"Pioneers of the Pacific Coast: A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and Fur Hunters" by Agnes Christina Laut. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Agnes Christina Laut. Pioneers of the Pacific Coast: A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and Fur Hunters
Pioneers of the Pacific Coast: A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and Fur Hunters
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE OF THE GOLDEN HIND
CHAPTER II. VITUS BERING ON THE PACIFIC
CHAPTER III. THE OUTLAW HUNTERS
CHAPTER IV. COOK AND VANCOUVER
CHAPTER V ‘ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, FROM CANADA, BY LAND’
CHAPTER VI. THE DESCENT OF THE FRASER RIVER
CHAPTER VII. THOMPSON AND THE ASTORIANS
CHAPTER VIII. THE PASSING OF THE FUR LORDS
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
INDEX
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Agnes Christina Laut
Published by Good Press, 2021
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Steller was down the ship’s ladder with the glee of a schoolboy, and off for the shore with fifteen men in one of the row-boats to explore. They found the dead ashes of a camp-fire on the sands, and some remnants of smoked fish; but any hope that the lost ship’s crew had camped here was at once dispelled by the print of moccasined feet in the fine sand. Steller found some rude huts covered with sea-moss, but no human presence. Water-casks were filled; and that relieved a pressing need. On July 21, when the wind began to blow freshly seaward, Bering appeared unexpectedly on deck, ashen of hue and staggering from weakness, and peremptorily ordered anchors up. Bells were rung and gongs beaten to call those ashore back to the ship. Steller stormed and swore. Was it for this hurried race ashore that he had spent years toiling across two continents? He wanted to botanize, to explore, to gather data for science; but the commander had had enough of science. He was sick unto death, in body and in soul, sick with the knowledge that they were two thousand miles from any known port, in a tempestuous sea, on a rickety ship manned for the most part by land-lubbers.
As they scudded before the wind, Bering found that the shore was trending south towards the home harbour. They were following that long line of reefed islands, the Aleutians, which project out from Alaska towards Asia. A roar of reefs through the fog warned them off the land; but one midnight of August the lead recorded less than three feet of water under the keel. Before there was time for panic, a current that rushed between rocks threw the vessel into a deep pool of backwash; and there she lay till morning. By this time many of the sailors were down with scurvy. It became necessary to land for fresh water. One man died as he was lifted from the decks to the shore. Bering could not stand unaided. Twenty emaciated sailors were taken out of their berths and propped up on the sand. And the water they took from this rocky island was brackish, and only increased the ravages of the malady.
