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New Series

DECEMBER, 1908 , Vol. 6, No. 3

3 ^;7

f. '..;''

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
BULLETIN

a.«U

The Acquisition of Oregon Territory

Part. 1. Discovery and Exploration.

By JOSEPH SCHAFER, Ph. D.
Headl of the Department of History

Published Monthly by the University of Oregon, and entered at the
Itostoffice at Eugene, Oregbii, as second-class matter.

The
Acquisition of Oregon Territory
PART I.
Discovery and Exploration
By

JOSEPH SCHAFER, Ph. D.
Professor of History in the University of Oregon.
Author of a History of the Pacific North
west, The Pacific Slope and
Alaska, Etc.

Cr,2a. I

The Acquisition of Oregon Territory

Part 1. Discovery and Exploration. *
I. Exploration of the Oregon Coast.
The earliest voyages along the Pacific seaboard, of 'what is no'w
the United States, were made by Spaniards. The expedition of
Cabrillo and Ferelo, from Mexico in the year 1542-3, brought
into view nearly the entire extent of the California coast; these
discoveries were confirmed, and extended to at least the forty-
second parallel — the southern boundary of Oregon — by Vizcaino
and Agullarl in 1602-3. But having thus early established a
claim upon more territory than she was ever able to subdue and
occupy in a thorough manner, Spain took no further interest in
maritime discoveries northward from Mexico for one hundred and
seventy years. 'When she at last bestirred herself, in 1774 and
1775, sending out expeditions as far north as Alaska, the purpose
was not to seek a new field for the expanding energies of her
people; history proved that they were not able to make proper
use even of California. The northern voyages were undertaken
in response to a species of counsel of despair. The Spaniards
feared that Russia, already lodged in Alaska, would come down
the coast, and that England might succeed in finding a northwest
passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific, jeopardizing all Span
ish possessions along that coast; they hoped to avert both of these
calamities by fastening their claim upon as great a stretch of
coast as possible. In a word, the voyages of Perez, Heceta and
Bodega, while notable as exploits of eighteenth century seaman
ship, and historically fortunate in becoming connected with the
American territorial claims of half a century later, represent a
forced, irrational expression of the Spanish national life, and
could not have been expected greatly to benefit that nation. On
the other hand, it can be shown that British navigators were
brought to these coasts, independently of the Spanish activities,

*The present paper is designed to cover one feature of the historical
process by which the territory of Oregon, or the region known as the Pacific
Northwest, fell into the hands of the "Dnited States. The attempt has been
made to set out the essential facts relative to discovery and exploration, not
for the sake of their dramatic effect as part of ai historical narrative, but
for the bearing they have upon the evolution of a title to territory. The
facts relating to the early history of the occupation of the Oregon country
will be presented in the same spirit. Finally an attempt will be made to
clear up the questions of diplomacy involved in the acquisition of Oregon.
On this head the author has recently come into possession of a large amount
of new data, gleaned chiefly from the manuscript sources preserved in the
archives ol the British Government. ,
1 A convenient and careful summary of these voyages may be found in
Davidson. Voyages towards the Northwest Coast. D. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey. Report, 1886.

[4]
and almost contemporaneously with them, in direct response to a
strong national demand for commercial expansion, and as a feat
ure in a well matured, consistent policy of maritime discovery.
The search for a Northwest Passage, so ardently pursued by
the British during the first third of the seventeenth century, was
thereafter partially, though not wholly, intermitted. 2 The idea of
continuing the search from Hudson's Bay persisted, 3 so that when,
in the twenty-second year of Charles II the Hudson's Bay Com
pany was organized, one of its professed objects was to undertake
explorations to the northwest from Hudson's Bay with a view to
the discovery of a passage into the South Sea; under the charter
the company was expected to prosecute this search. 4 The com
pany, however, which was at first composed of leading courtiers,
and afterwards of a few of the merchant princes of London, be
cause engrossed in the safe profits to be reaped from the trade,
either wholly forgot the exploratory aims professed at the time
01 seeking its charter, or remembered them only when strenuously
importuned by those of its agents who were ambitious to explore.5
But at last public sentiment in England grew extremely hostile
to the Company, threatened them with loss of the charter for
failure to fulfill their engagements to the public, and, in a word,
practically compelled them to act.
The man who more than any other was Instrumental in arous
ing the public conscience on the question of the delinquency of
the Company, and at the same time blowing the embers of the
cooling national ambition to discover the Northwest Passage, was
Mr. Arthur Dobbs.6 This gentleman studied with care the records

2 The early voyages, beginning with Cabot and ending with Poxe and
James, may be studied in Voyages To-upards the Northtcest, 1596-1631. Hak
luyt Society, V.
3 A convenient summary ol the matter is given by Miller Christy in his
introduction to the Voyages of Foaie a'nd James. Hakluyt Society, 1894.
4 Copies of the charter may be found in Dobbs, Arthur. An Account of
the Countries Adjoining to Hudson's Bay Ap., and in the Report of the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on Hudson's Bay, 1749, Ap. 1.,
also in 'Willson's The Great Company, Ap. The charter recites that the
incorporators, naming them, have already "undertaken an expedition for
Hudson's Bay, in the northwest parts of America, for the discovery of a new
passage into the South Sea, and lor the finding of some trade in furs, min
erals, and other considerable commodities  ;" the charter was granted
"to encourage the said undertaking."
5 For evidence conce'rning the organization of the company at this time,
its profits, and its neglect of exploration, see Dobbs supra, especially 2-3.
43, 47-48; 93 ff. Report on Hudson's Bay Company, supra, , 231-234, 347,
257, 258-9, 260-61, 262 ff. Its first exploring expedition was sent out in
17] 9, two vessels, the Albany and Discovery, under Captains Berley and
Vaughn. They never returned. The Instructions given th^e navigators by
the Company are printed in the Report on Hudson's Bay, Ap. XX. : A list
of the vessels sent out by the company on a samilar errand is given , in
Ap. II of the same report.
6 We know very little a.bout his early life. He was born in 1689 or 90.
was a member of the Irish Parliament in 1732, and was the author of an
Enclosures Act Ibr Ireland ; he wrote many pamphlets ou the question of the
Northwest Passage, nlost of them strictures on the iconduct of Capt. Middle-
ton, and was the author of the book cited above which was nublished in
1744. ^In 1749 he testified before the House of Commons . select committee
which 'investigated the Hudson's Bay Company, and from 1753 to 1765 he
was Governor of the Royal Colony of North Carolina.
Some light is thrown upon his character by certain official letters of his
recently published in the "Correspondence of 'William Pitt with Colonial

[5]
of all tne earlier voyages to Hudson's Bay and convinced himself
that the passage existed. He also investigated, privately, the
conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, proving to his own satis
faction that they were doing all they could to prevent the dis
covery of a passage, which, by developing a great northern
commerce would be likely to destroy their monopoly. He took
depositions from ship captains, sailors, retired Hudson's Bay
servants, and French woodsmen, gathering Information upon every
phase of northern geography, and upon the state of the company's
business in those regions. The results were published by him in
1744 in his book on Hudson's Bay, which, although written in a
very bad style, with no sense of order, and with much repetition,
is nevertheless In some respects one of the most significant books
produced in the first half of the eighteenth century. In it, Mr.
Dobbs, who has the characteristics of a true seer, traces for us,
with startling distinctness, the great outlines of that maritime
and trade policy whose execution was to make up so large a
part of English history from his day to ours.
Mr. Dobbs begins with a discussion of the geography, peoples,
and potential trade of the Hudson's Bay country and the adja
cent regions extending southwest towards the Rocky Mountains
and south towards the Great Lakes. He shows that the Hudson's
Bay Company have failed to develop the trade of those countries,
contenting themselves with maintaining a few factories near the
Bay, and there exchanging an unvarying round of trade articles
with the Indians who bring down their furs, at a comparatively
unvarying but exorbitant price.7 In consequence, the French
from Canada have been pressing in, and they have already gained
a very large share of the trade properly belonging to British
subjects in the southern, eastern, and western districts appertain
ing to Hudson's Bay.8 Besides, he says: "The Company avoid
all they can making Discoveries to Northward of Churchill, or
extending their trade that way, for fear they should discover a
passage to the Western Ocean of America, and tempt, by that
means, the rest of the English merchants to lay open their
trade  "9 His remedy is to take away the Company's mo
nopoly and make the trade free to all who desire to engage in it.
This would result in the planting of trading settlements in the
eastern, southern, and western districts which have been neglected

Governors " etc, 2 vols., N. Y. 1906. He was an intense Protestant of the
Anglican type, an ardent hater of France, and an enthusiastic believer m
the high destiny of England. When Quebec was taken, Dobbs proclaimed a
day ol "Solemn Thanksgiving," aud composed a hymn to be sung throughout
the province. He has been, he says in a letter to Pitt, enclosing the hymn,
"a little enthusiastic in my expectations ; as the object of my wishes lor
more than thirty years in regard to the British dominion over North America
Is now so near its accomplishment." II, 206. Dobbs died in 1765.
7 Hudson's Bay, 43, 46-8 ; 57 ; also trade tables on pp. 193-202.
8 Hudson's Ba/y. See especially testimony ol Joseph La iFrance, pp. 29-39 ;
and comparison ol French and H. B. Co. lor sales in 1743, p. 201. Also,
incidents related on pp. 55-6.
9 Hudson's Bay, 48.

[6J
to the advantage of the French, as well as the more complete
development of the northern trade.io
Moreover, by thus pressing southward under the impetus of
trade rivalry, the British would soon reach the Great Lakes, and
these they ought to secure by planting a strong settlement on
the River Conde, which flows into Lake Erie near its southeastern
extremity, and there building vessels to navigate the lakes
throughout. This settlement, protected by the Iroquois and Fort
Oswego, and supported by its neighborhood to the colonies of
Pennsylvania and Maryland, whence constant accessions of popu
lation might easily be derived, Dobbs regarded as the key to
the control of the continent. The French would thereby be con
fined to Lower Canada, being cut off not only from the Great
Lakes but also from the Mississippi. To make assurance doubly
sure, another settlement might be made on the Ohib near Lake
Erie. "By having the Cherokees and Chicasaws to the southward
as a barrier between us and Louisiana," he says, "and by securing
the Choctaws, we might spread our commerce beyond the Missis
sippi; by whicn means the inland trade of that vast northern
continent, much greater than Europe, would in time be wholly
enjoyed by us in Britain, independent of any other European
Power. "11 When we add that Dobbs proposed the acquisition
of the Great Lakes and their free navigation by treaty, in case
of victory over the French, in war, we have filled up the outline
o... what may be termed the continental division of his scheme. 12
The second portion is equally bold, and still more alluring in
its Cuaracter. It embraced, as a point of departure, the opening
of the Northwest Passage into the Pacific. This done, an im
mense trade could at once be begun with China, Japan, the Philip
pines, and the Spice Islands; with Mexico, Peru, Chili, and all
the islands thus far discovered in the Pacific.l3 But this would
be only a beginning; for the Pacific Ocean had as yet been ex
plored only in certain narrow regions, along well defined lines
of navigation usually followed by all ships. No doubt, he says,
the vast reaches of that ocean not yet searched contain many
islands, perhaps continents, inhabited by numerous peoples. He
proposed a systematic exploration by Great- Britain of the Pacific
Ocean in both the southern and the northern hemispheres, for

10 Hudson's Bay, 56-7.
11 Hudson's Bay, 61 ff. quoted Irom p. 65. The scheme of a settlement on
Lake Brie, and another on the Ohio was launched by Franklin ten years
later and for reasons not altogether dissimilar. See Franklin's Works (Bige-
low) II ; 474. An abstract of Franklin's plans may be found in Alden, New
Governments West of the AUeghanies, 3-5.
12 In discussing Dobbs's administration of North Carolina, Doctor Raper
says : (N. Carolina, 57) "But to Dobbs it was much more important to aid
the other colonies, especially those in the North, than to defend or work
for the interests solely of North Carolina. To drive the French from North
America seemed to him of lar more importance than to make North Carolina
a very prosperous province." See also letter to Pitt, Oct. 31, 1759, in which
Dobbs exults over present prospects. With the B'rench expelled from the
continent, the Mississippi and Mobile in possession of England, the only
thing lelt to do would be' "opening the Hudson's Bay trade to give us the
whole trade of the northern continent to Mexico." Correspondence of Wil
liam Pitt, etc., II, 316.
13 Huuson's Bay, 166-7.

[7]
the purpose of bringing these lands and peoples to the light, and
beginning a trade with each in turn.l4
In conclusion, Dobbs suggests the method to be followed by
Great Britain in making discoveries in the South Sea, and in
carrying on a trade with the islands and countries discovered.
He says: "If, then, a discovery should be made of this (North
west) Passage, to carry on so vast a trade to advantage, a con
siderable settlement should be immediately made in California,
or rather upon some convenient island near the coast  That
settlement should be made the rendezvous for all ships going from
or returning to Europe,  and should be the head settlement,
as Batavia is to the Dutch in India, and from hence the trade
might spread to Asia, India, Mexico, and Peru; and from this
place the islands in the great South Sea might be discovered,
and a commerce be begun with them.
"After this settlement is made secure, another should be
formed in a southern latitude, about 30 degrees, about 7 or 800
leagues from the American coast, perhaps the Isle of Easter, or
some other island with a, good harbor and fruitful soil, where
the natives are peaceable and humane, and from thence a further
discovery southerly and westerly, and a trade may be begun with
these regions, as well as with those nearer the line; so that those
two settlements would be as two centers, the one for the southern,
and the otner for the northern countries and islands dispersed
through those seas; when these were made, if the only true and
laudable method was followed, of civilizing and assisting the
natives, and putting them upon proper improvements in their
several countries and islands, suitable to their different climates,
that might be beneficial to themselves and proper for trade;
the English might be the carriers of all those nations, which
would give them an immense profit, and furnish them with all
our manufactures, and such other European commodities as they
should want, without being at any great expense of people to
settle other countries in those seas. Here would be room for
improvements in trade for ages to come, and would give full
employment to our nianufacturers and merchants in Britain, and
a perpetual return to wealth; and at the same time, we should
civilize and make happy numberless nations, and bring them, by
degrees, to be capable of knowing divine truths. "15
Turning from this literary forecast of events to the events
themsel'ires, we find first, that the search for the Northwest
Passage was resumed as a consequence of Dobbs's agitation. The
Hudson's Bay Company, in 1737, had sent out two vessels pro
fessedly to make exploration for a passage, but the expedition
accomplished nothing of consequence.16 Mr. Dobbs next turned
to the Lords of the Admiralty, inducing them to devote govern
ment ships to the object. Two vessels of the navy were selected,
, 14 Hudso'k's Ba/y 134. To show how small a space in the Pacific, com
paratively, Jiad . as yet been searched, Dobbs reviews all the voyages in that
ocpan of which journals had been published. 133-168.
15 The quotation is from the last page of the book, 168, with lour lines
from 167.
16 Barrow, Voyages Into the Arctic Regains, 278-9. No Journal ol this
voyage has been published.

[8]
the "Furnace" and "Discovery," and were placed under Captain
Middleton and William Moor. The voyage was made In 1741-2;
il resulted in a careful survey of the waters north of Hudson's
Bay, and in the conclusion that no passage existed. 17 This con
clusion Mr. Dobbs undertook to refute; and so influential was
he, with public opinion all running in his direction, that he was
able to induce Parliament in 1745 to pass an actis offering a
reward of £20,000 "to any of his Majesty's subjects who should
discover a Northwest Passage through Hudson's Straits. "19 He
also raised, by public subscription, the sum of £10,000, and pur
chased two vessels called the "Dobbs" and "California," which
sailed in May, 1746, under the direction of Captain William Moor
and Captain Francis Smith. The expedition returned in 1747, no
more successful than its predecessors had been.20
This was the last attempt to find a passage from Hudson's Bay
or Strait. Indeed, for a period of about twenty years, the general
question of the Northwest Passage remained in partial abeyance.
Meantime, the British Government had secured Canada and the
eastern portion of Louisiana in consequence of the Seven Years
War. Britain had also become interested in making explorations
in the Pacific, and by a series of great voyages, prosecuted by
Anson, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook, had won for herself
the vast new empire of which Dobbs, in 1744, had only dreamed.
Anson's voyage was begun in 1740 and terminated in 1744.
It had as its object to attack the Spanish power, with which
England was then at war, in the Pacific, especially on the coast
of South America, and in the Philippines. 21 Through great mis
fortunes at sea, the program of offensive warfare could be only
partially carried out. Yet, the results of the voyage were im
portant. Anson stormed Payta, a port on the Peruvian coast,
and captured it in spite of the weakened condition of his own
forces.22 He cruised off the Mexican coast for the Manila galleon,
but it went into hiding and escaped him; 23 he then sailed to
China, and around the Cape of Good Hope to England. The
historian of the voyage24 insists that, had the squadron rounded
Cape Horn at the proper season, and thus saved itself from partial
destruction, it could easily have captured Baldivia in Chili, terri
fied that kingdom, and "awed the most distant parts of the
Spanish Empire in America."25 He also gave to his English
readers a graphic account of the trade between Manila and the
Mexican Port of Acapulco, with suggestions as to how British
seamen might profit by the information; 26 and he described the

17 Barrow, 280-286.
18 18 Geo. II, c. 17.
19 Christy, Introduction to the Voyages of Foxe amd James.
20 Ibid.
21 Anson's Voyage Round the 'World, 2-3.
22 Ibid ; 187 If.
23 Ibid; 249 ff. Anson afterwards sailed from China to Manila and
caught the next galleon for Manila, taking a prize valued at $1,500,000.
Ibid, 270-285.
24 Mr. Richard Walter.
25 Anson's Voyage 280.
26 Anson's Voyage, 283 ff.

[9]
Spanish governments along the Pacific as almost at the point of
dissolution and only waiting for a power like Britain to give them
the coup de grace. 27
"Anson's Voyage Around the World" proved a book of uncom
mon interest to the British public. The first edition was pub
lished in 174 4, almost contemporaneously with Dobbs's "Hudson
Bay," and it ran through seven different editions within four
years. 28 Moreover, the 1744 account of Anson's Voyage is
published in Doctor John Harris's stupendous work, the "Navl-
gantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca," which summarized the
contents of more than six hundred volumes of voyages and travels,
was dedicated to the merchants of Great Britain, and had as its
chief indirect object the development of British trade. 29 Clearly
the people of Great Britain were at this time keenly alive to
every commercial opportunity that might be presented, in what
ever portion of the world.
For the space of twenty years after the return of Anson's
expedition, no new enterprise was set on foot in that direction,
a neglect easily explained by the wars which practically filled
up that interval. Then, in 1764, came the voyage of Lord Byron,
who took possession of the Falkland Islands for Great Britain,
and made various minor discoveries in the South Sea; 30 In 1766
the voyage of Captain WaUis and Captain Carteret, which re
sulted in the discovery of many islands in the same waters; 31
finally, the exploits of all of these navigators were surpassed both
in magnitude and in brilliancy by the two first voyages of Captain
Cook, which occurred between the years 1768 and 1775.32
Cook thoroughly explored the recently discovered lands, also
New Zealand and portions of Australia, besides discovering new
islands and beginning the systematic study of the native popu
lations. Returning to England in 177 5, he found the Government
ready to propose a third expedition, destined to be his last, but
also in some respects his greatest.
We have already noted that the voyage of the "Dobbs" and
"California" in 1746-7, was the last attempt to discover the
Northwest Passage by sailing north and west from Hudson's Bay.
But, with public sentiment as it was, there was no possibility
that the idea would be dropped by the British people. In 17 68
Thomas Jefferys, geographer to the King, published a book to

27 Anson's Voyage, 232 fl.
28 The British Museum contains twenty different editions of Anson's
Voyage. See Catalog Anson, George.
29 "As the main point I have had in view has been the setting the his
tory and advantages ol commerce in a true light, I presume that I could not
have inscribed this performance to more proper patrons." Harris argued for
the sending of another expedition to the South Sea in order to "strike out
some new branch of commerce." He shows much respect for Dobbs and his
views on the Northwest Passage.
30 Hawkesworth, Account of Voyages, I, 1-139, passim.
31 Ibid ; 363-522, describes the voyage of Wallis, and I, 523-676 that of
Captain Carteret, who was early separated from Wallis.
32 Hawkesworth, II, III.

[10]
prove "The Great Probability of a Northwest Passage," dedicating
the performance to Lord Hillsborough. By this time the opera
tions of the Russians had become well known in England, Jef
ferys having, in 1761, published a translation of Mueller's work,
"Voyages from Asia to America, for Completing the Discoveries
of the North West Coast of America."
In the years 1769 to 1772 Samuel Hearne, an agent of
the Hudson's Bay Company, made his overland journey from
Churchill to the mouth of Coppermine River, which he found to
discharge into a sea in, as he recokned it, latitude 71 degrees
5 4 minutes.33 The results of this journey, which became known
promptly on Hearne's return,34 coupled with the new interest in
tue Pacific and the improved knowledge concerning the geograph
ical relations between Asia and America, gave a new direction to
explorations for the discovery of a passage from the Atlantic to
tne Pacific. Instead of looking for it from Hudso'n's Bay or
Strait, as formerly, the idea was adopted of searching In higher
latitudes, as for example, from Baffin's Bay; and since Bering's
Strait was known to communicate with the Arctic Ocean, and
British ships were already busily exploring in Pacific waters. It ,
was resolved to conduct a thorough search from both the Atlantic
side and the Pacific side. 35
For the second enterprise the Government selected Captain
Cook, who had just returned from the second of his successful
¦Voyages to the South Sea, and was beyond question the most
skillful navigator in the British service. He was expected to
follow up his explorations in the South Pacific, but It was these
northern operations which were regarded as of greaest im
portance. 36
Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, with two splendidly
equipped vessels, the "Discovery" and the "Resolution," July 12th,
1776. After completing his explorations In the South Pacific,
which occupied the better part of two years, he ran northward,
discovering, early in January, 1778, an island to which he gave
the name of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. According to the
secret Instructions Issued to him on leaving England, Cook was
to fall in with the American coast or New Albion, as it was called
in allusion to Drake's supposed discoveries, 37 at about latitude
45 degrees. 38 He in fact sighted the mountains of Oregon at
about latitude 44, on March 6, 1778.39 For some days the squad-

33 A journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern
Ocean. By Samuel Hearne, London, 1795, especially 162-4.
34 They were well known to Lord Sandwich when he drew up ' Cook's
instructions in 1776. Cook's Voyage, I, II.
35 Lieut. Pickersgill was sent out, in 1776, to explore from Davis' Strait
outward. Pickersgill sailed before June 10, 1776, and attained latitude 68
degrees 14 minutes north, when he was turned back by ice. Forster History
of the Voyages and Discoveries made in the North. London 1786 467-9.
36 See, Cook's Instructions, Cook's Voyage, 1776-1780, Introd. XXXI 11.
37 In fact, Drake made no discovery worth discussing in this paper.
38 Cook's Voyage, Introd., p. XXXII.
39 Ibid; II, 258.

[11]
ron remained in this region, and was even forced back to nearly
the parallel of 42 degrees, the land being usually in sight. Cook
named on this portion of the coast Cape Foulweather, also Capes
Perpetua and St. Gregory.40
After the lapse of fifteen days, the winds became propitious
for the northward voyage, and on March 22, Cook found himself
in sight of land in latitude 47 degrees 5 minutes. Here he began
a careful search for the Straits of Juan de Puca, concluding there
was not "the least probability that any such thing ever existed.''41
In latitude 4S degrees 15 minutes he named Cape Flattery.42 At
the end of Marcn the fleet entered a safe and commodious harbor,
just under the fiftieth parallel, in an indentation which Cook
at first named King George's Sound, but which later was called
Nootka. Here he remained till April 2 6. He explored the sound
thoroughly, and received on board daily many natives who were
eager to exchange otter skins for trinkets and baubles of every
kind. 43 Leaving Nootka he stood to the northwest, saw a moun
tain which he named Mt. Edgecombe,44 and a little later sighted
Mt. St. Ellas, where he crossed the path of the earlier Russian
explorers on the Alaska coast. He examined every promising
inlet observed on that coast, in order to settle once for all the
questions of a passage into the Atlantic, in the existence of which
he appears to have had but little faith. On the 9th of August
Cook reached the "western extremity of all America" at what
he called Cape Prince of Wales, in latitude 65 degrees 46 minutes,
and longitude 191 degrees 45 minutes.
It was then too late to explore from Bering Strait eastward,
and Cook proceeded to Hawaii to winter, and there met his death
at the hands of the natives. The fleet returned to the north the
next season, but failed to find the passage around America.
Cook's voyage was performed too late to give Great Britain
the strongest claim upon the territory explored; yet in every
particular except priority in time his exploration must be allowed
to possess a superiority over those of the Spaniards Perez, Heceta,
and Bodega. His work was much more thorough, especially be
tween 42 degrees and 44 degrees, and again from 47 degrees
north, than theirs had been; and his reports gave to the world
Its first definite knowledge of the geography of the Oregon coast.
But more than all, Cook's voyage was the logical culmination of
a long continued maritime and trade policy ,45 which was raising
the British nation to ever higher planes of commercial greatness,
while the Spanish voyages were the despairing effort of a declin
ing power to save itself by a measure of expansion which it was

40 Supra, 258 260-261.
41 Cook's Voyage. II. 263 and n.
42 Ibid; 263.
43 Cook's Voyage, II, 270-288.
44 The same landmark had been seen by the Spanish explorer Bodega in
1775, and was named by him San Jacinto.
45 That the British navigators were perfectly aware of this fact at the
time is shown by the remarks of the writer of the introduction to Cook's
Voyage, London, 1784. See especially XXVII ff.

[12]
unable properly to sustain. These considerations do not, for the
moment, make the British clailn better or the Spanish claim
worse In international law', 46 but they strongly suggest what must
be the historical outcome of a conflict entered into by two nations
upon such unequal terms.

II. Discovery of Puget Sound and the Columbia.
The history of exploration on the Northwest coast, after the
voyage of Cook, Is the record of a series of individual discoveries
covering separately only local geographical features but in the
aggregate serving to fill in the outline that Cook constructed. A
cornparison of Cook's map with a modern map of that coast
will quickly reveal the most striking changes effected by the later
discoveries, and our attention is at once drawn to the changes in
tne north. 1 Cook was unaware of any breaks in the coast line
from Cape Flattery to far beyond Nootka Sound; for aught he
knew it might have been a solid continental rim, without a single
indentation save the insignificant ones he laid down. We at
the present time know that neither Cook nor the Spanish navi
gators who preceded him touched or even saw the continental
land mass between Cape Flattery and the Alaska coast, but that
they sailed along a group of islands, the largest of which, Van
couver Island and Queen Charlotte's Island, form a barrier to
the coast from the parallel of 4 8 degrees to above 54 degrees.
These islands served to conceal from the early navigators that
great inland sea which, under the names of Puget Sound, Queen
Charlotte's Sound, etc., forms the most significant feature in
the geography of the upper coast.
The later exploration of this region meant, essentially, the
mapping of the continental shores of those seas, the straits
leading into them, and the great islands by which the ocean Is
restrained on the west, and whose outer coasts constituted the
lirst land seen in this region.
we have good evidence to prove that Perez, in 1774, reached
the northern point of Queen Charlotte's Island, after having sailed
within sight of its coast through more than a degree of latitude; 2

46 But the failure ol the Spaniards to properly report their discoveries
estopped them from denying the independence and originality of those made
by Captain Cook.
1 Cook's map lays down on the Northwest coast only Capes St. Gregory,
Perpetua, and Foulweather in the south, and in the north Cape Flattery,
Nootka Sound, Hope Bay, and Woody Point. The rest of his coast Is the
conventional dotted lines.
2 Land was described on the 17th of July, and after standing to the
north northwest for two days, an observation placed the ship at Lat. 53
degrees 41 minutes. Thence Perez sailed north northeast, and on the 22d
at noon found himself in Lat. 55 degrees. Historical Society ol Southern
CaUlornia, II, 120-121, and 124.

[ 13 ] ,
but he failed in an attempt to round that point.3 Bodega, in
1775, and Cook, in 1778, slipped past the point without observing
it at all; indeed, both were far out at sea. 4 So the interior waters
remained undiscovered from that quarter.
The actual discovery, and the partial mapping, of this northern
littoral was one of the results of an important trade movement in
cited by the operations of Captain Cook. 5 We have seen that while
at Nootka sound. Cook received on board numerous delegations
of Indians who were eager to trade anything of value they pos
sessed for "knives, chisels, pieces of Iron and tin, nails, looking
glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal." The articles they gave
in exchange were various kinds of furs and skins of animals,
the most Interesting and significant being those of the sea-otter. 6
Some of the furs secured in this way were sold to the Russians
at Kamchatka. On reaching Canton the remainder were disposed
of to Chinese merchants. They paid for the first twenty sea otter
skins offered by Captain King the sum of $800.7 But thereafter
the price steadily went up, a few of the best skins selling for $120
each. One seaman sold the furs he had personally collected for
the sum of $800.8 Though Cook's men had gathered these furs
only incidentally, and had taken no pains whatever to preserve
them in good condition, they received a total of about two thou
sand pounds for what they sold at Canton,9 and both officers and
men became at once impressed with the possibilities of gain in a
voyage to the Northwest coast for trading purposes distinctly.lO
The first definite plan, so far as is known, for improving this
commercial opportunity was put forth by Captain King, who
in the history of Cook's voyage presents an outline of his project.
He recommended that the East India Company, in their China
ships, carry a number of extra men, and on their arrival at Canton
fit them out with two vessels and a full supply of articles for

3 "We stood lor land on an east by north course lor the purpose ol
trying to double the point lying to the eastward ol Santa Margarita (now
called North Island), in order to discover whether there was anchorage
ground in the coast behind that point, but the current took us so lar to
leeward that we were unable to letch the point ; so we stood off shore on a
south south west course." Ibid, 123-4. See also 189-90, and Bancroft,
N. W. C. I., 152-3 and notes. Had Perez rounded the island, he would have
entered the inland sea by the present Dixon Strait.
4 See Maurelle's Journal, Cushing's Report, 44. Bodega saw land near
San Jacinto, now Mt. Edgecumbe. See also Cook's Voyage, II, 341-44, espe
cially 343-4. "At seven in the evening [May 1] being in the latitude of 55
degrees 20 minutes, we got sight ol the land. ..." This was the first sight
Cook had had of the land since leaving Nootka on the evening of April 26.
The land seen was a part of the Alaskan coast. He had missed Queen
Charlotte's Island emtirely.
A Spanish expedition of 1779 under Arteaga and Bodega ran to 55 degrees
before sighting land. See Bancroft, N. W. C. I., 173.
5 Cook's Voyage, II 271.
6 Ibid, 270. Cook mentions bears, wolves, foxes, deer, raccoons, polecats,
martens. 7 Ibid, III, 431.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid, 437.
10 Ibid. Captain King says : "The rage' with which our seamen were
possessed to return to Cook's River, and by another cargo of skins to make
their fortune, at one time was little short of mutiny."

[14]
trade with the Northern natives. These vessels should be required
to sail along the coasts of China and Japan, in order to complete
the exploration of those regions, and afterwards run to the
American coast for furs. He thought that the otter skins that
could be gathered incidentally, with no loss of time and at a
trifling outlay of money, might be made to pay the entire cost
of sucn a voyage.ii
These suggestions were not carried out, perhaps because the
East India Company was not prepared to further the enterprise; 12
but at the time of the publication of his journal of Cook's voyage,
1784, Captqln King apparently foresaw that the fur trade was
likely to become a regular feature of British commerce, and he
looked to this trade as a means of furthering exploration. 13 That
such expectations were well founded is shown by the fact that in
the following year, 1785, a definite commercial project of the
kind contemplated was launched at London. Mr. Richard Cadman
Etches, and others, merchants of London, were the principals in
the enterprise, but they enlisted the hearty support of the British
ministry, and the encouragement of the leading scientific men.
Etches' plan was to establish "a regular and reciprocal system
01 commerce between Great Britain, the Northwest coast of
America, the Japanese, Kureil and Jesso Islands, and the coast of
Asia, Corea, and China,  "14 Two vessels, the "King George"
and the "Queen Charlotte," were equipped, placed in charge of
Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon, both of whom had been
with Cook, and sent out for "discovery and commerce;" they
were furnished at the same time with a number of extra seamen
and artificers, stores, ammunition, provisions, etc., for the estab
lishment of two factories, the one in King George's Sound (Noot
ka), and another to the northward, and for opening new com
mercial channels to the manufactories of Great Britain. "So
satisfied were the ministry with the great and public advantages
Ol the enterprise, with the liberal equipment and extensive ar
rangements of the owners, that Mr. Rose, Mr. Steele, Sir Joseph
Banks, Lord Mulgrave, and a number of other distinguished and
public spirited gentlemen, visited the ships at Deptford, spent
the day convivially on board, and honored the expedition by christ
ening the two ships, the officers of which were dressed in full
uniform; and, as an emblem of so novel and enterprising an
undertaking, Hope, leaning on an anchor, was painted on their

11 Cook's Voyage, II, 437-440.
12 Ibid, 438.
13 Ibid, 440.
_ 14 An Authentic Statement of all the facts relative to Nootka Sound ;
Its discovery, history settlement, trade, and the probable advantage to be
derived from it ; in an address to the King. London, 1790. p. 2 "The
plan was warmly applauded and patronized by the ministry, by Sir Joseph
,?.?<J?' S"" John pick, and many other personages of rank and acknowledged
abilities, who rendered Mr. Etches every assistance In digesting anu maturing
the principal outlines of the undertaking." The above described pamphlet
of only twenty-six pages, signed "Argonaut" is rare. From internal evidence
one would be Inclined to say the author was Mr. Etches or some one author
ized to speak for him. The pamphlet contains a more Intimate account of
tlie beginning pf this trade project than can be derived from Portlock,

[15]
colors. "15 A license was procured from the South Sea Company
to enable the new concernie to trade and make discoveries in
their field, and another license was obtained from the East India
Company for disposing of their cargoes in China. 17 "The in
structions, both public and private, delivered to the captains,"
says the above writer, "were previously submitted to your Maj
esty's ministers for perusal, and returned with the utmost appro
bation. "18 These facts go to prove that we are dealing here with
a project which was both private and public: private, in that it
was financed by a group of merchants who hoped for a gainful
trade; public, in that both the Government and the people of
Great Britain were interested in the outcome of the experiment,
which would determine fo'r the North American region the com
mercial value of the policy of government explorations so long
and so successfully pursued, and might help to complete those
explorations. The "King George" and "Queen Charlotte" sailed in September,
1785, rounded Cape Horn, and in July of the following year
made Cook's River (or Cook's Inlet) in Alaska, where they were
welcomed by a party of Russian traders. 19 Here they collected
a small quantity of furs, and then tried to make in succession
Prince William's Sound, Cross Sound, and Nootka, but failed In
every case; they finally ran to the Hawaiian Islands to winter,
whereas It had been the Intention to winter in Nootka Sound.20
In March, 1787, they proceeded once more to the north, making
Prince William's Sound. 21 Here the ships separated, Dixon in
the "Charlotte" standing to the east and south intending to make
Nootka Sound after trading along the coast in higher latitudes. 22
he visited Admiralty Bay and Norfolk Sound in Alaska; then,
in prosecuting the trade further along the coast, he saw the strait
between Queen Charlotte's Island, so called by him, and the con
tinent, or rather what he erroneously supposed to be the continent.
Dixon ran all along the west coast of the great island, along part
of the north coast, around the south end and well up on the east
side. He was thus enabled to map the island with considerable
accuracy, and to fix certain definite points on the suppositious
mainland to the east. Cape Pitt, Cape Chatham, and Cape Dal-
rymple, which outlined Dixon's Strait.23 While his surveys left

15 Ibid, 3. For a confirmation of some of these details, and for others
not given by "Argonaut," see Portlock's Voyage, 4-7.
16 It was called The King George's Sound Company. Portlock, 4.
17 "Argonaut " 4.
18 Ibid.
19 Portlock, 99-102.
20 Portlock, 127.
21 Ibid, 206 ff.
22 Ibid, 224 ; and Dixon's Voyage, 159.
23 See map, Dixon ; also p. 224 ff. Meares denied the originality of
Dixpn's discovery, claiming It for Laurie and Guise. 1786. See map in
Meares' Voyages, 1791 Ed. In the absence of other proof, however, it seems
proper to accord to Dixon the credit he claimed, of "adding these islands
to the geography of this part ol the coast." Tne French navigator. La
Perouse, who passed down the coast in 1786, almost made this discovery,

[16]
much to be desired in the way of thoroughness, Dixon's voyage
nevertheless marked an important advance in the world's geo
graphical knowledge of this region. Let us now see what was
taking place farther to the south.
We have several times in the preceding chapter referred to
the supposed straits of Juan de Fuca, which were sought for
between the parallels of forty-seven and forty-eight first by
Heceta and Bodega in 1775, and again by Cook In 1778. The
story that Incited eighteenth century navigators to such investi
gations is one of the most curious In the history of exploration.
It was first published by Samuel Purchas in his "Pilgrimage,"
edition of 162 5. The story23 is to tbe effect that De Fuca, a
Greek, who was at that time In the service of the viceroy of New
Spain, sailed from Mexico in the year 1592 with one small caravel
for the discovery of the Straits of Anian and through them the
North Sea or Atlantic. De Fuca proceeded northward till he
came to latitude forty-seven, and then, "finding that the land
trended north and northeast, with a broad Inlet of sea between
47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing thence
more than twenty days, and found that land trending still some
time north west, and north east, and north, and also east and
south eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the
said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing;
and that, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the
northwest coast thereof a great headland or Island, with an
exceeding high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar, thereon."
He claimed to have sailed through this strait to the Atlantic and
back again to Mexico, where, as also in Spain, he failed of the
reward which he surely expected for this notable service, and
therefore he was prepared to strike a bargain with the British,
who were at that time keenly anxious to find just such a strait.
It is not necessary to dwell on the probabilities and improbabil
ities of this story. The interesting fact is that it strongly influ
enced the course of later exploration, and that the strait laid
down on the west coast of America on the basis of this report
proved to be, after all, only one degree south of the extremely
important waterway in whose modern designation the old Greek
pilot is vouchsafed a kind of immortality which he may not
altogether deserve.
When Portlock and Dixon reached the Alaska coast In May,
1787, they found In Prince William's Sound a ship called the
"Nootka," commanded by Captain John Meares. Meares was

but not quite. See his Voyage, 3d Eng. Ed., London 1807, 154 11. ; also
Bancroft, N. W. C. I., 175.
23 Vol. Ill, p. 849, as cited by Greeuhow, Ore. aud Cal,. 1845 Ed., 409.
The story does not appear in the 1614 edition of Purchas. which is before
me. The authority is Michael Lock, an Englishman engaged in the Levant
trade, who was a friend of Richard Hakluyt. Lock claims to have met
De Fuca at Venice in the year 1596, and to have obtained the facts from
him directly. Lock tried on several occasions to Induce De Fuca to go to
England and take service under the Queen, but always failed because he was
never quite prepared to satisfy the Greek's pecuniary demands De Fuca
claimed to have been in the Spanish ship captured and looted by Cavendish
in 1787; and to have sustained heavy losses, for which he required to be
reimbursed. See the relation ol Lock, and the correspondence between him
and De Fuca in Greenhow, supra, 409 11 ; also 88-9.

[17]
an English naval officer on leave, who had sailed from India
In March, 1786, reaching Alaska just before winter. 24 Later,
it was learned that other ships, from Macao in China, and from
Ostend, had been upon the coast25 in the years 1786 and 1787.
One of these, the "Imperial Eagle," or the "Loudoun," com
manded by an Englishman named Barclay, sailed from Nootka
in July, 1787, and discovered a passage between Cape Flattery
and the land he had just left, which was of course Vancouver
Island, whose Insular character was not at that time known.
Barclay did not enter the strait or give it a name. 26 In the fol
lowing year Meares, who was now in general command of several
vessels belonging to a company resulting from a merger of the
Etches concern with the one formerly represented by Meares,
ordered an exploration to be made of the strait Barclay had
found. 27 In consequence it was entered by Robert Duffin on
the 16th of July, 17 88, and traced for the distance of at least
three or four leagues, possibly more.28 We also have it on the
authority of Meares that in the year 1789 the American sloop
"Washington," commanded by J. Kendrick, entered the strait,
of which Meares had told him, and sailed entirely around Van
couver and Queen Charlotte's islands, proving that Nootka Sound
was not an indentation on the mainland, and establishing the
fact of the existence in this northern region of a great archi
pelago. 29. While this discovery was never claimed by Kendrick,
so far as Is known, and while it is not as well authenticated as
we could wish, yet there are reasons for believing that it was
actually made. At least one is at a loss to know how Meares
could have constructed the map which accompanies his edition
of 17 89 without some such information as he says he received
from one of Kendrlck's men.30

24 Meares' Voyages I, Intro. ; also Portlock, 218. The Nootka had as
consort the Sea-Otter, commanded by William Tipping, also an officer ol
the Royal navy. These ships were owned by British merchants in India, who
operated under the protection ol the East India Company. See Meares'
Memorial. Voyages, Ap.
25 Dixon, 230-233. James Hanna seems to have been the licst trader on
the coast, making ms lirst voyage Irom China in 1785. Supra, 232, Meares,
II. 252 11., and Bancroft, N. W. C. I., 173.
26 See letters ol John Charles Barclay to Lord Aberdeen, January 2 and
January 16, 1846. He says : "The ship which my lather [Capt. Barclay]
commanded [on the N. W. coast in 1787] was Tiona fide an English vessel
litted out (I believe) In a British port, and manned with British sailors."
Says the ship was The Lo-udoun. Letter lound in B^oreign Ollice Amer
ica, 459.
27 This discovery was communicated to Meares, who mentions it In
Voyages, II, 258.
28 Meares. Ill, Ap. Instructions to Robert Duffin. Meares called it
"the Strait of John De Fuca." He says to Duffin,: "You will enter this
strait as far as you find any inhabitants, or prospect Of furs."
29 Duffin's Journal extract, In Meares, Voyages, Ap. No. IV
30 Meares, II, 260 ff. After sailing through the strait, he says, the
Washington "entered into an extensive sea, where she steered to the north
ward and eastward, and had communication with the various tribes who
inhabit the shores of the numerous islands that are situated at the back of
Nootka Sound .... The sea also, which is seen to the east is of great
extent." Meares was trying to derive from this voyage evidence to prove
the probability of a passage to or near Hudson's Bay from this part of tlie
Pacific.

[18]
We have now reached the time when Spain and Great Britain
come into conflict over the question of their respective rights on
the Northwest coast. Fortunately, the entire history of this
struggle has recently been worked out with great elaboration
of detail, 31 so that,' for the purposes of this paper we need not
be detained long by it. The main point is that Spain, finding
that Nootka Sound was become a place of rendezvous for British
trading vessels, and fearing lest her own claims of sovereignty
over the region should suffer in consequence, resolved to fortify
Nootka Sound and exclude all foreigners from the coast. For
this purpose she sent warships from Mexico In 1789, whose com
mander, Don Martinez, siezed several of the ships belonging to
the British company and sent them to Mexico. The two govern
ments thereupon entered into a correspondence which seemed
likely at one time to be abruptly terminated by war. In the
end, however, the Spaniards were forced to admit the rights of
the British to trade upon the Northwest coast, and to occupy any
portions of the same not already occupied "for the purpose of
carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country, or
of making establishments there." It was also stipulated that
British subjects should not carry on their navigation or fisheries
within the distance of ten marine leagues from any place on
the coast already occupied by Spain, which was Intended as a
protection to the infant establishments in Callfornia.32 These
were of much greater interest to Spain than was the barren
stretch of coast from California to Alaska, of which she could
never make an effective use. It may be remarked here that
after the settlement of the Nootka difficulty, Spain promptly
retired to California and ended, once for all, her career on the
Northwest coast. "It (the Nootka Convention) was the first
express renunciation of Spain's ancient claim to exclusive sov
ereignty over the American shores of the Pacific Ocean and the
South Seas. "33 But for Britain and for America the controversy
had far more significant results, as the following pages will show.
There was still one point with reference to northern geog
raphy which interested the Spaniards, namely, the possibility
of the existence of a passage to the Atlantic by way of Fuca's
Stfait. It was to satisfy themselves on this head, that, in the
years 1790, 1791, and 1792 expeditions Were sent out from
Mexico to survey these waters.34 The results of some of. their
explorations were very Important. Quimper, in 1790, carefully
mapped Fuck's Strait to the Canal de Haro; the next year Eliza
continued the examination of Canal de Haro, extending his ob
servations northward Into Rosarlo Straits; and In 1792 Galieno
and Valdez passed entirely around Vancouver's Island, surveying
and mapping It with great care. 35

31 See Manning, William Ray, The Nootka Sound Controversy. Am.
Hist. Assn. An. Rept., 1904, 279-478.
32 See the Nootka Convention. Manning, 455.
33 Ibid, 462.
34 Bancroft. N. W. C. I., 273.
35 Ibid, 240-43 ; 244-48 ; also Papers Relating to the Treaty of Wash
ington, V, Berlin Arbitration, 88-98., This contains a short account of
Quimper's voyage, extracts from the journal of Eliza's voyage, and more
extended extracts from the report of the voyage of Galieno ajnd Valdez.

[19]
In the events which brought the English navigator. Captain
George Vancouver, to the Northwest coast at this time, we have
one more proof of the intimate relation, the action and reaction,
between trade and exploration as features of British policy. It
was the reports and maps of the voyages of British traders, like
Portlock, Dixon, and Meares, which proved the existence of an
archipelago where Cook had found no break In the coast line,
that stimulated i,iie Government to make one more careful search
for the long-sought passage. 36 The instructions issued to Van
couver by the Admiralty bring out this point in a striking man
ner: "The King having judged it expedient that an expedition
should be undertaken for acquiring a more complete knowledge
than has yet been obtained, of the Northwest coast of America;
. . . .you are. . . . [after surveying the Sandwich Islands] to re
pair to the North-west coast of America, for the purpose of
acquiring a more complete knowledge of it, as above mentioned."
Vancouver was instructed to examine that coast between the
parallels of thirty and sixty degrees, with two main objects In
view: "1st, The acquiring accurate information with respect
to the nature and extent of any water communication which
may tend, in any considerable degree, to facilitate an intercourse
for the purposes of commerce, between he North-west coast, and
the country [countries] on the opposite side of the continent
which are inhabited or occupied by His Majesty's subjects.
"2d ly, The ascertaining, with as much precision as possible,
the number, extent, and situation of any settlements which have
been made within the limits above mentioned by any European
nation, and the time when such settlement was first made."
In carrying out his instructions under the first head, which was
emphatically spoken of as the principal object of the expedition,
Vancouver was required to ascertain not alone the general course
of the coast line, "but also the direction and extent of all such
considerable inlets, whether made by arms of the sea or by the
mouths of large rivers, as may be likely to lead to or facilitate,
such communication as is above described. . . .
"The particular course of the survey must depend on the dif
ferent circumstances which may arise in the execution of a
service of this nature; it is, however, proper that you should,
and you are therefore hereby directed to pay a particular atten
tion to the examination of the supposed straits of Juan de Puca,
said to be situated between 48 degrees and 49 degrees north
latitude, and to lead to an opening through which the sloop
Washington is reported to have passed In the year 1789, and to
have come out again to the northward of Nootka. The discovery
of a near communication between any such sea or strait, and
any river running into or from the lake of the Woods would be
particularly useful. "37

36 Vancouver's Voyage, Ed. ol 1801, I, 40-41. "The lavdrite opinion that
had slept since the publication of Captain Cook's last voyage," says Van
couver "of a northeastern communication between the waters of the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans, was again roused from its state ol slumber and brought
lorward with renovated vigor. Once more the Archipelago ol St. Lazarus
was called lorth Into being, and its existence almost assumed. . . .The straits
said' to have been navigated by Juan de Fuca were also brought lorward
in support of this opinion."
37 VancoiCver's Voyage, I, 58-67.

[20]
Having shown what Vancouver was expected to do, it will not
be necessary to describe his work in detail, but only to add that
he executed his orders with the utmost fidelity and success,
devoting three summers to the service and giving to the world
a great map of the west coast of America from San Diego in
California to Cook's River in Alaska. Vancouver named Puget
Sound for Lieutenant Puget, and he gave their modern designa
tions to nearly all the most striking natural objects In that
vicinity — the numerous canals between Fuca's Strait and Norfolk
Sound, the islands, aside from a few that had been named by
their commercial discoverers or by the Spaniards, and the moun
tain peaks discernible from different points in this labyrinth
of waters. At many points Vancouver was. preceded by the
Spaniards, who, as we have seen, made a careful survey of
Fuca's Strait and the waters reached from it in 1790, 91, and 92.
Nevertheless, he added materially to their work in this region,
and connected Into one great system all that had been done
previously and all that he was enabled to do himself.38
Just above the parallel of 46 degrees Vancouver lays down
on his map an inlet, traced for about one hundred miles from
the sea, which he calls "The River Columbia." The significance
attaching to this feature of Northwest geography would in itself
justify a somewhat detailed account of Its discovery; but when
we recall that this was the first memorable act performed
by our own countrymen in the drama of western maritime ex
ploration we have an additional reason for lingering over the
incident. The origin of the American Interest in the fur trade of the
Northwest coast is not known with as much definlteness as we
could wish. It seems clear, however, that, as in the cases of
the British merchants of London, Bombay, and China, the general
Inciting cause was Cook's voyage and the report of the sale of
furs by Cook's men in Canton. The story of John Ledyard's
connection with Cook's expedition, his return home to Connecti
cut after its completion, his publication of an account of the
voyage, and his enthusiastic but futile attempts to enlist New
York, Philadelphia, and Boston merchants in the. fur trade of
the Northwest coast and China has been frequently told and need
not be repeated here. 39 It is reasonable to suppose that Led
yard's representations in the years 1783 and 17 84 were not at
once forgotten, and that they may have exerted some influence
at a later time toward inducing a group of Boston merchants to
fit out ships for this trade. But we have no positive evidence
on the point, and it Is equally probable that the recital in Cook's
narrative itself, or rumors of the interest in this trade in England
and elsewhere, constituted the moving cause. An account of
the origin of the trading movement at Boston was published

38 See coast map. Ibid.
39 See Schaler, I'he Pacific Northwest, 33-37. The source is Sparks's
Life of John Ledyard, Chap. VI.

[21]
there in 1866.40 Of contemporaneous evidence we have nothing
that gives an intimate account of the origin of the enterprise;
but in the Boston Centinel of September, 1787, and the American
Herald (Boston), September 30 of the same year, there appears
the following notice: "Silver and copper medals, we are told,
are striking off, to be carried by Captain Kendrick, bound to
the Pacific Ocean, to be distributed among the natives of the
Indian Isles." The description of these well known medals fol
lows. The article continues: "The enterprising adventurers on
the voyage to New Albion, are determined to send in their ves
sels a quantity of the copper cents and half cents, struck at the
public mint under the authority of this commonwealth, to be
disposed of among the natives of those coasts they may visit in
the southern ocean. They are finely executed, the device on one
side the spread eagle of the Union encircled with the word
Commonwealth — on the other an Indian, with his bow and arrow,
surrounded with the word Massachusetts." The Centinel also,
in the same issue, notes the clearing of the ship "Columbia,"
Captain Kendrick, bound for New Albion.
This is all that the papers give. The enterprise seems to have
excited little public interest, or else the intensity of the political
agitation, the necessity of discussing all phases of the proposed
new constitution, the long letters on government by Doctor John
Adams and others, left no opportunity to properly record such
Interest as there was.4i
Very different was the reception accorded the Columbia on
her return to Boston August 9, 1790, after completing her voyage
round the world. 42 Then the people crowded the wharves and
sent their loud "Huzzas" ringing across the waters of the bay
to cheer the homecomers; while the Boston Centinel, in a leading
editorial, voiced the public gratification at the success achieved
by the, adventurous merchants, who had inaugurated a new
branch of commerce for America.43

40 Oregon and El Dorado, by Thomas Bulfinch. In the opening pages
of the book he professes to describe the origin of the plan to send ships, from
Boston to the Northwest coast and China. He begins with an account of
a meeting which occurred at the mansion ol Dr. Bulfinch (possibly the
author's ancestor) in the year 1787. Among those present were Charles
Bulfinch and Joseph Barrell, the former a son of Dr. Bulfinch, the latter
"an eminent merchant ol Boston. The conversation turned upon the topic
ol the day — the voyage ol Captain Cook, the account ol which had just been
published. ... (But this account had been published three years belore, and
the newspaners allord no support lor the statement that this was the "topic
ol the day" in, 1787. ) At last it changed, and turned more upon the com
mercial aspects ol the subject. Mr. Barrell was particularly struck with
what Cook relates ol the abundance ol valuable lurs ollered by the natives
ol the country in exchange lor beads, knives, and other trilling commodities
valued by them. The remark ol Captain Cook respecting the sea-otter was
cited. ...Mr. Barrell remarked, 'There is a rich harvest to be reaped there
by those who will lirst go in.' " This conversation led, he says to the
Iormation of the company and the sending of the ships ColumMa and
Washington. The narrative must be used with caution, for it appears to
be constructed out of loose traditions rather than trustworthy sources.
4j Haswell's Journals, Bancroft. N. W. C. I., Ap., gives an account of
the circumstances of the Columbia's departure from Boston Harbor.
42 For an, account of the proceedings of the Columbia and her consort on
the Northwest coast, 1788-1789, see Bancroft, N. W. C. I., 185-92 ; 204-9 ;
also Haswell, Ibid., Ap.
43 Columbia Centinel, Aug. 11, 1790; p. 3, c. i. Editorial headed The

[22]
The Columbia sailed a second time from Boston September 28,
1790,44 and j-eached the Northwest coast in June of the following
year. After a summer spent in trade, and a winter in making
new and more complete arrangements for the trade of 1792,45
Gray sailed from Clayoquot early in April for a cruise In the
south. On the 2 9th of April he met Vancouver, to whom he
gave some account of his doings up to that time.
Running still further south. Gray on the 7th of May entered
a harbor in latitude 46 degrees 58 minutes, which he named
"Bulfinch Harbor," but which Vancouver later in the year named
Gray's Harbor, its present designation. Four days later. May 11,
Gray ran in between the breakers into what he at first supposed
to be another harbor. He says, however: "When we were over
the bar we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up
which we steered .... The entrance between the bars bore west-

Columbia : "It is with real pleasure we announce the safe arrival, in this
port on Monday last, of the ship Columbia, Capt. (Jray from a voyage of
adventure on the North West Coast of America.
"This ship, in company with the sloop Washington, sailed on the SOlj
September, 1787, and the year following reached their destination ; from
whence the Columbia sailed with furs, which she disposed of in China on
her way home.
"To Messrs. Barrell. Brown, Bulfinch, Hatch, Derby, and Pintard, who
planned the voyage, their country is indebted, for this experiment in a brancli
of commerce before unessayed by Americans ; and to their care in providing
every necessary comfort and convenience of the crews, may, under Heaven,
be attributed the extraordinary degree of health which they have enjoyed ;
having lost but one man by sickness, since they sailed.
"Their country is also under obligation to the intrepid navigators who
have conducted the voyage — whose urbanity and civility have secured the
friendship of the aboriginals of the country they visited ; and whose honor
and Intrepidity have commanded the protection and respect of the European
Lords of the soil [Spaniards] to the American flag; while that of another
nation [Britain] has been forbidden to be unfurled on the coast.
"The Columbia and Washington are the first American vessels who
have circumnavigated the globe — and the Washington which is only of 90
tons burthen, is the first sloop of any nation ever sent on so great a voyage.
"On the Columbia's arriving opposite the castle, she saluted the flag of
the United States with 10 guns ; which was immediately returned therefrom —
and on coming to her moorings in the harbor fired a federal salute — which
a great concourse of people assembled on the several wharfs returned with
three huzzas and a hearty welcome. We are told that one of the natives
of Owyhee arrived In the Columbia."

"An olllcer on board the Columbia has lavored us with the lollowing
nautical memorandum, viz ; The ship Columbia, sailed Sept. 30th, 1787,
from Boston, and arrived at St. Jago's, Nov. 16, 1787 — the distance 4124
miles. Dec. 12. 1787, sailed from St. Jago's, aud arrived at Falkland
Islands Feb. 16, 1788 — dist. 4888 miles. Feb. 29, 1788. sailed from Falkland
Islands, and arrived at Juan Fernandez May 24, 1788 — dist. 5349 miles.
June 6, 1788 sailed from Juan Fernandez, and arrived at Nootka Sound
Sept. 23, 1788 — dist.. 7457 miles. July 30. 1789, sailed from Nootka Sound,
and arrived at Canton, Nov. 16, 1789 — dist. 8446 miles. Feb. 12th, 1790,
sailed from Canton and made Ascention Island June 24, 1790^ — dist, 11,625
miles. June 24, 1790, sailed from Ascention Island, and arrived at Boston
Aug. 9th, 1790 — dist. (computed by the editor, as it was omitted from the
journal) 7000 miles. Total number of miles, 48 889 ! The Columbia stopped
at the Sandwich Islands for provisions 24 days, arrived Aug. 24, 1789 — and
two days at St. Helaua's for water and refreshment."
Journal Extracts : The Iphigenia and a schooner sailed from Nootka
Oct. 26, 1788, etc. (account of various arrivals and departures at Nootka Irom
Oct., 1788, to July 12, 1789. Of the capture ol the English vessels, etc.)
44 Col. Centinel, Sept. 29, 1790.
45 By building the sloop Adventure, and lilting her lor an independent
cruise. See Haswell.

[23]
south-west, distance ten miles; the north side of the river half a
mile distant from the ship; the south side of the same two and
a half miles distant; a village on the north side of the river west
by north, distant three-quarters of a mile. Vast numbers of
natives came alongside; people employed in pumping the salt
water out of our water casks so as to fill with fresh, while the
ship floated In."46 Such is the original account of the discovery
and first entrance of the Columbia River, extracted from Gray's
log-book, under the date47 of May 11, 1792. We have also
some account from the same source of Gray's doings in the river
between the eleventh and twentieth of May. On the fourteenth
Gray set sail and ran "twelve or fifteen miles" further up the
stream, but finding the channel he was in to be very narrow
and apparently dangerous, he anchored again. He spent some
time viewing the country on shore, and continued his trade with
the natives, which of course was his sole object In entering the
river. On the 19 th he gave the river its name, calling it not
Columbia, but "Columbia's" River, for his ship. The northern
cape he called "Hancock, "48 the southern "Point Adams." Next
day. May 20th, he sailed out over the bar.
Vancouver at Puget Sound learned about Gray's discovery, and
determining upon an investigation, sailed in October with both
his vessels, the "Discovery" and the "Chatham" to the mouth
of the river. He would not venture to take the larger vessel in;
but Lieutenant Broughton, with the Chatham, crossed the bar
and anchored within the river. He then explored it in a cutter
to the distance of about one hundred miles, or to the head of
navigation. He took possession "for the King at this place,
which he named Point Vancouver. "49

46 Vancouver, II, 40 ff.
47 This extract from Gray's log-book was made by Charles Bulfinch.
See Greenhow, Ore. and Cal., 1845 Ed., 434.
48 Meares on the 6th of July 1788, had named this point Cape Disap
pointment. (Voyages, 167.) He expected to find, by rounding it, a good
harbor, but seeing the dangerous line of breakers across the entrance he
called it Deception Bay. Having gazed upon the indentation from his ship,
Meares says {Voyages, 168) : "'We can now with safety assert that no such
river as St. Roc exists, as laid down on Spanish charts."
49 Vancouver's Voyage, II 386 ff. ; also III, 85 ff., which is Broughton's
account of the Columbia and his survey of the river.
Broughton and Vancouver do Gray the injustice of denying that he had
ever entered the river proper, contending that he only saw and entered the
estuary, or inlet. 'Yet it was Gray's chart of the river that served Broughton
for a guide In taking the Chatham over the bar ! Moreover, Vancouver had
fully convinced himself, in sailing up the coast in April,, that there was no
river of any consequence, or any safe harbor for shipping at the point where
Gray found the river. See his remarkable statement so often quoted. In
Voyages, II, 386 ff. The essential part is quoted in Schafer, Pacific North
west 42.

[24]
III. Exploration of an Overland Route to Oregon.
One feature of instructions issued by the Board of Admiralty to
Vancouver in 1791, seems to be significant In connection with the
subject of the present chapter. He was required not simply to
seek for a continuous passage through the continent of North
America, but also for "any water communication which [might]
tend , in any considerable degree to facilitate an intercourse for
the purposes of commerce" between the Pacific and the Atlantic;
and the injunction was laid upon him to search particularly from
Fuca's strait and the sea reported to lie east of it, because "The
discovery of a near communication between any such sea or strait,
and any river running into or from the lake of the woods would
be particularly useful." In these .clauses we find an obvious
deviation from or enlargement of the conception which had con
trolled the earlier British exploring policy. The voyagers to
Hudson Bay had been expected to find a passage round North
America to the Pacific; Cook, In 177 6, had been sent out to
search for "A northern passage by sea from the Pacific to the
Atlantic Ocean. . . . ;" but Vancouver's instructions are. In effect,
to try to find a line of easy communication between the two coasts,
whether wholly or only in part by water. In other words, with
the British Government, the search for "The Passage" Is shading
off into a search for an overland route.
This is a perfectly natural evolution in policy. For, during the
interval between Cook and Vancouver, In which so much was
done to determine the geography of the Northwest coast, much
had been done, also, toward a general exploration of the inland
regions of the north. The travels of Samuel Hearne had already
brought out the fact that the country stretching west from Hud
son Bay was of vast extent.i French traders, like Verendrye, and
later, British, American, and Scotch traders had added much to
the knowledge men had of the country both west and southwest.
They had even exaggerated the magnificent distances of those all
but boundless plains, making It appear that points already fixed
in the Interior could not be far removed from points in the
corresponding latitudes which, by Cook's scientific labors, had
been established on the west coast. Indeed, it would appear
from Peter Pond's map of the western parts of North America,
executed in the year 1785, that what we know as the Assinlboln
River had Its source at least as far west as the meridian of 125
degrees, and only obout two degrees of latitude north of Nootka
Sound, placed in about longitude 12 6 degrees and represented as
extending northward indefinitely. One is prone to imagine that
the writer of Vancouver's instructions was glancing at Pond's
map while penning the clause above quoted about a "river run
ning into or from the lake of the woods," and emphasizing the
utility of discovering a connection from the sea coast with such
a river.2 in any event, since the knowledge of Interior North
1 Hearne had discovered a lake which he called Athapapuskow ; this
would seem to be the present Great Slave Lake instead of, as the name
suggests, Athabasca. See Bryce, George, Mackenzie, Selki/r'k, and Simpson, 3.
2 See Pond's map as reproduced in Brymner. Canadian Archives. Report
for 1890. This map was communicated to Governor Hamilton in 1785
Ibid, XXV.

[25]
American geography possessed by the Board of Admiralty was
all derived in some way from the reports of the fur traders, we
have revealed in Vancouver's instructions influences derived from
both of those widely severed branches of British commerce, the
Northwest coast fur trade and the interior fur trade.
On the other hand, the exploring activities of the British
traders of the interior of North America were, aftre 17 84, greatly
stimulated, and their character and direction Influenced, by
Cook's reports. By that time the fur trade of Canada, which
had been partly disorganized after the close of the French regime,
with the Inrush of British, American, and Scotch traders had
again become systematized through the organization in 17 83 of
the Northwest Company at Montreal.3 At once thereafter we
have schemes of exploration which In no long time are to result
In a great extension of geographical knowledge relative to the
northern and western portions of North America.
In October, 17 84, the brothers Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher,
founders of the Northwest Company, made the important an
nouncement to Governor Haldimand that their company proposed
to send out an expedition to explore the country west of Hudson
Bay to the Pacific Ocean. They agreed to have surveys made and
notes taken respecting the territory to be traversed, which was
the region between 55 degrees and 65 degrees, and to lay full
reports before the Canadian Government. In return they asked
an exclusive right of trade, for ten years, through the country
to be opened by their labors. 4 The person who had done most
toward conducting previous explorations for the company was
Peter Pond, whose map we have already referred to. Pond was
an American by birth, but he had been engaged in the Canadian
fur trade for a number of years, and was destined to win an
evil renown for the brutal violence of his methods In that trade.5
In April, 1785, he sent a memorial to Governor Hamilton to sup
port the Frobisher memorial of a few months earlier. Pond
asserts, as an argument to induce the Government to grant the
concessions desired, that he has positive knowledge "from the
natives who have been on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean,
that there (was) a trading post already established by the Rus
sians," which was of course true as respects Alaska; and he adds:
"Your memorialist is credibly informed that ships are now fitting
out from the United States of America, under the command of

3 The best general source for the fur trade of Canada during the last
forty years of the eighteenth century is Masson, L. R., Les Burgeois de la
Compagtvie du Nord-Ouest, 2v. Quebec, 1889-90. See also Mackenzie, Alex.,
Voyages London, 1801, I, CXXIX ; and Brymner. Canadian Archives. Re
ports for 1888, 1889, and 1890.
4 Brymner. Canadian Archives. Rept. for 1890, 48-9. In connection
with this paper the Frobishers lay before Governor Haldimand a brief ac
count of the history of the Canadian fur trade since the conquest of the
country by Britain. Ibid, 50-52.
5 Pond Is described by Gov. Hamilton as a man who "has long Indulged
a passion for making discoveries — being qualified by an excellent constitution
to Indure the fatigues and an active mind to encounter the many difficulties
that naturally occur in the prosecution of such pursuits." Can. Arch. 1890,
XXV. His wickedness is portrayed in Bryce, Mackensie, etc., 6, 10, 15, 21 ;
also, Masson, I, 15 ff.

[26]
able seamen (who accompanied Captain Cook In his last voyage)
in order to establish a furr trade on the North West Coast of
North America, at or near Prince Williams' Sound. . . ."6
The plans of the company were not carried out at once, for
the Government showed little inclination to grant the large
concessions demanded. But four years later, Alexander Macken
zie, the virile and resourceful young Highlander who was sent
to the Athabasca country In 1787 to succeed the vicious Peter
Pond, began, largely on his own responsibility, a series of the
most remarkable explorations of which the world has any record.7
On the 3d of June, 1789, Mackenzie embarked at Fort Chipewyan,
on Lake Athabasca, in a canoe with an Indian guide and a few
French voyageurs, and made his way to Great Slave Lake. Here
he entered a river, already vaguely known from Indian report,
which flowed to the northwest, and in just forty days from the
time of setting out, reached tidewater near the Arctic Ocean
in latitude bj degrees 7 minutes. Mackenzie saw there, under
the midn-ght sun of July, great fields of ice, and in the open
spaces scores of spouting whales. 8 He had traced to its delta
the longest of the north-flowing rivers, which very appropriately
bears the explorer's name. By this voyage he had effectually
proven that no passage existed in the far northern latitudes;
for he had traced the firm land from 58 degrees 40 minutes to
above 69 degrees, and that it ran still further north was shown
by the course of a snowy mountain range In the west, which
stretched north as far as eye could see.9
Three years later, Mackenzie, having meantime spent a winter
in London to perfect his knowledge of the use of astronomical
instruments, entered upon his second and greatest exploring
venture. This was nothing less than a projected journey from
his station on Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean, now known
to be nearly a thousand miles in a straight line to the westward,
and not a short distance merely as represented by Pond and other
geographers. 10 Mackenzie proposed to reach the Pacific by
ascending Peace River, and crossing from Its source to the nearest
connecting waters on the west side of the Rocky Mountains.
This feat ne actually accomplished, in the space of about eleven
months, overcoming difficulties which it would be almost Im
possible to exaggerate. He left Fort Chipewyan October 10,
1792, and ascended Peace River to a point near the foot of the
mountains, where he spent the winter.ii On the 9th of May 1793,

6 Can. Arch. 1890, 53. Pond must refer here to Ledyard and his scheme
to open a lur trade on the Northwest coast. This shows that Ledyard's
project created some stir among traders, although it did not In the end
succeed. 7 A delightful brief biography of Mackenzie is that by George Bryce
In the Makers ol Canada Series, v. 9 Mackenzie, Selkirk, and Simpson.
The source for Mackenzie's explorations is his Voyages.
8 Voyages, 59-61, 62 11.
9 Voyages, 53-4.
10 Through the Importunity ol the British Government, the Hudson's
Bay Company had sent out. In 1791. ati astronomer named I'hlUp Turner.
He definitely determined the longitude of Fort Chlpewyi^n. By comparing
with Cook's observations In the same latitude, the distance tb the West
coast cotild now be readily computed. Bryce, Mackenzie, etc., 57.
11 Voyages, 121 ff.

[27]
the great journey was resumed. The party consisted of only
ten men. Including the leader and his faithful friend and lieu
tenant, Alexander Mackay. 12 They crossed the mountains, and
on the 12 th of June reached a navigable river flowing south-
westward. This stream they descended for twenty-five days;
but they found it so treacherous and difficult as to be almost
impracticable; moreover, its course became so prevailingly south
ward as to suggest a very indirect route to the Pacific. There
fore, on the advice of some of the natives living along this river,
Mackenzie turned off at a point in about latitude 53 degrees
and took an overland trail which brought him to a small west
ward-flowing river. By this stream the adventurous party reached
the Pacific in latitude 52 degrees 2 0 minutes, at a place which
had recently been surveyed by Captain Vancouver and called
"Cascade Canal." Mackenzie found the coast Indians so trouble
some that It became unsafe to remain among them, and he
accordingly set out on the return journey the very next day.l3
By the 2 4th of August the party was back across the mountains
at the upper fort on Peace River. 14
Mackenzie supposed that the great river he had traced for so
many dreary days was that mysterious "River of the West"
which cartographers were wont to lay down, at a venture, upon
their maps. 15 The Indians called it "Tacoutche Tesse," which Is
the name given it by Mackenzie on his map; but below the point
where his party turned off, he continues the representation of
the river by a dotted line and identifies it with the Columbia. 16
We now know that Mackenzie crossed the mountains too far
north to strike the heads of the Columbia, and that the river
he partly explored, under such peculiar difficulties, was in reality
the Frazer River, which flows into the "inland sea" just above
tne forty-ninth parallel. Before this fact was determined, how
ever, the Columbia Itself had been reached from another quarter
by its American explorers, who demonstrated that here, rather
than in the far north, was nature's highway to the Pacific.
In the history of the exploration of the Pacific Northwest, the
conscious point of entrance of the American nation is at the
Lewis and Clark expedition. Gray's discovery of the Columbia,
while important in its later effects as affording a catchy argu
ment on which to base the American claim to the territory drained
by the river, had no particular significance In Itself. Gray was

12 Mackay became a leading partner in Astor's American Fur Compsiny,
and lost his life In the Tonquin disaster of 1811.
13 Before leaving the vicinity of the coast, Mackenzie "mixed up some
Vermillion in meltexi grease, and inscribed, in large characters, on the south
east face of the rock on which we had slept last night this brief memorial —
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE FROM CANADA, BY LAND. THE TWENTY-
SECOND OF JULY, ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-
THREE." Voyages, 349.
14 Ibid, 396-7.
15 See, for example,' Carver's map as reproduced In Schafer, The Pacific
Northwest, p. 47. '
10 Before Mackenzie published his.- book and map, in ,1801, Vancouver's
map had been published (1798), which of course suggested the identity of
the Tacoutche Tesse and the (Columbia.

[28]
not engaged In making discoveries.! 7 He entered the Columbia
just as he had previously entered Fuca's strait, Gray's harbor,
and probably scores of other inlets, for the sole purpose of
trading with the natives, among whom the last found always
best served the trader's interests. He took no special pains to
explore the river after entering It, to claim the territory on
returning home. 18 The whole matter was a purely fortuitous
circumstance, which, like so many historical accidents, has had
notable results'. But the Lewis and Clark expedition Is an event
of a very different order, representing, like the British voyages
of exploration in the Pacific, a logical national policy demanded
by the highest regard for the national honor and welfare. Since
both the conception and the execution of this policy are due
most largely to Thomas Jefferson, the genesis of the Lewis and
Clark expedition can be studied best in the life and works of
this great statesman of the early national period.
Jefferson's interest in the West had two sources, environment
and philosophy, between which it is difficult to draw a sharp
line of distinction. We know that his home, during the period
in which Jefferson was growing to manhood, was practically on
the frontier, his father having been, as he tells us, the third or
fourth settler in that part of Virginia (the Piedmont region) in
about the year 1737.19 It is a natural inference that this fact
is partly responsible for Jefferson's instinctive appreciation of
Western men and Western conditions; nor can we doubt that
It contributed something to stimulate his Interest in the merely
curious features of that vast territory which was still so inade
quately known. 20 But, on the other hand, Jefferson was the
type of the eighteenth century savant, "passionately fond of knowl-

17 Americans have been disposed to contend that Gray was a discoverer
or explorer ol equal status with the British traders Portlock, Dixon, and
Meares ; but there are two reasons lor declining to accept this view. First,
we have seen that exploration was an avowed object ol the Etches Company,
as well as trade ; second, these voyagers kept regular journals which were
promptly published, together with maps showing their discoveries. In a
sense, also, the British Government had commissioned these men to make
explorations in the Pacilic.
18 Gray's return to Boston at the end ol July, 1793, unlike his return
in 1790, created uo newspaper . comment whatever. The Columbia (^lentlnel,
July 31, merely notes : "Captain Gray, ol the ship Columbia, arrived here
Irom China — spoke, July 5 — sloop Sally," etc.
Mir. Prevost, sent to the Columbia in 1818 to take possession ol Astoria,
says in his report. Am. St. Pap., Por. Rel. IV, 8JJ : "I have taken the
liberty to enclose a note marked B, of the authorities, Spanish as well as
English, that have fallen under my view, illustrating fhe discovery of the
Columbia by Mr. Gray in 1791. Its subsequent occupation, in 1811, by
which the sovereignty ol the United States was completed to the exclusion
of any European claimant, is a fact of which the surrender ol the sole
establishment on the river [Oct. 18, 1818] is conclusive evidence." BuUinch
made the extract Irom Gray's log-book in 1818. This, unquestionably, was
the time at which Gray's discovery was lirst brought to the attention of
the Government and the public:
19 Jefferson's Writings, Ford's Ed., I, 3.
20 As Governor of Virginia, Including Kentucky, Jefferson was compelled
to interest himself in the Western p'ebple, and that he did so most heartily
is evidenced by nlany examples from his writings. See II, 64-6, 240-41, 256,
257, 345, and passim.

[29]
edge and eagerly pursuing it, whatever its form or relative
utillty.21 Taking up Jefferson's famous book, "The Notes on Virginia, "22
written In the years 17 81 and 1782, we see at once that he knew
everything that had then been found out relative to the trans-
Alleghany region. He discusses Its flora, its fauna, even speaks
of the leaa mines of far-off Galena, 23 the wide distribution of
coal measures, 24 and those extraordinary deposits near the Ohio
of bones of huge, extinct animals. 25 Our chief concern, however,
is. his Ideas of \/estern geography, and particularly those features
of it which point In the direction of the explorations he after
ward set on foot.
Speaking of Western rivers, Jefferson says:26 "The Missouri,
since tne treaty of Paris, the Illinois and northern branches of
the Ohio since the cession to Congress, are no longer within our
limits. Yet, having been so heretofore, and still opening to us
channels of extensive communication with the Western and
Northwestern country, they shall be noted in their order.
"The Missouri is in fact the principal river, contributing more
to the common stream than does the MIssislpi, even after Its
junction with the Illinois. It is remarkably cold, muddy, and
rapid. Its overflowings are considerable. They happen in the
months of June and July. Their commencement being so much
later than those of the MIssislpi, would induce a belief chat the
sources oi the Missouri are northward of those of the MIssislpi;
unless we suppose that the cold increases again with the ascent
of the land from the MIssislpi westwardly. That this ascent
is great. Is proved by the rapfdlty ofthe river. Six miles above
Its mouth it Is brought within the compass of half a mile's
width; yet the Spanish merchants at Pancore or St. Louis, say
they go two thousand miles up it. . . .What is the shortest dis
tance between the navigable waters of the Missouri and those
of the North River [Rio Del Norte or Rio Grande], or how far
this Is navigable above Santa Fe, I could never learn."
At another place27 in the book occurs the following: "A Mr.
Stanley, taken prisoner near the mouth of the Tanissee, relates

21 A good idea of the wide range of interests of men of the time is
conveyed by' the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, of
which Jefferson was a leading member. Philosophy meant any and all kinds
of knowledge. But the very best means of gauging the intellectual interests
of Jefferson himself is to run over the nine hundred and thirty-one titles of
works in his private library. See Cat. ol Pres. Jefflerson's Library, Wash
ington 1829. It, shows that he consciously tried to cpmpass the entire range
of human knowledge.
22' The edition before me is that in Ford's Jefferson, III.
23 Ibid, 112.
24 Ibid, 114. '
25 Ibid, 130.
26 Ibid, 92.
27 Page 130. On the same page we find' the unique incident : "A dele
gation, ol warriors Irom the, .Delaware tribe having visited the Governor ol
Virginia [Jellerson] during the present revolution, on niatt^rs. of business,
after these had b^en discussed and settle.d in council, the Governor asked
them some questions relative to their country, and among others, what they
knew or had heard of the animal whose bones were found at the Saltlicks
on the Ohio. Their chief speaker immediately put himself in an attitude of
oratory, etc."

[30]
that, after being transferred through several tribes, from one
to another, he was at length carried over the mountains west
of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly." By putting
this with his description of the Missouri, we shall probably have
a fairly complete view of the state of Jefferson's knowledge, In
1782, of the Missouri River route to the far West. ThISi there
fore, is the proper point of departure in tracing the growth of
the Idea of Western exploration.
On the 26th of November, 1782, Jefferson wrote a letter to
James Steptoe, thanking him for an indicated willingness to
procure for Jefferson some of the "big bones" to be found on
the Ohio. He adds: "Any Information of your own on the
subject of the big bones or their history or on anything else In
the Western country will come acceptably to me, because I know
you see the works of nature in the great, & not merely in detail.
Descriptions of animals, vegetables, minerals, or other curious
things, notes on the Indians' formation of the country between
the Mississippi & waters of the South Sea, &c., &c., will strike
your mind as worthy being communicated. "28 It was one year
afterward, December 4, 1783, that Jefferson wrote the now well-
known letter29 to George Rogers Clark, suggesting an exploration
"from the Mississippi to California," and asking the Western
general how he would like to lead an expedition for such a
purpose.30 We do not know precisely what tne English exploring
project was to which Jefferson alludes in the letter to Clark.
Neither do we know what route would have been followed If this
expedition had materialized, though it is quite conceivable, from
Jefferson's clear knowledge of the various routes from the
Mississippi to Santa Fe and to Mexico as shown in his "Notes,"
that the Southern route would at this time have been selected.si
The evolution of the exploring idea from this point has been
fully worked out, in a great variety of forms, and published in
many different books; the meeting of Jefferson and Ledyard in
Paris, 1786, and the resulting project of an exploration from
Nootka Sound eastward; Jefferson's relation to the Michaux
scheme of 1792, and the culmination of all earlier plans in the
great expedition sent out under Lewis and Clark in 1803. A
repetition of the details would be superfluous, since these can be

28 I follow the Congress edition in the above. Ford has it. III, 63,
"notes on the Indians, information of the country." etc., making a comma
out of an apostrophe, unless the Congress edition reverses the process.
29 "I find " he says, writing from Annapolis, where Congress was then
sitting, "they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for
exploring the country from the Mississippi to Caiifornia ; they pretend it
is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thought of colonizing
into that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of
making the attempt to search that country. But I doubt if we have enough
of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a
party '.' tho I ani afraid the prospect is not worth asking the question."
Am. H. Rev. Ill, 675.
30 It was Clark's younger brother, William, who accompanied Lewis in
1803-6. 31 He gives the distances from Santa Fe to the Gulf, to New Orleans,
and to the city of Mexico, with a description ol the routes. Ill, 130.

[31]
found very readily in print.32. Suffice it to say that Lewis and
Clark, with their band of hardy frontiersmen, ascended the Mis
souri to Its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains to the navigable
waters of Lewis River (although they had previously been on
Clark's Fork, a more northerly branch of the Columbia), and
floated down to the western ocean, reaching it in November,
1805. After a winter spent In the wilds of Oregon, they returned
by nearly the same route, to the United States In the summer
of 1806. The significance of their explorations will appear in
the discussion of later phases of this subject.
(End of Part I.)

32 The best source for the history of this expedition is Thwaltes (Editor)
The Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Dodd, Mead & Co.,
N. Y., 1904-5. An account of the origin of. the expedition is given in the
editor's introduction. Other accounts, in brief narrative form, of the origin
ol the expedition and ol the journey itsell, are to be lound in Schafer,
A History of the Pacific Northwest and the same author's Pacific Slope and
Alaska.

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