passage, and became convinced that there could be no strait leading through the chain of mountains which bordered the coast. He then proceeded to Nootka, where he arrived in August.

During this time the coast was visited by one French, nine English and seven American trading vessels. As their objects were purely commercial, little was accom- plished by any of them in the line of new discoveries of importance, though each added a little to the fast-growing knowledge of the coast. There was one, however, an American vessel, which made the greatest discovery on the coast, and added to the territories of the United States the vast region which, sneered at and reviled for years, now has unstinted praise showered upon it from the four corners of the globe, and like the stone the builders rejected at the temple of the magnificent Solomon, seems about to be made the corner stone and crowning glory of the Union. This vessel was the Columbia, commanded by Captain Robert Gray. Passing over the voyages of

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other traders and all immaterial details, we proceed directly to the valuable discoveries made by Gray.

The Columbia sailed from Boston on her second visit to the Pacific on the twenty- eighth of September, 1790, reached the coast in June, and traded and explored among the islands and inlets about Queen Charlotte's island until September. She then sailed down thecoast to Cloyoquot, north of the entrance to the Straits of Fuca, where a landing was effected and the winter passed in a fortified structure which was called Fort Defi- ance. During the winter Gray constructed at Cloyoquot a small vessel which he named the Adventure, to be used in collecting furs from the natives. This was the second vessel built on the Northern Pacific coast, the first being the Northwest America, con- structed by Meares at Nootka in 1788. In the spring the Adventure was dispatched on a trading expedition to the north, while Gray sailed southward along the coast on a voyage of exploration.

Early in the spring of 1792 the viceroy of Mexico took energetic steps to deter- mine the question of whether the settlement at Nootka was worth contending for, in view of the expected arrival of Captain Vancouver. If there was a navigable north- west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, then a station at that point would be invaluable to the interests of Spain, but if the continent was continuous, so that all vessels would be compelled to enter the Pacific from the south, an establishment in so high an altitude would not be of sufficient importance to make a contest for its posses- sion advisable. To ascertain these facts a vessel was dispatched to search for the Rio de los Reyes in the latitude of 53 degrees, two others were to explore and ascertain the exact nature of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, while a fourth was instructed to seek along the coast of the mainland further to the southward for a suitable location to which to remove in case the settlement at Nootka should be abandoned. At the same time Captain Bodega y Quadra proceeded to Nootka as commissioner to meet Captain Van- couver and fulfill the terms of the treaty, with instructions to abandon Nootka if he deemed it necessary and remove all Spanish subjects to the new location further south.

In April the Discovery and Chatham arrived off the coast in the vicinity of Cape Mendocino, and sailed slowly northward, careful observations being taken and a strict examination being made of the shore for the discovery of harbors or navigable rivers and especially the river of Martin de Aguilar. A point which he conceived to be the Cape Blanco indicated on the Spanish charts, Vancouver marked down upon his own chart as Cape Orford. The next instance worthy of note was his passage of the mouth of the Columbia, which was indicated on the Spanish charts he carried as Heceta inlet or the entrance to the Rio de San Roque, while on his English map it was noted as the Deception bay of Captain Meares. On the twenty-seventh of April he recorded in his journal : "Noon brought us up with a conspicuous point of land composed of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high and projecting into the sea. On the south side of this promontory was the appearance of an inlet, or small river, the land not indica- ting it to be of any great extent, nor did it seem to be accessible to vessels of our burthen, as the breakers extended from the above point two or three miles into the ocean, until they joined those on the beach nearly four leagues further south. On reference to Mr. Meares's description of the coast south of this promontory, I was at first induced to believe it to be Cape Shoalwater, but on ascertaining its latitude, I pre-

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sumed it to be that which he calls Cape Disappointment ; and the opening to the south of it Deception bay. This cape was found to be in latitude 46° 19, longitude 236° 6' [He reckoned east from Greenwich.] The sea now changed from its natural to river coloured water ; the probable consequence of some streams falling into the bay, or into the ocean to the north of it, through the low land. Not considering this opening worthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the N. W., being desirous to em- brace the advantages of the prevailing breeze and pleasant weather, so favorable to our examination of the coast."

Vancouver rounded Cape Disappointment and continued up the shore. He says : "The country before us presented a most luxuriant landscape, and was probably not a little heightened in value by the weather that prevailed. The more interior parts were somewhat elevated, and agreeably diversified with hills, from which it gradually de- scended from the shore, and terminated in a sandy beach. The whole had the appear- ance of a continued forest extending north as far as the eye could reach, which made me very solicitous to find a port in the vicinity of a country presenting so delightful a prospect of fertility ; our attention was therefore earnestly directed to this object." At one time he was of the opinion that Shoalwater bay presented a suitable harbor, but renounced the belief upon attempting to enter the bay and failing because of the pres- ence of an unbroken line of breakers. They passed Gray's harbor in the night, and after noting the position of Destruction island and observing Mount Olympus, " the most remarkable mountain we had seen on the coast of New Albion," fell in with the Columbia a few miles south of the Straits of Fuca.

Vancouver sent an officer to the American vessel to glean information from its commander, who hesitated not to tell all he knew of the coast. Among other things the English captain notes in his journal : "He likewise informed them of his having been off the mouth of a river in the latitude 46° 10', where the outset, or reflux, was so strong as to prevent his entering for nine days. This was probably the opening passed by us on the forenoon of the twenty-seventh ; and was, apparently, inaccessible, not from the current, but from the breakers which extended across it." That Gray must have made this effort to enter the Columbia sometime the previous year is evident from the fact that Vancouver states that he was " now commencing his summer's trade along the coast to the southward." The above remarks show plainly that Vancouver had no faith in the existence of such a stream as Aguilar's river, Rio de San Roque, Oregon, or River of the West, and this is rendered more certain by an entry in his journal made upon reaching Cape Flattery, that there "was not the least appearance of a safe or secure harbour, either in that latitude, or from it southward to Cape Mendo- cino ; notwithstanding that, in that space, geographers had thought it expedient to furnish many. * So minutely had this extensive coast been inspected, that the surf had been constantly seen to break upon its shores from the masthead ; and it was but in a few small intervals only, where our distance precluded its being visible from the deck. Whenever the weather prevented our making free with the shore, or on our hauling off for the night, the return of fine weather and of daylight uniformly brought us, if not to the identical spot we had departed from, at least within a few miles of it, and never beyond the northern limits of the coast which we had previously seen. An examination so directed, and circumstances happily concurring

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· to permit its being so executed, afforded the most complete opportunity of determining its various turnings and windings. * * * It must be considered as a very singular circumstance that, in so great an extent of sea coast, we should not until now [He was in the Straits of Fuca] have seen the appearance of any opening in its shores which presented any certain prospect of affording shelter ; the whole coast forming one compact, solid, and nearly straight barrier against the sea. The river Mr. Gray mentioned should, from the latitude he assigned to it, have existence in the bay, south of Cape Disappointment: This we passed on the forenoon of the twenty- seventh ; and, as I then observed, if any inlet or river should be found, it must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to vessels of our burthen, owing to the reefs and broken water which then appeared in its neighborhood. Mr. Gray stated that he had been several days attempting to enter it, which at length he was unable to effect, in consequence of a very strong outset. This is a phenomenon difficult to ac- count for, as, in most cases where there are outsets of such strength on a sea coast, there are corresponding tides setting in. Be that however as it may, I was thoroughly con- vinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not possibly have passed any safe navigable opening, harbour, or place of security for shipping on this coast, from Cape Mendocino to the promontory of Classet (Cape Flattery); nor had we any reason to alter our opinions." Such was the deliberate conclusion of this dis- tinguished navigator after a thorough and searching examination of the coast, and yet within the limits he thus declares to be barren of harbors or navigable rivers are to be found the harbors of Humboldt bay, Trinidad bay, Crescent City, Port Orford, Coquille river, Coos bay, Yaquina bay, Columbia river, Shoalwater bay and Gray's harbor.

Had it not been for the persevering zeal of an American, the Columbia might have listened solely to "his own dashings" for many years to come, since such a decided statement from so competent an officer of his majesty's navy would have been received as finally settling the question of the existence of such a stream and have put an end to all search for one in that locality. Gray had his own ideas on the subject, and proposed to carry them out in spite of the adverse opinion of the British captain. He continued his voyage down the coast, and on the seventh of May entered a bay in latitude 46 degrees and 48 minutes, where he lay at anchor three days. This he chris- tened Bulfinch's harbor, in honor of one of the owners of the Columbia, but it was called Gray's harbor by Captain Vancouver in memory of the discoverer, and retains that honorable title to the present day.

Gray rounded Cape Disappointment early on the morning of the eleventh of May, and the weather being favorable, set all sail and stood boldly in among the high rolling breakers whose threatening aspect had intimidated both Meares and Vancouver and caused them to assert that they were impassable. With great nautical skill and superb judgment, he followed accurately the channel of the stream, and at one o'clock anchored "in a large river of fresh water," at a distance of ten miles from the guarding line of breakers. Here he spent three days in filling his casks with fresh water and in trading with the natives who swarmed about the vessel in canoes, the Chinook village being close by on the river bank. He then sailed up stream "upwards of twelve or fifteen miles," but having unfortunately missed the main channel was unable to proceed further,

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and dropped down again to the mouth of the river. Having executed some much- needed repairs on the vessel, he took advantage of a favorable breeze on the twentieth and crossed over the bar to the open sea. To this great stream which he entered May 11, 1792, Gray gave the name borne by his vessel, Columbia, while the bluffy point to the north of the entrance, which had been named Cape San Roque by Heceta and Cape Disappointment by Meares, he called Cape Hancock in honor of that revered patriot whose bold signature was the first on the declaration of independence. The name of Adams, the patriotic statesman of Massachusetts and vice president of the republic, he bestowed upon the low point to the south which had been designated by Heceta as Cape Frondoso.

The Columbia sailed northward to the east coast of Queen Charlotte island, where she ran upon a sunken ledge of rocks and barely escaped total destruction. She managed, however, to reach Nootka sound in a badly damaged condition, where she was again made tight and seaworthy by her carpenters. To Captain Bodega y Quadra the Spanish commissioner who was awaiting the arrival of Vancouver, Gray gave a chart showing the entrance to Bulfinch's harbor and the Columbia, and in conjunction with Joseph Ingraham who had been mate of the Columbia during the Nootka difficul- ties and who was now captain of the Hope then lying in the harbor, made a statement of the difficulty between Colnett and Martinez, which Bodega retained for the inspec- tion of Vancouver. Gray and Ingraham then sailed for home by the way of Canton.

Meanwhile Vancouver had been making many important explorations. With his two vessels he entered the Straits of Fuca on the twenty-ninth of April and proceeded slowly inward, making a careful examination as he progressed. In his explora- tions of the straits and Puget sound, so named in honor of one of the officers of his vessel, he consumed two months, carefully examining every inlet and arm of the great inland sea. Many of the familiar names of that region were bestowed by him ; such as New Dungeness, from a fancied resemblance to Dungeness in the British channel ; Port Discovery, in honor of his own vessel ; Port Townsend, as a compliment to " the noble Marquis of that name ;" Mount Baker; Mount Rainier, in honor of Rear Admiral Rainier ; Hood's channel, after Lord Hood; Port Orchard, the name of the officer who discovered it; Admiralty inlet ; Vashon island, after Captain Vashon of the navy ; Possession sound, where he landed on the fourth of June and took possession in the name of King George of England; Whidbey island, after one of his lieutenants ; Decep- tion pass; Burrard's channel, in compliment to Sir Harry Burrard ; Bellingham bay ; Bute's channel. To the whole body of water to which access was had by way of the Straits of Fuca he gave the name of Gulf of Georgia, in honor of his sovereign, while the main land surrounding it and reaching south to the 45th parallel, or New Albion, was distinguished by the title of New Georgia.

As he emerged from Puget sound to proceed northward through the upper por- tion of the Gulf of Georgia, he fell in with the two Spanish vessels that had been dis- patched early in the spring by the viceroy to explore the Straits of Fuca. Between the commanders of these rival vessels many courtesies were exchanged, and, being on the same errand, they for a time pursued their explorations together. After parting company with the Spaniards, Vancouver proceeded northward, exploring the coast of the mainland, until he reached Queen Charlotte island, near which both the Dis-

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covery and Chatham grounded on the rocks. They were skillfully extricated from their perilous position and taken to Nootka sound.

Upon his arrival there, whither the two Spanish vessels had preceded him, Van- couver opened negotiations with Bodega y Quadra in regard to restoration of lands provided for in the treaty. The only houses and lands which British subjects had ever possessed in any form, were the temporary structure Meares had erected for his men while engaged in building the Northwest America, and the small tract of land upon which it stood. Though all vestige of this habitation had disappeared before Martinez had taken possession in 1789, still Quadra expressed his willingness to sur- render the tract of land to Vancouver, but the English commissioner demanded pos- session of the whole of Nootka sound and Cloyoquot. This Quadra refused to give, and Vancouver refused to compromise his government by receiving less, and sent an officer to England by the way of China with information of the condition of affairs. Between Vancouver and Quadra personally the utmost cordial relations existed, and since the land upon which Nootka stood had been found to be an island, they agreed to have the "honors easy" in naming it. It was therefore entered upon the explorer's chart as the Island of Quadra and Vancouver, but is now and has been for years known only as Vancouver island.

The Daedalus having arrived from England with supplies, Vancouver sailed from Nootka with the three vessels to explore Gray's harbor and the Columbia, having received from Quadra the description of those places left with him by Captain Gray. On the eighteenth of October, 1792, the Daedalus, commanded by Lieutenant Whidbey, entered Gray's harbor, while the two consorts continued to the Columbia. On the morning of the nineteenth the Chatham and Discovery attempted the passage of the bar, the former crossing safely, but the latter hauling off for fear there was not a suf- ficient depth of water. This circumstance led Vancouver to record in his journal that his " former opinion of this port being inaccessible to vessels of our burthen was now fully confirmed, with this exception, that in very fine weather, with moderate winds, and a smooth sea, vessels not exceeding four hundred tons might, so far as we were enabled to judge, gain admittance." It was while lying at anchor off the bar that he gained a view of a "high, round snow mountain" far up the stream, which he named Mount St. Helens, in honor of his Britanic majesty's ambassador at the court of Madrid.

The first sound that saluted the commander of the Chatham upon crossing the bar was the report of a cannon, which was answered in a similar manner by Lieuten- ant Broughton. It came from a Bristol brig called the Jenny, lying in a sheltered bay within the mouth of the stream, which has ever since been known as Baker's bay in honor of the captain of that little craft. This made the second vessel to enter the river before the representatives of Great Britain undertook to explore it. The Chat- ham lay in the river several days, during which time Broughton ascended the stream in a boat some 120 miles, as far as a poir .: which he named in honor of the commander of the expedition, being the same upon which Fort Vancouver was afterwards built by the Hudson's Bay Company. During his stay he formally "took possession of the river and the country in its vicinity in his Britanic majesty's name, having every rea- son to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had ever entered

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MARYS RIVER. FLOUR HILLS

A. G. Welling, Lith. Portland, Or.

RESIDENCE AND FLOUR MILL PROPERTY OF J. 8. FELGER. 1 Mile West of Philomath, Benton County, Oregon.

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this river before." The closing portion of this sentence sounds strangely from one who had in his possession at the time he penned it the rough chart made by Gray, which had been the cause of his being there at all. It is explained by saying that he affected to consider the broad estuary near the mouth of the stream as no portion of the river, and that in consequence Gray had not entered the river proper. This strained construction England maintained in the after controversy with the United States about the rights of discovery.

Vancouver remained in the Pacific two years longer, spending the summers of 1793 and 1794 in carefully exploring the coast of the mainland above Queen Char- lotte island, searching every cove and inlet for a passage to the Atlantic, until he became as thoroughly convinced that there was no such passage as he had been that no such river as the Columbia existed. Meanwhile negotiations were carried on between England and Spain in regard to Nootka, and those two nations having allied themselves against France, the Nootka affair was dropped. In the spring of 1795 the Spaniards abandoned Nootka sound forever, the question of possession never having been settled, and thus the whole affair ended.

When the independence of her American colonies was granted by England, that nation was left without any representative in North America by whom her dominion could be extended westward, except the Hudson's Bay Company, which organization was more deeply interested in maintaining the vast region to the west and north as a fur-bearing wilderness than in adding new jewels to the British crown. It was only . when a rival to the great monopoly grew up and threatened to carry on successful op- position that the old company adopted a more aggressive policy.

As early as 1775 a few Montreal traders had pushed as far west as the Saskatchewan and Athabaska rivers, and opened up a successful trade, which was carried on for some years by independent traders. At last, in 1784, because of inability to contend and compete with the monopoly as individuals, these traders combined together as the Northwest Company of Montreal. This company operated in a most practical manner, its agents all being interested partners, and soon became an organization of much wealth and power. The company steadily pushed its agents and stations westward, and energetically extended the limits of its operations. In 1778 a station had been estab- lished on Athabaska river, some 1200 miles northwest of Lake Superior, but in 1788 this was abandoned and Fort Chipewyan built on Lake Athabaska, which became the base of the company's operations in the extreme west. Traders extended their opera- tions westward to the Rocky mountains, called by them Shining mountains or Moun- tains of Bright Stones.

In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie, the gentleman in charge of Fort Chipewyan, dis- covered the Mackenzie river where it issues from Great Slave lake, and followed down its whole course to the Arctic ocean. The same gentleman started in October, 1792, to cross the continent to the Pacific. He passed up Peace river and camped until spring at the base of the Rocky mountains, engaging in trade. In June, 1793, he crossed the mountains, and descended in canoes a large river a distance of 250 miles. This he called the Tacoutchee-Tassee, and after the discovery of the Columbia was announced it was supposed to be identical with that great stream, until in 1812 Simon Fraser traced it to the ocean and called it Fraser's river. Upon leaving this stream Mac- 11

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 15

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

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