USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
" You are to fall in with the coast of New Albion in latitude 45° north. You are to put into the first convenient port to recruit your wood and water, and then to proceed northward along the coast as far as 65° north, or farther if not obstructed by land or ice, taking care not to lose any time in exploring rivers or inlets, or upon any other account till you get into 65° north, where we could wish you to arrive in the month of June. On the way thither (to New Albion) not to touch on any part of the Spanish dominion on the western continent of America un- less driven to it by some unavoidable accident." Here follow
101
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
particular instructions to give no offence to Spain, or if in his progress northward he find any subjects of any European prince or State he is not to molest them, but, on the contrary, to treat them with civility and friendship.
Armed with these general yet, at the same time, very clear directions, Cook sets sail July 12th, 1776, to accomplish his mis- sion, and Lieutenant Young, in the brig Lyon, is afterward sent to explore Baffin's Bay and co-operate with him should he dis- cover that still-sought-for myth, the Northwest passage; in which, says Evans, if they had succeeded, it was conjectured they would probably have met in a sea to the north of the American continent. Evans very happily dissects and extracts the hidden meaning from Cook's orders. Condensed, the Eng- lish admiralty means just this : "We hold New Albion under Drake's discovery ; we concede certain territories to Russia on the north and Spain on the south, but fix precise boundaries to neither. Be asssured, when it comes to dividing the spoil, the Lion of England will demand and enforce his pretensions to a full share."
It is a little singular, by the way, that the Declaration of American Independence should have been proclaimed here almost at the very moment when Cook was departing to in- crease England's domain upon the continent where her most valuable colonies were, through her own stubborn rapacity and folly, about to be wrested from her grasp.
To resume : Cook and his consort, Captain Clarke, in the Discovery, sailed from Plymouth on the date above given. We make no note of their voyage till on March 7th, 1778, he sights the Pacific coast of North America in 44° 1' 2" north latitude. Gales force him southward to 43º, when he again turns north- ward ; but the fog shuts down and hangs heavy about him. The coast, as if coy of observation, hides itself in mist, and can- not be traced continuously ; so that between Cape Foulweather (it will be seen that we have no more saintly christening of cape and headland-they are good Anglo-Saxon names, full of pith and meaning), 44° 55' north, and Cape Flattery, 48° 15' (both named by Cook), the expedition added little to our knowl- edge of the coast.
Among Cook's officers, it should be mentioned, was a mid- shipman destined in after years to be even more thoroughly
102
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
identified with the mapping out of Washington's sea-coast geog- raphy than his eminent commander-George Vancouver. An- other officer, the distinguished geographer and afterward Ad- miral Barney, tells us of Cape Flattery (so called by Cook because the prospect of land near it had given the doubtful promise of a harbor). "We were near Cape Flattery on the evening of the 22d of March, and a little before seven o'clock, it growing dark, Captain Cook tacked, to wait for daylight, intend- ing to make close examination ; but before morning a hard gale of wind came on with rainy weather, and we were obliged to keep off the land"-so near and yet so far. To set up his rig- ging and fill his empty water-tanks, Cook is compelled to seek a port. He stands away in the night, and consequently fails to discover the Strait of Fuca. So, not finding it south of 48°, he counts it a myth and denies its existence. We next find him (March 29th) at Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, one of the saint- ly ports of Perez. Cook calls it King George's Sound, but the Indian nomenclature outlives Cook's compliment to his king, and Nootka it remains. It is a vast pity, by the way, that the meaning of these Indian names do not accompany them, as they are often most beautiful and significant ; take that of Mount Tacoma, for instance, the Mount Rainier of modern geographers, which means "nourishing mother of valleys below," a most concise and poetical rendition of the fact that this great white- crested mountain (which, had Cook entered the sound, would, perhaps, have received some other baptism) feeds from its bosom of eternal snows through their melting streams life and fertility to the valleys that cluster round its foothills.
But we digress. After refitting, on April 26th, Cook sails again to the northward, and devotes the remainder of the season to a thorough examination of the Northwest coast of America, involving also the adjoining shore of Asia; determines the breadth of Behring Strait, going as far north as 70° 44'. He makes also, says Evans, " an extended examination of the Arctic sea, sailing in both directions till hindered by the ice, which barred his further progress ; then, turning southward, he sur- veyed the Aleutian group of islands." Cook seems to have been particularly fortunate in his officers, for besides the distin- guished men we have mentioned destined to play an eminent part in the explorations of years to come, we find a " Con-
You & Prosser,
105
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
necticut Yankee," only a corporal of marines, then serving on the Resolution, who proved the stuff he was made of on October 7th; while anchored in the harbor of Sanganoodha, as the fol- lowing incident amply indicates. It is thus described by the pen of Captain James Burney, no mean authority :
" A present of salmon baked in rye flour, accompanied with a note in the Russian language, was delivered to each of the captains, brought by two natives of Oonalaska from a distant part of the island. Ledyard volunteered to return with the messengers to gain information. Captain Cook accepted his offer, and sent by him a present of some bottles of rum, wine, and porter, and a wheaten loaf, with an invitation to 'his un- known friends.' Ledyard embarked in a small baidar, which was a light skeleton wooden frame covered with whaleskin. It was paddled by two men, for each of whom there was a circular opening in the upper part of the baidar to admit of their being seated, and the lower end of their skin jacket or frock was then closely fastened to the rim of the opening to prevent the en- trance of water, and they appeared, as it were, hooped in. There was no opening for their passenger, Ledyard, and previous to their both being seated he was obliged to dispose himself at his length, or, as seamen might express it, to stow himself fore and aft in the bottom of the baidar, between the two. The space allotted to him neither in height nor breadth exceeded twenty inches. The length of the voyage performed by Ledyard, pent up in this slight bark, I understood to be twelve or fourteen miles. At the end of two days he returned to the ship, being better accom- modated in his voyage home than out, and in company with three Russian traders. These and other Russians, who came to us afterward, communicated their charts, which gave informa- tion concerning many islands in this sea. They also mentioned that an expedition had been made in the icy sea with sledges in the year 1773 to some large islands opposite the river Kolyma."
It will bring a glow of pride to the cheek of the American reader to know that this humble corporal of marines, this New England Yankee boy, afterward became the distinguished and intrepid traveller, the well-known wanderer and explorer, John Ledyard.
This is all that interests our history in connection with Cap- tain Cook. This able but most unfortunate commander sailed
106
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
soon afterward for the Sandwich Islands, where he was killed, with four of his men, by the natives. It was justly said of him. that " no other navigator extended the bounds of geographical knowledge so widely as he did." The increased advantages of modern science and our more perfect instruments have only verified his calculations, proving his latitudes and longitudes to be correct.
Before taking leave of the incidents and results growing out of Cook's memorable voyage, it seems proper to add that Cap- tain Clerke, of the Resolution (Cook's consort), also dying while en route, the command devolved on Lieutenant Gore, a Vir- ginian, sailing under his command for Canton with a small collection of furs from the Northwest. They found the Chinese so eager to purchase them that they would give almost any quantity of their goods in exchange for them. Out of this visit of Gore's grew a new trade-the collecting of furs in Northwest America, shipping them for Canton in exchange for Chinese goods, which were resold in Europe, making three profits for the dealers : first on the furs, purchased from the Indians for goods costing a mere nothing in Europe ; then on the exchange and traffic, largely in favor of their peltries, at Canton, and thirdly, that upon the teas, silks, etc., sold in Europe-all of which tended to further settlement and development of the Northwest, the rich returns of whose hunting-grounds were thus, with the regions where they lay, largely advertised throughout the civilized world.
A careful analysis of Cook's so-called discoveries on our coast show that he was not, in the strict sense of the term, a discov- erer. He was the navigator of his age, verifying or correct- ing the discoveries and calculations of those who had gone be- fore him, putting in shape and reducing to tangible form their crude reports, and thus bringing geographical order out of chaos.
After all, our knowledge of the coast on which we dwell is the result of the labors of no one explorer. Successive keels have ploughed its seas and sounds. It was a road like all others, better known as it became a travelled one. Hence it is that in our geography we have had many instructors, each adding his mite, large or small, to the general fund of information. Spain, Russia, Holland, England, and America have all contributed to
107
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
enlarge our knowledge and acquaint us with the peculiarities of our coasts.
We shall have little occasion from this time on to find Eng- land either careless or indifferent as to the value and advantage of securing territory on the Northwest coast of America. Trade and commerce seek profitable fields of labor; they found it here, and occupation and settlement was the natural result.
CHAPTER IX.
CONCLUDES THIE EXPLORATIONS BY SEA ON THE NORTHWEST COAST.
" Where are the shadowy ships that bore Those brave and gallant souls,
Whose valor sought the tropic shore, And pierced the icy poles ; The men whose ports were coasts unknown, The mysteries of the sea ;
By winds of chance to conquest blown, If any chance there be ?"
-BREWERTON.
HAVING thus led the reader, as we trust not uninterestingly, and yet as briefly as the great mass of matter to be condensed would permit, from that moonlit glimpse of San Salvador whose trembling light upon the strand the quick eye of Columbus had already discovered, through the record of many successive ex- plorations to those which marked the close of the last century, we will, in the present chapter, endeavor to "round up" this portion of our theme by touching lightly upon those which in the present century dispelled the final cloud, leaving the terra incognita of the Northwest coast no longer a mystery, but a well-travelled ocean highway, whose landmarks were established and bypaths thoroughly known. We pass without comment the imbroglio of the Nootka Sound affair, where the rascality of certain English merchants who desired to avoid Chinese port charges by sailing their vessels under the Portuguese flag, coupled with the attempted hoisting of the British flag and the building of a block-house on territory claimed by the Span- iards in that region, brought about conflicts and seizures which ended in a multiplicity of negotiations and almost in a war be- tween the two interested parties. Lieutenant Pierce, of the marines, a British officer, writing officially in 1795, says of this affair :
" But though England, at the expense of three millions, ex- torted from the Spaniards a promise of restoration and repara-
د
111
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
tion, it is well ascertained, first, that the settlement in question never was restored to Spain, nor the Spanish flag at Nootka ever struck ; and, secondly, that no settlement had been subsequent- ly attempted by England on the Californian coast. The claim of right set up by the court of London, it is, therefore, plain has been virtually abandoned, notwithstanding the menacing tone in which the negotiation was conducted by the British administra- tion, who cannot escape some censure for encouraging these vexatious encroachments on the territorial rights of Spain."
This seems good, plain, sensible talk, wonderfully honest for an officer of those days still in the British marines.
The vessels referred to were Portuguese, by a fraudulent arrangement, when these traders desired to cheat the Chinese, but exceeding British when, having got into trouble by their own arrogant and unjust acts with Spain, they desire English protection and damages for injuries received. It was the last attempt of Spain to occupy Nootka Sound.
In 1786 we find the Frenchman La Perouse upon our coast. He comes with two frigates of his nation, and makes a careful survey of the shores from Mount Elias to Monterey. The follow- ing year brings Captain Berkley in the Imperial Eagle, an Austrian East Indiaman. He examines the coast as far south as 47°, and discovers the entrance of the strait south of Vancou- ver's Island. He ascertains the existence of the strait now known as Juan de Fuca ; then by a strange coincidence where- in, as we have elsewhere noted, a sad history repeats itself, he reaches the Isle de Dolores of the Spanish explorer, and, like him, sends a boat ashore for water, whose crew is killed by the natives. Captain Meares, of Macoa, learning of the outlet of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but that it was still unexplored, makes a limited examination of it in June of 1788. He makes the entrance as being twelve or fourteen leagues wide, and thus describes it : " From the masthead it was observed to stretch to the east by north, and a clear, unbounded horizon was seen in that direction as far as the eye could reach ; frequent soundings were attempted, but we could procure no bottom with one hun- dred fathoms of line. The strangest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait, which we will call by the name of its original discoverer, Juan de Fuca."
His first officer, Mr. Duffin, makes an exploration of fifty
6
112
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
miles, and on July 5th discovers the entrance of our Shoalwater Bay. To Toke's Point he gave the name of Cape Shoalwater. He attests his belief in the errors of the Spanish charts by nam- ing Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay. "Disappointed and deceived," says Evans, " he ends his cruise in 45° north."
And now, if only by way of relief to the efforts of other nationalities, comes a genuine Yankee flavor into our bead-roll of commanders and ships. Evans tells us that "in 1787 Joseph Barrell, a prominent merchant of Boston, projected a voyage of discovery and commerce to the Northwest coast of America. In this enterprise five other citizens of the United States became associated. Two vessels-the ship Columbia, Captain John Ken- drick, and the sloop Washington, Captain Robert Gray-were equipped and provided with assorted cargoes for trade with the natives. They sailed from Boston in October, 1787."
Let us pause for a moment and note the significance of these names. There is something almost prophetic in their appro- priateness-Columbia, one day to be the name of that mighty river, the Mississippi of the west, which gathers its energies among the snow-capped peaks of inland mountains, to bestow their income upon that graceless sea which returns its favors by heaving up barriers of sand at its mouth ; the Washington, one day to be the proud designation of the State whose history we are writing. Good, honest, patriotic traders must have been Joseph Barrell and his associates, selecting national names for their vessels, and loading them with that "assorted cargo" which should in the fulness of time bring a bountiful return from the natives in furs and peltries. May this happy union of patriotism and commerce never be divorced, or their thrifty children, civilization and progress, cease to thrive where'er they may find a home !
In 1789 the Washington, Captain Gray, enters Juan de Fuca and " sails fifty miles through the strait in an east-southeast direction, and found the passage five leagues wide." Return- ing, he meets his consort, the Columbia, in the strait ready for sea, bound for China. Here the captains transfer, and Captain Kendrick, in the sloop, winters on the coast. "The Columbia, under Gray, goes on to Canton, exchanges her furs for teas, and reaches Boston August 10th, 1790, via the Cape of Good Hope. To Captain Gray, then, belongs the honor of command-
113
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
ing the first vessel to circumnavigate the globe under the national standard of the United States of America. In the fall of 1789 the Washington sails through the strait, and steering northward, passes through some eight degrees of latitude, and comes out into the Pacific north of latitude 55°.
A Spanish ship, commanded by Manuel Quimper, one of a fleet that sailed from San Blas in 1890, explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the summer of that year. His survey includ- ed the strait and main channel of what is now known as the Gulf of Georgia, the main channel between Vancouver's Island and the continent, to which he gave the name of Canal de Haro, in honor of his pilot. Such is the channel, so notable in history, separating the Island of Vancouver and San Juan, now the water boundary between Great Britain and the United States as settled by William II., Emperor of Germany, and consequently the boundary of the State of Washington.
About this time Malaspina, a Spanish officer, discovers the mouth of the Fraser River, naming it Rio Blanco.
" Twenty-eight vessels," says Evans, " visited Nootka Sound this year, under the flags of Portugal, France, England, Spain, and the United States. Of these, five were national expeditions, the rest were traders."
The famous Captain Vancouver, the midshipman of Cook's voyage, now comes as a leading actor upon the stage of north- western exploration. His expedition enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca on April 30th, 1792, and reaches a point on the south shore which he names New Dungeness ; sailing eastward, he enters a bay he calls Port Discovery, and the island opposite its mouth, Protection Island. The channel to the southward of Point Wilson he calls Admiralty Inlet ; its two great southern arms are christened Hood's Canal and Puget Sound-another whiff of sea breeze blowing directly from home. We are meet- ing familiar names, which, as the Westerner expresses it, have " come to stay." He explores all the islands, inlets, bays, and harbors. He does his work well among the channels of this mighty inland sea-the Mediterranean of the West. He dispels the idea that its tortuous passages lead through the continent.
And now occurs a little conflict of opinion in which the American merchant captain proves to have been right and the scientific naval commander, usually so correct in his calcula-
114
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
tions, decidedly in error. The American sloop Washington, already referred to, made the Northwest coast near 46° north. " In an attempt to enter an apparent opening the sloop ground- ed, was attacked by savages, had one of the crew killed, and. the mate severely wounded. Captain Gray believed this to be the mouth of the river he afterward named Columbia."
Speaking Captain Vancouver in April, 1792, he informed him " that he had been off the mouth of the river in latitude 46° 10' north, where the outset or reflux was so strong as to pre- vent his entering it for nine days."
Coming as it did from a mere Yankee trader, Vancouver, with less good sense than he usually exhibits, attaches no im- portance to the statement. It is the old story of the namesake of Gray's vessel -- Washington's unheeded advice to Braddock, which might have avoided that perfect savage triumph over Britain's arms and valor -- repeated in a different element, but happily with less serious result. After an argument too long to be quoted here, Vancouver dismisses the idea of Gray's discov- ery as an impossibility, and sagely adds, by way of rebuke to similar pretenders, the following :
" These ideas, not derived from any source of substantial in- formation, have, it is much to be feared, been adopted for the sole purpose of giving unlimited credit to the traditionary ex- ploits of ancient foreigners, and to undervalue the laborious and enterprising exertions of our own countrymen in the noble sci- ence of discovery."
A prettily turned and high-sounding period, which, how- ever, must be taken cum grano salis, for the mouth of the Co- lumbia, with its far-away sources and mighty tide of outflow, was there nevertheless. But it is not the first time that a Brit- ish commander might have learned, yet failed to do so, from Yankee eyes and American common sense ; possibly the fact, as Evans suggests, " that the American sailor made no claim to the possession of Vancouver's noble science of discovery," may have turned the scale against the presence of a river which two Brit- ish navigators, Meares and Cook, had been unable to discover, and which, therefore, by no possibility could exist.
Our Yankee captain, leaving this scientific and unbelieving gentleman to prosecute his discoveries northward, returns to re- examine his as yet unexplored river mouth, " whose reflux was
Joseph Il Pomeroy
Jesse On Day
Edward Higgins
117
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
so strong as to prevent him for nine days from entering it." We will tell the story of its results in his own words :
" On the 7th of May, being within six miles of land, saw an entrance to the same, which had a very good appearance of har- bor ; lowered away the jolly-boat and went in search of an anchor- ing-place, the ship standing to and fro, with a strong weather current. At one o'clock p.M. the boat returned, having found no place where the ship could anchor with safety ; made sail on the ship ; stood in for shore. We soon saw from our masthead a passage between the sand bars. At half-past three bore away and ran in northeast by east, having four to eight fathoms, sandy bottom ; 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 came alongside. At five P.M. came to five fathoms of water, sandy bottom, in a safe harbor, well shel- tered from the sea by a long sand bar and spit. Our latitude observed this day was 46° 58' north." Captain Gray called this bay Bluefinch Harbor, in honor of one of the part owners of the ship Columbia. It is now known (as it ought to be) as Gray's Harbor. Captain Gray remained there till the afternoon of the 10th.
On the 11th Captain Gray's narrative continues : " At four P.M. saw the entrance of our port, bearing east-southeast, dis- tance six leagues ; in-steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore. At eight A. M., being a little to windward of the entrance to the harbor, bore away and ran east-northeast between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we came over the bar we found this to be a very large river of fresh water, up which we stood." To this river, up which he sailed to Tongue Point, Captain Gray gave the name of his ship, the Columbia.
Upon his return to Nootka Sound our unscientific but very practical Yankee skipper furnished Señor Quadra, a Spanish navigator, and associate with Vancouver in exploration, with a sketch of his discovery. Through him Vancouver himself re- ceives it. Shortly after we find him sailing with his fleet " to re-examine the coast of New Albion, and particularly a river and a harbor discovered by Mr. Gray in the Columbia between 46° and 47º north, of which Señor Quadra favored me with a sketch."
118
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
" The Dædalus was left to explore Gray's Harbor. At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th, when, having nearly reached Cape Disappointment, which forms the north point of entrance into Columbia River, so named by Mr. Gray, I direct- ed the Chatham to lead into it, and on her arrival at the bar, should no more than four fathoms of water be found, the signal for danger was to be made ; but if the channel appeared to be navigable, to proceed."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.