History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 12

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 12
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 12
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 12

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).

"Having arrived opposite this bay at six in the evening, and placed the ship nearly midway beween the two capes, I sounded and found bottom in four brazas (nearly four fathoms). The currents and eddies were so strong that, notwithstanding a press of sail, it was difficult to get clear of the northern cape, towards which the current ran, though its direction was eastward in conse- quence, of the tide being at flood. These currents and eddies caused me to be- lieve that the place is the mouth of some great river, or of some passage to an- other sea. Had I not been certain of the latitude of this bay, from my observa- tions of the same day, I might easily have believed it to be the passage discov- ered by Juan de Fuca, in 1592, which is placed on the charts between the 47th and the 48th degrees; where I am certain no such strait exists; because I an- chored on the 14th day of July midway between these latitudes, and carefully examined everything around. Notwithstanding the great difference between this bay and the passage mentioned by De Fuca, I have little difficulty in con- ceiving they may be the same, having observed equal or greater differences in the latitudes of other capes and ports on this coast, as I will show at the proper time; and in all cases latitudes thus assigned are higher than the real ones.

"I did not enter and anchor in this port, which in my plan I suppose to be formed by an island, notwithstanding my strong desire to do so; because, hav- ing consulted with the second captain, Don Juan Perez, and the pilot, Don Cristoval Revilla, they insisted I ought not to attempt it, as, if we let go the anchor, we should not have men enough to get it up, and to attend to the other operations which would be thereby necessary. Considering this, and also, that in order to reach the anchorage I should be obliged to lower my long boat (the only boat I had) and to man it with at least fourteen of the crew, as I could not manage with fewer, and also as it was then late in the day, I resolved to put out ; and at the distance of three leagues I lay to. In the course of that night I experienced heavy currents to the southwest, which made it impossible to enter the bay on the following morning, as I was far to leeward. These cur- rents, however, convinced me that a great quantity of water rushed from this bay on the ebb of the tide.

"The two capes which I name in my plan, Cape San Roque and Cape Frondoso, lie in the angle of 10° of the third quadrant. They are both faced with red earth and are of little elevation.

"On the 18th I observed Cape Frondoso, with another cape, to which I gave the name of Cape Falcon, situated in the latitude of 45° 43', and they lay at an angle of 22° of the third quadrant, and from the last mentioned cape I traced the coast running in the angle of 5° of the second quadrant. This land is mountainous, but not very high nor so well wooded as that lying between the latitudes of 48° 30' and 46°. On sounding I found great difference: at a dis- tance of seven leagues I got bottom at 84 brazas; and nearer the coast I some- times found no bottom; from which I am inclined to believe there are reefs or

Courtesy of L. V. Mcwhorter

CHIEF YOOM-TEE-BEE: "BITTEN BY A GRIZZLY BEAR"

Leader of the "Hostiles." From Me Whorter's "The Crime Against the Yakimas"

Courtesy of L. v. Mew hurlez

REV. STWIRE G. WATERS; ELECTED HEAD CHIEF OF THE YAKIMAS From Me Whorter's "The Crime Against the Yakimas"

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shoals on these coasts, which is also shown by the color of the water. In some places the coast presents a beach, in others, it is rocky.

"A flat-topped mountain, which I named the Table, will enable any navi- gator to know the position of Cape Falcon without observing it; as it is in the latitude of 45° 28', and may be seen at a great distance, being somewhat ele- vated."

It may be added that the Cape Falcon of Heceta was the bold elevation fronting the sea, known now as Tillamook Head, while the Table Mountain was doubtless what we now call Nekahni Mountain, both points especially the scenes of Indian myth.

ACTUAL DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA

Such was the actual discovery of the Columbia River, and as such the Spaniards justly laid claim to Oregon. Their treaty with the United States in 1819 was the formal conveyance of their claims to us. Nevertheless Heceta only half discovered the river. It seems very strange that with the all-important object of two centuries' search before him, he should so readily have succumbed to the fear of the powerful outstanding current. But the Spaniards were not in general the patient and persistent students of the shores that the English and Americans were. Their charts were in general worthless. Nevertheless Spain came nearest "making good" of any of the European powers. In 1779 Bodega and Arteaga sailed far north and sighted a vast snow peak "higher than Orizaba," which was doubtless St. Elias. In the same year Martinez and DeHaro established themselves at Nootka. Subsequent voyages of Bodega, Valdez, and Galiano, and their first circumnavigation of Vancouver Island (named by them Quadra's Island, but by mutual courtesy and good-will of the British and Spanish rivals, designated Vancouver's and Quadra's Island), gave them a clear title to the Pacific Coast of North America from latitude 60° to Mexico.

But that is another story. What of the Great River? In the very year of the declaration of American independence, the most elaborate expedition yet fitted out for western discovery, set forth from England in command of that Columbus of the Eighteenth Century, Captain James Cook. After nearly two years of important movements in the Southern Hemisphere and among the Pacific Islands, Cook turned to that goal of all nations, the coast of Oregon. But the same singular fatality which had baffled many of the explorers thus far, attended this most skillful navigator and best equipped squadron thus far seen on Pacific waters. For Cook passed and repassed the near vicinity of both the Straits of Fuca and the Columbia River, but without finding either. Killed by the treacherous natives of Hawaii in 1778, Cook left a great name, a more intelligent conception of world geography than was known before, and greatly strengthened claims by Great Britain to the ownership of pivotal points of the Pacific. Of all the great English navigators, Cook is perhaps best entitled to join the grand chorus that sings the Songs of Seven Seas. But he did not see the Great River of the West. What had become of it? After the fleeting vision which it accorded to Heceta, it seemed to have gone into hiding.

(8)

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But a new set of motives came into play immediately after Cook's voyage. The two ships, the "Resolution" and "Discovery," took with them to China a quantity of furs from Nootka. A few years earlier, as previously stated, the Russian fur-trade from Avatcha to China sprang up at once. A new regime dawned in Chinese and East India trade. Gold, silver and jewels had not thus far rewarded the search of explorers. They were reserved for our later days of need. But the fur trade was as good as gold. The North Pacific Coast, already interesting, assumed a new importance in the eyes of Europeans. The "struggle for possession" was on. The ships of all nations converged upon the fabled Strait of Anian and River of Oregon. English, Dutch, French, Por- tuguese, Spanish, Americans, began in the decade of the eighties to crowd to the land where the sea-otter, beaver, seal and many other of the most profitable furs could be obtained for a trifle. The dangers of trading and the chances of dis- ease were great, but the profits of success were yet greater.

FUR TRADE BEGINS

The fur trade began to take the place of the gold hunt as a matter of inter- national strife. The manner in which our own country, weak and discordant as its different members were when just emerging from the Revolutionary War, entered the lists, and by the marvelous allotment of Fortune or the de- sign of Providence, slipped in between the greater nations and secured the prize of Oregon, is one of the epics of history, one which ought to have some native Tasso or Calderon to celebrate its triumph.

Following quickly upon the conclusion of the American War, came a series of British, French and Russian voyages, which gradually centered more partic- larly about Vancouver Island and Nootka Sound. The British exceeded the others in numbers and enterprise. Among them we find names now preserved at many conspicuous points on the northern coast ; as Portlock, Hanna, Dixon, Duncan, and Barclay. The most notable of the French was La Perouse, who was best equipped for scientific research of any one. A number of Russian names appear at that period, most of which may yet be found upon the maps of Alaska, as Schelikoff, Ismyloff, Betschareff, Resanoff, Krusenstern, and Baranoff.

But none of them set eyes on the river, and it seemed more mythical than ever. As a result, however, of their various expeditions, incomplete though they were, each nation followed the usual practice of claiming everything in sight, either in sight of the eye or the imagination, and demanded the whole coast by priority of discovery.

Never did a geographical entity seem so to play the ignis fatuus with the world as did the river. Thirteen years elapsed from the discovery of the Rio San Roque by Heceta before any one of the dozens who had meanwhile passed up and down the coast, looked in again between the Cabo de Frondoso and the Cabo de San Roque. Then there came on one negative and two positive discov- eries, and the elusive stream was really found never to be lost again.

The negative discovery was that of Captain John Meares in 1788. Since England afterwards endeavored to make the voyages of Meares an important link in her chain of proof to the ownership of Oregon, it is worthy of some

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special attention. It happened in this wise. Meares came first to the coast of Oregon in 1786, in command of the Nootka to trade for furs for the East India Company. With the Nootka, was the Sea-Otter, in command of Captain Walter Tipping. Both seem to have been brave and capable seamen. But disaster fol- lowed on their track. For having sailed far up the coast, they followed the Aleutian Archipelago eastward to Prince William's Sound. Separated on the journey, the Nootka reached a safe haven, but her consort never arrived, nor was she ever heard of more. The Nootka, after an Arctic winter of distress and after losing a large part of the crew through the ravages of scurvy, aban- doned the trade and returned to China. Discouraged by the outcome, the East India Company abandoned the American trade and confined themselves hence- forth to India.

But Meares, finding that the Portuguese had special privileges in the fur trade and in the harbor of Nootka, entered into an arrangement with some Portuguese traders whereby he went nominally as supercargo, but really as. captain of the Felice, under the Portuguese flag. With her, sailed the "Iphi- genia" with William Douglas occupying a place similar to that of Meares. In estimating the subsequent pretensions of Great Britain, the student of history may well remember that these two mariners, though Englishmen, were sail- ing under the flag of Portugal.

Reaching again the coast of Oregon, Meares looked in, June 29, 1788, at the broad entrance of an extensive strait which he believed to be the mythical Strait of Juan de Fuca of two centuries earlier, but which he did not pause to explore. He went on to Nootka, and then again turned his prow southward. On July 5th, in lat. 46° 10', he perceived a deep bay which he considered at once to be the object of his search. Essaying to enter, he found the water shoaling with dangerous rapidity and a prodigious easterly swell breaking on the shore. From the masthead it seemed that the breakers extended clear across the en -. trance. With rather curious timidity for a bold Briton right on the eve of a discovery for which all nations had been looking, Meares lost courage and hauled out, attaching the name Deception Bay to the inlet and Cape Disap- pointment to the northern promontory, the last a name still officially used.

Meares left as his final conclusion in the matter the following memoran- dum: "We can now assert that no such river as that of St. Roque exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts." In view of this statement of the case it would certainly seem that he could not be accepted as a witness for English discovery, even if the Portuguese flag had not been flying at his masthead.

After bestowing the name of Lookout upon the great headland christened Cape Falcon by Heceta and known to us as Tillamook Head, Meares squared away for Nootka, and there he spent a very profitable season in the fur trade.

THE COLUMBIA REDIVIVA

But into the harbor of Nootka that same year of 1788, there sailed the ship of destiny, the Columbia Rediviva, in command of John Kendrick. With the Columbia came the "Lady Washington," commanded by Robert Gray. These were the advance guard of Yankee ships which the energies of our lib-

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erated forefathers were sending forth as an earnest of the coming conquest of Oregon by the universal Yankee nation.

Gray and Kendrick were engaged in the fur trade, and their energy and intelligence made it speedily profitable. It took a long time and a long arm, sure enough, in that day, to complete the great circuit of the outfitting, the bartering, the transferring, the return trip and the final sale ;- three years in all. The ship would be fitted out in Boston or New York with trinkets, axes, hatchets, and tobacco, and proceed by the Horn to the coast of Oregon,-six months or sometimes eight. Then up and down the coast, as far as known, they would trade with natives for the precious furs, making a profit of a thousand per cent. on the investment. Gray, on one occasion, got for an axe a quantity of furs worth $8,000. The fur barter would take another six or eight months. Then with hold packed with bales of furs, the ship would turn her prow for Macão or Canton, six or eight months more. In China, the cargo of furs would go out and a cargo of nankeens, teas, and silks go in, with a great margin of profit at both ends. Then away again to Boston, there to sell the proceeds of that three years' "round-up" of the seas for probably ten times the entire cost of outfitting and subsistence. The glory, fascination, and gain of the ocean were in it, and also its dangers. Of this sufficient witness is found in vanished ships, murdered crews, storm, scurvy, famine, and war. But it was a great age. Gray and Kendrick were as good specimens of their keen, facile, far-sighted countrymen, as Meares and Vancouver were of the self-opinionated, determined, yet withal manly and thorough Britons.

Among other pressing matters, such as looking out for good fur trade in order to recoup the Boston merchants who had put their good money into the venture, and looking out for the health of their crew, steering clear of the un- charted reefs and avoiding the treacherous natives, Gray and Kendrick remem- bered that they were also good Americans. They must see that the new Stars and Stripes had their due upon the new coast.

The first voyage of the two Yankee skippers was ended and they set forth for another round in 1791, but with ships exchanged, Gray commanding the Columbia on this second voyage. The year 1792 was now come, and it was a great year in the annals of Oregon, three hundred years from Columbus, two hundred from Juan de Fuca. The struggle between England and Spain over conflicting rights at Nootka, which at one time threatened war, had been set- tled with a measure of amicability. As a commissioner to represent Great Britain, Capt. George Vancouver was sent out, while Bodega y Quadra was empowered to act in like capacity for Spain. Spaniards and Britons alike real- ised that, whatever the Nootka treaty may have been, possession was nine points of the law, and both redoubled their efforts to push discovery, and especially to make the first complete exploration of the Straits of Fuca and the supposed Great River. There were great names among the Spaniards in that year, some of which still commemorate some of the most interesting geographical points, as Quimper, Malaspina, Fidalgo, Camano, Elisa, Bustamente, Valdez and Galiano. A list of British names now applied to many points, as Vancouver, Puget, Georgia, Baker, Hood, Rainier, St. Helens, Whidby, Vashon, Town- send, and others, attests the name-bestowing care of the British commander.

In going to Nootka as British commissioner, Vancouver was under instruc-

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tions to make the most careful examination of the coast, especially of the rivers or any interoceanic channels, and thereby clear up the many conundrums of the ocean on that shore. With the best ship, the war sloop "Discovery," accom- panied by the armed tender "Chatham," in command of Lieutenant W. R. Broughton, and with the best crew and best general equipment yet seen on the coast, it would have been expected that the doughty Briton would have found all the important places yet unfound. That the Americans beat him in finding the river and that the Spaniards beat him in the race through the Straits and around Vancouver Island, may be regarded as due partly to a little British obstinacy at a critical time, but mainly due to the appointment of the Fates.

On April 27th, Vancouver passed a "conspicuous point of land composed of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high and projecting into the sea." This cape was in latitude 46° 19', and Vancouver decided that here were doubtless the Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay of Meares. In spite of the sig- nificant fact that the sea here changed its color, the British commander was so prepossessed with the idea that Meares must have decided correctly the nature of the entrance (for how was it possible for an English sailor to be wrong and a Spaniard right?) that he decided that the opening was not worthy of more attention and passed on up the coast. So the English lost their second great chance of being first to enter the river.

Two days later the lookout reported a sail, and as the ships drew together, the newcomer was seen to be flying the Stars and Stripes. It was the "Colum- bia Rediviva," Capt. Robert Gray, of Boston. In response to Vancouver's rather patronizing queries, the Yankee skipper gave a summary of his log for some months past. Among other things he stated that he had passed what seemed to be a powerful river in latitude 46° 10', which for nine days he had tried in vain to enter, being repelled by the strength of the current. He now proposed returning to that point and renewing his effort. Vancouver declined to reconsider his previous decision that there could be no large river, and passed on to make his very elaborate exploration of the Straits of Fuca and their con- nected waters, and to discover to his great chagrin, that the Spaniards had fore- stalled him in point of time.

The vessels parted. Gray sailed south and on May 10, 1792, paused abreast of the same reflex of water where before for nine days he had tried vainly to enter. The morning of the 11th dawned clear and favorable, light wind, gentle sea, a broad, clear channel, plainly of sufficient depth. The time was now come. The man and the occasion met. Gray seems from the first to have been ready to take some chances for the sake of some great success. He always hugged the shore closely enough to be on intimate terms with it. And he was ready boldly to seize and use favoring circumstances. So, as laconically stated in his log-book, he ran in with all sail set, and at two o'clock found himself in a large river of fresh water, at a point about twenty miles from the ocean.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL SPHINX

The geographical Sphinx was answered. Gray was its œdipus, though unlike the ancient Theban myth, there was no need that either the Sphinx of the Oregon coast or its discoverer perish. The river recognized and welcomed its master.

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The next day the "Columbia" moved fifteen miles up the stream. Finding that he was out of the channel, Gray stopped further progress and turned again seaward. Natives, apparently friendly disposed, thronged in canoes round the ship, and a large quantity of furs was secured.

The river already bore many names, but Gray added another, and it was the one that has remained, the name of his good ship "Columbia." Upon the southern cape he bestowed the name of Adams, and upon the northern, the name of Hancock. These also remain.

The great exploit was completed. The long-sought River of the West was found, and by an American. The path of destiny for the new Republic of the West was made secure. Without Oregon we probably would not have ac- quired California, and without a Pacific Coast, the United States would inevit- ably have been but a second-class power, the prey of European intrigue. The vast importance of the issue then becomes clear. Gray's happy voyage, that Yankee foresight and confidence in his seamanship and intuitive suiting of times and conditions to results which marks the vital turning points of history differentiate Gray's discovery from all others upon our Northwest coast.

As we view the matter now a century and more later, we can see that our national destiny, and especially the vast part that we now seem at the point of taking in world interests through the commerce of the Pacific, hung in the bal- ance to a certain extent upon the stubborn adherence by Vancouver, the Briton, to the preconceived opinion that there was no important river at the point designated by his Spanish predecessor, and the contrasted readiness of the American Gray to embrace boldly the chances of some great discovery. It is true that the "Oregon Question" was not to be settled for several decades. Much diplomacy and contention almost to the verge of war, were yet to come, but Gray's fortunate dash, "with all sail set, in between the breakers to a large river of fresh water," gave our nation a lead in the ultimate adjustment of the case, which we never lost.

We have said that there was one negative discovery-that of Meares- and two positive ones. Gray's was one of the two latter, and that of Broughton, in command of the "Chatham" accompanying Vancouver, was the other.

On May 20th, the "Columbia Rediviva"-a most auspicious name-bade adieu to the scene of her glory, and with the Stars and Stripes floating in triumph at her mizzen mast, turned northward. Again the American captain encountered Vancouver and narrated to him his discovery of the river. With deep chagrin at his own failure in the two most important objects of discovery in his voyage, the British commander directed Broughton to return to lat. 46° 10', enter the river, and proceed as far up as time allowed.

Accordingly, on October 21st, the companion ships parted at the mouth of the river, the "Discovery" proceeding to Monterey, while the "Chatham" crossed the bar, described by Broughton as very bad, and endeavored to ascend the bay that strethced out beautiful and broad before them. But finding the channel intricate and soundings variable, the lieutenant deemed it advisable to leave the ship at a point which must have been about twenty miles from the ocean, and to proceed thence in the cutter.

There is one thing observable in Vancouver's accounnt of this expedition of Broughton, and that is first, his assumption that the lower part of the Colum-

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bia is a bay and that its true mouth is at a point above that reached by Gray ; and second, that the river is much smaller than it really is. It is hard to recon- cile the language used in Broughton's report as given by Vancouver with the supposition of candor and honesty. For while it is true that the lower part of the river is of bay-like expanse from four to nine miles in width, yet it is en- tirely fresh and has all river characteristics. One of the points especially made by Gray was that he filled his casks with fresh water. Moreover, the bar is entirely at the ocean limit. So completely does the river debouch into the ocean, in fact, that in the great flood of 1894 the clams were killed on the ocean beaches for a distance of several miles on either side of the mouth of the river.

THE SIZE OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER

As to the size of the river, Broughton gives its width repeatedly as half a mile or a quarter of a mile, whereas it is at almost no point below the Cas- cades less than a mile in width, and a mile and a half is more usual. Broughton expresses the conviction that it can never be used for navigation by vessels of any size. In view of the vast commerce now constantly passing in and out, the absurdity of that idea is and has been for years sufficiently exhibited. The animus of the British explorers is obvious. By showing that the mouth of the river was really an inlet of the sea, they hoped to lay a claim to British occu- pancy as against Gray's discovery, and by belittling the size of the river they hoped to save their own credit with the British Admiralty for having lost so great a chance for first occupation.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 12

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1134

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134