USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 12
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 12
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 12
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 12
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 12
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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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WALLING LITH -PORTLAND, OR.
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RESIDENCE OF J.H. CHAPMAN, NORTH UMPQUA VALLEY, DOUGLAS CO.
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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 uutil 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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kenzie continued westward some 200 miles and caught sight of the ocean July 22, 1793, being the first Caucasian, and possibly the first human being, to cross America overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Mexico. The place at which he reached the ocean was in latitude 52 degrees and 20 minutes, and had been explored and named Cascade canal but a few weeks before by Vancouver.
The two journeys of this energetic trader, the careful explorations of Cook and Vancouver, and discovery of the Columbia by Gray, served to enlighten all interested nations in regard to the nature of the American continent, and to prove conclusively that neither the Straits of Anian nor the Rio de los Reyes had any other existence than in the fancy of those who, centuries before, had proclaimed them. The Northwest Company pushed its agents down to the headwaters of the Missouri, while French and Spanish traders ascended that stream from St. Louis, and engaged in trade with the natives and trapped the streams for beaver. Because of the Spanish claim to Louisiana, American traders were much confined in the limits of their operations, and were also restricted by the holding back of posts in the region of the great lakes which Great Britain should have surrendered under the terms of the treaty of 1783. These were surrendered in 1794 by special treaty, which instrument also provided that subjects of Great Britain and the United States should have unrestricted intercourse and rights of trade. From this time American fur traders extended their operations further west- ward and increased the volume of their trade. This was the condition of affairs in America at the close of the eighteenth century.
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CHAPTER XII.
CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARKE TRAVERSE THE CONTINENT.
Situation at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century-Colonial Limits of the United States The Louisiana Purchase-England and America Rivals in the West Expedition of Lewis and Clarke-Their Winter Among the Mandans-Journey up the Missouri, Across the Rockies, Down Clarke's Fork, Through the Lolo Trail, Down Clearwater, Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific- They Winter at Fort Clatsop-Discovery of the Willamette-The Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Nez Perces -- Arrival in St. Louis-What the Expedition Accomplished.
"Take the wings Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound Save his own dashings."
So sang Bryant of the mighty Columbia and the land of "continuous woods," through which it majestically rolls. The name Oregon which Carver had given to the Great River of the West was for years applied to the Columbia and the whole region through which it passes, stretching from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific, and from California indefinitely northward. The name bestowed upon the stream by its discov- erer gradually crowded Carver's title from the field, until it is now recognized as the only proper one, while the significance of Oregon has gradually been contracted until that title now applies only to the state of which we write.
At the dawning of the present century, now rapidly drawing near to the "sear and yellow leaf," three powerful nations claimed dominion on our coast, the indefinite boun- daries of their alleged possessions conflicting and overlapping to such an extent as to be a constant menace of war. England, Spain and Russia claimed territorial sovereignty gained by the discoveries and acts of persons officially empowered by their respective governments, while in common with them representatives of the merchant fleets of the United States, France, Portugal and Austria sought the Pacific waters to reap the har- vest of wealth that lay in the fur trade of the coast.
Suddenly and almost unexpectedly a new nation stepped upon the plain to contest with her powerful rivals the palm of territorial dominion, and this was the new-born republic, the United States of America. In the few years which had elapsed since her
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long struggle for independence had been crowned with success, and especially since a constitutional bond had firmly cemented the states into one grand, united nation, her growth in population, wealth, power and importance had been wonderful, and she now prepared to assert her natural right to extend her borders in the direction plainly indi- cated by the hand of nature.
The position the United States then occupied in relation to Oregon may be briefly stated as follows: At the treaty of 1783, where Great Britain formally acknowledged the independence of her valiant colonies, her commissioners for a long time refused to relinquish to them that portion of her possessions lying between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi ; but as the colonies had been accustomed to exercise jurisdiction as far west as the great river of DeSoto, being the extreme western limit of British posses- sions since it was the eastern boundary of Louisiana, the American commissioners in- sisted upon that territory being included, and finally carried their point. Even then it was eleven years before England surrendered the seven military posts within that por- tion of the United States and then only after much pressure had been brought to bear. England was, therefore, only represented in America after the revolution, so far as western exploration and settlement was concerned, by the powerful Hudson's Bay Com- pany, and its new rival, the Northwest Company, whose struggle for possession of the unclaimed fur regions west of Canada and Hudson's bay has been already alluded to and will again occupy attention further on. The boundary agreed upon between England and the United States followed np the St. Lawrence from a certain initial point, through the chain of great lakes and the smaller ones lying west of Superior as far as the Lake of the Woods, whence the line cut across to the headwaters of the Mississippi, and followed down that stream to the Spanish Florida line. This left within the limits of the United States a portion of that extremely desirable region spoken of by Lahontan, Hennepin and others, and but recently described by Captain Jonathan Carver, while the new nation bordered upon the remainder with nothing but the theoretical title of Spain to stand between her and an indefinite extension westward. On the other hand, only above the United States line did Great Britain's possessions border upon this terra incognita and in a region universally recognized as being fit only for the occupation of wandering fur traders.
The title to Louisiana which Spain had acquired by purchase from France in 1762, she reconveyed to that powerful nation in 1800; but Napoleon, recognizing the fact that his ambitions designs in Europe would only be hampered by the possession and necessary protection of vast territorial interests in the United States, and desiring to spite England and place her face to face in America with an energetic and powerful rival, sold the whole province with all the right and title of France to the United States in 1803. ' The eastern boundary was the Mississippi ; its southwestern limit the Spanish, Mexican and California possessions, while to the northwest there was no limit whatever. This action, so entirely unexpected by England, changed the whole aspect of affairs in America, and left the United States without any bar whatever to prevent the extension of her dominions toward the Pacific.
At the time John Ledyard undertook to organize a company in Paris to engage in the Pacific fur trade, Thomas Jefferson was residing there as representative of the United States at the court of France, and became deeply interested in his project of
WALLING-LITH-PORTLAND-OR.
MT PITT. FARM RESIDENCE OF ISAAC CONSTANT, CENTRAL POINT, JACKSON CO.
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exploring the northwestern wilderness of America, which was defeated by the Russian traders. In 1792 Mr. Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical Society that a subscription be raised for the purpose of engaging some competent person to explore that region "by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Stony mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific." Meriwether Lewis, a native of Virginia and a lieu- tenant in the United States army, warmly solicited the position, and was selected at the request of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Andre Michaux, a distinguished French botanist, was chosen as his traveling companion. This gentleman was in the employ of the French government, and when he had proceeded as far as Kentucky upon the overland journey, he was recalled by the French minister, and the expedition was abandoned. On the eighteenth of January, 1803, Mr. Jefferson, as president of the United States, incorporated into a special message to congress on the Indian question a suggestion that such a journey as he had before advocated be made by representatives of the govern- ment. This proposition was approved by congress and an ample appropriation made to carry it into effect. Lewis had then become a captain and was acting in the capacity of private secretary to the president, and upon urgent solicitation received the direction of the enterprise. Captain Lewis selected William Clarke as an associate in command, and that gentleman accordingly received a captain's commission and was detailed for this duty.
In the instructions drawn up for the guidance of the party, the president says: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce." They were directed to acquire as intimate a knowledge as possible of the extent and number of Indian tribes, their manners, customs and degree of civilization, and to report fully upon the topography, the character of the soil, the natural products, the animal life and minerals, as well as to ascertain by scientific observations and inquiry as much as possible about the climate, and to inquire especially into the fur trade and the needs of commerce. Since Louisiana had not yet been formally conveyed to the United States, Captain Lewis' instructions contained a paragraph saying : "Your mis- sion has been communicated to the ministers here from France, Spain and Great Britain, and through them to their governments; and such assurances given them as to its ob- jects, as we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the country, will be a protection with all its subjects ; and that from the minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet."
All arrangements were completed and Lewis left Washington on the fifth of July, 1803, only a few days subsequent to the receipt of the joyful intelligence that France had ceded Louisiana to the United States. Ile was joined by Clarke at Louisville, and the two selected their men and repaired to St. Louis, near which they encamped until spring. The party which finally started on this great journey May 14, 1804, consisted of Captain Meriwether Lewis, Captain William Clarke, nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers, two French watermen, known in the parlance of
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fur traders as voyageurs, an interpreter and hunter and a negro servant of Captain Clarke. Besides these were a number of assistants who accompanied the expedition as far as the Mandan country.
The party ascended the Missouri as far as the region inhabited by the Mandan Indians, with whom they spent the winter, and while there negotiated treaties of peace between their hosts and the Ricarees, and informed themselves carefully upon the con- dition of Indian affairs and the geography of the surrounding country.
In the spring of 1805 the journey westward was resumed, by following up the Missouri, of whose course, tributaries and the great falls they had received very minute and accurate information from their Mandan friends. Passing the mouth of the Yel- lowstone, which name they record as being but a translation of Roche Jaune, the title given it by French-Canadian trappers who had already visited it, they continued up the Missouri, passed the castellated rocks and the great falls and cascades, ascended through the mighty canyon, and reaching the headwaters of the stream crossed the Rocky mountain divide and came upon the stream variously known along its course as Deer Lodge, Hellgate, Bitterroot, Clarke's Fork of the Columbia and Pend d'Oreille river. Upon this they bestowed the name Clarke's river, and so it should be called from its source in the Rocky mountains to where it unites with the main stream in British Columbia. From this river the advance party under Clarke crossed the Bit- terroot mountains by the Lolo trail, suffering intensely from cold and hunger, and on the twentieth of September reached a village of Nez Perce Indians situated on a plain about fifteen miles from the south fork of Clearwater river, where they were received with great hospitality. This first passage of the mountains by representatives of the United States and their warm reception by the Indians, contrast strongly with a scene witnessed by this same Lolo trail, when in 1877 Howard's army hotly pursued Chief Joseph and his little band of hostile Nez Perces, who were fleeing before the avengers from the scene of their many bloody massacres.
The almost famished men partook of such quantities of the food liberally pro- vided by their savage hosts that many of them became ill, among them being Captain Clarke, who was unable to continue the journey until the second day. He then went to the village of Twisted-hair, the chief, situated on an island in the stream mentioned. To the river he gave the name Koos-koos-kee, erroneously supposing it to be its Indian title. The probabilities are that the Nez Perces, in trying to inform Captain Clarke that this river flowed into a still larger one, the one variously known as Lewis, Sahaptin or Snake river, used the words "Koots-koots-kee," meaning "This is the smaller," and were understood to have meant that as the name of the stream. The Nez Perce name is Kaih-kaih-koosh, signifying Clearwater, the name it is gener- ally known by.
Having been united the two parties a few days later journeyed on down the Clear- water. Concerning their deplorable condition and their method of traveling the journal says : "Captain Lewis and two of the men were taken very ill last evening, and to-day he could scarcely sit on his horse, while others were obliged to be put on horse-back and some, from extreme weakness and pain, were forced to lie down along- side of the road. The weather was very hot and oppressive to the party, most of whom are now complaining of sickness. Our situation, indeed, ren-
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dered it necessary to husband our remaining strength and it was determined to proceed down the river in canoes. Captain Clarke, therefore, set out with the Twisted-hair, and two young men, in quest of timber for canoes. Having resolved to go down to some spot calculated for builling canoes, we set out early this morning and proceeded five miles, and encamped on low ground on the south opposite the forks of the river." The canoes being constructed they embarked in the month of October on their journey down the Clearwater and connecting streams for the Pacific, leaving what remained of their horses in charge of the friendly Nez Perces. They had for some time been subsisting upon roots, fish, horse meat and an occasional deer, crow, or wolf, but having left their horses behind them their resort when out of other food now became the wolfish dogs they purchased from the Indians.
Upon reaching Snake river which was named in honor of Captain Lewis, the canoes were turned down that stream, which they followed to the Columbia, naming the Tukannon river Kim-so-emim, a title derived from the Indians, and upon the Pa- louse bestowing the name Drewyer, in honor of the hunter of the party. They then followed down the Columbia passing a number of rapids, and arriving at the Cascades on the twenty-first of October. A portage was made of all their effects and a portion of the canoes, the remainder making the perilous descent of the cascades or falls in safety. The mouth of the Willamette was passed without the addition of so large a stream being noticed. Cape Disappointment was reached November 15, and the eyes of the weary travelers were gladdened with a sight of the graat ocean which had been their goal for more than a year. The season of winter rains having set in, they were soon driven by high water from the low land on the north bank of the stream, eleven miles above the cape, which they had selected for their winter residence. They then left the Chinooks, crossed the river, and built a habitation on the high land on the south side of the stream, which they called Fort Clatsop, in honor of the Indians who inhabited that region. Here they spent the winter, making occasional short excursions along the coast. The departure for home was delayed with the hope that some trading vessel might appear from which sadly-needed supplies might be obtained, but being disappointed in this they loaded their canoes and on March 23, 1806, took final leave of Fort Clatsop. Before going they presented the chiefs of the Chinooks and C'latsops, with certificates of kind and hospitable treatment, and circulated among the natives several papers, posting a copy on the wall of the abandoned fort, which read as follows: " The object of this last is, that through the medium of some civilized person, who may see the same, it may be made known to the world, that the party, consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the Govern- ment of the United States to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, to the dis- charge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, where they arrived on the fourteenth day of November, 1805, and departed the twenty-third day of March, 1806, on their return to the United States by the same route by which they had come out." To this was appended a list of the members of the expedition. One of these copies was handed by an Indian the following year to a fur trader whose vessel had entered the Columbia, by whom it was taken to China and a transcription of it forwarded to the United
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States ; thus, even had the party perished on the return journey, evidence of the com- pletion of their task was not wanting.
Upon taking an invoice of their possessions before starting upon the return, they found that their goods available for traffic with the Indians consisted of six blue robes, one scarlet robe, one U. S. artillery hat and coat, five robes made from the national ensign, and a few old clothes trimmed with ribbon. Upon these must they depend for purchasing provisions and horses and for winning the hearts of stubborn chiefs.
They proceeded up the south bank of the stream, until they came unexpectedly upon a large river flowing into it from the south, On an island near its month, known to the early trappers as Wapatoo and now called Sauvie's island, they came upon an Indian village, where they were refused a supply of food. To impress them with his power, Captain Clarke, entered one of their habitations and cast a few sulphur matches into the fire. The savages were frightened at the blue flame and looked upon the strange visitor as a great medicine man. They implored him to extinguish the " evil fire," and brought all the food he desired. The name of the Indian village was Mult- nomah, but Captain Clarke understood the name to apply to the river, of whose conrse he made careful inquiry. Upon the map of this expedition the Multnomah is repre- sented as extending southward and eastward into California and Nevada, and the In- dians who resided along the streams that flow from southeastern Oregon into the Snake are represented as living on the upper branches of the Multnomah. The true Indian name of the river and valley is Wallamet, which has been corrupted to Willamette by those who conceived the idea that it was of French origin. The confusion between, Indian, French and English names in this region has resulted in many very pecu- liar and ridiculous appellations.
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