USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 7
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 7
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 7
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 7
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 7
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The members of the several divisions, with the exception of those who died at sea, were now all on the ground at San Diego, and Father Junipero was not a man to waste time. In looking over his resources for accomplishing the work before him, he found that he had, including converted Indians who had accompanied him, about two hundred and fifty souls, and everything necessary for the founding of the three missions, the cultivation of the soil, grazing the land and exploring the coast, except sailors and provisions. So many of the former having died on the voyage, it was deemed advisable for those who remained to sail on the San Antonio for San Blas, to procure more seamen and supplies. They accordingly put to sea for that purpose on the ninth of July, and nine of the crew died before the port was reached. The next thing in order was to found a mission at San Diego, and it will be interesting to know what was the ceremony which constituted the founding of a mission. Father Francis Palou, the historian of the Franciscans, thus describes it: "They immediately set about taking possession of the soil in the name of our Catholic monarch, and thus laid the foundation of the mission. The sailors, muleteers and servants set about clearing away a place which was to serve as temporary church, hanging the bells (on the limb of a tree, possibly) and forming a grand cross. The venerable father president blessed the holy water, and with this the rite of the church and then the holy cross ; which, being adorned as usual, was planted in front of the church. Then its patron saint was named, and having chanted the first mass, the venerable president pronounced a most fervent discourse on the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the mission. The sacrifice of the mass being concluded, the Veni Creator was then sung; the want of an organ and other musical instruments being supplied by the continued discharge of firearms during the ceremony, and the want of incense, of which they had none, by the smoke of the muskets."
This ceremony was performed on the sixteenth day of July, 1769. Two days prior to that Governor Portala had started northward with the greater portion of the force to re-discover the port of Monterey. For three and one-half months he pursued his slow, tortuous way up the coast, passing Monterey without recognizing it. On the
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thirtieth of October they came upon a bay which Father Crespi, who accompanied the expedition, says " they at once recognized." What caused them to recognize it? Had they ever heard of it before? This is the first unquestioned record of the discovery of the San Francisco harbor. In all the annals of history there is no evidence of its ever having been seen before, except that sailing chart previously mentioned. Yet the exception is evidence strong as holy writ, that in 1740 the bay had been found but had received no recorded name. Portala and his followers believed a miracle had been performed, that the discovery was due to the hand of Providence, and that St. Francis had led them to the place. When they saw this land-locked bay in all its slumbering grandeur, they remembered that, before leaving Mexico, Father Junipero had been grieved because the vistadore general had not placed their patron saint upon the list of names for the missions to be founded in the new country, and when reminded of the omission by the sorrowing priest, he had replied solemnly, as from matured reflec- tion : " If St. Francis wants a mission, let him show you a good port, and we will put one there." "A good port" had been found-one where the fleets of the world could ride in safety, and they said "St. Francis has led us to his harbor," and they called it " San Francisco Bay."
Portala returned to San Diego, arriving January 24, 1770, where he found a very discouraging condition of affairs. The small band left at San Diego had passed through perils and difficulties of which it is unnecessary to speak in detail ; but the stubborn bravery and uniform kindness of the missionaries had brought them safely through. There now threatened a danger that unless averted would disastrously terminate the expedition. Portala took an inventory of supplies and found there remained only enough to last the expedition until March ; and he dicided that if none arrived by sea before the twentieth of that month, to abandon the enterprise and return to Mexico. The day came, and with it, in the offing, in plain view of all, a vessel. Preparations had been completed for the abandonment, but it was postponed because of the appearance of the outlying ship. The next day it was gone, and the colony believed then that a miracle had been performed, and their patron saint had permitted the sight of the vessel that they might know that help was coming. In a few days the San Antonio sailed into the harbor with abundant stores, and they learned that the vision they had looked upon was the vessel herself; she having been forced by adverse winds to put to sea again, after coming in sight of land.
Upon the arrival of the San Antonio, two other expeditions set out, in search of Monterey harbor, one by sea and another by land, the latter in charge of Governor Portala. The party by sea was accompanied by the father president himself, who writes of that voyage, and its results, as follows: "On the thirty-first day of May, by the favor of God, after a rather painful voyage of a month and a half, this packet, San Antonio, arrived and anchored in this horrible port of Monterey, which is unal- tered in any degree from what it was when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscaino, in the year 1603." He goes on to state that he found the governor awaiting him, having reached the place eight days earlier. He then describes the manner of taking possession of the land for the crown on the third day of August. This cere- mony was attended by salutes from the battery on board ship, and discharges of musketry by the soldiers, until the Indians in the vicinity were so thoroughly fright-
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ened at the noise as to cause a stampede among them for the interior, from whence they were afterwards enticed with difficulty. This was soon followed by the founding of the mission of San Antonio de Padua.
Governor Portala then returned to Mexico, bearing the welcome intelligence that Monterey had been re-discovered, that a much finer bay had also been found farther north which they had named after St. Francis, and that three missions had been established in the new land. Upon receipt of the news, the excitement in Mexico was intense. Guns were fired, bells were rung, congratulatory speeches were made, and all New Spain was happy, because of the final success of the long struggle to gain a footing north of the peninsula.
It is needless to follow in detail the record of the Franciscans in California, their labors, privations and successs. A brief summary of their rise, growth and downfall will be sufficient to enable the reader to understand all allusions to them in the subse- quent pages.
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
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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
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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
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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 elaim 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.) AH 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
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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.
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.
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