USA > Oregon > The Oregon native son, Vol. I > Part 72
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In 1893 she returned to Portland, and shortly afterwards, at the request of
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friends, began to teach the game, and it was not long before she found her time entirely taken up.
During the fall and winter of 1896 and 1897 she gave a series of twelve lec- tures before the . Kate Wheelock Club, which is composed of nearly an hundred members. Shortly afterwards, at the re- quest of the management of the Ore- gonian, she assumed control of a whist department in that paper, which they were introducing. She continued, at this work from February until July, 1897, when she went for a summer's va- cation to San Francisco, where she en- gaged in the preparation of her work, "Standard Whist." This work was pub- lished by Herbert S. Stone & Co., of
Chicago, entirely at their own risk and expense. This is probably one of the best evidences of the merit of the work for nothing short of the best can pass the crucial test of the able critics of tha: well-known firm of publishers. The work was given to the public early in December last, and on the last days e !! winter the publisher wrote: "We are well satisfied with the venture of publisli- ing "Standard Whist," the sales have thus early more than justified our ex- pectations." Miss Shelby spent the win- ter just past in teaching whist in San Francisco, but she is now engaged in writing a work on a subject that warm- the blood and thrills the heart of every native son and daughter-Our Beloved Oregon.
PRE-HISTORIC NORTH PACIFIC WRECKS.
The "beeswax wreck" at Nehalem beach, Oregon, has long interested thoughtful inquirers, who have general- ly attributed it to Chinese or Japanese sources. Sir Edward Belcher visited the Columbia river in 1839, and in his "Voyage Around the World" says of this wreck: "A wreck likewise occurred in this bay many years ago * * It appears that a vessel, with many hands on board, and laden with beeswax, en- tered the bay and was wrecked: she went to pieces and the crew got on shore. Many articles were washed on shore, and particularly the beeswax. The latter is even now occasionally thrown upon the beach, but in smaller quantities than formerly. I have one specimen now in my possession."
In the "Pacific Coast Pilot," 1889, Prof. George Davidson speaks of this wreck as a "Chinese or Japanese junk," and says that much beeswax is yet thrown ashore, specimens of which he secured. Horace Davis and Charles Wolcott . Brooks in their interesting monographs on Japanese wrecks along the North Pacific coast, refer to this
wreck, as do many other authors, but no one has presented such valuable and in- teresting facts about it as Mr. Samuel :1. Clarke. in the Oregon Native Son for September, 1899.
Mr. Clarke describes the marks on these beeswax cakes saying: "A num- ber were marked with large capitals. 'I. H. S.' with a cross, evidently standing for 'In hoc signo' (in this sign). Others had the letters 'I. H. N.,' for the Latin. 'In hoc nomen" (in this name). Some had only the letter 'N' surmounted with a diamond. This, with the perfect.taper- of different sizes, place it beyond doub: that the beswax was intended for store- of the Catholic missions that were on the coast a hundred and fifty years ago."
If we may accept these statements a- correct, they fairly settle the question o: the origin of the "beeswax wreck" . Nehalem. Many Japanese wrecks has . been cast upon these coasts in times pa -: and some may have carried beeswax, bat there is only the slightest possibility that! the cargo would have been marked with such characters as Mr. Clarke finds on the Nehalem beeswax. Granting tl
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correctness of his rendering of the marks on the cargo, there is but little trouble to fairly answer his inquiry: "How came such mission craft to be in this latitude a century and a half ago?"
To begin with, its presence at Neha- lem must have been accidental, for there were no missions north of San Francisco until long after this wreck was known. The small and widely separated missions among the natives of California had no need of such a great cargo of supplies, and it could only have been intended for the Church in Mexico.
A century and a half ago Spain yet carried on the trade with the Philippines from Manila to Acapulco by the north- ern route, striking the California coast in the latitude of Cape Mendocino and coasting southward to the Mexican port.
In 1595 the governor of the Philip- pines ordered Sebastian Rodriguez Cer- mennon, captain of the galleon San Au- gustin, to carefully inspect this northern route on his voyage from Manila to Aca- pulco, and if possible to locate a safe harbor for the annual eastern-bound gal- leons on the outer coast of California. In attempting to perform this service the San Augustin was wrecked at the old La Puerto de San Francisco, behind Point Reyes, a few miles north of the entrance of the new port of San Fran- cisco, which was then unknown. The Spanish viceroy in Mexico sent out Viz- caino, in 1602, to survey these upper coasts, and incidentally to find the San Augustin, and from Venegas' History of California, 1757, a portion of Vizcaino's log-book is quoted:
"Another reason which induced the Capitana to put into Puerto Francisco was to take a survey of it, and to see if anything was to be found of the San Au- gustin, which in the year 1595, had, by order of his majesty and the viceroy, been sent from the Philippines by the governor to survey the coast of Califor- nia, under the direction of Sebastian Rodriguez Cermennon, a pilot of known abilities; but was driven ashore in this harbor by the violence of the wind. Among others on board the San Au-
gustin, was the pilot, Francisco Volanos, who was also chief pilot of this squadron. He was acquainted with the country, and affirmed that they had left ashore great quantities of wax and several chests of silk; and the general was desirous of putting in here to see if there remained any vestige of the ship and cargo."
Vizcaino found neither the wrecked * vessel nor its cargo of wax at La Puerto de San Francisco in 1603; it had evi- dently floated at some storm or high tide and appears no more in the history of the coast. The Indian traditions at Neha- lem recount how, long ago, the beeswax wreck came ashore, and all persons on board were lost; others maintain that part of the crew came ashore, and while some remained among the Indians, oth- ers went overland to their own people. Mr. Howell, the ferryman at Nehalem, found several tons of wax on his land high above the occan tides, and a hun- dred yards distance from the beach. This mass of the cargo may have been gathered by the Indians, or by the crew of the San Augustin, for Vizcaino tells us that the old pilot of the San Augustin "affirmed that they had left ashore a great quantity of wax and several chests of silk" at La Puerto de San Francisco, and why not at Nehalem? Could it be possible that a mistake was made and that the San Augustin was wrecked at Nehalen. instead of La Puerto de San Francisco?
Certain facts may be accepted as estab- lished in this inquiry, viz: the Nehalem wax bears marks that clearly point to its use only by the Catholic Church; its presence in the Nehalem sands is acci- dental, without doubt; no such stores were needed or used north of Acapulco: the old San Augustin was loaded with that character of cargo intended for the Church in Mexico: no other such cargo is known to have been lost on the coast of California; and it is a reasonable, though not certain, conclusion that the old San Augustin, with her cargo of wax, and possibly a part of her crew, was cast away upon the Nehalem beach after disappearing from behind Point
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Reyes. It is said that remains of the old wreck have been seen at Nehalem, and it is hoped that Mr. Clarke, or some oth- er equally competent observer, will give it a careful examination that it may be determined what manner of vessel the old "beeswax wreck" was.
Was the beeswax wreck a "Chinese or . Japanese junk?" That a Japanese wreck came ashore at the Clatsop beach, a few miles north of the Nehalem is beyond question, and Prof. Davidson, in the Pa- cific Coast Pilot of 1889, says this vessel was loaded with beeswax. I think he is mistaken in this statement. It is well known that the drift of the inshore cur- rent from Nehalem is northward; and Mr, Clarke points out that the beeswax is scattered fifty miles along the coast, or up to the Clatsop beach. Without a source of supplies, for the Clatsop wax can be surely located there, it is reason- able to conclude that it all came from the Nehalem quarry. Still there can be no doubt about the truth of the Indian tra- dition of a Japanesewreck at the Clatsop, although Mr. Clarke locates one which he calls Chinese at Nehalem.
Last summer I visited the Indians liv- ing at Shoalwater Bay, just north of the Columbia river. Here, at the Bay Cen- ter Indian town, lives old "Cheesht," a Clatsop woman who was born at the Clatsop village some sixty or seventy years ago. She gave me the story of the Clatsop wreck, and exhibited an old "hiqua" shell ornament, fringed at the bottom with Chinese coins. She said that many years ago-when her great- great grand-mother was a girl-that a wreck came ashore, and five men landed alive at the Clatsop village. One of these men married her great-great grand-mother, from whom these coins
descended, having remained always in her family. The wrecked crew remained for a long time with the Clatsops, when some of them went up the Columbia riv- er and never came back. Old Cheesht knew of the Nehalem wreck, and stated that they were entirely separate inci- dents. I purchased the old vestment with its Chinese coin fringe, and submit- ted the coins to a Chinese scholar, who found that each of them bore the charac- ters of an Emperor who reigned from 1736 to 1799. It would seem, then, that this wreck could not have occurred earl- ier than 1736-indeed, from her care- fully-stated family chronology I con- cluded that it occurred about 1750. Some time afterwards I found a string of old Chinese coins among the Cowlitz Indians, and careful inquiry revealed that they had been heirlooms in old fami- ilies long before the white men came. They dated from 1614 to 1796, and after careful inquiry I became convinced that they were a portion of the coins off the Clatsop wreck, having possibly been car- ried up the Columbia by the wrecked sailors, or received in trade from the Clatsop people, with whom the Cowlitz traded and intermarried.
Japanese wrecks have been cast away on the Pacific coast ever since our ac- quaintance with the region, and it is a familiar theory that much of the pre-Co- lumbia civilization of America came over the "black stream" from the land of the Rising Sun. However, it appears that the Nehalem wreck was Spanish, and not to be confounded with the Japanese wreck at Clatsop. It is at least probable that the Nehalem wreck was the second casting away of the Manila galleon San Augustin of 1595.
JAMES WICKERSHAM.
The first newspaper published in the state of Washington, then a part of Ore- gon territory, was the Columbian. It was brought out at Olympia in Septem- ber, 1852. The proprietors were Riley & McElroy. The subscription price was $5 per year. It was issued weekly.
Doctor Swan, a passenger by the Isaac Todd, 1814, is believed to have been the first man of medicine to have come to the Pacific Northwest for the purpose of re- maining here for a time. He came, with others, as a reinforcement of the Astor people who were here fur-trading.
TALES OF THE MINES.
. (Copyright 1900, by Geo. A. Waggoner. )
In the spring of 1861, when the whole Willamette Valley was in a fever of me- tallic excitement about the rich placers discovered the fall before by Captain Pierce in the northwestern part of Idaho, and already known far and wide as the Oro Fino mines, Thomas Mills and my- self began scraping around the upper part of Linn county for an outfit.
I supposed that it would have seemed to a casual observer that we had nothing requisite thereto but a determination to go, yet we soon demonstrated how much this could accomplish. Our resources were equal. I was lame from a recent fall from a horse and in debt for my last term at school. Thomas owed several debts and had a large family dependent upon his daily labor. I traded off one of father's cows for a pony. Next he called on the Methodist church for help. I told my creditors I was going to the mines and swapped off another cow. I kept on trading my father's live stock, and Thomas kept on with his exertions until his prayer was heard by his pastor, Rev. H. K. Hines, who kindly loaned him a horse and assisted him in recommending his family to the mercy of Heaven.
Everything which devotion and inge- nuity could procure was at last in readi- ness, and on the 21st day of May we bid adieu to home and loved ones, and each leading a pack-horse well loaded with provisions, blankets, etc., we started. Thomas being an old man, took the main road, but I rode down to the school houseto bid adieu to one who had occu- pied my thoughts of late, and who was beginning to creep into my plans for the future in the queerest way. She taught the little country school, and although it was after the time of taking up school, I found the children at play. She was seated on a low railing of a little bridge
near the school house, for I had prom- ised to say good-bye. We walked on to- - gether on my road for half a mile when she declared she must return. I took her hand and promised to come back to her in the fall, and she promised-well, ·no matter.
I mounted my horse and rode on. Looking back I saw her still standing in the road, and playfully told her to run back to school. "No," she said, "I am going to stand here until I can see you no more, for when you go out of sight over the next hill, I shall never see you again." Laughingly I rode on, but when I reached the hill-top, a mile away, and saw her standing in the same spot, a strange fear came over me and I won- dered if her prophecy could come true. Ten years from that time I again rode over the top of that hill. A mist hid the spot where she had stood to watch me go, but I knew where to seek her, and as I stood where, for eight long years. the grass had grown and the flowers had blossomed upon her grave, I thought of her last words to me, and of her short journey and my long wandering.
I soon overtook Thomas and we trav- eled that day among the new settlements along the upper Calipooia and Santiam, the sole improvements in many places being a log cabin not even surrounded by a fence. One of our pack-horses, an old bobtailed veteran of the Cayuse war, soon became tired; in fact he was tired when we first started, and I turned him loose and drove him. He was a curiosi- ty worth the study of a philosopher. He had one habit which would have puzzled Socrates himself. The moment he es- pied a cabin he would leave the road and start for it on the run; of course I would try to overtake him, but old as he was, on such' an occasion he was never outrun. On reaching the cabin and finding me in pursuit, he would go
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round it at a furious rate, greatly alarm- ing the inmates, who, having no win- dows to their cabins, could not see us coming and were wholly unprepared for such an onset.
One poor woman, on being attacked in this manner, left her two children in the door and ran out in the yard. As Bob and I came tearing around the house, she was cut off from her child- ren and nearly frightened to death. Sud- denly checking my horse, I commenced to explain, when Bob, who no doubt thinking he was still pursued, came charging around, and in his fright at meeting me, very nearly trampled upon the now speechless woman. She recov- ered herself for a moment and darted for the door. As she gathered a child under each arm and closed the door with her foot, I heard her ejaculate, "O, my God!" Thomas secured Bob, and a mo- ment later I opened the door, but the violent sobbing of the three prevented their hearing my apology and we went on, feeling very much annoyed by the occurrence.
We stopped at night with a settler in the Sweet Home valley. We made his acquaintance by chasing Bob a couple of times around his house; and his timely appearance, armed with a poker, alone prevented Bob from being the first of our company to claim a night's shel- ter withing the dwelling. We cannot understand the cogitations of a horse, but I suppose that Bob had once been fed and slieltered, and that dim visions of sweet oats and ambrosial hay and a warm stall came into his head whenever he saw a house. Poor old Bob! His bones have long since bleached on the plains near White Pine, but I have not forgotten him nor his effectual but indi- rect way of benefitting mankind. I be- lieve he has cured several chronic grum- blers by showing them the funny side of things, and no one ever saw one of his circular performances without laughing heartily every time he thought of him and his persistent efforts to escape labor and find a stable.
At supper, among other things, we liad what I feel assured but few mortals have ever tasted-a fern pie. It is made of the tender and nutritious stalks oi young fern and was very nice. Thomas was surprised, but said the Lord was very good and wise, and had undoubt- edly clothed the hills and valleys with the delicious plant in order that the coming generation might be supplied with food and never be without a supply of good pies.
That night he wrote a letter to liis wife, telling her of our discovery, and saying he believed old Bob to have been an humble instrument in the hand of Di- vine Providence, to direct us to that house, whereby we learned the value of the most plentiful plant in the universe. He directed her to experiment with it as food, in different forms, and said he felt relieved of all further anxiety about her and the children and should go forward with a lighter heart. I have mentioned those pies with some reluctance, for we got into serious trouble about them. I have had more than one hard fight to establish my veracity, and Thomas has frequently resorted to prayer to soothe his wounded feelings on being called a liar; and all because we had said we had eaten fern pies. How reluctant the world is to believe the truth! I believe these pies are now extinct and their making a lost art, unless, happily, a recipe has been preserved among the early settlers of Sweet Home valley.
From this place we started directly in- to the mountains, following the trail of a party several days ahead and hound for the same destination as ourselves. It soon became evident that they were nov- ices in mountain travel, or lunatics, for they wound around and went back and forth on the head waters of the Santiam until we lost all patience, as in following them we often found, after traveling half a day, we had made but a few hundred vards' progress towards the summit. Once we went around a small timbered butte four times. The first time around I told Thomas I believed we were trav- eling in a circle, the second I missed.
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and the third I laid my old gun on a log, declaring I would leave it there un- less we came that way again. Thomas lectured me all the way around the circle about leaving my gun, and about my foolishness in not placing confidence in him who was much older than myself, and who had traveled in the mountains all his life without ever losing the points of the compass. He was going on in this strain when I came to the gun; I pretended not to see it, rode past, and let Thomas find it. There was no dis- puting this evidence, and he acknowl- edged himself in error. His defeat was only temporary, however, for we had gone but a couple of miles when we came to a large fir tree, recently blown down, when he said if we had not been providently delivered we should probab- ly now be buried beneath its mighty weight.
We were now traveling without a trail and following up the ridges towards the summit of the mountain, and soon came to deep snow. It was very hard, and we moved along at a lively gait, leaving but little trail behind. We camped at night upon the snow, fed our horses some flour and made our beds of fir boughs. Our campfire lit up the surrounding ob- jects, and when the moon rose over the snow-clad peaks, they shone up grandly magnificent. On the surface the snow had lost its ordinary appearance, the constant freezing and thawing having crystalized it into beautiful forms the size of peas and clear as ice; and the roots of the dark old fir trees were gird -. led that night in the moonlight with pearls which, for beauty of lustre and finish, were equal to any worn by the fabled monarchs of old.
The next day, as we ascended the mountain, the snow grew deeper, some- times to ten or twelve feet deep, and once we crossed the canyon on a natural bridge of snow which had drifted in by the winds to a depth of over one hundred feet. The warmer vapors arising from the small stream had thawed it half way up, leaving a splendid arch, settled and condensed by its own weight until an
army might have pased over it with per- fect safety. The upper side of the bridge lay against the side of a rocky bluff and had no opening underneath, but turning down after crossing, we had a splendid view of the lower side, which showed what a master mason Nature is when she tries her hand, and I wondered why she so carefully hides her grandest works - from man that they are only found after long toil or accident, and are never seen by the multitude. We were nearing the summit, and strange to tell, suddenly came into a beautiful little valley of per- haps forty acres, green with grass, dot- ted with flowers and surrounded on all sides with snow. It may have been that the rays of the sun, reflected from the surrounding snow peaks, had centered upon this little mountain glen and warn- ed the pearls spoken of before to take their way heavenward to escape the tread of bear and deer, for we found both on this green spot; and before our tired horses were unsaddled the mountain tops had echoed to the crack of my rifle, and within half an hour we were at supper, with venison steak occupying a promi- nent place on our frugal sward board.
Much refreshed we started on the fol- lowing morning at sunrise from our de- lightful camp. Going eastward we soon passed the summit and commenced to descend. The snow was melting fast on the eastern slope, and many streams were swollen, offering formidable bar- riers to our progress, but we had placed the hoary-headed mountain beneath our feet, and were not to be frightened by the perspiration streaming from . his brow. On we went, sliding, wading, swimming for a weary day. Emerging from the snow somewhere near where the wagon road now leaves the mountain, we were glad to camp on dry ground and. see our horses knee deep in the finest of grass. At this place we found an old Indian trail leading south, and followed it through some of the finest pine timber I ever saw. It stands on nearly level land, so thick as to exclude underbrush for miles in extent. and will, when a rail- road shall have reached it, be the largest
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and most profitable lumber camp on this coast. As pine is not so thickly branch- ed as fir, the sun is not excluded from these groves, and grass covers the ground. May the time speedily come when these mighty trees will echo the sound of the logger's axe, and the iron horse shall pant upon the mountain side, richly freighted with the products of this plain.
We camped at night upon a small stream which, we judged, emptied into the Deschutes. It was a beautiful even- ing, and after we had unsaddled our horses, Thomas proposed to have pray- ers. We knelt down and he gave thanks for our safe passage through so many dangers, and was begging for Divine guidance in our future travels, when the loud report of a rifle rang through the camp. Thomas fell upon his face, and with one bound I was within the bushes and underneath the bank of the little creek. Peeping out I saw Thomas still flat upon the ground, but not dead, for he was crawling towards me. As soon as he reached me I asked him where he was hit. He said in the face. I could see no mark. His eyes were tightly closed, having been filled with sand and dirt, and he was spitting dirt from his throat and mouth, but no blood anywhere. He was unhurt. We crouched down close and tried to think what we should do. We knew that we had been fired upon by Indians. They could have been but a few rods away, but neither of us had seen them. The horses had stampeded at the first shot, and we were left alive, it is true, but in a very dangerous situation.
As soon as Thomas could get his eyes open I told him to get the gun and bul- lets. He declined, and told me to put my trust in heaven. I did so, but glanced again in the direction of my gun. I was beginning to recover myself and to think of self-defense, when my blood was frozen by seeing a fire start up in the gap a few feet beyond our camp. Instantly I saw that we were to be roasted alive, as the gap would un- doubtedly be fired all around us by the red devils, whom we could not even see.
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