An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 5

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

in latitude 41 degrees, near Cape Mendocino, on the 2d day of Angust. Sailing up the coast, in latitude 44° 20', they entered a harbor, which they took to be " the entrance of a large river, where great commercial advantages might be reaped." Still farther up the coast they " made a tolerably commodions harbor " and anchored half a mile off shore. Here they were assailed by the Indians and the vessel very narrowly es- caped capture. They gave the place the appro- priate name of "Murderers' Harbor." It was probably Tillamook Bay. Ilaswell, who kept a very circumstantial journal of the expedition, thought it " must be the entrance of the River of the West," though he considered it " by no means a safe place for any but very small ves- sels to enter." Captain Gray was glad to get safely rid of "Murderers' Harbor" and pursue his northward voyage. He had so good a breeze that he "passed a considerable length of coast without standing in, thus sweeping directly by the month of the Great River, of the existence of which his maps and charts had only some vagne and entirely snpposititions suggestions. The

chronicler of his voyage made no allusion to any circumstances that wonld indicate that they had the slightest idea that any such river really entered the ocean in this "length of coast." Farther north, on Angust 21, they saw "ex- ceedingly high mountains covered with snow." They pass the Straits of Fuca without noting them, although their journalist says: " I am of the opinion that the Straits of Juan de Fuca do exist, though Captain Cook positively asserts they do not." On the 16th day of Angnst the Washington reached its destined harbor in Nootka Sound; finding two English vessels nn- der Portuguese colors at anchor there, the Felice under Captain Means and the Iphigenia under Captain Douglas, both of whom received the little sloop with hospitable friendliness.

Three days later the Englishmen launched a small schooner, which they named "North West America." This was the first vessel ever built on the coast. It was gala day, English-

men and Americans cordially joining in its salutes and festivities.

On the 23d of Angust the Columbia, which had been separated from the Washington for nearly five months, appeared in the ofling; and thus after nearly eleven months from their clear- ance from Boston these historic vessels were re- united again on the other side of the continent, and Captain Kendrick again assumed charge of the expedition.

Although, in this expedition, the month of the mythical Great River was not discovered, yet the knowledge gained of the coast by Captain Gray stood him in good stead, when four years later, in command of the Columbia, he was again upon the northwest coast.

When the vessels had fulfilled their intended stay on the coast, Captain Kendrick, as com- mander of the expedition, decided to put the ship's property on board the sloop and go on a cruise with her himself, while Captain Gray should take the Columbia to Boston by the way of the Sandwich Islands and China. The in- cidents of her voyage are interesting, but they are not in the course of our narrative. It suffices to say that she left the harbor of Clay- oquot July 30, 1789, and reached her destina- tion on the 10th of August, 1790, having sailed, by her log, 50,000 miles.

This voyage of the Columbia gave the ves- sel, her officers and owners great eclat. Gov- ernor John Hancock gave an entertainment in their honor. Though the profits of the voyage were small, it was an achievement to be proud of, and had prepared the way for more profit- able trade in subsequent years. The owners of the ship therefore immediately projected a sec- ond voyage for her. She was put in perfect order, with new masts and spars and a com- plete outfit, and again left Boston on the 28th of September, 1790, with Captain Gray in con- mand and a well-selected corps of officers and a complete crew. Stopping only at the Faulk- land Island for a few days, Captain Gray sailed directly to Cloyoquot, arriving there on the 4th day of June, 1791.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

The instructions of Captain Gray contemn- plated a season's trade with the natives on the coast, then a visit to China for the sale of the furs he might obtain. He was charged not to visit any Spanish port, not to trade with any of the subjects of his Catholic majesty "for a single farthing." Gray found the natives very treacherous and cruel. Three of his men were massacred. In July Captain Kendrick in the Washington arrived from China, and the two vessels and commanders were reunited near where they separated two years before,-the one, Columbia, having made the circuit of the world.

In February, 1792, a plot was laid by the In- dians for the capture of the ship. The crafty chiefs had endeavored to bribe Attoo-a IIa- waiian lad, who had been taken by Captain Gray from the Sandwich Islands when on his way to China, and who had remained with him until now-to wet the ship's firearms and give them a lot of musket balls; promising to make him a great chief. He informed the captain of the plot. Gray was greatly excited. His heavy guns were all on shore, but he ordered the swivels loaded, the ship's people to come on board, and the ship to be unmoored from the shore and moved out from the bank. At mid- night the warwhoop of the Indians resounded through the forests. Hundreds of the savages had assembled, but on finding their plans frus- trated by Gray's precautions they instantly dis- persed.

On the 23d of February, a sloop, which was built by the men of the Columbia and named the Adventurer. was launched. This was the second vessel that was built on the coast. She was fitted up, secured her stores, and went northward on a cruise nnder the command of HIaswell. And by this course of events we are brought up to a date and an incident that took the name of the Columbia, and of Captain Gray, her commander, out of the list of ordinary ships and ordinary commanders and fixed them in a place of transcendent and enduring fame. To this incident let us now carefully attend.

Captain Gray now started on a ernise south- ward. On the 29th of April, 1792, he fell in with Vanconver, who had been sent from En- gland with three vessels of the royal navy as commissioner to execute the provisions of the Nootka treaty, and to explore the coast. Vau- couver said he had made no discoveries as yet, and inquired if Gray had made any. Gray re- plied that he had; that in latitude 46° and 10' he had recently been off the mouth of a river, which for nine days he had tried to enter, but the outset was so strong as to prevent it, but he was going to try it again. Vancouver said this must be the small opening he had passed two days before, which he thought might be a small river, inaccessible because of the break- ers extending across it. Of it Vancouver wrote in his journal: " Not considering this opening worthy of mention, I continued our pursuit to the northwest."

What a turn was this in the affairs of men and the destiny of the world. Had the British navigator really seen the river it would certainly have had another name, and the Pacific coast another history.

The two navigators, the Briton and the Amer- ican, parted here, Vancouver continuing his " pursuit to the northwest," and Gray sailing southward in the track of destiny and glory.

On the 7th of May he saw an entrance into a bay, in latitude 46 degrees 58 minutes, " which had a very good appearance of a harbor," and bore away and ran in. This he called Bulfinch Harbor, but it was soon after designated as Gray's Harbor as a deserved compliment to Gray, by which name it still is and always will be known. Here on a moonlight night he was at- tacked by the natives and was obliged to fire upon them in self-defense. On the 10th of May he resumed his course to the south, and at day- break on the 11th saw the entrance of his de- sired port. As he drew near, about eight o'clock, he boreaway with all sails set, ran directly in be- tween the breakers, and to his great delight found his ship in a large river of fresh water up which he steered ten miles. Here, rather

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

than change the phraseology of Captain Gray, we give the exaet language of the Columbia's log from May 7th to May 21, 1792, at which date she was again on her way to the north, and sail- ing away from the bold headland of "Cape Hancock :"

May 7, 1792, A. M .: Being within six miles of the land, saw an entrance in do., which had a very good appearance of a barbor; lowered away the jolly-boat and went in search of an anchor- ing place, the ship standing to and fro, with a very strong weather current: at 1 p. M. the boat returned, having found no place where the ship could anchor with safety; made sail on the ship -stood in for the shore; we soon saw, from our masthead, a passage in between the sand bars; at 3:30 bore away and ran in northeast by east, having from four to eight fathoms, sandy bot- tom; and, as we drew in nearer between the bars, had from ten to thirteen fathoms, having a very strong tide of ebb to stem; many canoes alongside. At 5 r. M. came to in five fathoms of water, sandy bottom, in a safe harbor, well sheltered from the sea by. long sand-bars and spits; onr latitude observed this day was 46° 58' north.

May 10: Fresh breezes and pleasant weather. Many natives alongside; at noon all the canoes left us; at 1 p. M. began to unmoor; took np the best bower anchor and hove short on the small do .; at Bulfinch's Harbor, now called Whit- by's Bay, 4:30 being high water, hove np the anchor and came to sail and a beating down the harbor.

May 11, 7:30: We were out clear of the bars, and directed our course to the southward, along shore. At 8 p. M. the entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor bore north, distance fonr miles: the sonthern extremity of the land bore south sonth- east one-half east, and the north do. north nortli- west; sent up the main topgallant yard and set all sail; at 4 A. M. saw the entrance of onr de- sired port, bearing east sontheast, distance six leagues in steering sails, and hauled onr wind in shore: at 8 A. M., being a little to windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and in

east northeast between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar we found this to be a large river of fresh water, np which we steered; many canoes came alongside. At 1 P. M. came to, with small bower, in ten fathoms; black and white sand; the entrance between the bars bore west south- west, distance ten miles; the north side of the river half a mile distant from the ship, the south side do., two and a half miles distant; a village on the north side of the river, west by nortb, distant three-quarters of a mile. Vast numbers of natives came alongside; people em- ployed in pumping the salt water ont of our water-casks in order to fill with fresh while the ship floated in. So ends.

May 14: Fresh gales and clondy; many na- tives alongside. At noon weighed and came to sail, standing up the river northeast by east. We found the channel very narrow. At 4 P. M. we had sailed upward of twelve or fifteen miles, when the channel was so very narrow that it was almost impossible to keep in it; having from three to eighteen fathoms of water, sandy bottom; at 4:40 the ship took ground, but she did not stay long before she came off without any assistance; we backed her off stern fore- most, into three fathoms, and let go the small bower, and moored ship with kedge and hawser; the jolly-boat was sent to sound the channel ont, but it was not navigable any farther; so. of course, we must have taken the wrong chan- nel. So ends, with rainy weather; many na- tives alongside.

Tuesday, May 15: Light and pleasant weather; many natives from different tribes came along- side. At 10 A. M. unmoored and dropped down with the tide to a better anchoring place. Smiths and other tradesmen constantly em- ployed. In the afternoon Captain Gray and Mr. Hoskins, in the jolly-boat, went on shore to take a short view of the country.

May 16: Light airs and clondy. At + A. M., hove up the anchor and towed down about three miles with the last of the ebb-tide; came into six fathoms, sandy bottom, the jolly-boat sounding

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

the channel. At 10 A. M. a fresh breeze came up the river. With the first of the ebb-tide we got under way and beat down the river. At 1, from its being very squally, we came to, about two miles from the village of Chinook, which bore west-northwest. Many natives alongside; fresh gales and squally.

May 18-Pleasant weather; at 4 in the morn- ing, began to heave ahead; at 4:30, came to sail standing down the river with the ebb-tide; at 7, being slack water and the wind flattering, we came to in five fathoms, sandy bottom; the entrance between the bars bore southwest by west, distance three miles, the north point of the harbor bore northwest, distance two miles; the south bore southeast, distance two miles; the sonth bore sontheast, distance three and a half miles; at 9 a breeze sprung up from the east- ward; took up the anchor and came to sail, but the wind soon came flattering again; came to with the kedge and hawser; veered out fifty fatlı- oms. Noon, pleasant; latitude observed, 46° 17" north. At 1 came to sail with the first ebb- tide, and drifted down broadside, with light airs and strong tide; at three-quarters past, a fresh wind came from the northward; wore ship and stood into the river again. At 4 came to in six fathoms; good holding ground, about six or seven miles np; many canoes alongside.

May 19: Fresh winds and clear weather. Early a number of canoes came alongside; sea- men and tradesmen employed in their various departments. Captain Gray gave this river the name of Columbia river, and the north side of entrance Cape Hancock, the south side Adams Point.

May 20: Gentle breeze and pleasant weather. At 1 P. M., being full sea, took up the anchor and made sail, standing down river; at 2 the wind left ns, we being on the bar with very strong tide, which set on the breakers; it was not possible to get ont without a breeze to shoot her across the tide, so we were obliged to bring up in three and a half fathoms, the tide running five knots; at 2:45 a fresh wind came in from the seaboard, we immediately came to sail and

beat over the bar, having from five to seven fathoms of water; a breeze came from the south- ward; we bore away to the northward, set all sail to the best advantage. At 8 Cape Hancock bore southeast, distant three leagues; the nortil extreme of the land in sight bore north by west. At 9, in steering and topgallant sails. Midnight, light airs.

1381519 May 21: At 6 A. M. the nearest land in sight bore east southeast, distant eight leagues. At 7 set topgallant sails and light stay-sails. At 11 set steering sails fore and aft. Noon, pleasant, agreeable weather; the entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor bore sontheast by east half east, distant five leagues."

This departure of the ship Columbia, with her gallant captain and crew, from the mouth of the great river henceforth to bear the name of the vessel whose keel first cleft its bosom, eloses the most eventful and thrilling chapter of American discovery and adventure on the north- west coast. Up to this time the "Great River of the West" had been but a dream, a vague and uncertified conjecture. Henceforth it is an ascertained and certified reality; and after all the efforts of jealous rivals for the fame of the important discovery, it must forever remain true that on the 11th day of May, 1792, the first real knowledge of the existence of this mighty stream was gained by a civilized man, and the name it bears forever monuments the day and the deed and the name.

Undoubtedly Carver, to whom the word Ore- gon is traced, may have heard of the river in 1767 from the Indians of the Rocky Mountains; and Heceta in 1775 was near enough to its month to believe in its existence; and Mears in 1788 named Cape Disappointment and De- ception Bay; but none of these saw the river, nor really knew it existed. Mears, whose claim as its discoverer England maintained so long and strenuously, showed by the very names he gave the cape and the bay that he was de- ceived about it. And, to conclude the argu- ment against himself, he gave not the slightest suggestion of the river on his map. The honor

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

of discovery must forever rest with Gray. His was the first ship to cleave its waters; his the first chart ever made of its shores; his the first landing ever effected there by eivilized men, and the name he gave it has been universally accepted. The flag he there threw to the breeze was the first ensign of any nation that ever waved over these unexplored banks, and the ceremony of ocenpation that he performed was something more than a meaningless pastime. It was a serious aet performed of national sig- nifieance, and was by him reported to the world as soon as possible. And when we remember that as a result of this came the expedition of Lewis and Clarke in 1804 and 1805, and the American settlement of Astoria in 1811-to say nothing of the diplomatic acquisitions of the old Spanish rights by the United States-we may safely say that the title of the United States to the Columbia river and the country drained by its waters became incontestable. And henee the onteome of the "Oregon question" in 1846.

Though with their departure from the river the Columbia and her officers and crew ceased to have any active association with the history and development of the region for which they had done so much, yet patriotism as an Ameri- can requires that in a few sentences we trace their history to its end.

The Columbia remained upon the northwest coast during the summer of 1792, and Captain Gray pursued an industrious trade in furs with the Indians under many disadvantages and at- tended by many dangers. In the antumn he hoisted sail for home, by the way of the Sand- wich Islands and China, amid the cheers of his erew, who sang a joyons " homeward bound" as they spread the canvas to the breeze. At last, after all her rovings, the good ship reached Boston July 29, 1793, havingimmortalized, if not enriched, her owners, officers and crew,- which is, after all, the greatest possible enrichment.

In a few years the ship was worn out and dismantled, and soon her chief officers all passed away. Kendrick never returned to America. Gray commanded several vessels after this and died at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1806. Ingraham became an officer in the navy, and went down with the ill-fated brig Piekering in 1800. Davidson was lost on the Rover in . the Pacifie, and Haswell sailed for the last time in 1801, and was also lost on the return voyage. Their names, however, will always be associated with the ships they sailed and served so well, and as long as the " Great River of the West" flows to the sea so long will the " Columbia " be gratefully and proudly remembered by the American people.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

CHAPTER IV.

OVERLAND EXPLORATIONS.

SPAIN LED MARITIME DISCOVERIES-FRANCE LED LAND EXPLORATIONS -- NEW CONDITIONS AND COM- BINATIONS -- ENGLAND'S POSITION -- MCKENZIE'S JOURNEYS-IMPORTANT COINCIDENCE-JEFFER- SON'S PROPOSITION-LEWIS AND CLARKE-INSTRUCTIONS TO THEM -LOUISIANA CEDED -LEWIS AND CLARKE SET OUT-TRIP OVER THE "STONY MOUNTAINS"- VOYAGE DOWN SNAKE RIVER-REACHI . THE OCEAN-WINTER QUARTERS-START HOMEWARD-DISCOVERY OF THE WILLAMETTE RIVER -- YELLEPT -- TRAVEL UP THE NEZ PERCES TRAIL -- REACH THE UNITED STATES-MR. JEFFERSON'S STATEMENT -- LEWIS MADE GOVERNOR, AND CLARKE GENERAL AND INDIAN AGENT -- CAPTAIN JONATHAN CARVER -- FIRST USES THE NAME "OREGON"-CAPTAIN J. C. FREMONT'S EXPEDITIONS - ROUTE OF TRAVEL -- VISITS SALT LAKE -- REACHES THE DALLES-VISITS VANCOUVER- WIN- TER JOURNEY TO CALIFORNIA.

HE course of our narrative, during the long period of time in which the Pacific coast of North America was being slowly brought to the knowledge of civilized man shows that the Frenchman and the Spaniard were the pioneers of exploration in that region both by sea and land. Spain led the maritime nations in distant and successful voyages. The voyage of Columbus under the auspices of Fer- dinand and his noble queen Isabella, whose reign over the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon gave Spain so much glory in that adventurous and chivalrons age, had kindled every maritime Spaniard into a very knight of the seas, and inspired the whole nation with a burning zeal for discovery and conquest of distant lands. For Spain the times were propitions. Her rulers were among the greatest and most re- nowned of all ages of the world. Ferdinand and Isabella were succeeded by Charles the Fifth, one of the most enlightened and powerful mon- archs that ever sat on any throne. Ile was snc- ceeded by his son Philip, who, though haughty and imperious, so carried forward the ideas and purposes of his great father that his kingdom reached the very zenith of power and influence in the councils of the European monarchs. The woe pronounced upon a " land whose king is a child" could not fall npon Spain during this period. Weak and Insterless as may now be the condition of the Spanish nation, and little as

her power is felt or feared in the world to-day, then even the Saxon asked privileges of the Castilian, and measured his own power by the standard of the other's greatness. Under the impulse thus pervading the Spanish nation, her banner was pushed into every sea, and her cavaliers led all armies of distant conquest, es- pecially in the new world. Other portions of our history illustrate what here we need only annonnce.

While Spain led maritime discoveries, the facile and plastic Frenchman led the land ex- plorations into the interior of the western con- tinent. France had a strong holding on the eastern shore of America north of the St. Law- rence, -- a point of great advantage in inter-con- tinental explorations. In addition to this she had planted her colonies at the month of the Mississippi, and stretched a cordon of posts southeastward from Quebec to the Ohio, thus hemming the English into a comparatively narrow belt of country on the Atlantic sea- board, and leaving free to her adventurous roamers the vast and as yet unknown regions that stretched westward and northward, no one could tell how far or how wide. The French pushed their advantages by land, as did Spain hers by sea, and as early as 1743 their explora- tions had reached the heart of the Rocky mountains. From Canada and from Louisi- ana, up the lakes and up the Mississippi

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

and Missouri rivers, the Frenchman's pi- rogue kept movement with the voyageurs' songs as these care-free men from France pushed their trade and travel into the middle of the continent. The French and English war of 1756, however, by giving England the oppor- tunity to wrest Canada from the weakened grasp of France, put a sudden stop to her movements in the line of explorations from that province, and opened the same opportunity to England that France had previously enjoyed. But, though the opportunity was before her, Great Britain was so fully occupied with her European diffi- culties, and the care of her American colonies, already growing restive under the grievances of her misrnle, demanded so much of the attention of her parliament and rulers, that she could at- tempt nothing further than to hold her " coign of vantage " securely for at least a quarter of a cen- tury.

During the progress of this quarter of a cen- tury new conditions and combinations had arisen. England lost all her colonies on the Atlantic coast south of the St. Lawrence. France had sold Louisiana to Spain. Thus England's opportunities were contracted, those of France were destroyed, and the new republic of America was as yet unable to enter the field of explora- tion and colonization. At this period the con- tinental position was this: Spain, after her purchase of Louisiana from France, had pro- prietary claim to all the country west of the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, with no very clearly defined northern limit to her claims. England held the country northward of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence river, extending in- definitely westward, above the forty-ninth paral- lel of latitude. The United States held actually only the country east of the summits of the Al- leghany mountains, including the six New Eng- land States and New York, and had ownership of all the country westward of the Alleghanies which England had conquered from France in the war of 1756. These were the powers that, after the American Revolution, stood looking to the yet unknown West as the place for the

future aggrandizement of their respective for- tunes, and this was the condition in which they looked to the future and prepared for its issues.

The advantages of the condition were with Great Britain. She had grown to be the lead- ing power of Europe. Already the swing of conquest was in the movement of her legisla- tion and her peoples. While the wars of the past twenty years had taxed, they had not panpered her. She was strong, consolidated, ambitions, conrageons; and she was Saxon, -- the blood of endurance and conquest.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 5

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056