USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 2
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places, and that he saw some people on the land clad in beasts' skins; and that the land was very fruitful and rich of 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 home- ward again toward Nova Spania, where he ar- rived at Acapulco, Anno 1593. hoping to be re- warded by the Viceroy for this service done in the said voyage."
This curious bit of past record has been interpreted by some as pure myth, and by others as veritable history. It is at any rate a generally accurate outline description of the Straits of Fuca, the Gulf of Georgia and the shores of Vancouver Island and the mainland adjoining. And whether or not the old Greek pilot did actually exist and first look on our "Mediterranean of the Pacific." it is pleasant to imagine that he did, and that his name fittingly preserves the memory of the grand old myth of Anian and the northwest passage.
There is one other more obviously myth- ical tale concerning our northwest coast. It is said that in the year 1640 Admiral Pedro de Fonte, of the Spanish marine. made the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific and return, through a system of rivers and straits, entering the coast at ab ut latitude 53. Coming from Callao in April, 1640, and after having sailed for a long distance through an archipelago, he entered the mouth of a vast river, which he named Rio de Los Reyes. Ascending this for a long distance northeast-
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erly, he reached an immense lake, on whose shores he found a wealthy and civilized nation, who had a capital city of great splendor called Conasset, and who welcomed the strangers with lavish hospitality. From this lake flowed another river easterly, and down this Fonte descended until he reached another great lake, from which a narrow strait led into the At- lantic ocean.
There is one curious thing about these leg- endary voyages, and that is the general accu- racy of their descriptions of the coast. Al- though these accounts are unquestionably mythical, it is not impossible that their authors had actually visited the coast or had seen those who had, and thus gathered the material from which they fabricated, with such an appear- ance of plausibility, their Munchausen tales.
We are briefly referring to these fascinat- ing old legends, not for the purpose of discuss- ing them here at any length, but rather to re- mind the reader of the long period of romance and myth which enveloped the early history of our state. Many years passed after the age of myth before there were authentic voyages. During the seventeenth century practically nothing was done in the way of Pacific coast exploration. 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 Amer- ica 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. Russian and American. entered their bold and hardy sailors into the race for the possession of the land of the oc- cident. The Russians were the first in the field. That gigantic power, which the genius of Peter the Great had suddenly transformed,
like one of the fabled genii, from the propor- tions of a grain of sand to a figure overtop- ping the whole earth, 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 them another opportunity of expansion. Many years passed, however, before Peter's designs could be executed. It was 1728 when Vitus Behring entered upon his marvellous life of exploration. Not until 1741, however, did he thread the thousand islands of Alaska and gaze upon the glaciated summit of Mt. St. 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 1771 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 bul- warks of Kamtchatka washed the tropic isl- ands of the South Seas and foamed against the storm-swept rocks of Cape Horn. Mean- time, while Russia was thus becoming estab- lished upon the shores of Alaska, Spain was getting entire possession of California. These two great nations began to overlap each other. Russians became established near San Fran- cisco. To offset this movement of Russia. a group of Spanish explorers, Perez, Martinez. Heceta, Bodega, and Maurelle, swarmed up the coast beyond the present site of 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.
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Nevertheless his labors did more to estab- lish true geographical notions than had the combined efforts of all the Spanish navigators who had preceded him. His voyages mate- rially strengthened England's claim to Oregon. and added greatly to the luster of her name. The great captain, while temporarily on shore, was killed by Indians in 1778, and the com- mand devolved upon Captain Clerkę. who sailed northward, passing through Behring Strait to the Arctic ocean. The new com- mander died before the expedition had pro- cceded far on its return journey. Lieutenant Gore, a Virginian, assumed control and sailed to Canton, China, arriving late in the year.
The main purpose of this expedition had been the discovery of a northern waterway be- tween the two oceans and the extending of British territory, but, as is so often the case in human affairs, one of the most important re- sults of the voyage was entirely unsuspected by the navigators and practically the outcome of an accident. It so happened that the two vessels of the expedition, the Resolution and the Dis- covery, took with them to China a small col- lection of furs from the northwest coast of America. These were purchased by the Chin- ese with great avidity, the people exhibiting a willingness to barter commodities of much value for them and endeavoring to secure them at almost any sacrifice. The sailors were not backward in communicating their discovery of a new and promising market for peltries, and the impetus imparted to the fur trade was al- most immeasurable in its ultimate effects. An entirely new regime was inaugurated in Chi- nese and East India commerce. The north- west coast of America assumed a new import- ance 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 governments repre- sented. In 1779. the viceroy of Mexico sent two ships, the Princesa and San Carlos, to convey Martinez and De Haro to the vicinity for the purpose of anticipating and preventing the occupancy of Nootka sound by fur-traders of other nations and that the Spanish title to the territory might be maintained and con- firmed. Martinez was to base his claim upon the discovery by Perez in 1774. Courtesy was to be extended to foreign vessels, but the establishment of any claim prejudicial to the rights of the Spanish crown was to be vigor- ously resisted.
Upon the arrival of Martinez in the harbor, it was discovered that the American vessel Columbia, and the Iphigenia, a British ship, under a Portuguese flag, were lying in the har- bor. Martinez at once demanded the papers of both vessels and an explanation 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
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divested themselves of their true national char- acter and donned the insignia of Portugal, their reasons being: first, to defraud the Chi- nese 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 north- west 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 expedition nominally under the control of Juan Cavallo, a Portuguese trader. Prior to the time of the trouble in Nootka, however, Cavalho had become a bankrupt and new ar- rangements had become necessary. The Eng- lish traders were compelled to unite their in- terests 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 expedition assumed. Captain Colnutt was placed in command of the enterprise as constituted under the new regime with instruc- tions among other things "to establish a fac- tory to be called Fort Pitt, for the purpose of permanent settlement, and as a center of trade around which other stations may be estab- lished."
One vessel of the expedition, the Princess Royal, entered Nootka harbor without mo- lestation, but when the Argonaut. under com- mand 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 Iphige- nia and the Northwest America. Later, Col- nutt called on Martinez and informed the Span- ish governor of his intention to take pos- session of the country in the name of Great
Britain and to erect a fort. The governor re- plied that possession had already been taken in the name of his Catholic majesty and that such acts as he ( Colnutt ) contemplated could not be allowed. An altercation followed and the next day the Argonaut was seized and her captain and crew placed under arrest. The Princess Royal was also seized, though the American 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 govern- ment consented to make reparation and offered a suitable apology for the indignity to the honor of the flag. The feature of this corre- spondence of greatest import in the future his- tory of the territory affected is that through- out the entire controversy and in all the royal messages and the debates of parliament, no word was spoken asserting a claim of Great Britain to any territorial rights or denying the claim of sovereignty so positively and persist- ently avowed by Spain, neither was Spanish sovereignty denied or in any way alienated by the treaty which followed. Certain real prop- erty was restored to British subjects, but a transfer of realty is not a transfer of sover- eignty.
We pass over the voyage of the illustrious French navigator, La Perouse, as of more im- portance from a scientific than from a political standpoint, neither can we dwell upon the ex- plorations of Captain Berkley, to whom be- longs the honor of having ascertained the ex- istence of the strait afterward 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 1788. explored the coast at the point where the great
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Columbia mingles its crystal current with the waters of the sea. In the diplomatic battle of later days, it was even claimed by some 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 ut- terly unknown to him at the time. Indeed his conviction of its non-existence was thus started in his own account of the voyage: "We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as St. Roc (of the Spaniard, Heceta) exists, as laid down in 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. "Disap- pointed and deceived." remarks Evans face- tiously, "he continued his cruise southward to latitude forty-five degrees north."
It is not without sentiments of patriotic pride, that we now turn our attention to a period of discovery 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 com- pletely robbed of its mystic charm, speculation and myth must now give place to exact knowl- edge. the game of discovery must hereafter be played principally between the two branches of the AAnglo-Saxon race. and Anglo-Saxon energy, thoroughness and zeal are henceforth to characterize operations on the shores of the Pacific northwest. The United States had but recently won their independence from the British Crown and their energies were find- ing a fit field of activity in the titanic task of national organization. Before the constitu- tion 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 culmi- nating in the Nootka treaty were transpiring has already been alluded to. The vessels were the ship Columbia, Captain John Ken- drick, and the sloop Washington. Captain Robert Gray, and the honor of having sent them to our shores belongs to one Joseph Bar- rel, a prominent merchant of Boston, and a man of high social standing and great influ- ence. While one of the impelling motives of this enterprise had been the desire of commer- cial profit. the element of patriotism was not wholly lacking, and the vessels were instructed to make what explorations and discoveries they might.
After remaining a time on the coast, Cap- tain Kendrick transferred his ship's property to the Washington, with the intention of taking a cruise in that vessel. He placed Captain Gray in command of the Columbia, with instruc- tions to return to Boston by way of the Sand- wich Islands and China. This commission was successfully carried out. The vessel ar- rived in Boston in September. 1790, was re- ceived with great eclat, refitted by her owners and again dispatched to the shores of the Pacific, with Captain Gray in command. In July. 1791. the Columbia from Boston and the Washington from China met not far from the spot where they had separated nearly two years before. They were not to remain long in company. however, 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 discoveries, and Gray, with equal
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frankness, gave the eminent British explorer an account of his past discoveries, "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 Van- couver 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 entering for nine days."
The important information conveyed by Gray seems to have greatly disturbed the equi- poise of 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 evidenced 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 was that of Cape Disappointment, and the existence of a river mouth there, though affirmed by Ileceta, had been denied by Meares: Captain Cook also had 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, le dis- missed the matter from his mind for the time being. He continued his journey northward, 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 south- ward "in the track of destiny and glory." On May 7th he entered the harbor which now bears his name and four days later he passed through the breakers over the bar, and his ves-
sel'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 Colum- bia, of which he had heard indirectly from Captain Gray. Lieutenant Broughton of Van- couver's expedition sailed over the bar, as- cended the river a distance of more than one hundred miles to the site of the present Van- couver, and with a modesty truly remarkable, "takes possession of the river and the country in its vicinity in his Britannic Majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the sub- jects 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.
With the exploration of Puget sound and the discovery of the Columbia, history-making maritime 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 the Ind, so likewise did the fairy tales of La Hontan and others stimulate inland exploration. Furthermore the mystic charm always possessed by a terra in- cognita was becoming irresistible to adventur- ous spirits, and the possibilities of discovering 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 ex- ploration belongs to Verendrye, who) under authority of the governor-general of New
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France, in 1773, 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 present vicin- ity of Helena.
If. as seems highly probable. the events chronicled by La Page in his charming "His- toire de la Louisiane," published in 1758, should be taken as authentic, the first man to scale the Rocky mountains from the east and to make his way overland to the shores of the Pacific was a Yazoo Indian, Moncacht-ape or Montcachabe 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, leav- ing as a memorial of his visit, inscribed on a rock with vermilion and grease the words. "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada by land. July 22. 1793." llis field of discovery was also without the scope of our purpose, being too far north to figure prominently in the in- ternational complications of later years.
Western exploration by land, had, how- ever, elicited the interest of one whose energy and force were sufficient to bring to a success- ful issue almost any undertaking worth the effort. While the other statesmen and legis- lators 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 ex- ploring expeditions into the northwest. In 1786, 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 explor- ing expedition easterly to the United States. Ledyard acted on the suggestion, but was ar- rested as a spy in the spring of 1787, by Rus- sian officials, and so severely treated as to cause a failure of his health, and a consequent fail- ure of his enterprise.
The next effort of Jefferson was made in 1792, when he proposed to the American Phil- osophical Society that it should engage a com- petent 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 Meri- wether Lewis, who afterwards distinguished 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 re- ceived an order from the French minister, to whom. it seems, he also owed obedience, that he should relinquish his appointment and en- gage upon the duties of another commission.
It was not until after the opening of the new century that another opportunity for fur- thering his favorite project presented itself. An act of congress, under which trading- houses had been established for facilitating commerce with the Indians, was about to ex- pire by limitation, and President Jefferson, in recommending its continuance, seized the op- portunity. to urge upon congress the advisabil- ity of fitting out an expedition the object of
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which should be "to explore the Missouri river and such principal streams of it as, by its course of communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colo- rado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent, for the purposes of con- merce."
Congress voted an appropriation for the purpose, and the expedition was placed in charge of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (or Clarke). President Jeffer- son 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 circum- siances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may be collected as advantage- ously 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 United States more beneficially than by the circum- navigation now practiced." In addition to the instructions already quoted. these explorers were directed to ascertain if possible on arriv- ing 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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