An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 4

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 4
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 4

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CHAPTER I

EXPLORATIONS BY WATER

The opening of a new century is a fitting time to glance backward and reconstruct to the eye of the present, the interesting and heroic events of the past, that by comparison between past and present the trend of progress may be traced and the future in a measure forecasted.

No matter what locality in the Northwest we may treat historically, we are compelled in our scarch for the beginnings of its story to go back to the old, misty Oregon territory, with its isola- tion, its pathos, its wild chivalry, its freedom and hospitality. Strange indeed is its carliest history, when. shrouded in uncertainty and misapprehen- sion, it formed the ignis fatuus of the explorer, "luring him on with that indescribable fascination which seems always to have drawn men to the ever receding circle of the 'westmost west.'

Shortly after the time of Columbus, attempts began to be made to reach the western ocean and solve the mystery of the various passages sup- posed to lead to Asia.

In 1500 Gasper Cortereal conceived the idea of finding a northern strait. to which he gave the name "Anian," and this mythical channel received much attention from these early navigators, some of whom even went so far as to claim that they had passed through it and had reached another ocean. Among the captains making this bold claim was Juan de Fuca. He is said to have been a Greek of Cephalonia whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, and it is claimed that when he made his discovery he was in the service of the Spanish nation. Michael Lock tells his story in the fol- lowing language :

"He followed his course, in that voyage, west

and northwest in the South sea, all along the coast of Nova Spania and California and the Indies, now called North America (all which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea card of my own, which I laid before him), until he came to the latitude of forty-seven degrees; and that, there finding that the land trended north and north- west, with a broad inlet of sea, between forty-seven and forty-eight degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing more than twenty days, and found that land still trending northwest, and northeast. and north, and also cast and southeastward, and very much broader sea than it was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing : and that, at the entrance of said strait. there is. on the northwest coast thereof, a great headland or island. with an exceedingly high pin- nacle or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. Also he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on the land clad in beasts' skins; and that the land was very fruitful and rich in gold, silver and pearls and other things, like Nova Spania. Also he said that he. being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North sea already and finding the sea wide enough everywhere, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and that not being armed to resist the force of savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail and turned homeward again toward Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco, anno 1592, hoping to be rewarded by the viceroy for this service done in the said voyage."

The curious thing about this and some of the

INTRODUCTORY

other legends is the general accuracy of the descrip- tions given by these old mariners. Professor W. D. Lyman thinks it is not impossible that they had either visited the Pacific coast in person or had seen other pilots who had. and that thus they gathered the material from which they fabricated their Munchausen tales.

Many years passed after the age of myth before there were authentic voyages. During the seven- teenth century practically nothing was done in the way of Pacific coast explorations, but in the eighteenth, as by common consent. all the nations of Europe became suddenly infatuated again with the thought that on the western shores of America might be found the gold and silver and gems and furs and precious woods for which they had been striving so desperately upon the eastern coast. English, French. Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Rus- sians and Americans entered their bold and hardy sailors into the race for the possession of the land of the occident. The Russians were the first in the field, that gigantic power, which the genius of Peter the Great, like one of the fabled genii, had suddenly transformed from the proportions of a grain of sand to a figure overtopping the whole earth, and which had stretched its arms from the Baltic to the Aleutian archipelago, and had looked southward across the frozen seas of Siberia to the open Pacific as offering another opportunity of expansion. Many years passed, however, before Peter's designs could be executed. It was 1:28 when Vitus Behring entered upon his marvelous life of exploration. Not until 1741. however, did he thread the thousand islands of Alaska and gaze upon the glaciated summit of Mount Elias. And it was not until thirty years later that it was known that the Bay of Avatscha in Siberia was connected by open sea with China. In 1971 the first cargo of furs was taken directly from Avatscha. the chief port of eastern Siberia, to Canton. Then first Europe realized the vastness of the Pacific ocean. Then it understood that the same waters which frowned against the frozen bulwarks of Kamchatka washed the tropic islands of the South seas and foamed against the storm-swept rocks of Cape Horn.

Meanwhile, while Russia was thus becoming established upon the shores of Alaska, Spain was getting entire possession of California. These two great nations began to overlap each other. Russians becoming established near San Francisco. To offset this movement of Russia, a group of Spanish explorers, Perez, Martinez, Heceta, Bodega and Maurelle, swarmed up the coast beyond the site of the present Sitka.

England, in alarm at the progress made by Spain and Russia, sent out the Columbus of the eighteenth century, in the person of Captain James Cook, and he sailed up and down the coast of

Alaska and of Washington, but failed to discover either the Columbia river or the Straits of Fuca.

His labors, however, did more to establish true geographical notions than had the combined efforts of all the Spanish navigators who had preceded him. His voyages materially strengthened Eng- land's claim to Oregon, and added greatly to the luster of her name. The great captain, while tem- porarily on shore, was killed by Indians in 1778, and the command devolved upon Captain Clark, who sailed northward, passing through Behring strait to the Arctic ocean. The new commander died before the expedition had proceeded far on its return journey ; Lieutenant Gore, a Virginian, assumed control and sailed to Canton, China, arriv- ing late in the year.

The main purposes of this expedition had been the discovery of a northern waterway between the two oceans and the extending of British territory, but, as is so often the case in human affairs, one of the most important results of the voyage was entirely unsuspected by the navigators and prac- tically the outcome of an accident. It so happened that the two vessels of the expedition, the Revolu- tion and the Discovery, took with them to China a small collection of furs from the northwest coast of America. These were purchased by the Chinese with great avidity ; the people exhibiting a willing- ness to barter commodities of much value for them and endeavoring to secure them at almost any saeri- fice. The sailors were not backward in communicat- ing their discoveries of a new and promising mar- ket for peltries, and the impetus imparted to the fur trade was almost immeasurable in its ultimate effects. An entirely new regime was inaugurated in Chinese and East Indian commerce. The north- west coast of America assumed a new importance in the eyes of Europeans, and especially of the British. The "struggle for possession" soon began to be foreshadowed.

One of the principal harbors resorted to by fur- trading vessels was Nootka, used as a rendezvous and principal port of departure. This port became the scene of a clash between Spanish authorities and certain British vessels, which greatly strained the friendly relations existing between the two gov- ernments represented. In 1729. the viceroy of Mexico sent two ships, the Princess and the San Carlos, to convey Martinez and De Haro to the vicinity for the purpose of anticipating and pre- venting the occupancy of Nootka sound by fur traders of other nations, and that the Spanish title to the territory might be maintained and confirmed. Martinez was to base his claim upon the discovery by Perez in 1124. Courtesy was to be extended to foreign vessels, but the establishment of any claim prejudicial to the right of the Spanish crown was to he resisted vigorously.

Upon the arrival of Martinez, it was discovered that the American vessel. Columbia, and the Iphi-

EXPLORATIONS BY WATER

genia, a British vessel, under a Portuguese flag, were lying in the harbor. Martinez at once de- manded the papers of both vessels and an explana- tion of their presence, vigorously asserting the claim of Spain that the port and contiguous territory were hers. The captain of the Iphigenia pleaded stress of weather. On finding that the vessel's papers commanded the capture, under certain conditions, of Russian, Spanish or English vessels, Martinez seized the ship, but on being advised that the orders relating to captures were intended only to apply to the defense of the vessel, the Spaniard released the Iphigenia and her cargo. The Northwest America, another vessel of the same expedition. was, however, seized by Martinez a little later.

It should be remembered that these British vessels had, in the inception of the enterprise, clivested themselves of their true national character and donned the insignia of Portugal. their reasons being: First, to defraud the Chinese government. which made special harbor rates to the Portuguese, and, second, to defraud the East India Company, to whom had been granted the right of trading in furs in northwest America to the exclusion of all other British subjects, except such as should obtain the permission of the company. To maintain their Portuguese nationality they had placed the expe- dition nominally under the control of Juan Cavalho, a Portuguese trader. Prior to the time of the trouble in Nootka, however, Cavalho had become a bankrupt and new arrangements had become necessary. The English traders were compelled to unite their interests with those of King George's Sound Company, a mercantile association operating under license from the South Sea and East India companies, the Portuguese colors had been laid aside, and the true national character of the expe- dition assuncd. Captain Colnutt was placed in command of the enterprise as constituted under the new regime. with instructions, among other things. "to establish a factory to be called Fort Pitt, for the purpose of permanent settlement and as a center of trade around which other stations may be established.'

One vessel of the expedition, the Princess Royal. entered Nootka harbor without molestation, but when the Argonaut, under command of Captain Colnutt. arrived, it was thought best by the master not to attempt an entrance to the bay, lest his vessel should meet the same fate which had befallen the Iphigenia and the Northwest America. Later Colnutt called on Martinez and informed the Spanish governor of his intention to take possession of the country in the name of Great Britain and to erect a fort. The governor replied that possession had already been taken in the name of His Catholic Majesty and that such acts as he (Colnutt) con- templated could not be allowed. An altercation followed and the next day the Argonant was seized and her captain and crew placed under arrest. The

Princess Royal was also seized, though the Amer- ican vessels in the harbor were in no way molested.

After an extended and at times heated con- troversy between Spain and Great Britain touching these seizures, the former government consented to make reparation and offered a suitable apology for the indignity to the honor of the flag. The feature of this correspondence of greatest import in the future history of the territory affected is, that throughout the entire controversy and in all the royal messages and debates in parliament no word was spoken asserting a claim of Great Britain to any territorial rights or denying the claim of sovereignty so positively and persistently avowed by Spain, neither was Spanish sovereignty denied nor in any way alienated by the treaty which followed. Certain real property was restored to British subjects, but a transfer of realty under the circumstances could not be considered a transfer of sovereignty.

We pass over the voyage of the illustrious French navigator. La Perouse. as of more importance from a scientific than from a political view-point : neither can we dwell upon the explo- rations of Captain Berkeley, to whom belongs the honor of having ascertained the existence of the strait afterwards denominated Juan de Fuca. Of somewhat greater moment in the later history of the Northwest are the voyages of Meares, who entered and described the above-mentioned strait, and who, in 1188, explored the coast at the point where the great Columbia mingles its crystal current with the waters of the sea. In the diplomatic battle of later days it was even claimed that he was the discoverer of that great "River of the West." Howbeit, nothing can be surer than that the existence of such a river was utterly unknown to him at the time. Indeed, his conviction of its non-existence was thus stated in his own account of the voyage: "We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as the St. Roc (of the Spaniard, Heccta) exists as laid down on the Spanish charts," and he gave a further unequivocal expression of his opinion by naming the bay in that vicinity Deception bay and the promontory north of it Cape Disappointment. "Disappointed and deceived." remarks Evans face- tiously, "he continued his cruise southward to lati- tude forty-five degrees north."

It is not without sentiments of patriotic pride that we now turn our attention to a period of dis- covery in which the vessels of our own nation played a prominent part. The northern mystery, which had been partially resolved by the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese explorations, was now to be robbed completely of its mystic charm ; speculation and myth must now give place to exact knowledge ; the game of discovery must licreafter be played principally between the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, and Anglo-Saxon energy, thoroughness and zeal are henceforth to characterize operations on the shores of the Pacific Northwest.

INTRODUCTORY

The United States had but recently won their inde- pendence from the British erown and their energies were finding a fit field of activity in the titanic task of national organization. Before the consti- tution had become the supreme law of the land, however, the alert mind of the American had begun projecting voyages of discovery and trade to the Northwest, and in September, 1788, two vessels with the stars and stripes at their mastheads arrived at Nootka sound. Their presence in the harbor while the events culminating in the Nootka treaty were transpiring has already been alluded to. The vessels were the ship Columbia, Captain John Kendrick, and the sloop Washington, Captain Robert Gray, and the honor of having sent them to our shores belongs to one Joseph Barrel, a prom- inent merchant of Boston, and a man of high social standing and great influence. While one of the impelling motives of this enterprise had been the desire of commercial profit, the element of patriot- ism was not wholly lacking. and the vessels were instructed to make whatever explorations and dis- coveries they might.

After remaining a time on the coast, Captain Kendrick transferred the ship's property to the Washington, with the intention of taking a cruise in that vessel. He placed Captain Gray in com- mand of the Columbia with instructions to return to Boston by way of the Sandwich islands and China. This commission was successfully carried out. The vessel arrived in Boston in September, 1790, was received with great eclat, refitted by her owners and again despatched to the shores of the Pacific with Captain Gray in command. In July, 1:91, the Columbia, from Boston, and the Washing- ton, from China, met not far from the spot where they had separated nearly two years before. They were not to remain long in company, for Captain Gray soon started on a cruise southward. On April 29, 1792, Gray met Vancouver just below Cape Flattery and an interesting colloquy took place. Vancouver communicated to the American skipper the fact that he had not yet made any important dis- coveries, and Gray, with equal frankness, gave the eminent British explorer an account of his past dis- coveries, "including." says Bancroft, "the fact that he had not sailed through Fuca strait in the Lady Washington, as had been supposed from Meares' narrative and map." He also informed Captain Vancouver that he had been "off the mouth of a

river in latitude forty-six degrees, ten minutes, where the outset, or reflux, was so strong as to prevent his entrance for nine days."

The important information conveyed by Gray seems to have greatly disturbed Vancouver's mind. The entries in his log show that he did not entirely credit the statement of the American, but that he was considerably perturbed is evinced by the fact that he tried to convince himself by argument that Gray's statement could not have been correct. The latitude assigned by the American is that of Cape Disappointment, and the existence of a river mouth there, though affirmed by Heceta, had been denied by Meares; Captain Cook had also failed to find it ; besides, had he not himself passed that point two days before and had he not observed that "if any inlet or river should be found it must be a very intricate one and inaccessible to vessels of our burden, owing to the reefs and broken water which then appeared in its neighborhood?" With such reasoning, he dismissed the matter from his mind for the time being. He continued his journey north- ward, passed through the Strait of Fuca, and engaged in a thorough and minute exploration of that mighty inland sea, to a portion of which he gave the name of Puget sound.

Meanwhile Gray was proceeding southward "in the track of destiny and glory." On May ith he entered the harbor which now bears his name, and four days later he passed through the breakers and over the bar, and his vessel's prow plowed the waters of that famous "River of the West." whose existence had been so long suspected. The storied "Oregon" for the first time heard other sound than "its own dashing."

Shortly afterward Vancouver came to Cape Disappointment to explore the Columbia, of which he had heard indirectly from Captain Grav. Lieu- tenant Broughton, of Vancouver's expedition, sailed over the bar, ascended the river a distance of more than one hundred miles to the site of the present Vancouver, and with a modesty truly remarkable, took "possession of the river and the country in its vicinity in His Britannic Majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had ever entered it before." This, too, though he had received a salute of one gun from an American vessel, the Jennie, on his entrance to the bay. The lieutenant's claim was not to remain forever unchallenged, as will appear presently.

CHAPTER II

EXPLORATIONS BY LAND

With the exploration of Puget sound and the discovery of the Columbia, history-making mari- time adventure practically ceased. But as the fabled strait of Anian had drawn explorers to the Pacific shores in quest of the mythical passage to the treasures of Ind. so likewise did the fairy tales of La Hontan and others stimulate inland exploration. Furthermore, the mystic charm always possessed by a terra incognita was becoming irresistible to adventurous spirits, and the possibilities of discov- ering untold wealth in the vaults of its "Shining mountains" and in the sands of its crystal rivers were exceedingly fascinating to the lover of gain.

The honor of pioneership in overland explora- tion belongs to one Verendrye, who, under authority of the governor-general of New France, in 1123 set out on an expedition to the Rocky mountains from Canada. This explorer and his brother and sons made many important explorations, but as they failed to find a pass through the Rocky mountains, by which they could come to the Pacific side, their adventures do not fall within the purview of our volume. They are said to have reached the vicinity of the present city of Helena.

If, as seems highly probable, the events chronicled by Le Page in his charming "Histoire de la Louisiane." published in 1:58, should be taken as authentic, the first man to scale the Rocky moun- tains from the east and to make his way overland to the shores of the Pacific was a Yazoo Indian, Moncacht-ape, or Moncachabe, by name. But "the first traveler to lead a party of civilized men through the territory of the Stony mountains to the South sea" was Alexander Mackenzie, who. in 1793, reached the coast at fifty-two degrees, twenty-four minutes, forty-eight seconds north, leaving as a memorial of his visit, inscribed on a rock with vermilion and grease, the words, "Alexander Mac- kenzie, from Canada by land, July 22, 1293." His field of discovery was also without the scope of our purpose, being too far north to figure prominently in the international complications of later years.

Western exploration by land had, however, elicited the interest of one whose energy and force were sufficient to bring to a successful issue almost any undertaking worth the effort. While the other statesmen and legislators of his time were fully engaged with the problems of the moment, the great

mind of Thomas Jefferson, endowed as it was with a wider range of vision and more comprehensive grasp of the true situation, was projecting exploring expeditions into the Northwest. In 1286, while serving as minister to Paris, he had fallen in with the ardent Ledyard, who was on fire with the idea of opening a large and profitable fur trade in the north Pacific region. To this young man he had suggested the idea of journeying to Kamchatka, then in a Russian vessel to Nootka sound, from which, as a starting point, he should make an ex- ploring expedition eastward to the United States. Ledyard acted on the suggestion, but was arrested as a spy in the spring of 128? by Russian officials and so severely treated as to cause a failure of his health and a consequent failure of his enterprise.

The next effort of Jefferson was made in 1792, when he proposed to the American Philosophical Society that it should engage a competent scientist "to explore northwest America from the eastward by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Rocky mountains and descending the nearest river to the Pacific ocean." The idea was favorably received. Captain Meriwether Lewis, who afterward distin- guished himself as one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, offered his services, but for some reason Andre Michaux, a French botanist, was given the preference. Michaux proceeded as far as Kentucky, but there received an order from the French minister. to whom, it seems, he also owed obedience, that he should relinquish his ap- pointment and engage upon the duties of another commission.

It was not until after the opening of a new century that another opportunity for furthering his favorite project presented itself to Jefferson. An act of congress, under which trading houses had been established for facilitating commerce with the Indians, was about to expire by limitation, and President Jefferson, in recommending its continu- ance, seized the opportunity to urge upon congress the advisability of fitting out an expedition, the object of which should be "to explore the Missouri river and such principal stream of it as, by its course of communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river, may offer the most direct and

INTRODUCTORY

practical water communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce."

Congress voted an appropriation for the purpose, and the expedition was placed in charge of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. President Jefferson gave the explorers minute and particular instructions as to investigations to be made by them. They were to inform themselves, should they reach the Pacific ocean, "of the circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient as is supposed to the Colorado and Oregon or Columbia) as at Nootka sound or any other part of that coast ; and the trade be constantly conducted through the Missouri and the United States more beneficially than by the cir- cumnavigation now practiced." In addition to the instructions already quoted, these explorers were directed to ascertain if possible on arriving at the seaboard if there were any ports within their reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation, and to send, if practicable, two of their most trusted people back by sea with copies of their notes. They were also, if they deemed a return by the way they had come imminently hazardous, to ship the entire party and return via Good Hope or Cape Horn, as they might be able.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 4

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172