Читать книгу Oregon and Eldorado; or, Romance of the Rivers - Bulfinch Thomas - Страница 2

A few years ago, there was still standing in Bowdoin Square, Boston, opposite the Revere House, an ancient mansion, since removed to make room for the granite range called the Coolidge Building. In that mansion, then neither old nor inelegant, but, on the contrary, having good pretensions to rank among the principal residences of the place, was assembled, in the year 1787, a group, consisting of the master of the mansion, Dr. Bulfinch, his only son Charles, and Joseph Barrell, their neighbor, an eminent merchant of Boston. The conversation turned upon the topic of the day, – the voyages and discoveries of Capt. Cook, the account of which had lately been published. The brilliant achievements of Capt. Cook, his admirable qualities, and his sad fate (slain by the chance stroke of a Sandwich-Islander, in a sudden brawl which arose between the sailors and the natives), – these formed the current of the conversation; till at last it changed, and turned more upon the commercial aspects of the subject. Mr. Barrell was particularly struck with what Cook relates of the abundance of valuable furs offered by the natives of the country in exchange for beads, knives, and other trifling commodities valued by them. The remark of Capt. Cook respecting the sea-otter was cited: —

"This animal abounds here: the fur is softer and finer than that of any other we know of; and therefore the discovery of this part of the continent, where so valuable an article of commerce may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference." He adds in a note, "The sea-otter skins are sold by the Russians to the Chinese at from sixteen to twenty pounds each."

Mr. Barrell remarked, "There is a rich harvest to be reaped there by those who shall first go in." The idea thus suggested was followed out in future conversations at the doctor's fireside, admitting other congenial spirits to the discussion, and resulted in the equipping of an expedition consisting of two vessels, the ship "Columbia" and sloop "Washington," to make the proposed adventure. The partners in the enterprise were Joseph Barrell, Samuel Brown, Charles Bulfinch, John Derby, Crowell Hatch, and J. M. Pintard. So important was the expedition deemed by the adventurers themselves, that they caused a medal to be struck, bearing on one side a representation of the two vessels under sail, and on the other the names of the parties to the enterprise. Several copies of this medal were made both in bronze and silver, and distributed to public bodies and distinguished individuals. One of these medals lies before the writer as he pens these lines. A representation is subjoined: —

The expedition was also provided with sea-letters, issued by the Federal Government agreeably to a resolution of Congress, and with passports from the State of Massachusetts; and they received letters from the Spanish minister plenipotentiary in the United States, recommending them to the attention of the authorities of his nation on the Pacific coast.

The "Columbia" was commanded by John Kendrick, to whom was intrusted the general control of the expedition. The master of the "Washington" was Robert Gray.

The two vessels sailed together from Boston on the 30th of September, 1787: thence they proceeded to the Cape Verde Islands, and thence to the Falkland Islands, in each of which groups they procured refreshments. In January, 1788, they doubled Cape Horn; immediately after which they were separated during a violent gale. The "Washington," continuing her course through the Pacific, made the north-west coast in August, near the 46th degree of latitude. Here Capt. Gray thought he perceived indications of the mouth of a river; but he was unable to ascertain the fact, in consequence of his vessel having grounded, and been attacked by the savages, who killed one of his men, and wounded the mate. But she escaped without further injury, and, on the 17th of September, reached Nootka Sound, which had been agreed upon as the port of re-union in case of separation. The "Columbia" did not enter the sound until some days afterward.

The two vessels spent their winter in the sound; where the "Columbia" also lay during the following summer, collecting furs, while Capt. Gray, in the "Washington," explored the adjacent waters. On his return to Nootka, it was agreed upon between the two captains that Kendrick should take command of the sloop, and remain on the coast, while Gray, in the "Columbia," should carry to Canton all the furs which had been collected by both vessels. This was accordingly done; and Gray arrived on the 6th of December at Canton, where he sold his furs, and took in a cargo of tea, with which he entered Boston on the 10th of August, 1790, having carried the flag of the United States for the first time round the world.

Kendrick, immediately on parting with the "Columbia," proceeded with the "Washington" to the Strait of Fuca, through which he sailed, in its whole length, to its issue in the Pacific, in lat. 51. To him belongs the credit of ascertaining that Nootka and the parts adjacent are an island, to which the name of Vancouver's Island has since been given, which it now retains. Vancouver was a British commander who followed in the track of the Americans a year later. The injustice done to Kendrick by thus robbing him of the credit of his discovery is but one of many similar instances; the greatest of all being that by which our continent itself bears the name, not of Columbus, but of a subsequent navigator.

Capt. Kendrick, during the time occupied by Gray in his return voyage, besides collecting furs, engaged in various speculations; one of which was the collection, and transportation to China, of the odoriferous wood called "sandal," which grows in many of the tropical islands of the Pacific, and is in great demand throughout the Celestial Empire, for ornamental fabrics, and also for medicinal purposes. Vancouver pronounced this scheme chimerical; but experience has shown that it was founded on just calculations, and the business has ever since been prosecuted with advantage, especially by Americans.

Another of Kendrick's speculations has not hitherto produced any fruit. In the summer of 1791, he purchased from Maquinna, Wicanish, and other Indian chiefs, several large tracts of land near Nootka Sound, for which he obtained deeds, duly marked by those personages, and witnessed by the officers and men of the "Washington." Attempts were afterwards made by the owners of the vessel to sell these lands in London, but no purchasers were found; and applications have since been addressed by the legal representatives of the owners to the Government of the United States for a confirmation of the title, but hitherto without success.

Capt. Kendrick lost his life by a singular accident. In exchanging salutes with a Spanish vessel which they met at the Sandwich Islands, the wad of the gun of the Spaniard struck Capt. Kendrick as he stood on the deck of his vessel, conspicuous in his dress-coat and cocked hat as commander of the expedition. It was instantly fatal.

The ship "Columbia" returned to Boston from Canton under the command of Gray, as already stated, arriving on the 10th of August, 1790; but the cargo of Chinese articles brought by her was insufficient to cover the expenses of her voyage: nevertheless her owners determined to persevere in the enterprise, and refitted the ship for a new voyage of the same kind.

The "Columbia," under her former captain, Gray, left Boston, on her second voyage, on the 28th of September, 1790, and, without the occurrence of any thing worthy of note, arrived at Clyoquot, near the entrance of Fuca's Strait, on the 5th of June, 1791. There, and in the neighboring waters, she remained through the summer and winter following, engaged in trading and exploring. In the spring of 1792, Gray took his departure in the ship, on a cruise southward, along the coast, bent on ascertaining the truth of appearances which had led him in the former voyage to suspect the existence of a river discharging its waters at or about the latitude of 46 degrees. During his cruise, he met the English vessels commanded by Commodore Vancouver. "On the 29th of April," Vancouver writes in his journal, "at four o'clock, a sail was discovered to the westward, standing in shore. This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel but our consort during the last eight months. She soon hoisted American colors, and fired a gun to leeward. At six, we spoke her. She proved to be the ship 'Columbia,' commanded by Capt. Robert Gray, belonging to Boston, whence she had been absent nineteen months. I sent two of my officers on board to acquire such information as might be serviceable in our future operations. Capt. Gray informed them of his having been off the mouth of a river, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, for nine days; but the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent his entering."

To this statement of Capt. Gray, Vancouver gave little credit. He remarks, "I was thoroughly persuaded, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not have passed any safe navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shipping, from Cape Mendocino to Fuca's Strait."

After parting with the English ships, Gray sailed along the coast of the continent southward; and on the 7th of May, 1792, he "saw an entrance which had a very good appearance of a harbor." Passing through this entrance, he found himself in a bay, "well sheltered from the sea by long sand-bars and spits," where he remained three days trading with the natives, and then resumed his voyage, bestowing on the place thus discovered the name of Bulfinch's Harbor, in honor of one of the owners of his ship. This is now known as Gray's Harbor.

At daybreak on the 11th, after leaving Bulfinch's Harbor, Gray observed the entrance of his desired port, bearing east-south-east, distant six leagues; and running into it with all sails set, between the breakers, he anchored at one o'clock in a large river of fresh water, ten miles above its mouth. At this spot he remained three days, engaged in trading with the natives, and filling his casks with water; and then sailed up the river about twelve miles along its northern shore, where, finding that he could proceed no farther from having taken the wrong channel, he again came to anchor. On the 20th, he recrossed the bar at the mouth of the river, and regained the Pacific.

On leaving the river, Gray gave it the name of his ship, the Columbia, which it still bears. He called the southern point of land, at the entrance, Cape Adams; and the northern, Cape Hancock. The former of these names retains its place in the maps, the latter does not; the promontory being known as Cape Disappointment, – a name it received from Lieut. Meares, an English navigator, who, like Capt. Gray, judged from appearances that there was the outlet of a river at that point, but failed to find it, and recorded his failure in the name he assigned to the conspicuous headland which marked the place of his fruitless search.

NOTE. As the discovery of Columbia River was an event of historical importance, the reader will perhaps be gratified to see it as recorded in the words of Capt. Gray himself, copied from his logbook as follows: —

"May 11 (1792), at eight, P.M., the entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor bore north, distance four miles. Sent up the main-top-gallant yard, and set all sail. At four, A.M., saw the entrance of our desired port, bearing east-south-east, distance six leagues; in steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore. At eight, A.M., being a little to windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran in east-north-east between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar, we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered. Many canoes came alongside. At one, P.M., came to, with the small bower in ten fathoms black and white sand. The entrance between the bars bore west-south-west, distant ten miles; the north side of the river a half-mile distant from the ship, the south side of the same two and a half miles distance; 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, in order to fill with fresh, while the ship floated in. So ends."

From the mouth of Columbia River, Gray sailed to Nootka Sound, where he communicated his recent discoveries to the Spanish commandant, Quadra; to whom he also gave charts and descriptions of Bulfinch's Harbor, and of the mouth of the Columbia. He departed for Canton in September, and thence sailed to the United States.

The voyages of Kendrick and Gray were not profitable to the adventurers, yet not fruitless of benefit to their country. They opened the way to subsequent enterprises in the same region, which were eminently successful. And, in another point of view, these expeditions were fraught with consequences of the utmost importance. Gray's discovery of Columbia River was the point most relied upon by our negotiators in a subsequent era for establishing the claim of the United States to the part of the continent through which that river flows; and it is in a great measure owing to that discovery that the growing State of Oregon is now a part of the American Republic.

From the date of the discovery of Columbia River to the war of 1812, the direct trade between the American coast and China was almost entirely in the hands of the citizens of the United States. The British merchants were restrained from pursuing it by the opposition of their East-India Company; the Russians were not admitted into Chinese ports; and few ships of any other nation were seen in that part of the ocean. The trade was prosecuted by men whose names are still distinguished among us as those of the master-spirits of American commerce, – the Thorndikes, the Perkinses, Lambs, Sturgis, Cushing, and others of Boston, Astor and others of New York. The greater number of the vessels sent from the United States were fine ships or brigs laden with valuable cargoes of West-India productions, British manufactured articles, and French, Italian, and Spanish wines and spirits; and the owners were men of large capital and high reputation in the commercial world, some of whom were able to compete with the British companies, and even to control their movements.

During all this period, though constant accessions were made to the knowledge of the coast by means of commercial adventure, the interior of the continent, from the Mississippi to the ocean, remained unknown. The intercourse of the people of the United States with the native tribes was restricted by several causes. One was the possession of Louisiana by the Spaniards; another, the retention by the British of several important posts south of the Great Lakes, within the acknowledged territory of the Union. At length, by the treaty of 1794 between Great Britain and the United States, those posts were given up to the Americans; and by treaty with France, in 1803, Louisiana, which had come into possession of that power in 1800, was ceded to the United States. From this period, the Government and people of the United States ceased to be indifferent to the immense and important region whose destinies were committed to them; and the ensuing narrative will relate the first attempt made by national authority to occupy and explore the country.