YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 05423 6477 (The different Scales used should ; noted with particular care.) B0RMAY4 CO..N.Y A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BY JOSEPH SCHAFER, M.L. HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON; SOMETIME FELLOW IN HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN; JOINT AUTHOR OF STRONG AND SCHAFER'S " GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"; AUTHOR OF "THE ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM OF LAND-GRANTS IN AID OF EDUCATION," ETC. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Wefa fforfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1905 'All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1905, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1903. FREDERIC G. YOUNG, A.B. Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of Oregon WHOSE WORK AS SECRETARY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FROM THE TIME OF ITS FOUNDATION HAS SIMPLIFIED THE TASK OF EVERY INVESTIGATOR IN THE FIELD OF NORTHWESTERN HISTORY PREFACE This little book is an attempt to relate, in simple, readable style, the impressive story of civilization building in the region once called Oregon, but now known as the Pacific North west. The boundaries of this territory embrace the three states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the first of which, as the oldest member of the sisterhood, retains the original name of the whole. The division into states should not disguise to us the fact that northwestern history is more remarkable for its unity than its diver sity. And only by treating it as one rather than three distinct movements can a correct view of the whole be obtained. This principle will unquestionably hold good for all matters save the purely political ; in order to treat these fully, it would of course be necessary to consider each of the three states by itself. It has seemed to me, however, that after passing the intensely interesting period of the Vlli PREFACE Oregon provisional government, politics should occupy only a very few pages in so small a volume. The organization and operation of new state governments in this region differs little from similar activities in other territory belonging to the United States. But the pro cesses by which the wilderness was subdued, homes multiplied, cities built, commerce ex tended to all parts of the world, and a great civilization developed in this remote and once inaccessible portion of our continent, — these are not mere replications of what had previ ously taken place elsewhere. The unfolding of these processes, under the special physical conditions prevailing here, gives to the history of the region a charm belonging to itself alone. I have, therefore, adopted the plan of treating the early period with considerable fullness, de voting to it fourteen chapters, and making the remaining five chapters practically a sketch of progress in the Pacific Northwest from 1849 to the present time. In preparing the book, I have naturally gained much assistance from the works of earlier writers in the same field, especially from those volumes of the H. H. Bancroft PREFACE ix series which relate especially to this region. But it has been my rule not to rely upon sec ondary authorities, unless compelled to, except in matters of secondary importance. For the most part it has been possible, with a large expenditure of time and effort and through the generosity of many kind friends, to procure the actual sources. Moreover, a mass of docu ments, fortunately discovered in the course of these researches, will now be used for the first time in this volume, and more fully in my forthcoming " History of the Pacific Slope and Alaska." Much as I would like to mention here the names of all who gave any assistance during the performance of this task, the limits of space make it impracticable to do so. In some cases the service was necessarily slight, but uniformly rendered with heartiness and good will ; in others it was of considerable moment, and in a few instances absolutely essential to the suc cess of the work. For the use of indispensable sources I am under special obligations to Professor F. G. Young, secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, and to Mr. George H. Himes, the X PREFACE assistant secretary ; to Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D., superintendent of the Wisconsin His torical Library, and Mr. Isaac S. Bradley, the librarian ; also to Hon. C. B. Bagley of Seattle, and Hon. F. V. Holman of Portland. Some things of considerable importance were secured through the courtesy of those in charge of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; the State Historical Society of Missouri, Colum bia ; the Mercantile Library, St. Louis ; the Kansas Historical Society, Topeka; and the California State Library, Sacramento. To the Hon. H. W. Scott, editor of the Port land Oregonian, I am indebted for suggestions which proved very helpful in determining the general plan and scope of the work ; and to Dr. J. R. Wilson, principal of the Portland Academy, for a critical examination of the matter and form of the book. Several of my colleagues at the University, Miss Camilla Leach, Professor F. S. Dunn, and Professor H. D. Sheldon, read portions of the manu script and offered valuable suggestions. Mrs. Florence Baker Hays of Boise, Idaho, col lected for me a portion of the matter appearing in the Appendix. Nearly all of the proofs have PREFACE XI passed through the hands of Rev. E. Clarence Oakley, of Eugene. My wife, Lily Abbott Schafer, has given me assistance and encour agement at every stage of the work. It is pleasing to reflect that by a fortunate chance this little volume makes its appearance very near the time (June i, 1905) set for the opening of the World's Fair at Portland, Ore gon. Since the exposition was planned to commemorate the achievement of Lewis and Clark, its intimate relation to the subject of this history is apparent. If the book serves to contribute, even slightly, to that powerful historical impulse which the Lewis and Clark Exposition illustrates, and especially if it shall promote a more intelligent interest in north western history among the youth of this region, for whom it is primarily intended, I shall feel amply repaid for the labor bestowed upon it. JOSEPH SCHAFER. University of Oregon, Eugene, March 20, 1905. CONTENTS rr" Preface CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. VI. U-VII. VIII. IX. yx. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. -XVII. XVIII. XIX. Early Explorers of the Pacific Coast . The Northwest Coast and Alaska Nootka Sound and the Columbia Early Explorations Westward Origin of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Opening a Highway to the Pacific A Race for the Columbia River Fur Trade The Hudson's Bay Company The Oregon Question . Pioneers of the Pioneers The Colonizing Movement . The Great Migration . The First American Government The Opening of a New Era The Northwest and California Progress and Politics, 1 849-1 859 The Inland Empire The Age of Railways . The Pacific Northwest of To-day on the Pacific AppendixIndex PAGE vii 28 43 S3 6994 US124 "i37 159 177 196 213 229239 253 271 288 295301 ILLUSTRATIONS Map of United States . ... ¦ ¦ Frontispiece PAGE The Mission of San Carlos, near Monterey ... 8 Tereoboo, King of Owyhee, bringing Presents to Captain Cook .......... 24 Nootka Harbor, 1 788 30 The Sea-otter 35 The Mouth of the Columbia 39 Map of North America, 1788 47 Thomas Jefferson . 59 Meriwether Lewis ........ 70 William Clark 71 Great Falls of the Missouri 79 Multonomah Falls . . . . . . . .81 The Rocky Mountains ....... 83 The Dalles 86 The Gorge of the Columbia ...... 87 Clark's Map of the Transcontinental Route ... 91 Astoria i°3 Fort Okanogan . . . . . . • • .111 Fort Walla Walla . . 116 Dr. John McLoughlin, 1824 H7 Map of the Columbia n8 Fort Vancouver . . I2° Old Mission House, Oregon IS0 Tsimakane Mission ...... J57 Sweetwater Gap, on the Oregon Trail . . • .181 XV xvi ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Buffalo Hunt 188 The Old Trail along the Sweetwater 192 Mt. Hood 194 Governor George Abernethy . . . . . -197 Mount Rainier from the South 201 General Joseph Lane . 228 Sutter's Fort in 1849 231 General Isaac Ingalls Stevens ...... 252 Cceur d'Alene, 1853 256 Pack Train on Mountain Trail 258 Fort Benton, 1853 261 View of Portland 263 Physiographic Map of the United States .... 267 Henry Villard 276 James Willis Nesmith 277 Falls of the Spokane 284 View of Seattle 285 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST CHAPTER I EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST It is a far cry from the Isthmus of Panama Scope of the to the icy capes above Bering's Strait ; and the chaPter explorations which unveiled that long coast line form a thrilling chapter in the history of our continent. The story opens on the 25th of September, 15 13, when Balboa, surrounded by sixty Spanish companions, stood on a peak of the Darien Mountains and gazed, with the rap ture of a discoverer, upon the waters of the South Sea. It closes two hundred and sixty- five years later, when Captain Cook rounded " the Northwestern point of all America," and named it Cape Prince of Wales. The earlier portion of these explorations, covering nearly one hundred years, will be treated in the pres ent chapter. Balboa, on first beholding the Pacific, made importance a formal declaration that all its coasts belonged, discovery S by right of discovery, to the king of Spain. Four days later he reached the shore at the Gulf of San Miguel, and repeated the cere- 2 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST mony of taking possession, this time marching into the surf at the head of his party. While such formalities usually have little effect upon the course of history, the discovery itself was a great triumph for the Spanish government. Since the time of Columbus, their navigators had been searching among the West Indies, and along the Atlantic coast of South and Central America, in the blind hope of finding an open passage to the Orient. They failed because, as it was supposed, nature had sown islands so thickly in this part of the ocean that it was very difficult for ships to pick their way among them. The numerous failures had discouraged many; but when Balboa reached the open sea by marching overland a few miles from the Darien coast, no one any longer doubted that a convenient westward route existed. It was generally supposed that this would be found to the north of the Isthmus. Magellan soon afterward proved that there was a way around South America, but it was very difficult, and far out of the direct course from Europe to eastern Asia. The necessity still remained, therefore, to find a " strait," and the discovery of the Pacific stimulated the search in an extraordinary manner. The search During the entire history of navigation no mere idea or hope has been followed out with greater persistence. The belief in a strait for a strait EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 3 became almost universal among commercial peoples, and to find it was the ambition of seafarers throughout the world. It was this, in part, which brought out so quickly the geog raphy of the Atlantic coast of North America, and induced so many explorers to enter the water courses leading to the interior of the continent. Each newly discovered estuary, every deep indentation of the coast, was con fidently expected to afford the coveted high way ; until, as we shall see, after a long series of failures by Spaniards and others in the south, the British mariners turned to seek a Northwest Passage in the region of Hudson Bay. The people most interested in the search for Reasons for a strait during the sixteenth century were the ^e Facile Spaniards. Portugal had been the great rival coast of Spain in the effort to find a water route to the Indies, and her famous navigator, Vasco da Gama, had opened the way around Africa while Columbus and his followers were vainly trying to reach Asia by sailing west. The Portuguese had a monopoly of this route, and were growing rich from the profits of the spice trade with the Moluccas. In order to share in this commerce it was necessary for the Spaniards to complete the western highway to the Orient by the dis covery of the indispensable strait. As a foot ing had been obtained on the Pacific coast of Central America it was determined to follow 4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Balboaand his successors Mexico up the search from that as well as from the Atlantic side. The first ships to sail upon the South Sea were launched by Balboa himself in the year 15 1 7. They were built on the Panama coast, some of the timbers for their construction hav ing been carried across the mountains on the backs of Indian slaves. The hundreds of na tives who perished under the lash during this terrible march constituted the first bloody sac rifice to the Spirit of the Western Sea. Aside from building the vessels very little was achieved by Balboa. He coasted along the shore for some distance, gathered gold and pearls from the tribes in those regions, and returned to the colony on the opposite side of the mountains where he was put to death by political enemies. About six years later, however, two other Span iards explored northwestward from Panama as far as the Gulf of Fonseca, discovering Lake Nicaragua. This, it was hoped, with the stream flowing from it to the Atlantic, and a very short canal through the level ground on the west, might give them a passage from ocean to ocean. Thus early (1523) was suggested the idea of an interoceanic canal. By this time the Spaniards were in possession of the rich valley of Mexico, where Cortez had recently overthrown the power of the Aztec confederacy. It was the most important terri- becomes an EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 5 tory of the New World yet brought under sub jection by Europeans. The land was rich, its resources were varied, and the position it occu pied between the two seas was a commanding one. The colony planted in Mexico became a center for new explorations, carried on both north and south, by land and by sea. Cortez, ever on the lookout for opportunities Cortez of further conquest, sent his military expedi- 1™°™* tions toward the west, and soon learned of a great ocean which he judged to be the same as Balboa's South Sea. The news made a deep impression upon his imagination. Military suc cesses had already brought him riches, and a fame which reached to all countries of the civil ized world ; but Cortez saw that here was the gateway to greater wealth and a more enduring renown. By exploring the Pacific he expected to find many islands abounding in gold and other riches. He hoped, also, to reach the Moluccas, and above all, he was anxious to find the strait so ardently desired by the king of Spain. He therefore established a naval sta tion on the west coast of Mexico and soon began sending expeditions toward the north. Some of his ships were lost, and large sums of money spent, but no very important results were obtained until 1539.1 In that year Cortez 1 The southern end of the California Peninsula was discov ered in 1534. It was supposed to be an island. The attempt to plant a colony there failed. 6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST sent out Ulloa, with three ships, to trace the Mexican coast northward. One vessel was soon lost. With the two remaining the mari ner held his course till he approached the head of the Gulf of California. Tacking about he now passed along the shore of the peninsula to the cape which forms its southern extremity. Rounding this dangerous headland he beat up the outer coast as far as Cedros Island (latitude 280). From this expedition Ulloa and his flag ship never returned, although the surviving vessel reached Mexico in the following year. Cortez meantime returned to Spain (1540) and died there a few years later (1547). Aiarcon's Readers of early American history are famil iar with the romantic story of Coronado : how he was dispatched from Mexico, in 1540, in search of the mythical golden cities, or Cities of Cibola, of which rumors had recently been brought from the north. At this time the viceroy of Mexico was Cortez 's rival, Mendoza; and he, in order to increase the chances of Coronado's success, sent a fleet under Alarcon to support the land expedition. Alarcon reached the head of the Gulf, as Ulloa had done before him, and, leaving his ships at the entrance to the Colorado River, ascended the stream in small boats as far as its junction with the Gila. This proved that the land stretching toward the southwest was a peninsula and not an voyage EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 7 island. The name California, now known to have been derived from a sixteenth-century Spanish novel, was first applied to the country about this time. In its original use it signifies a fabulous island, situated not far "from the terrestrial paradise," and inhabited by a gigantic race of women. While the outlines of the California Gulf and Voyage of Peninsula had been made known, the explora- Fereio°an tions thus far had revealed no part of the pres ent western coast of the United States. The time was come for another forward movement destined to carry the Spaniards many leagues further toward the Arctic Sea. Viceroy Men- doza had recently become much interested in exploration, and was not to be outdone by Cortez, the patron of Ulloa. In 1542 he com missioned Cabrillo to explore the coast north ward along the peninsula. This navigator passed Cedros Island, and on the 28th of Sep tember anchored in a good harbor which re ceived from him the name of San Miguel, but was later called San Diego. So far as we know this was the first visit of white men to the coast of Upper California. Cabrillo had two ships and supplies for a long cruise. After surveying the new-found harbor, he proceeded leisurely northward, anchoring at a number of points, He showed much interest in the land scapes presented by these strange coasts, and 8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST noted the ever changing forms of the moun tains, plains, and valleys. The natives, too, received a share of Cabrillo's attention, and he describes the habitations, dress, food, and canoes of those that came most directly under his eye. After examining the coast as far as Monterey, The Mission of San Carlos, near Monterey. and perhaps somewhat farther, Cabrillo was driven southward to San Miguel Island, where he died, January 3, 1543. The chief command now fell to the pilot, Ferelo, who, like Cabrillo, was an able navigator, ambitious to win fame for himself and glory for his sovereign. Carry ing out the dying command of his superior, Ferelo sailed northward. On this cruise the vessels passed up the coast beyond Monterey, EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 9 possibly to the parallel of 42 °, though probably not quite so far. Thus the first thirty years of Spanish exploration along the Pacific gave to the world a map of that coast from Panama to near the northern boundary of California. Spain was now by far the most powerful state Spain domi- of Europe, and her sovereign, Charles the Fifth, pfc^cthceoast the greatest king in Christendom. It was not strange, therefore, that she should attempt to monopolize the New World, or that other nations, like France and England, should be slow to lay claim to those regions. Spaniards were exploring the Atlantic coast, as well as the interior of North America ; under Magellan they had already rounded the southern con tinent, and discovered a passage — although a dangerous one — to the Pacific ; they were reaping a golden harvest from the mines of Peru and Mexico.1 The Pacific Ocean, west of the two Americas, was practically a Spanish sea. No other power seemed likely to disturb these waters, unless some easier passage from the Atlantic should be found than the treacher ous Straits of Magellan. Men felt as secure on that long coast line, stretching through more 1 Soon after this the Spaniards also began a regular trade with the Orient by way of Mexico and the Philippine Islands. Magel lan had discovered the Philippines on his famous voyage around the world, and lost his life there. About 1564 Spain began to colonize the islands, and then a trade sprang up which became very important. 10 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST than a hundred degrees of latitude, as they did in the interior of Spain itself. Origin of In this agreeable delusion Spanish colonists expedition anc^ merchants along the Pacific whiled away the peaceful years till a new generation came upon the stage of history. Then suddenly an event occurred which startled them from their repose. This was the buccaneering voyage of Sir Francis Drake, which took place in the years 1577 to 1580. Drake was one of those daring English seamen who made the reign of Queen Elizabeth as famous for its maritime en terprise as it became for its literature through such men as Shakespeare and Spenser. He sailed from Plymouth with five ships Decem ber 13, 1577, having first secured Elizabeth's consent to carry on private war against the hated Spaniards in the New World. The voy age is described in a quaint, interesting man ner, by the chaplain of the expedition, Francis Fletcher, whose book has been published under the title, " The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake." Fletcher naturally makes a hero of the Captain, describing him as a brilliant leader in battle, a stern but righteous judge, and a commander whose will few dared to disobey. At times he could be the jovial companion of sailors and officers, drinking and carousing with as little conscience as the rest. But when danger threatened, or death seemed EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST II imminent, he could also lead them in their prayers, and preach the hopeful doctrines of the Christian church. Nearly a year passed, after leaving England, His voyage before the ships emerged from the Straits of p^fccoast Magellan ; and as they did so a furious storm drove them hundreds of leagues into unknown southern waters, and made it impossible for them to keep together. The remainder of the long cruise was made by Drake in the single ship Golden Hind, the other vessels all forsaking him. For many months he plowed the waters along the coasts of South and Central America, committing depredations which would be in credible except for the defenseless condition of the Spaniards. Not satisfied with attacking ships on the high seas, and forcing them to surrender, he ran into the harbors, where ves sels of all descriptions were collected, and where they were supposed to be perfectly safe from harm. Sometimes he set fire to ships and fled ; again he would capture rich cargoes, and get safely away before the Spaniards could offer the least interference. But the larger part of his booty was obtained by the capture of Span ish "treasure ships." One of these yielded him enormous wealth in bar gold, silver, gems, and plate. The. vessel was called the Caca- fuego or Spit-fire : after her capture a Spanish wag suggested that she be rechristened and 12 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST given the more appropriate name Caca-plata, Spit-silver. In these exploits the English cap tain and his men showed all the bravery and daring for which the corsairs of the time were noted ; they also showed some of the less ami able qualities belonging to men of their class the world over. New Albion One of the objects of Drake's expedition was to find the passage leading from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Accordingly, after his ship was gorged with plunder, he made sail to the north, running up to the parallel of 42 °, or perhaps 43°. By this time, we are informed, the men began to suffer severely from the cold, although it was midsummer, and therefore, on the 17th of June (1579), Drake ran into a very good harbor in latitude 38°3o'. It is supposed that this was the opening just above San Francisco which modern geographers call Drake's Bay.1 In the California harbor, Drake repaired his vessel as well as he could and prepared for the later cruise. He made some explorations to ward the interior, and gained great influence over the natives about the bay, who begged him to remain in the country. They agreed, as the narrator declares, to accept the English 1 There is no probability that the Englishman saw the great harbor of northern California, although some writers have strangely sought to derive its saintly name from this terrible sea rover. EARLY EXPLORERS OP THE PACIFIC COAST 1 3 queen as their sovereign. Drake went through the formality of taking possession of the land in her name, and called the region " New Albion," partly on account of the white banks and cliffs along the shore, partly to fix upon it a name sometimes applied to the Island Kingdom across the seas. We know very well that al most, if not quite, the entire coast line seen by Drake had been skirted by Spanish navigators from Mexico a generation earlier ; yet he pre tended to believe that the Spaniards had never "had any dealing, or so much as set foot in this country, the utmost of their discoveries reaching only to many degrees southward of this place." Instead of continuing the search for a pas- The return sage into the Atlantic, the Englishman decided t0 England it would be wiser to carry his cargo into safe seas by the least dangerous route. He knew the Spaniards in the south would be guarding the coast, as well as the Straits of Magellan. Drake therefore struck boldly across the Pacific, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and accom plished the second circumnavigation of the globe. His ship reentered Plymouth harbor on the 26th of September, "in the just and ordi nary reckoning of those that stayed at home." The seafarers had of course gained a day. Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the exploits of her valiant captain that she visited 14 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Drake's ship, examined the treasures on board, and before leaving the deck conferred upon him the honor of knighthood. Vizcaino's Drake's voyage produced great consternation expedition among the Spanish colonists, and many plans were made to prevent others from committing similar outrages. One scheme was to explore the coast of Upper California, and establish forts at one or two good harbors. This was im portant for commercial reasons, also, as the ships trading to the Philippines, on their return to Mexico along the California coast, needed some place to refit. Sebastian Vizcaino, a Spanish navigator, made the necessary explorations in 1 602- 1 603. He advised the government to fortify both Monterey and San Diego harbors, but nothing was done for many years. The expedition of Vizcaino marks the end of the early period of exploring activity on the Pacific coast. The seventeenth century, and the first half of the eighteenth, saw no discoveries. The " Manila ships," as the vessels trading to the Philippines were called, were almost the only Spanish craft to approach the coast of Upper California during that long interval. The tribes and peoples seen by Cabrillo, Drake, and Vizcaino, continued to war among them selves, in their barbarous way, unchecked by the presence of a superior race. California remained a wilderness. CHAPTER II THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA The one hundred and sixty years following The decline the voyage of Vizcaino witnessed great changes of Spain in the relative power of Spain. Her decline began toward the close of the sixteenth century, and in 1588 the English fleet, officered by su perb seamen like Howard and Drake, destroyed the Spanish Armada, which had threatened the ruin of England. From this time the other na tions of Europe no longer feared Spain, and three of them, — England, France, and Holland, — began to colonize the New World. The found- ing of Jamestown in 1607, Quebec one year later, and the trading post at Manhattan Island in 161 3, gave each of these states a foothold on the Atlantic coast, all of which had been claimed by Spain under the name of Florida. In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries England was enabled, largely through the growth of her navy, to outstrip all of the other colonizing powers, and to gain at last the entire eastern half of North America. Hol land was forced to give up her colony in 1664; and France gave up Canada, together with the is 16 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST country between the Alleghanies and the Mis sissippi, in 1 763. Spain was pushed down into the peninsula of Florida, remaining there till 1763, when she was compelled, for a time, to retire beyond the Mississippi.1 Her unsafe These changes seriously affected the position condition on Q£ Spain on the Pacific coast. Her people the Pacific 1 . coast feared that Great Britain would attack them on that side as they had already successfully done on the Atlantic. British navigators were at this time earnestly trying to discover the Northwest Passage from Hudson Bay to the Pacific. Should they be so fortunate as to find it, and gain a foothold on the west coast, the days of Spanish supremacy would be num bered. This was one of the alarming condi tions which roused the Spaniards from their sleep of a hundred and sixty years. Another danger threatened from the north, where the Russians had already made various discoveries, including Bering's Strait and some points on the coast of Alaska. There was nothing to prevent these hardy northerners from pushing down the coast line at their own good pleasure. The remedy; But_ the people of Mexico, supported by the IK"c1"''." Spanish government, now showed themselves expansion * o capable of making extraordinary exertions for the safety of the state. They proposed a great plan of northern expansion, which included 1 During a brief period, 1 763-1 783, England controlled Florida. THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 17 three points. First, they were to plant colo nies and build forts at the harbors of San Diego and Monterey, as Vizcaino had recom mended in 1603. Next, the entire region of Upper California was to be brought under Spanish rule. Lastly, they were to undertake further explorations by sea from Monterey to the vicinity of the Russian settlements on the North Pacific. In connection with the plan of conquest it was decided to establish a number of missions, such as already existed throughout the California Peninsula, for the purpose of Christianizing the northern Indians. Father Junipero Serra, a devout Franciscan friar, was placed in • charge of the missionary arrangements. Early in 1769, two ships were sent north- planting the ward to the harbor of San Diego, and at the California 0 missions and same time two companies of colonists, each presidios with a herd of cattle, marched overland from the northern missions of the peninsula. The total number of persons setting out by land and sea was two hundred and nineteen ; but when the expeditions reached their destination it was found that only one hundred and twenty-six remained. This heroic little band hoped to conquer the vast stretches of wilderness com prised within the present boundaries of Cali fornia. On the 1 6th of July (1769) they founded the first of the series of missions at San Diego, 1 8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST where a fort, or presidio, was also established. Monterey was occupied in the following year, the harbor fortified, and the mission of San Carlos begun. This place became the capital of Upper California. Year by year other mis sions were established, that of San Francisco, the sixth in number, dating from October, 1776. Juan Perez As soon as the work of colonization was well and the under way the leaders turned their attention to discovery of ¦> the North- the explorations, which were a part of the great west oast p\zn for extending the influence of Spain to ward the north. The first expedition was in trusted to Juan Perez, a naval officer of first rank, who had been in charge of the California fleet. His ship was the Santiago, one of the few vessels whose names deserve to be re corded in a history of the Pacific Northwest. When all was in readiness for the departure, the officers and men gathered on the shore where some of the priests celebrated mass, and next morning (June 11, 1774) the Santiago was towed out of the harbor.1 For a number of days she drifted southward under adverse winds, and it was not till the 5th of July that the 42d parallel was passed. Thereafter Perez sailed steadily northward far from shore, intending 1 Two priests accompanied the expedition, and fortunately each of them left us a diary giving a detailed history of the voyage. This brief account of the voyage is prepared from these journals. THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 19 to reach the latitude of 6o° before making land. But running short of water, on the 15th of July he put about to the east, and five days later reached the coast near the southern limits of Alaska. He named the place Santa Mar garita. Many Indians came off from shore in their canoes, but they were very timid and only gradually gained courage to approach the ship. This shows that the sight of white men was new to them. After a time they brought otter skins, mats, and nicely woven hats made of rushes, to exchange for cast-off clothing, knives, beads, and ribbons. These Indians had among them a few iron rings and other metal trinkets, which some suppose to have come from the far-off British trading post at Hud son Bay. In that case they must have been passed on from one tribe to another across the continent. Although his instructions required Perez to Theexpiora- reach the parallel of 6o°, he decided that the n'^"^6 condition of his vessel and crew would not coast permit him to go farther. He therefore turned to explore the land southward to California. After running along the coast about six de grees, he entered a " C "-shaped harbor just above the present American boundary line (490) which he named San Lorenzo. Here, too, the natives were afraid of the Spaniards ; but when their timidity was overcome, they 20 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST were glad to exchange the most beautiful otter skins for bits of ribbon or a few worthless shells. From San Lorenzo the course of the Santiago was almost continuously southward. At fre quent intervals she was so close inshore that the land stood clearly revealed to those on board. On the 27th of August, after an absence of two months and a half, the good ship anchored safely in the harbor of Monterey. " Thanks be to God," the pious chronicler exclaims, " who has permitted us to arrive most happily at this port, although we suffer the disappointment of not having gained our chief end, which was to go as far north as sixty degrees of latitude, there to go ashore and raise the standard of the holy cross." Heceta's Perez had made a general exploration of the discovery entire Northwest Coast, from the parallel of 42 ° to 540 40', but he had failed to reach the region visited by the Russians.1 In the following year, therefore, a new expedition was fitted out, this time under the command of Captain Bruno Heceta. One of his vessels was the already famous Santiago, the other was a small ship named the Sonora. Heceta sailed under in structions to reach the latitude of 65 °. At a point near Fuca's Straits (Point Grenville) he 1 The term " Northwest Coast " is usually applied to the region between these parallels, and includes what now is comprised in the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 21 landed and went through the ceremony of taking possession of the country. Soon after this he decided for no very good reason, so far as we can see, to return to California. On the 17th of August, while running southward along the coast, he discovered " a bay with strong eddies and currents, indicating the mouth of a large river or strait." l Heceta did not enter this stream. Had he done so the River of the West might to-day be known under a different name from that with which we are all familiar ; for there is no doubt that the Spanish navigator describes the bay at the mouth of the Columbia. The Sonora, commanded by Cuadra, had been cuadra separated from the flagship, and when Heceta pches turned southward her intrepid captain was left to follow his own inclinations. He first ran many leagues to the west, and then veering about northward, finally saw (in latitude 570) the snowy peak of a great mountain, to which he gave the name of " San Jacinto." Opposite this he landed, and for the second time the coast of the North Pacific was formally claimed as a part of the dominions of Spain. Before turning southward he reached the latitude of 580. Since the Russians had already seen points in Alaska from the 65 th to the 60th parallels, this voyage nearly completes the first general exploration of the Pacific Coast. 1 The quotation is from Bancroft, "Northwest Coast," I, p. 163. 22 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Origin of We have now reached an important turning expedition point in the history of the Northwest Coast. The fears of the Spanish were about to be realized; for in 1776 the British government resolved to send to the Pacific the first explorer to enter those waters from England since the voyage of Sir Francis Drake. The object of the new expedition was to find a passage east ward, around the northern end of North America, from Bering's Strait. During the early part of the seventeenth century Great Britain had sacrificed valuable lives in the effort to find a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific. Henry Hudson, for example, perished in the great bay which bears his name ; but all to no effect. Then, for more than one hundred years, very little was done. About 1750 the subject of the North west Passage came up prominently once more and could never afterward be dismissed. By this time it was known that North America was separated from Asia by a strait which extended north and south ; for the Danish navigator, Vitus Bering, while exploring for the Russian government in 1728, had passed around the northeastern point of Asia, and a few years later (1741) had crossed over to the coast of Alaska. It was also known that there was open sea far to the northwest of Hudson Bay; for in the years 1 769-1 772 \ THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 23 Samuel Hearne, who was sent out by the Hudson's Bay Company, had traversed a thou sand miles of wilderness from the Hudson's Bay post on Churchill River, and traced the Coppermine River to its outlet in a northern ocean. This encouraged the British govern ment to begin the search once more, starting from two opposite points, Baffin's Bay on the east and Bering's Strait on the west. For the second part of this enterprise they selected their greatest explorer, Captain James Cook. He had distinguished himself during the pre ceding half-dozen years by the discovery of New Zealand and other islands in the South Pacific, and by exploring the coasts of Australia. He was fitted out in the most complete fashion with two excellent ships, the Discovery and the Resolution. The latter, his flagship, was the vessel in which Cook had made his long cruise in the Pacific during the years 1 772-1 774. Cook's instructions were issued on the 6th cook of July (1776), and he sailed on the 12th of the same month. He was ordered to enter the South Pacific, and after making some further explorations in those waters, to run to the coast of " New Albion." He was then to ex plore northward to 65 °, and endeavor to find a way from Bering's Strait into the Atlantic. Aside from their main features, the instructions are interesting in two other particulars. The s instructions 24 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST first is the allusion to Drake's pretended dis coveries of two centuries earlier; the second is the date, which Americans will recognize as strangely near the time when the English colonies on the Atlantic declared their inde pendence of the mother country. It would almost seem as if Great Britain was making Tereoboo, King of Owyhee, bringing Presents to Captain Cook. He discovers the Sand wich Islands haste to gain an empire on the Pacific which might partly recompense her for losses on the opposite coast. After spending about eighteen months in southern waters, Cook sailed northward, and early in January, 1778, discovered a group of islands to which he gave the name of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. Two months later he came in sight of the Oregon coast in THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 25 about latitude 440. He then ran up the coast to the 47th parallel, where he commenced a careful search for a strait. An old tradition, published in England as early as 1625, de clared that an Italian pilot, Juan de Fuca, had once entered an inlet on this part of the coast, and sailed without interruption through to the Atlantic. This was exactly the sort of pas sage for which the British were seeking. Cook examined the supposed locality of the inlet with great attention but no success. He was convinced that the story of Juan de Fuca was a myth, like so many other mariner's tales.1 In about latitude 490 Cook probably entered From the identical harbor which Perez had named San ?ootka T t1 1 • 1 1 Sound Lorenzo. 1 o this he gave the now well-known northward name of Nootka Sound. Hundreds of Indians crowded around the vessel in their canoes, bringing skins and furs for barter with the sailors. Hoisting his anchors and steering northwest, Cook saw San Jacinto Mountain, so named by Cuadra three years before. To this the Englishman gave the new name " Mt. Edgecumbe," by which it is still known. In latitude 6o° he saw another towering peak, and learning that the Russians had given the name " St. Elias " to some point in this vicinity, 1 A few years later (1787) an inlet was found in this latitude by Barclay, another Englishman, and named after the Italian pilot of the sixteenth century, the Straits of Juan de Fuca. 26 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Death of CaptainCook The map of the Pacific coast com pleted he applied it to the imposing mountain whose glistening summit is such a conspicuous land mark to all mariners sailing along the coast of Alaska. In a way it separated the explorations which had been carried on by the Russians at intervals since 1728 from those recently made by the Spaniards. Cook held his course north westward, searching the coast for an eastward passage, and finally sailed through Bering's Strait. It was the 9th of August, 1778, when he reached " the northwestern extremity of all America," in latitude 65" 48'. Directly oppo site he found the northeasternmost point of the Asiatic continent. The former he called " Cape Prince of Wales," the latter " East Cape." It was already too late in the season to attempt a passage through the northern sea, and there fore Cook turned southward to spend the winter in the new tropical islands discovered at the opening of the year. Unfortunately, through some misunderstanding with the inhabitants of Hawaii, the great captain was attacked and killed by these barbarians, February 16, 1779. Cook was not the discoverer of the North west Coast. That honor belongs to the Span iards, while the Russians were first on the coast of Alaska. But in 1778 there were no carefully drawn charts to show what had al ready been achieved. Many rumors, and a few written statements, containing a mixture of fact THE NORTHWEST COAST AND ALASKA 27 and fable, were all that the English navigator had to rely upon. His exploration was, there fore, independent of all the preceding, and his surveys were more accurate than any which had yet been made. While much still remained to be done in the way of filling in details, it is no mere fancy to say that Cook had completed the work which Balboa began. The map of the western coast line of our continent had been traced, amid mighty perils by sea and shore, testing the valor of seven generations. CHAPTER III NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA First sale of The voyage of Captain Cook had one result sea-otter which neither he nor the British government skins in ° Canton foresaw. At various points along the North west Coast, as Nootka Sound and Cook Inlet, the natives crowded about the ships to ex change sea-otter and other skins for any at tractive baubles the white man cared to sell. No one suspected the true value of these furs, and those who made the purchases intended them merely for clothing. But when the ships of the exploring squadron touched at Canton, China, on the return voyage to England, offi cers and men sold the remains of their otter- skin garments, and a few unused furs, at prices which seemed almost fabulous. " Skins which did not cost the purchaser sixpence sterling," writes one of the men, " sold for one hundred dollars." The excitement on shipboard was intense. The crew wished to return at once, secure a cargo of furs in the Northwest, and make their fortunes. When the officers re fused, they begged, blustered, and even threat ened mutiny, in order to gain their object, but of course in vain. 28 NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA 29 The discovery of the value of sea-otter skins The world in the Canton market instantly changed the becomes J ° interested thought of the world with respect to the North- intheNorth- west Coast. The region abounded in furs, but westCoast thus far had not been visited for commercial purposes. Great Britain and Spain had sent their navigators into these waters for other reasons. The one desired to explore the coast in order to confirm her ancient claim of sov ereignty over it; the other hoped to find, half hidden by some jagged cape, the long-sought highway to the eastern sea. When the news of this commercial discovery reached Europe it created widespread interest, and erelong ships flying the colors of England, of France, and of Portugal, began regularly to visit the Northwest Coast. Those of Spain and of the United States soon followed. In a few years men of every nation could be found among the crews that searched the coves and inlets, wherever the presence of Indian tribes gave promise of a profitable trade. The first of these trading craft arrived from Early fur the coast of China in 1785. It was a small t^st^D ship, apparently flying the Portuguese flag, but commanded by an Englishman, James Hanna. He secured a cargo of five hundred and sixty sea-otter skins, which, on the return to China, were sold for more than twenty thousand dol lars. No season passed thereafter in which the 30 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST natives living on the best-known harbors of the North Pacific were unable to dispose of their furs. Gradually the traders explored new por tions of the coast, and thus, year by year, other tribes were brought under the influence of the trade. In the course of the first ten years Nootka Sound Nootka Harbor, 1788. Launching the Northwest America, this commercial activity gave rise to two most interesting historical episodes, to which we must now give attention. They were the Nootka Sound controversy and the discovery of the Columbia. Nootka Sound, lying just north of the 49th parallel, contained several of the best harbors thus far discovered in the Northwest. With NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA 31 deep, quiet water, and high rugged shores, it afforded ideal anchoring places for ships arriv ing in distress after the long and often stormy passage across the Pacific. Its favorable loca tion on the line of coast made it convenient, also, as a center for trading expeditions carried on to the north and south. As a result, this place became a kind of international resort for ships engaged in the fur trade. We have not forgotten, however, that the Spanish entire coast was claimed by Spain. Her title "ght! . J r threatened was as old as the discovery of Balboa, who took by Russia possession of all the coasts of the Pacific as he stood upon the mountain peak in Darien. It had been strengthened at an early time by the ex plorations of Cortez, Ulloa, Cabrillo, and others ; and later by the conquest of California, the northern voyages of Perez, Heceta, and Cuadra. But in spite of all theories of sovereignty, the Russians, who discovered Alaska and the adja cent islands, had already pushed down the coast to the parallel of 6o°, and according to rumors which had floated southward were threatening to go farther. Something must be done to stop these encroachments. In 1788 the Spanish government sent out a squadron under Marti nez and Haro t6 gather exact information con cerning the doings of these Northerners. They did not find a Russian settlement at Nootka, as they had feared, but met traders of that nation controversy 32 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST farther up the coast who spoke as if there was a plan to take possession of this important har bor. The Spaniards learned, also, that Nootka was the favorite rendezvous for the British and other ships engaged in the northern trade. The Nootka On the return of the Spanish fleet to sound Mexico it was at once decided to send the same officers to the upper seas in the following year, with instructions to fortify Nootka Sound. This was done, but in carrying out his orders Captain Martinez seized two British vessels be longing to a company represented by Lieuten ant John Meares.1 This incident occurred in the summer of 1789, and resulted in a diplo matic controversy and preparations for war by both Spain and Great Britain. When the con test was ended by the so-called Nootka Conven tion (November 29, 1790), Spain was no longer, even in theory, the sovereign of the Northwest Coast. By this treaty she gave up her exclu sive claims, and acknowledged that British sub jects had equal rights with her own to trade or make settlements " in places not already occu pied " ; that is, anywhere north of California. The settlement of the Nootka Sound contro versy had special importance for the United 1 Two other vessels were temporarily detained, but as these floated the Portuguese flag and were taken under different circum stances from the ships mentioned above, it is sufficient merely to allude to them. The vessels over which the controversy arose were the Princess Royal and Argonaut. NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA 33 States. It not only secured rights of trade Effect upon for British subjects, but practically opened the ghe United North Pacific to the commerce of every nation. Spain never took an active interest in the fur trade, and after 1790 she withdrew down the coast to California. England, too, on account of the long European wars which began about this time, found little chance, during the next twenty years, to follow up the advantage she had gained. In the meantime, the North Pa cific may almost be said to have become an American lake. The keen traders and daunt less whalers of New England, coming up around Cape Horn, had taken possession, and were reaping a rich reward. Let us trace the origin and some of the most noteworthy results of this new activity on the Pacific coast. When Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth John (England) in July, 1776, he had on board his Ledyard flagship an American named John Ledyard. This young sailor was a native of Connecticut, who had spent his youth in " the land of steady habits " without finding any steady or settled business to suit his taste. An adventurer by nature, he was always looking for new and exciting enterprises. As a youth he attended Dartmouth College, then a small school, located beyond the bounds of settlement on the upper Connecticut. Ledyard intended to prepare for missionary work among the Indians ; but after on Cook's expedition 34 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST spending some time at college he gave up this plan and decided to leave the institution. He had been a peculiar boy in school, and he was more peculiar in his manner of getting home. Felling a great tree on the bank of the river, he hollowed it out to make a canoe ; then, with a bearskin for a bed and> a few books as his sole companions, this enterprising navigator actually accomplished the long river voyage from Hanover, New Hampshire, to Hartford, Connecticut. His services A little later he made up his mind to be come a seaman, and secured a place on a ship belonging to the British navy. Being in Eng land when Cook's expedition was preparing, he called to see the great captain and was given the post of corporal of marines. His services on the long voyage were of great value. He was vigorous, alert, intelligent, and good-natured ; was always ready to take more than his share of the hard duties ; and went at them with enthusiasm if they promised any novelties. While the ships were in northern waters he volunteered to explore the island of Onalaska, and in Hawaii amused himself by climbing the loftiest mountain peak of the island. From each expedition he brought back important information. After the fleet returned to Great Britain Ledyard was transferred to a warship, bound V NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA 35 for Long Island Sound. This was just at the His return ; close of the Revolutionary War. The treaty of tradi»gProi- J J _ ect ; goes to peace had not been signed; but the fighting Europe was over, and the young corporal felt morally justified in leaving the ship. He escaped to his old home, found the mother he had not seen for eight years, and related to admiring The Sea-otter. friends his thrilling stories of adventure. But he was not yet prepared to settle down. Indeed, ever since the sale by Cook's men of the sea- otter skins in Canton, which Ledyard wit nessed, he had burned with enthusiasm to engage in the fur trade of the Northwest Coast. Here was the opportunity to gain both fame and fortune. If he could only get some Amer ican merchant to furnish a vessel, with the 36 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST necessary equipment, he might be first in the field and secure the cream of the trade. In trying to carry out his project, Ledyard inter viewed the merchants of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. It was hard to persuade these cautious men of business to undertake so dan gerous a venture. Finally Robert Morris, then the greatest merchant of the United States, agreed to adopt the plan and enter into a part nership with Ledyard for carrying it out. We can imagine the enthusiasm with which our adventurer set about his preparations. These, however, did not proceed far. Either because no suitable vessel could be secured, or for some other reason, the arrangement with Morris came to naught.1 Ledyard now determined to go to Europe in the hope of finding, in Spain or France, the mercantile support which he could not obtain in his native country. Before going he published (Hartford, 1783) a little book which gave to the world the first general account of Cook's voyage. By this means and by his personal activity among American mer chants he no doubt aroused considerable inter est in the Pacific Northwest ; and therefore, in spite of his ill success, it was not long before 1 A ship called ' the Empress of China was, it seems, en gaged ; but for some reason her destination was changed and she was sent to China direct in 1785. This vessel opened the Chi nese trade with our eastern cities. NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA 37 others were making similar plans for conduct ing a trade from Boston to the Northwest Coast and to China. In 1787 several Boston merchants fitted out The coium- two small vessels, the Columbia and the Lady ^nd the Washington, with cargoes of trinkets, bright- Washington colored cloth, and blankets for the Indian trade. They left Boston on 'the ist of October, under the command of John Kendrick and Robert Gray. The ships were separated on the voyage up the Pacific coast. The Washington traded with the natives, visiting Tillamook and other ports, and entered Nootka Sound on the 16th of September. There Captain Gray found two British ships and witnessed on September 20 the launching of the Northwest America, con structed by Lieutenant Meares, the first sea going vessel built on the Northwest Coast.1 Three days later Kendrick arrived in the Columbia, and the Americans prepared to spend the winter at Nootka Sound. When spring came both vessels sailed out Trading to trade along the coast and had a successful c™se- The 0 Columbia cruise. Mr. Haswell, one of the officers, tells saiistoChina us in his diary that they purchased two hun- *^J°n dred sea-otter skins of one tribe in exchange for a chisel. We do not wonder when he 1 These British ships were the Felice and Iphigenia. The latter, with the Northwest America, was detained by the Span iards. All these vessels carried the flag of Portugal. 38 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST adds, " I was grieved to leave them so soon, as it appeared to be the best place for skins that we had seen." Aside from securing a good cargo, the Americans explored along Queen Charlotte's Island, and gained a large amount of information about the coast both north and south of Nootka. Toward the end of this summer all the furs thus far collected were taken on board the Columbia. Captain Gray then sailed in her to China. He sold his cargo, loaded with tea, and turning his prow westward, finally reached Boston (August, 1790) by way of the Cape of Good Hope. This was the first time that the flag of the young American Republic had been borne around the world. Later voy- After unloading his tea, Gray was sent back age to the to the Pacific, where he traded up and down Northwest . 1 Coast the coast during the summer of 1791, much as he had done two years before. The following winter was spent in the harbor of Clayoquot. There he built a small vessel, the Adventure, and in spring resumed his trading excursions with the most important and unexpected re sult. As Gray ran southward along the coast he discovered (May 7) Gray's Harbor, where he was attacked by the natives ; and on the nth of May (1792) entered the mouth of a great river in latitude 460 10'. This he named "Colum bia's River," in honor of the good ship which The Mouth of the Columbia, NOOTKA SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA- 41 first stemmed its mighty current. The Colum- Discovery of bia remained in the river ten days, shifting her the £olum- anchorage several times, and ascending the May n, ' stream to a point "about thirty miles" above I792 the bar. Gray " doubted not it was navigable upwards of ioo " miles. Many Indians in their bark canoes were constantly about the vessel, eager for trade. Some of the ship's men filled the casks with water; others tarred and painted the ship; still others were engaged in making and repairing irons. It was a busy time, those May days of 1792, when the estuary of the Columbia first became the scene of commerce conducted by civilized man. We can but marvel that this great discovery Failure of should have been left for the American trader, Me^^ when the government expeditions of Great Cook, and Britain and Spain had been cruising along those shores for many years. In 1775 the Spaniards had actually discovered the bay at the mouth of the Columbia ; but while Heceta suspected the existence of a river, he failed to enter the stream itself. Thirteen years later Lieutenant Meares, the English trader, who figures so prominently in the Nootka Sound affair, sailed along the line of breakers just out side the bar. He named the indentation which he saw " Deception Bay " ; and so far from dis covering that it was in fact the estuary of a great river, Meares went out of his way to 42 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST declare " that no such river as St. Roc exists, as laid down on Spanish charts." Captain Cook passed up the coast in 1778 without suspecting the presence of the river, and just two weeks before Gray made his famous discovery, Captain George Vancouver examined carefully the very opening through which the river pours its continental flood into the ocean. Vancouver noted simply " the ap pearance of an inlet, or small river, the land behind it not indicating it to be of any great extent; nor did it seem to be accessible for vessels of our burden." With this reflection, and the statement that he did not consider " this opening worthy of more attention," he contin ued his northward voyage. A few weeks later he received, at Puget Sound, the news of Gray's wonderful discovery. Broughton's Vancouver sent Lieutenant Broughton to the exploration Coium^ m October, and through him explored it to Point Vancouver, about one hundred miles from the bar. He made light of Gray's exploit, trying to show that the trader had not entered the. river proper, but only the inlet at its mouth. The world has been more generous than this distinguished British navigator. It honors the captain of the Boston trading ship as the real discoverer of the Columbia, and ranks his achievement as one of the noteworthy events in the history of the Pacific Northwest. CHAPTER IV EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD Since the first planting of colonies along the The west- Atlantic coast, the search for a strait had often flowinsriver taken the form of a search for a west-flowing river. At first it was supposed that North America was very narrow, and that the larger streams falling into the Atlantic must have their sources near others, flowing westward. The problem of a water way to the Pacific could be settled, therefore, by connecting the headwaters of an east and a west flowing stream. It was with this thought that King James required the first English colonists to explore the rivers of Virginia for their western connections. But nature appeared to favor the French, Frenchmen rather than the English colonists, with an open e^piore"^ highway across the continent. Within a few Mississippi years after the founding of Quebec, Champlain had explored the Ottawa River and reached Lake Huron. Shortly afterward he sent his agent, Jean Nicolet, westward up the lakes to visit the Indian tribes in what is now Wiscon sin. There the French learned of a great river 43 44 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST to the west, which they rejoiced to think would afford the long-sought passage to the South Sea. In 1673 Joliet and Father Marquette set out to explore this river. They launched their bark canoes at Green Bay, ascended the Fox River, and crossed over by a very short por tage to the Wisconsin. The descent was easy, and in a few weeks*, they were floating along upon the broad current of the Mississippi. They hoped it might carry them to the South Sea, either at the Gulf of California or some more northerly point. By the time they reached the mouth of the Arkansas, however, the ex plorers were convinced that the Mississippi was an Atlantic river, and that its course was almost directly southward to the Gulf of Mexico. A few years later (1682) La Salle descended to its out let, and took possession of the river and valley for the king of France. Effect of the The exploration of the Mississippi gave an exp oration ent{rely new idea of the magnitude of North America. A stream greater than any of those east of the Alleghanies was flowing through the land for two thousand miles, and draining a vast territory whose very existence had been unknown. From the eastern mountains great tributaries, hundreds of miles in length, added their waters to its flood. Other large rivers entered from the west, and these doubtless had their headsprings far away in unknown regions, EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 45 lying toward the setting sun. The shore of the South Sea, so vividly present to the imagi nation in these early times, receded westward a thousand miles. Instead of reaching it by a stream interlocking with the James, the Poto mac, or the Hudson, the problem now was to find a west-flowing river near the sources of the Red, the Arkansas, or the Missouri. It was not long after the French gained con- The Mis- trol of the Mississippi valley, before the Mis- ^taenrn souri came to be looked upon as the great river highway to the west. French traders and trappers ascended its turbid waters, and gath ered information from the Indians about its upper streams. Men were always looking for a way to the Pacific, and even with no prompting from natives or others, would have constructed in imagination a river flowing from near the head of the Missouri to the South Sea. But there were several good reasons for believ ing in the existence of such a stream. In the first place, the Spaniards as early as 1603 claimed to have found a large river entering the Pacific near the southern boundary of the present state of Oregon ; and for more than two hundred years they had known of a simi lar stream flowing to the Gulf of California. Their sources had never been seen, and it was reasonable to suppose that they could be reached from the upper Missouri. Besides, 46 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST there were traditions among the Indians about rivers flowing toward the sunset; and early in the eighteenth century, so the story runs, an old chief who lived on the Lower Mississippi, traveled for many moons in this direction until he reached the western ocean. French mis sionaries, from the time of Marquette, dreamed of carrying the Gospel to the tribes on the west-flowing river, and other Frenchmen hoped to establish a line of trading posts connecting the Mississippi with the South Sea. It was in pursuing this project that Verendrye, in 1743, discovered the Rocky Mountains in the coun try of the upper Yellowstone. Jonathan We now come to one of the most picturesque figures in early western exploration, — the Ameri can traveler, Captain Jonathan Carver. He was a Connecticut man, who had joined the Colonial army during the war against the French (1754— 1763), and had performed good service. When the war closed, he decided, so he says, to under take a journey to the far west with the hope of making discoveries useful to the govern ment. On this expedition Carver was absent more than two years, from June, 1766, to Octo ber, 1768. He visited the Great Lakes and crossed over by the Fox and Wisconsin to the Mississippi. At the Falls of St. Anthony (St. Paul, Minnesota) he expected to prepare an expedition for the purpose of ascending the Carver's travels EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 47 Missouri and seeking for the River of the West. Being disappointed in these arrangements he went up the St. Peter River and wintered among the Sioux. From these Indians he probably learned some details concerning the geography eOHHAV fc CO., N.Y. of the upper Missouri, and he may have heard from them the name " Oregon," or something like it, applied to the western river ; at least we are indebted to Carver for this significant word. He prepared a map which shows his ideas con- 48 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST cerning the River of the West. We do not know how far it may have been based on infor mation gained from the Indians, and how far it was imaginary ; but however produced, it is one of the most interesting maps connected with the early history of the Pacific North west. He goes On returning from his travels, Carver soon to England went tQ Londorij where he spent the latter part of his life. For his knowledge of the interior of America, a large part of which he no doubt drew from earlier French travelers, he became an object of attention from prominent men con nected with the British government. He tells us, for instance, of interviews which he had with the Lords of Trade and members of Parliament. It is a most interesting fact that the search for a western river became connected, at this point, through Carver, with the long familiar search for a strait. Western We have already seen that the British gov- nverand ernment was at this time anxiously seeking Northeast . . Passage the Northwest Passage. Hearne's discoveries (i 769-1 772) were creating a belief that the passage might be found by sailing northeast ward from Bering's Strait. This was what led the government, in 1776, to send out Captain Cook to the Northwest Coast. But Carver tells us that an expedition had been planned two years earlier to accomplish the same object EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 49 in a different way. It was proposed to send a party of some sixty men, including sailors, shipbuilders and other mechanics, to Lake Pipin on the Mississippi. There they were to establish a fort or headquarters from which to begin the march overland along the Missouri. From the head waters of the Missouri they were to cross to the Oregon, and sail down that river " to the place where it is said to empty itself near the Straits of Anian." This party was to carry with them across the continent all the equipments necessary to build ships on the Pacific, establish a naval station near the mouth of the " River of the West," and begin the search for the Northeast Passage. Carver tells us that the plan was dropped on ac count of the Revolutionary War in America, which broke out at this time. Instead of the proposed overland expedition, the British gov ernment sent out Captain Cook, whose voyage not only added to our knowledge of North Pacific geography, but also opened up the fur trade with all the attendant results de scribed in the last chapter. Among these, the most important was the discovery of the river Oregon, concerning which Carver certainly knew nothing definite. From this time the story of westward explora- Jefferson a tion centers very largely in one individual, the great American statesman, Thomas Jefferson. western man 50 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Jefferson's home was in the western portion of what is now the state of Virginia, near the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. From boyhood he had been familiar with the story of western adventure, and was the per sonal friend of many of the men who, like Daniel Boone, crossed the mountains to Ken tucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Kentucky after its settlement remained for twenty years a part of Virginia, and Jefferson, as a member of the state legislature, or as governor of the com monwealth, could not escape the necessity of interesting himself in everything relating to that section of the West. Jefferson the He was a man of broad sympathies and p iosop er intensely active, inquisitive mind. Of all the great men of his time in America, not even excepting Franklin, Jefferson was undoubt edly the most widely informed. He loved science, literature, and the arts for their own sakes, and strove earnestly to gain at least a general view of every branch of knowl edge. In this respect he resembled the great European thinkers of the eighteenth cen tury. For all these reasons he is not inaptly called " the universal philosopher." Jefferson was a leading spirit in the American Philo sophical Society, which aimed to gather new information in all departments of learning, but laid special stress upon everything pertaining EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 51 to the geography, and the animal and plant life, of the continent. The settled portions of North America were already known ; but west of the mountains, and especially beyond the Mississippi, lay vast stretches of territory con cerning which only vague rumors had thus far been received. The Great West was still a land of mystery and wonder, holding peculiar attrac tions for a man of Jefferson's imaginative mind. It is refreshing to read, in his letters written to friends living on the western waters, requests for all sorts of curiosities to be found in those regions, — the bones of the Mammoth or Mas todon, elk horns of unusual size, remarkable minerals and plants. He was always glad to pay the charges for transporting boxes of these things from the place of their discovery to his home at Monticello. In a letter to Philip Nolan, the notorious character who has been depicted as " the man without a country," Jef ferson asked for a full account of the wild horses, of which large herds roamed over the Spanish country toward Santa Fe. This infor mation, too, was for the American Philosophical Society. In these letters of Jefferson to western men His letter to there appears, at last, evidence of a desire to teptoe know about the whole region west of the Mis sissippi and across to the Pacific Ocean. On the 26th of November, 1782, he wrote to a Mr. 52 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST First proposal of transcontinentaljourney Question of the route Steptoe, asking not only for the " big bones," which seemed so hard to procure, but also for "descriptions of animals, vegetables, minerals, or other curious things." In addition, he would be glad to receive " notes as to the Indians' information of the country between the Missis sippi and the South Sea." On the 4th of December, 1783, almost one year later, Jefferson wrote the now well-known letter to George Rogers Clark. After men tioning his desire to obtain the "bones, teeth, and tusks of the Mammoth," he says : " I find they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California, they pretend it is only to promote knolege. I am afraid they have thoughts of colonizing into that quarter. some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to search that coun try. But I doubt whether we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party ? tho I am afraid the prospect is not worth asking the question." This is the first proposal made in the United States for an overland journey to the Pacific. It could scarcely have appeared earlier, for at this time the treaty of peace with Great Britain, closing the Revolutionary War, was only three months old, and the last of the enemy's troops EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 53 were just leaving the country. The treaty gave us the Mississippi as the western boundary of the United States. The great region beyond the river belonged to Spain, whose colonies extended in a broken line from New Orleans, through Texas, to Mexico and Santa Fe. Along the Pacific, as we have seen, she had a few mis sions and presidios, reaching northward as far as San Francisco Bay. It is not at all unlikely, since he speaks of a British plan to reach Cali fornia, that Jefferson wished George Rogers Clark to go to the Pacific by a southern route, from near the mouth of the Mississippi, but we cannot be certain. Three years later the far- seeing statesman had fixed upon the Missouri as the line of approach to the western sea, and he held to this idea until the transcontinental route was opened under his direction by Lewis and Clark. At this point we meet once more with the Jefferson adventurous Yankee, John Ledyard. In the ^ ard preceding chapter we found him, after the re turn of Cook's expedition, trying to persuade some great merchant of the Atlantic cities to fit him out with a ship for the Northwest fur trade. Failing in this Ledyard went to France, where he hoped to meet with better fortune. Again he was almost, but not quite, successful. Jefferson was then living in Paris as Minister of the United States to the court 54 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of France ; and since Ledyard was always in need of friends, he was not long in making the statesman's acquaintance. We could easily infer, even if we did not have the testimony of both men to the fact, that the subjects of the North west fur trade and westward explorations were most interesting topics of conversation at their frequent private meetings and the dinner parties of mutual friends. New plan to Since Ledyard had failed in his trade project North6 he was all the more eager for some exploring America venture which might bring him what he called " honest fame." For this purpose the western portion of North America offered the greatest inducements. In his over enthusiastic manner he wrote : " I die with anxiety to be on the back of the America States after having either come from or penetrated to the Pacific Ocean. There is an extensive field for the acquirement of honest fame. A blush of generous regret sits on my cheek when I hear of any discovery there which I have had no part in. — The American Revolution invites to a thorough discovery of the continent. — Let a native explore its resources and boundaries. It is my wish to be the man." Jefferson wrote that Ledyard was " panting for some new enterprise," and he encouraged him in a plan to explore western North America, beginning at the Pacific coast. The traveler was "to go by land to Kamtchatka, cross in EARLY EXPLORATIONS WESTWARD 55 some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and through that to the United States."1 Ledyard started out bravely toward the end The Siberian of the year 1 786. In order to reach St. Peters- 1°™?^'* burg he traveled on foot across Sweden, Fin- death land, and Lapland, through the blinding storms of an Arctic winter, nearly perishing from cold, hunger, and fatigue. From the Russian capital his journey was less difficult, and he arrived in northeastern Siberia before the next winter. There he waited, hoping to get a chance to sail to Nootka Sound in the spring for the purpose of beginning his great journey across the continent of America. He was used to disappointments ; but that which now overtook him was the bitterest and most terrible of all. The Russian government refused, in spite of his passport, to allow him to go forward. He was arrested, placed in a closed vehicle, and " conveyed day and night, without ever stop ping to rest, till they reached Poland, where he was set down and left to himself." Sick and almost heartbroken, he made his way to 1 Before setting out on this journey he went to London and was invited to take passage on a trading ship about to visit the Northwest Coast. Ledyard was delighted. He got on board with his two great clogs, his Indian pipe and hatchet, and already felt the thrill of being under way, when the ship was arrested by the government and the voyage abandoned. 56 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST London, where he arrived in May, 1788. But soon recovering his spirits, in a few weeks he was eagerly planning another exploring scheme. This time he proposed to search for the sources of the Nile, having been engaged for that pur pose by the African Association in London. He started, reached Egypt, and was already looking forward to a plunge into the depths of the Dark Continent, when he fell sick and died very suddenly in November, 1 788. A few- days earlier he had written an enthusiastic letter to his old friend Jefferson. Jefferson's Jefferson was called home from Paris in 1790 to become Washington's Secretary of State. Others were by this time thinking of exploring the West, and Captain John Arm strong made an attempt to pass up the Mis souri in the spring of 1790; but reports of wars among the Indians turned him back. In 1792 Jefferson supported a scheme of the French botanist, M'ichaux, to make a journey to the Pacific ; but this also failed. Eight years later he was elected President of the United States, and then, at last, the opportu nity came for carrying out his long-cherished project of western exploration. return to America CHAPTER V ORIGIN OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION When Jefferson entered upon his office of Napoie alarms Americans President, March 4, 1801, the Mississippi was alrums the still the western boundary of the United States. All west of the river was supposed by Ameri cans to belong to Spain, which had been in possession at New Orleans since 1763. As a matter of fact, however, the great Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French gov ernment, had recently forced Spain to give back Louisiana to France, but without publish ing to the world the treaty of October, 1800, by which this was accomplished. When the Americans learned, a little later, of the change of ownership of this western territory, and the prospect that France would succeed Spain at the mouth of the Mississippi, great alarm was felt throughout the country. " Perhaps nothing since the Revolutionary War," wrote Jefferson, " has produced more uneasy sensations through out the body of the nation." A glance at the condition of the West of The western that time will explain why this was so. The settlements entire region beyond the Alleghanies was by 57 58 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST nature tributary to the Mississippi. It was a fertile land, containing rich valleys, beautiful plains, and far-stretching forests which once teemed with wild game. Daniel Boone called Kentucky " a second Paradise." He and other pioneers at first entered the region as hunters. Afterward they cut a road through the Shenandoah Valley and Cumberland Gap (" the Wilderness Road"), through which they brought their wagons, families, and cattle, to make new homes upon the western waters. The pioneers of Tennessee arrived at about the same time, just before the Revolutionary War, and occupied the high valleys along the head waters of the Tennessee River. From these beginnings settlement had spread rapidly, in spite of Indian wars and frontier hardships, until, in the year 1800, Kentucky had a white population of 180,000, and Tennessee 92,000. By that time Ohio had also been settled, partly by Revolutionary soldiers from New England, and already counted 45,000 people. A few settlers were scattered along the rivers of Ala bama and Mississippi, and still others lived in the old dilapidated French villages of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. We will not be far wrong in placing the total white population on Mississippi waters in 1800 at 325,000. ofhfelnThe The prosperity of all these people was ab- west solutely in the hands of the power that con- Thomas Jefferson. 59 THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 6 1 trolled the Mississippi. At that time there were no canals joining the eastern and western streams; railroads had never been heard of; and the steamboat, afterward such a wonder ful aid in transporting goods and passengers up the rivers of the West, was yet to be in vented. Manufactured goods, articles of little bulk and considerable value, were carried across the mountains from the Atlantic sea board by pack train or wagon, to supply the frugal wants of the frontier settlers. Cattle from the great ranges of Kentucky and Ten nessee were driven eastward to market ; but all the other produce of farm, mill, and factory, the surplus wheat, corn, pork, flour, and lumber, were carried to the one invariable market at New Orleans. The means employed in trans portation was the old-fashioned "ark," or flatboat, made of rough plank and guided by rudder or setting pole. Such craft were a feature of every farming community in the western states. They were built by the farmers themselves, and moored in convenient streams to await their cargoes. Then, when harvest was over and the free days of autumn arrived, the husbandman loaded on the annual surplus, and with his sons or hired men floated down to the distant Spanish city. There he sold his cargo, boat and all, to secure the money needed to clothe his family and buy the small supply 62 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Dependenceon the Mississippi Spaniardsclose the Mississippi of homely comforts which they had learned to demand. The return was by keel boat up the river, on the back of a Spanish pony overland, or by ship around to the most convenient Atlantic seaport. So long as Americans had the free use of the Mississippi, all was satisfactory. In theory this was one of our unquestioned rights; but the practical fact was different, for the Span iards owned the land on both banks of the river at its mouth, and our people were de pendent on them for a place to deposit the produce brought down until it could be trans ferred to ocean vessels. If they, or the French who were about to step into their places, should refuse to continue this right of deposit, or should charge a heavy toll for it, they could sap the very lifeblood of the American com munities in the entire trans- Alleghany region. The Spaniards were supposed to be too weak to attempt this with any promise of suc cess ; but France had become the dread of Europe, and ranked as the greatest military power of the world. It is not strange that Americans should take alarm at the prospect of having her as a neighbor on the west, espe cially since this would mean French garrisons planted about New Orleans. The uneasiness of which Jefferson wrote was caused by the fear that France, when once in possession, Florida THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 63 might undertake to oppress the Americans in order to establish her influence over the west ern people.1 Just before the close of the year 1802 the news reached Washington that a Spanish official at New Orleans had actually denied to Americans the right of deposit, which was guaranteed by treaty. This action not only increased the alarm already widely felt, but aroused the West to a desire for war in which many eastern people shared. Jefferson was by nature strongly averse to Jefferson's war, and would sometimes yield a great deal in New Orleans order to preserve peace. In this case, however, and west his mind seems to have been made up. We must go to war rather than permit France to take and keep possession of the mouth of the Mississippi. But it would be best, he thought, to delay the armed conflict as long as possible, and meantime he would try to gain the con trol of the river for the United States by the arts of diplomacy, in the use of which he was a master hand. The plan was to frighten 1 During the Colonial period France held all the territory drained by the Mississippi, and only gave up the region between the river and the Alleghanies to Great Britain (1763) because she was compelled to do so. After the United States came into control of it France began scheming to get it back. This was one of the objects of the Genet mission in 1793, and it occupied the French government at other times, as the Ameri cans well knew. Spaniards and English also had an ambition to control the region west of the Alleghanies. One such British plan connects with the Nootka Sound controversy. 64 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The special message of January 18, 1803 Its two divisions. The first part Napoleon with a threat that the United States would join Great Britain in a war against France, and thus induce him, as a condition of peace, to sell us the island and city of New Orleans, together with West Florida. This would give the United States both banks of the Mississippi at its mouth, and insure the control of the river. Jefferson had already in structed Robert R. Livingston, our minister to France, to undertake this purchase of territory from Napoleon ; and when the war spirit ran high in Congress, during the winter of 1802- 1803, he sent James Monroe to Paris as a special commissioner to assist in carrying out this plan. At the same time Congress took measures to place the country in as good condition as pos sible to bear the shock of a future war. It was under these circumstances, when the country was excited over affairs in the West, and fearful of a collision with the overshadow ing power of France ; when the fate of the Mississippi appeared to be hanging in the bal ance, and might turn either way; that Presi dent Jefferson sent to Congress the now famous message of January 18, 1803, recommending an exploring expedition to the Pacific. This document contains two distinct parts which ought, however, to be read together. The first part deals with questions which ap parently relate wholly to Indian affairs. But THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 65 the reader of the message can readily see that the President's chief purpose is to provide ad ditional protection to the Mississippi River. He felt strongly, at this time, that our interests would not be safe till the United States had a large population in the West, and especially along the great river itself. The government must encourage the westward movement in every proper way, and thus "plant upon the Mississippi itself the means of its own safety." But especially must an effort be made to estab lish American settlements on the great stretches of unoccupied land immediately along the east bank. Since the Indian tribes owned most of this land, something must be done to induce them to part with it ; and Jefferson believed that the best method was to continue selling them goods, including plows and other implements which had a tendency to make of the Indians an agricultural people. With the expansion of their corn fields, the growth of their herds and flocks, they would see the uselessness of retaining vast stretches of forest for hunting grounds, and would be glad to sell these to the government for money or needed supplies. That is why Jefferson dwells at such length upon the im portance of maintaining government trading houses, where they already existed among In dian tribes, and urges Congress to consider carefully the question of establishing others. 66 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Mississippi River, and the question of how to defend it, lie back of this entire dis cussion. The second When we come to the second part of the part message other questions appear, but the argu ment for the protection of the Mississippi is still present. The power of the United States extended only to the river itself, the great re gion to the west being under the jurisdiction of Spain, which was about to hand over the country to France. Large and powerful native tribes hunted the buffalo upon the broad prai ries which now are divided into numerous states, containing millions of inhabitants. The Indians, along the Missouri especially, were so closely connected with the Mississippi that, as the President saw, they could either help or harm us a great deal. He insisted that we ought to become better acquainted with these tribes. They were trading with British sub jects whose headquarters were at Montreal in Canada. They might just as well be sending their beaver and other furs down the Missouri, and across the United States to New York or Baltimore. If they could be induced to trade with Americans, it would be to our advantage in every way. Those Indians would then be our friends instead of our enemies, and would serve as a protection to the Mississippi from the west. THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 6"J In this manner Jefferson led up to his great Agovern- project of sending a government expedition up ditTon"*™- the Missouri. It was the opportunity to explore posed the West for which he had been waiting twenty years ; yet his message has very little to say about exploration for its own sake, and a great deal about commercial treaties with the Mis souri River Indians. This shows simply that Jefferson was a practical, tactful man, who knew how best to approach Congress on the subject of an appropriation for carrying out his plans. "An intelligent officer," he says, "with ten or twelve men fit for the enterprise and willing to undertake it, might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean, have confer ences with the natives on the subject of com mercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders, as others are admitted, agree on a convenient deposit for an interchange of articles, and return with the information ac quired in the course of two summers." The phrase " even to the Western Ocean " The Pacific shows clearly that Jefferson had in mind a J^^e genuine exploring expedition, such as he had point planned several times during the preceding twenty years, but was never able to obtain. He proposed nothing less than the opening of a way across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, and a careful scientific examination of the country along the route. 68 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Louisi ana Pur chase a later event When we remember that the message was written on the 18th of January, 1803, it becomes plain that the exploring expedition recom mended by Jefferson had nothing whatever to do with the Louisiana Purchase. At that time he had just sent Monroe to France to assist Livingston in the plan to purchase New Orleans and West Florida. Neither Jefferson nor any one else had thus far hoped that we should own the whole of Louisiana. On the 30th of April, however, a treaty was made in Paris by which Napoleon transferred the entire region to the United States ; and since the expedition already planned did not set out for more than a year, it has often been supposed that the purchase of Louisiana was the reason for sending it. This is a mistake. Congress had passed a bill appropriating twenty-five hun dred dollars for the expedition, and President Jefferson had appointed its leader before it was known in the United States that Louisiana was ours.1 We are now prepared to study the organization of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and to follow the intrepid American explorers in their thrilling journey across the continent. 1 This paragraph would be unnecessary but for the fact that hundreds of books, now in print, contain the historical error above mentioned. CHAPTER VI OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC Jeffersqn's plan for carrying out the explor- pian of ing project was to appoint an army officer as orgamzatlon leader, and let him select a few-men from the military posts, wherever they could best be spared. In this way he would not only secure men trained to obey a commander, which was an important point, but would be enabled to fit out 't the expedition with very little expense; for the ^soldiers and officers would continue to draw their regular pay from the military de partment. v His choice for the leadership fell upon Meriwether Lewis, a young Virginian, captain brought up in the neighborhood of Monticello, Meriwether who had long been a favorite of Jefferson. He was of good family, was fairly well educated, and had many gifts both of mind and person. From boyhood Lewis had been fond of hunt ing, and had made himself an excellent woods man. He was also an enthusiastic student of plants and animals, was inured to the hardships and discipline of camp life, and understood the character and customs of the American Indians. For a 'number of years he had been in the regu- 69 70 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST lar army, but at this time held the office of private secretary to the President. His qualifi cations were admirable in so many respects, that in spite of some lack of scientific training, Jefferson " could have no hesitation in confiding Meriwether Lewis. the enterprise to him." He knew Lewis to be " honest, disinterested, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that what ever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves." Besides, he was " steady in the maintenance of discipline," and would be " careful as a father of those committed in his charge." OFENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 71 It was at Lewis's suggestion that the Presi dent appointed a second officer to share the command of the party, and the man to fill the post was also selected by the young captain. By a curious chance the individual chosen was William Clark. WilliamClark William Clark, younger brother of the cele brated western general, George Rogers Clark, to whom Jefferson had made the first proposal of an overland journey to the Pacific in 1 783. Like Lewis, Clark was a man of military ex perience, having served under General Wayne (" Mad Anthony ") in the campaign against the Ohio Indians. He had traveled widely in 72 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Instructions. The main object Notes and records the West, on several occasions even crossing the Mississippi. Clark was a few years older than Lewis, and differed from him in being less imaginative and enthusiastic ; but in all respects he was a worthy companion, splendidly qualified to share the responsibility of the great enterprise. The two leaders were peculiarly fitted to work together harmoniously, and did so from the beginning to the end of the expedi tion. " Throughout all the trying experiences of the three years during which they were united, their respect and friendship for each other but deepened and strengthened — a record far from common among exploring parties." 1 Jefferson personally prepared the instruc tions which were to govern the leaders in their work. " The object of your mission," he wrote to Lewis, " is to explore the Missouri River and such principal streams of it as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or some other river, may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce." They were to keep careful records day by day of the distances traveled and the points of 1 Quoted from Reuben Gold Thwaites, " Rocky Mountain Ex ploration with Special Reference to Lewis and Clark," New York, 1904, p. 105. OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 73 interest along the route. All noteworthy geo graphical features, such as the mouths of tribu tary rivers, rapids, falls, and islands, were to be accurately located with respect to latitude and longitude, so that a correct map of the rivers followed and the portage between them could be drawn from the explorer's notes. The President suggested that several copies of these notes should be made in order to guard against their loss by accident; and also "that one of these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch as being less liable to injury from damp than common paper." The officers were urged to induce as many of the men as possible to keep diaries, and several of them did so. Full instructions were given about dealing Dealing with the Indian tribes along the route, the ex- wlthIndians plorers being required to " treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit " ; they were to impress upon the red men that the United States was not only their friend, but that she was a great and strong power able to afford them full protection. If possible, they should arrange to have a few influential chiefs visit Washington. The President made his instructions complete other enough to cover every detail of the work pro- matters posed. Climate, soil, plants, animals, curious 74 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST geological remains, Indian legends — all these and other matters were to be kept in mind, and all possible information secured concerning them. " Should you reach the Pacific Ocean," he said, " inform yourself whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advanta geously at the head of the Missouri ... as at Nootka Sound or any other point of that coast." If so, the trade not only of the Missouri and Columbia, but of the Northwest Coast as well, might be carried across the continent to the eastern seaboard of the United States. One of the most pleasing paragraphs in the instruc tions is that in which the kindly Jefferson says to Lewis, " We wish you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your party safe, even if it be with less information." Prepara- Captain Lewis spent several weeks in Phila- Gatiiering delphia, under scientific instructors, and then the party set out for the West. He expected to get under way up the Missouri before the end of the year 1803. But delays at Pittsburg, where a drunken boat builder kept him waiting a month, and difficulties in navigating the Ohio during low water, wore away the summer. Clark joined him in Kentucky, and at several of the western posts soldiers were enlisted for the journey. Of these there were four sergeants and twenty-three privates, including nine Ken tucky hunters, Two French interpreters, the OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 75 Indian wife of one of these (Sacajawea), and Clark's burly negro, York, completed the party. Sixteen additional soldiers and water men were engaged to accompany the expedition as far as the villages of Mandan Indians.1 The winter of 1803- 1804 was passed in camp The first at the mouth of the river Du Bois, opposite the wmter Missouri. Captain Clark spent most of his time in drilling the men, building boats, and making other necessary arrangements about the establishment ; while Lewis purchased sup plies at St. Louis, and gathered information concerning the route from traders who thus early were familiar with the river as far as the Mandan villages. He frequently visited the American officers, and other persons of note in the little French hamlet, so soon to become an important American town. On the 9th of March he witnessed the ceremony of lower ing the foreign flag and raising the emblem of our own country over the territory of upper Louisiana. By the 14th of May the final touches had been The start. given to the preparations, and the exploring LaCharette party commenced the historic journey across the continent. Their supplies, instruments, 1 The muster roll of the party, on leaving Fort Mandan, is given in Coues's "Lewis and Clark Expedition," New York, 1891, I, p. 253, note. Much interesting matter on the persons com posing the party is contained in Eva Emery Dye's "Conquest," Chicago, 1902. y6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST articles for trade and presents for the Indians, were carried in a flotilla consisting of three boats : one was a keel boat of twenty-two oars, with deck, sail, and breastworks ; the other two were small craft, of six and seven oars respec tively. Many of the leading citizens of St. Louis turned out to see them off. All recog nized the importance of the enterprise, and delighted to honor the men who were braving untold dangers in order to open a highway to the shores of the Pacific. As the boats toiled up the swift-flowing Missouri they were often hailed from the banks by groups of French settlers, and sometimes by companies of Ameri cans who were already beginning to emigrate to this newly opened region of the West. At St. Charles they made a halt of several days, and it was not till the 25th of May that the explorers passed La Charette, the home of Daniel Boone, and the last settlement on the Missouri. ¦ From this point their path lay wholly within the Indian country. They meet On the 5th of June they " met a raft of two canoes joined together, in which two French traders were descending from eighty leagues up the Kansas River, where they had wintered and caught great quantities of beaver." Nine days later they encountered another party of traders coming down from the Platte, The 4th of July was celebrated by the firing of the up-rivertraders OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC jy big gun, and apparently in other ways, for one of the journalists says that a man was snake- bitten. On the east side of the Missouri, near the Indian mouth of the Platte . River, Lewis and Clark ™uncl.!; Council held councils with the Oto and Missouri Bluff ; Indians, giving the chiefs medals to hang about ^Je°f their necks, distributing flags, and leaving other Floyd tokens of American supremacy. The place of the gathering they named Council Bluff, noting that here was a good situation for a fort and trading house. The soil was good for brick, wood was convenient, and the air was "pure and healthy." One other incident of this part of the journey is deserving of notice. On the 20th of August, when the party was passing the site of the present Sioux City, Sergeant Charles Floyd died and was buried by his companions near the river. This is the only death that occurred on the entire journey. The country afforded little variety of land- Missouri scape as day by day the exploring party moved ^"eer land" along the course of the Missouri. Almost Buffalo everywhere was the narrow fringe of forest, running down to the water's edge, while here and there a wood-covered island divided the current of the river. Parallel to the stream, and at varying distances from it, low ranges of hills separated the valley from the broad prairie beyond. Deep ravines, cutting across 78 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the line of bluffs, opened natural highways from river to upland, and these were often worn down by the hoofs of the buffalo, which regu larly followed such paths in search of water. Immense herds of these animals were seen, and many were slain by the hunters, adding not a little to the °;ood cheer that enlivened the evening camp. Arrival at About the end of October they reached the the Mandan vi]jac,es 0f t]ie Mandan Indians, within the pres- villages. ° -1 Fort ent boundaries of North Dakota. The sharp ! ! night frosts warning them of approaching win ter, it was decided to establish quarters here. A site was chosen, Cottonwood and elm logs brought from the river bottom, and a "fort" built. This consisted simply of two rows of rude blockhouses, placed in the form of a letter " V," with shed roofs rising from the inner "sides. A row of strong posts, or palisades, com pleted the triangle. Such was Fort Mandan, where Lewis and Clark spent the long, severe, yetbusyand not unpleasant winter of 1 804-1 805. Many things required to be done. There were notes to copy, reports to write, maps to draw; articles of interest found on the trip up the Missouri must be prepared for submission to the President ; new boats were needed for the The winter's upward journey. These preparations occupied Zmk'h trie leaders during a large part of the winter; traders but they took occasion, also, to visit all of the OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 79 surrounding Indian tribes, and to make the best arrangements possible concerning future trade with the Americans. British traders from the far north visited them at Mandan during the winter, and carried back to the posts of the Northwest Company and to Mon treal the news that an American party was on its way to the Pacific.1 Great Falls of the Missouri. In March the thaw came, and soon the Mis- uP the , c . r\ iX. Missouri soun was once more tree ot ice. On the agam 7th of April, after starting the keel boat down TheYeiiow- the river, the eager travelers proceeded on their way, rejoicing in the expectation of soon beholding the River of the West, and the great 1 It is probable that this news stimulated the Northwest Com pany to hasten explorations, which its agents had already begun, on the west side of the Rockies. 80 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ocean which was the object of their search. Before the month closed they passed the mouth of the Yellowstone, where the plains were " ani mated by vast herds of buffalo, deer, elk, and antelope," usually so tame that they allowed the hunter to come very near them, " and often followed him quietly for some distance." Bea ver, too, were especially abundant here. From Indian travelers Lewis obtained a good ac count of the Yellowstone, and the country through which it flows. Near its confluence with the Missouri was " a situation highly eligi ble for a trading establishment." The grizzly One form of game found in this region was rather tamer than the explorers desired it to be, the grizzly bears, with which they had many thrilling encounters. On one occasion, when he had just discharged his rifle at a buffalo, Cap tain Lewis discovered one of these terrible ani mals rushing furiously toward him, with jaws distended, ready to tear him in pieces. There were no trees at hand, and the captain had barely time to reach the river bank and leap into the water, when he was able to frighten the beast off- with his halberd. Other terrors were not wanting. A buffalo bull storming through camp after dark, a night fire and fall ing tree trunk, dangerous rapids, the upsetting of a boat — these are but hints to indicate the nature of thefexperiences with which the days bear.Other terrors OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 8 1 and nights were filled, as the explorers pushed on through this wild but interesting region, toward the sources of the great Missouri. MULTONOMAH FALLS. After some difficulty at the Three Forks, Theinter- they ascended what they called the Jefferson ?*'ng branch, and on the 12th of August Captain Lewis, with one division of the party, arrived at the headsprings of the river, high up near shones. 82 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the summit of the Rockies, in a spot " which had never yet been seen by civilized man." On the same day he crossed over to " a handsome bold creek of cold, clear water," flowing west ward. The interlocking rivers, one flowing to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific, had at last been found. The sho- It was not long before he discovered a party of Shoshone Indians, from whom, after much delay, horses were procured for the journey to the navigable waters of the Columbia. At this point the Indian woman, Sacajawea, proved extremely helpful, for she belonged to the tribe of Shoshones and turned out to be the sister of a leading chief. character of The explorers were now face to face with stopeTfthe *he most serious problem encountered during Rockies the journey. The western slope of the Rockies differed greatly from the eastern in being much more rugged and precipitous, with deep canons through which the rivers rushed and swirled for great distances, until finally, on emerging from the mountains, they became navigable for boats. The travelers had been able to ascend the Missouri, to its source, with comparative ease ; following along the river valley, which was usually free from serious obstructions, a plain and easy path, sloping so gradually that it appeared to be almost level. Now they must make their way over sharp ridges, through ter- The Rocky Mountains. As seen from the east near the heads of the Missouri. OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 85 rific mountain defiles, choked with fallen tim ber and masses of rock debris. Moreover, they had no satisfactory way of determining probiemof what route to take, or how far they would be the route obliged to travel before reaching navigable water. It was necessary to follow the advice of their Shoshone friends to some extent, but the leaders soon found that this could not be altogether relied upon. As a preparatory step, Captain Clark ex- ciarkdis- plored a way down Salmon River to its junction covers and. x J J names Lewis with a larger river to which he gave the name River of his friend Lewis.1 But he learned that this stream was unnavigable for many miles below the point reached, and that it would be impos sible to follow its course through the canon. He therefore returned, and the explorers de cided to cross over to the river which flowed northward (Clark's Fork). This they would fol low to a point below, where an Indian road, the Lolo Trail, was said to cross the Bitter Root Mountains to the mouth of the north branch of the Clearwater. For nearly a month they threaded dark forests, over steep hills, rocks, and fallen trees ; made their way along danger ous cliffs; crossed raging torrents, whose icy 1 It is now commonly called " Snake River," a name distasteful in itself, and possessing no significance. In this volume the original name, appropriately conferred by the explorer in honor of his friend and companion one hundred years ago, will be used throughout. 86 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Navigating the Colum bia to the sea waters chilled both men and animals. Some times they encountered storms of sleet and snow, again the " weather was very hot and oppressive." Most of the men became sick, and all were much reduced in strength. Food The Dalles. Mount Hood in the distance. was so scanty that they were compelled to kill and eat some of the travel-worn horses. At the place where the north fork of the Clearwater joins the river of that name, the party prepared five canoes, and on the morning of the 7th of October entered upon the last stage of their eventful journey. The difficulties of travel were nearly over ; for the boats glided swiftly down the current, and ten days brought them to the confluence of the Lewis and Co lumbia. Here they were greeted by a proces- Copyright, 1904, by Sarah H. Ladd. The Gorge of the Columbia. OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 89 sion of two hundred Indians, marching in their honor to the music of primitive drums. In two weeks they passed the Great Falls (Celilo), under the Long Narrows (Dalles), and Cascades, reaching shadow of ° , r at ii • i • Mt- Hood on the 2d ot November the tide-water section of the river. Then, on the 7th of November, they heard the breakers roar, and saw, spread ing and rolling before them, the waves of the western ocean — " the object of our labors, the reward of all our anxieties." The purpose of the expedition had been Establish achieved. A highway across the continent of winter 0 J quarters. North America was now an established fact, Fortciatsop and all that remained to be done was to carry back the news of the great discovery. Jeffer son had instructed Lewis to find, if possible, a ship on the Pacific by which some or all of the party might return to the United States with the journals of the expedition. But, while traders often entered the Columbia, as the natives testified, no vessel appeared during the winter of 1805-1806. All that could be done was to spend the rainy season on the Oregon coast, and take up the return march overland in the spring. At a place three miles above the mouth of the Netal (now called Lewis and Clark River), on the " first point of high land on its western bank," the explorers erected a low-roofed log building, to which, in honor of the neighboring tribe of Indians, they gave the 90 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST name of Fort Clatsop.1 The location was by no means ideal, for the party was in need of food, and in this region game was not very plentiful. The winter at Fort Clatsop was therefore a time of real hardship, relieved by the hope of a speedy return to homes beyond the mountains. The shelter was completed on the last day of December ; the next morning "a volley of small arms" was fired "to salute the new year." Some of the men were kept busy hunting the lean elk, on which the party was forced to subsist; others were sent to the seacoast — seven miles distant — to manufacture a supply of salt. At the fort the officers busied themselves with the notes and journals of the Completing expedition. On the 1 1 th of February Clark the great finished the great map of the overland route, map *> r so often printed, and a copy of a part of which is found on next page. A little trade with the Chinooks and Clatsops (mainly for dogs, fish, and wapato roots) formed the chief diversion during this tedious winter. 1 The Netal enters Meriwether's, now called Young's, Bay. The fort was located two hundred yards from the bank of the river. It was in the form of a square, 50-x 50 feet. Two cabins, one of three, the other of four, rooms, occupied two sides. Be tween them was the parade ground, the ends of which were closed by means of posts or palisades. In the June (1904) num ber of Scribner's Magazine, Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites pub lishes for the first time the ground plan of Fort Clatsop. The drawing was found by him while searching recently among Clark's papers, "traced upon the rough elk-skin cover of his field book." k v s go o Ji'-i^ihJi 3S £?.?? 91 92 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The return begun March 23, 1806 Arrive at St. Louis Sep tember 23, 1806 The days dragged painfully by till the 23d of March, when our travelers commenced the home ward journey. Before setting out they distrib uted written statements among the Indians, explaining who it was that had so mysteriously come to their country from the land of the rising sun. These the natives were instructed to show to any white men who should visit the river. The journey eastward was not without its difficulties. The tribes along the river de manded high prices for horses and dogs, and the stock of goods carried by the explorers was soon exhausted. But both Lewis and Clark were skilled in the use of common remedies for the diseases which prevailed among the Indians, and by selling their drugs at a high price they were able to buy the supplies which were indispensable to them. The snow still lay deep in the gulches when the party reached the western base of the Rocky Mountains, im peding their progress for many days ; but in spite of all obstacles, they made the journey with complete success, reaching St. Louis on the 23d of September, just six months out from the mouth of the Columbia.1 1 Captain Lewis went at once to Washington to make his re port to President Jefferson. Soon afterward he was appointed governor of Missouri Territory, but died very suddenly and mys teriously, in 1809, at the early age of thirty-five. Captain Clark was for many years the United States superin tendent of Indian affairs for the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. He died in 1838. OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 93 The journals of the expedition, very much amended and abbreviated, were first published in 1814 under the editorship of Nicholas Biddle. Many editions, based upon this one, have appeared since that time, the most satisfactory being that by Dr. Elliott Coues, New York, 1891, 3 vols. A new edition, containing a literal transcript of the complete journals, and much matter relating to the expedition not hitherto published, is now being issued under the editorship of Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D. CHAPTER VII A RACE FOR THE COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE American The explorations of Lewis and Clark, to- lrrterests" gether with Gray's discovery of the Columbia, west of the gave the United States a good claim upon the country west of the Rockies, drained by this river and its branches. But in order to hold it permanently, as against other nations of the world, it would be necessary for Americans to take actual possession of the region. Here was a difficulty. The recently purchased territory of Louisiana had doubled the area of the United States, and would furnish homes for millions of families. Emigrants would find no need to cross the Rockies for many years to come. The chances There was but one way in which Americans ah^mr^" C0lud make use of the newly explored territory, trade and that was by trading with its native peoples. Lewis and Clark found, along the Columbia and its tributaries, numerous tribes of Indians, living upon fish, game, and roots.1 Most of 1 Hundreds were seen drying salmon at various points along the river, and the Dalles was the great fish market of the Columbia. 94 RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 95 them were wretchedly poor, lacking every com fort, and many of those things which civilized men regard as necessaries. Yet the streams were full of beaver, and if traders should once begin to frequent the up-river valleys, as they already did the inlets along the coast, these Indians would soon take to hunting furs in order to have something to exchange for the goods they all coveted. Had our people been prepared for it, a large business might have been built up in that region. But at the time of Lewis and Clark's return American the Americans were not ready to take advan- ^Jj^df' tage of these opportunities. The fur trade as organization a business was as old as the American colonies. From Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay; from the Connecticut, Hudson, Potomac, James, and Savannah rivers ; it had spread westward with great rapidity, always keeping in advance of the actual settlement. Long before the Revolution ary War the Indians on the western waters had learned to listen for the tinkling bells of the trader's pack train as it emerged from the passes of the Alleghany Mountains. Almost everywhere " the Indian trade pioneered the way for civilization." 1 It improved the trails, which afterward became roads ; it planted its trading posts at important points along the 1 Quoted from Frederick J. Turner, " The Significance of the Frontier in American History." 96 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The British. Hudson'sBay and Northwest Fur com panies rivers, or upon the Great Lakes, and these in many cases were growing into great towns.1 This trade had, therefore, been of the utmost importance in American history; and in spite of the government trading houses, which had existed for a few years, it was still important. With the opening up of the Missouri by Lewis and Clark it promised to extend itself rapidly to the Rocky Mountains ; but for making use of the country to the west of the Rockies our traders were at a disadvantage in not having a thorough organization, with a large capital and strong commercial support. These would be absolutely necessary in conducting operations at such distances, by means of ships upon the Pacific, and large trading houses in the west ern territory. In the British section of North America con ditions were different. There we find two great companies, each with a large capital and power ful organization, fitted to control the trade of vast wilderness areas. The first of these was the Hudson's Bay Company, whose forts near the mouths of the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay received each year about seventy-five thou sand beaver skins, brought down from the far 1 " The trading posts reached by these trails were on the sites of Indian villages . . . ; and these trading posts . . . have grown into such cities as Albany, Pittsburg, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Council Bluffs, and Kansas City.'' — Turner, " Significance of the Frontier," etc. Mountains RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 97 interior in great fleets of canoes, manned by hun dreds of Indians.1 The second was the North west Company, with headquarters at Montreal. It was the successor of the French traders of Canada, and, although young (organized in 1787), had already gained control of most of the trade along the Great Lakes, the Assini- boin, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca rivers; while its agents were to be found on the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri as well. By a series of wonderful explorations, Alexan- The North- der Mackenzie, an officer of the Northwest Com- west Com- pany crosses pany, had even opened a way for the trade to the Rocky the Arctic Ocean (along the Mackenzie River, explored by him in 1789) and across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.2 In 1806, having 1 The Hudson's Bay Company received a charter from Charles the Second in 1669. In 1742 a thousand Indians came to the mouth of Nelson River in six hundred canoes, bearing fifty thousand beaver skins ; while during the same summer the fort on Churchill River received twenty thousand beaver and several thousand other furs. The natives carried back blankets, guns, powder, shot, hatchets, knives, tobacco, brandy, and paint. Prices of goods were very high. A pound of gunpowder cost four bea ver skins, and a blanket twelve. The skins were sold at the rate of six shillings per pound. It is declared that some of the goods sold at a profit of two thousand per cent. 2 Mackenzie crossed the Rockies from the head of Peace River in the spring of 1793. After incredible difficulties he found a river flowing westward, which he supposed to be the Columbia. (It was, in fact, the Fraser River.) This he descended for a number of days, when he left it, and followed an Indian trail to the coast. There he painted on a smooth rock in these words the story of his great achievement, "Alexander Mackenzie, H 98 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST learned of Lewis and Clark's expedition, the company sent Simon Fraser to this western district. He built a fort high up on a river navigated by Mackenzie, believing, as the ex plorer did, that this was the Columbia. Two years later Fraser descended to its mouth and found out his mistake. It was then called Fraser River. The Northwest Com pany had now obtained a foothold among the tribes west of the Rockies, and were moving slowly, yet surely, toward the great river. A few years would see many log trading forts upon its upper streams, and none could doubt that the ambitious " Northwesters " hoped at last to control the entire trade of the Columbia valley. Mackenzie's Mackenzie himself had a plan by which a fn^'ro'ec't smg^e company, formed by a union of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies, should gather the fur harvest of half of the continent. They were to have ships on both oceans to trade along the coasts, and carry away the furs collected at two great central stations located, the one at the mouth of Nel son River (on Hudson Bay), the other at the estuary of the Columbia. By establishing posts throughout the interior he expected this giant monopoly to control the trade from the parallel from Canada, by Land, the twenty second of July, one thou sand seven hundred and ninety three." RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 99 of 450 to the Arctic Ocean.1 The reader may smile at Mackenzie's project, and set it down as the dream of an enthusiast ; yet twenty years later events occurred in the history of the fur trade which, as we shall see, almost literally fulfilled these plans. Meantime, however, others aside from the Canadians became interested in the western fur trade, and in the race which now ensued an American, rather than a British, fort was planted at the mouth of the Columbia. In the city of New York, at that time not John Jacob yet the metropolis of the country, John Jacob Astor Astor ranked as a merchant prince. For twenty- five years his ships had sailed the high seas, visiting all the great markets of Europe, and his name was known and honored in every commercial center of the world. Mr. Astor early began to buy and sell furs, finding this one of the most profitable branches of trade. His cargoes were made up largely in Montreal, the headquarters of the Northwest Company, where beaver skins were received from hundreds of trading posts, planted upon lake and river 1 Except that portion of the Pacific coast on which the Rus sians were established. Mackenzie desired a union of the two British companies partly on account of the increased financial strength that this would give, and partly because the Hudson's Bay Company had a charter while the Northwest Company had none. The Nelson River was the best and shortest route from the interior to the Atlantic, and the Columbia was "the line of communication from the Pacific pointed out by nature." (See Mackenzie's Voyages, London, 1801, pp. 407 ff.) ing project 100 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST as far west as the Rocky Mountains. Being a shrewd and quick-witted man, Astor soon learned all the details of the business carried on by this company, not only at Montreal, but through the long stretches of wilderness as well. Astor'strad- When Lewis and Clark returned from their wonderful journey, with information about the route to the Pacific and the opportunities for trade along the Missouri and Columbia rivers, Mr. Astor at once planned a brilliant trad ing project, similar in many ways to that of Mackenzie. He believed it would be possi ble, with his large capital and tested business ability, to at least gain control of the trade over a broad belt of country stretching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean. The first point ' was to push westward to the Mississippi and Missouri. For this purpose he organized (1808) the American Fur Company, in which Astor himself was the principal stockholder. He next proposed, to establish a central station, at the mouth of the Columbia, for the trade of the region lying beyond the Rocky Mountains, and build a line of trading posts extending along the route explored by Lewis and Clark from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi.1 He 1 Astor had already begun a trade along the Great Lakes, so that practically the great depot on the Pacific would be connected with his business office in New York. RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE ioi planned to send from New York every fall one ship freighted with goods for the Indian trade, and supplies for all the posts west of the Rocky Mountains. On arriving in the Columbia, about February or March, she was to unload this portion of her cargo and sail along the coast to gather the sea otter and other furs which the natives had long been accustomed to sell to American shipowners. This cruise was to be extended as far north as Sitka, for the purpose of carrying supplies to the Russians in exchange for their furs.1 Thereafter she was to return to the Columbia. Meantime, in May or June, the traders froiil the interior posts would have delivered at the central sta tion all the furs secured during the preceding winter on the rivers flowing into the Columbia. These were then to be placed on board the vessel, which would sail to Canton during the following winter. The cargo of furs was to be exchanged for an equally valuable cargo of silks, tea, and other Chinese goods, with which the Astor ship was expected to return to New York after an absence of about two years. 1 At Sitka (New Archangel) the Russian American Fur Com pany collected furs from the neighboring islands, the Alaskan coast, and the interior. But they had very poor facilities both for marketing their product and obtaining necessary supplies. They were glad of the opportunity to make arrangements with Mr. Astor by which their furs were to be carried to the Can ton market and regular supplies brought to New Archangel. 102 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST He sends Such was the plan worked out in all its to'tK"'* details by Mr. Astor before any part of it was lumbia put into operation. In the summer of 1810 he fitted out his first ship, the Tonquin, for the voyage around Cape Horn. She was placed in charge of Captain Jonathan Thorn, and left New York under the convoy of the famous American warship Constitution. On board the Tonquin were several of the partners of the Pacific Fur Company, organized by Mr. Astor to carry out his project. Most of these were engaged in Canada, among the men belonging to the Northwest Company. The clerks, too, were nearly all Canadians.1 The Tonquin left New York on the 6th of September, 18 10, rounded Cape Horn in December, and two months later arrived at the Hawaiian Islands. The voyage thus far had been without serious accident, but marred by almost ceaseless quar reling between the captain and the Canadian partners. While a good disciplinarian, and doubtless a very successful commander on a ship of war, Captain Thorn was not well quali fied to manage a group of independent Scotch and American fur traders. the Slum- When the shiP arrived o£f the mouth of the bia; Astoria Columbia, March 22, 181 1, new difficulties 1 For a delightful account of the way these Canadians went down to New York, by boat, to await the sailing of the Tonquin, see Franchere's Narrative, New York, 1854, pp. 23-25. RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 103 arose. The waves were running high, and the line of breakers across the entrance to the river struck terror to the hearts of inexperi enced sailors. Yet the captain sent out men in the ship's boat to sound the channel, a pro ceeding in which seven of the little company lost their lives. Three days passed before the Tonquin crossed the bar and anchored safe in Astoria. As it was in 1813. the river. Then the Astor party selected a site for their fort, and began the erection of the Pacific coast emporium of the fur trade, which was appropriately named Astoria. " Spring, usually so tardy in this latitude," says Fran- chere, " was already well advanced ; the foliage was budding, and the earth was clothing itself with verdure. We imagined ourselves in the garden of Eden." 104 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST/ Fate of the On the 5th of June the Tonquin left the river on her northern cruise in search of furs.1 From this voyage she never returned, nor did a single one of the fated men who sailed in her from Astoria live to tell the gruesome story of the Tonquin s destruction. That awful tale is known only from the report of a Gray's Harbor Indian, who was taken on board as an inter preter to the northern tribes, and who escaped death when the ship was blown to atoms, with several hundred natives on board, in the bay of Clayoquot. She had entered that harbor to trade ; the Indians brought their furs, and for some time the deck was animated by the varied scenes of peaceful barter. Finally, a slight difficulty between the captain and a lead ing chief sent the visitors back to their boats in an angry state. Next day they returned, pretending friendship, and holding up their bundles of furs in token of a desire to trade. A number came on board at once ; others fol lowed, till the deck was crowded. At a given signal they drew their knives, till then con cealed, and rushed upon the hapless crew, quickly killing all but five, who had been 1 One of the partners, Mr. Alexander Mackay, was on board as chief trader. He was a former Northwest Company man, and had been the companion of Mackenzie on his famous journey to the Pacific in 1793. He was a man of ability, very popular among his associates, and his death in the Tonquin disaster was deeply lamented, RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 105 ordered into the rigging to unfurl the sails. These managed to reach the cabin, where the firearms were kept, and soon succeeded in clearing the ship. Four of them, remaining unhurt, tried to escape by boat; but when they reached the shore all were captured and put to death with every refinement of torture. The fifth man was badly wounded and preferred to remain on board. Next day the Indians re turned, apparently intending to loot the vessel ; but when several hundred had clambered to the deck, others still remaining about her in canoes, a terrific explosion took place, and the ship with all on board leaped into the air, a mass of flaming ruin. Perhaps it was the work of the man on board, possibly the Indians them selves ignited the powder in the magazine ; at all events they had suffered such retribution for the cruel massacre of the Tonquin s crew as the northern tribesmen could not soon forget. About the time of the Tonquin s arrival The over- on the Pacific coast another detachment of 1^nifS(fnirty' Astor's men was preparing to cross the conti- Price Hunt nent by following the trail of Lewis and Clark. This company was under the direction of Mr. Wilson Price Hunt of New Jersey, an Ameri can partner, to whom Astor had confided the chief management of the Pacific department of the fur trade. He collected most of his men in Canada, at Montreal and Mackinac, carrying 106 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST them to St. Louis in the fall of 1810 in boats, by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and the Mississippi. They spent the winter in a camp near the frontier of settlement on the Missouri, and in March began the ascent of the river.1 At the Aricara villages (near the pres ent northern boundary of South Dakota) they learned that the Blackfoot Indians were hostile, and therefore decided to leave the river, mak ing their way overland with horses in a south westerly direction, to the Big Horn and Wind River mountains. They crossed these ranges and entered the Green River valley. Passing over the divide to Lewis River, they then de cided to abandon their horses and take to canoes. This was an unfortunate error, for the stream soon, contrary to appearances, proved 1 Bradbury, an English naturalist, to whose " Travels in America " we owe the preservation of many of the incidents of the trip as far as the Aricara villages, tells us (p. 16) : "On leaving Charette, Mr. Hunt pointed out to me an old man stand ing on the bank, who he informed me was Daniel Boone, the discoverer of Kentucky. As I had a letter of introduction to him, from his nephew, Colonel Grant, I went ashore to speak to him. ... I remained for some time in conversation with him. He informed me that he was eighty-four years of age ; that he had spent a considerable portion of his time alone in the backwoods, and had lately returned from his spring hunt with nearly sixty beaver skins." Irving, after reading this statement of Bradbury, suggested that the veteran woodsman probably felt a " throb of the old pioneer spirit, impelling him to shoulder his rifle and join the adventurous band." Though he failed to do so in person, his children crossed the Rockies, and we meet his honored name in both Oregon and California. RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 107 itself a true mountain torrent, threatening destruction to both men and boats. They therefore left it (at the Cauldron Linn) and set out on foot, after breaking the company into smaller parties to make it easier to find game. The sufferings of these men, in their weary wanderings over the Lewis River desert, are more easily imagined than described, al though Mr., Irving, in his classic history of the Astoria enterprise, has succeeded in giving us some very vivid pictures. Hunt, with a section of the party, reached the Grand Ronde valley at the close of the year, and on the 15th of February arrived at Astoria. Some had already reached the fort ; others straggled in from time to time, till nearly all were safe. Soon after this overland party reached the ship lower Columbia Mr. Astor's ship, the Beaver, Beaver arrives sent from New York in the fall of 181 1, an- May 10, chored (May 10, 18 12) in the Columbia River l812 with a cargo similar in all respects to that carried by the Tonquin the year before. The Astorians were greatly rejoiced. At last they had abundant supplies, new reinforcements of men, and every encouragement to carry the trade far up the rivers toward the sources of the Columbia. It began to look as if Astor's brilliant project might be grandly successful after all, despite the calamities which attended its beginnings. Io8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The North- ln the preceding year, before the fort had lose the race, been completed at the mouth of the river, a David party of men prepared to ascend the Columbia Thompson r , . , . tor exploration and trade ; but just as they were setting out (July 15) a canoe floating the British flag drew in to the shore at Astoria, greatly to the astonishment of the Americans. A gentleman stepped ashore, and introduced himself as Mr. David Thompson, geographer of the Northwest Company. He said that he had expected to reach the mouth of the river during the preceding fall, and had actually wintered west of the Rockies, but that owing to the desertion of some of his men it was impossible to carry out his plans. The Astorians be lieved it was his intention to plant a fort for his company near the spot where their own estab lishment was rising, and in this they were doubt less correct. We now know, from Thompson's journal and other sources, that this indomitable British " pathfinder " had been on the Pacific slope several times prior to 181 1. In the year 1807 (June 22) he reached a tributary of the Columbia by crossing Howse Pass in the Rockies, and wrote in his diary, " May God in his mercy give me to see where its waters flow into the ocean and return in safety."1 In 1809 1 The late Dr. Elliott Coues made a study of Thompson's journals in their manuscript form, and published generous quota tions from them in connection with the journals of Alexander RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 109 he founded a Northwest Company fort at Lake Pend d'Oreille, and another in the Flat head country, on Clark's Fork. A still earlier establishment was that on the Kootenai, and now there was also one on the Spokane River. The Americans saw at once that here was a formidable rival for the up-river trade; but they ... knew their advantage as the occupants of the lower Columbia, and determined if possible to drive their Montreal competitors across the Rockies. The delayed party, under David Stuart, one Fort of Astor's partners, now set out up the river, j^gf111 accompanied as far as the Cascades by Thomp- 1811 son on his return. When Stuart's party reached the place where the Columbia and Lewis rivers meet they found a pole stuck in the ground, and tightly bound around it a sheet of paper containing the proclamation : " Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories, that the N.W. Com pany of Merchants from Canada, finding the Factory for this people inconvenient for them, do hereby intend to erect a factory in this place for the convenience of the country around. D. Thompson." Notwithstanding this announcement, or possibly because of it, Stuart passed right on up the north branch Henry. This gives us the valuable " Henry-Thompson Jour nals," 3 vols., New York, 1897. IIO A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST to the Okanogan River, where he established the first up-river fort for the Astor Company, and carried on a successful winter's trade.1 Expansion When the Beaver arrived in 1812, with men igiT e m and supplies, the Astorians decided on a great forward movement to the interior. They pro posed to go into the neighborhood of every Northwest post and begin a rival establishment. Thus they planned a fort on the Spokane, with branch trading houses on the Flathead (Clark's Fork) and Kootenai rivers, and another in the She Whaps region. A third venture was to be made on the Lewis River, while the trade at Okanogan was to be continued.2 The Spokane project was in charge of Mr. Clark, David Stuart went back to Okanogan, and Mr. Donald M'Kenzie was sent up Lewis River. Both Clark and Stuart, with their clerks and assistants at the branch stations, succeeded admirably in the trade of this second winter. 1 Alexander Ross, one of the clerks, who spent most of the winter alone at Okanogan, while Stuart was exploring far to the north in the She Whaps country, tells us in his book, " The Fur Hunters of the Far West," that he bought fifteen hundred beaver, worth in Canton twenty-five hundred pounds, for goods worth, not to exceed, thirty-five pounds. This he calls a "specimen of our trade among the Indians." 2 At the same time Mr. Robert Stuart was sent east with letters for Mr. Astor. His party became bewildered in the upper Lewis River country, and were forced to winter on the plains-, reaching St. Louis April 30, 1813, after being out nearly a year from Astoria. RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE III M'Kenzie did nothing on the Lewis, and by the middle of January was back at Astoria, with an alarming story which foreshadowed coming events. While visiting Spokane House about the War news close of the year 1812, so M'Kenzie told the crossesthe people at Astoria, Mr. John George M'Tavish, partner of the Northwest Company, had arrived fresh from Montreal, with news that war had Rockies y^ Hfe ' V^^^BOk^^&r^ $0 ,-Jtv .^fey*-"' „ !• 1 'ft H, ^f- ¦ . ^_..~ Fort Okanogan. broken out between the United States and Great Britain, and that the company was ex pecting an English warship to enter the Pacific and capture Astoria. At this time the fort was in charge of Donald M'Dougal, a Canadian like M'Kenzie, Hunt having sailed away the pre ceding summer in the Beaver, and being still of Mr. Hunt 112 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST absent. These two men weakly determined to abandon the Columbia the following summer and cross the mountains; but the other part ners when they came down with their furs in June (1813) vetoed this plan, insisting on re maining another winter if possible. M'Tavish descended the river with his men, spent much time about Astoria, and received needed sup plies from the Americans, while he waited for the ship, which, as he declared, was daily expected. Movements Mr. Hunt sailed away in the Beaver on the 4th of August, 181 2. He ran to Sitka, made a successful trade with the Russians, and then proceeded to the islands of St. Peter and St. Paul, where he received eighty thousand seal skins. By this time it was winter; the vessel was much damaged, and all haste had to be made to get the valuable cargo to Canton. The Beaver, therefore, did not stop at the Co lumbia, but carried Hunt to Hawaii and con tinued on to China. Here the captain (Sowles) obtained news of the war, which sent him into hiding with his vessel till it was over. Hunt finally learned of the war in Hawaii and came to the Columbia in an American ship, the Albatross, reaching Astoria August 4, 181 3, after an absence of exactly one year. He learned that the partners were resolved to abandon the river, 'and while he opposed, he RACE FOR COLUMBIA RIVER FUR TRADE 113 could not change the resolution. Still, hoping to save something, he sailed again in the Alba tross to seek a vessel which might be available for the purpose of carrying away the goods and furs. At last, on the 16th of October, influenced Astoria sold, by their fears if not by selfish motives, the part- °8Citobetra|fe'n ners sold Astoria and its belongings, with all by the furs, supplies, and other property at the interior Decembers stations as well, to the Northwest Company. (on3),i8i3 One incident remains, and the story of Astoria is finished. " On the morning of the 30th " [November], says Franchere, "we saw a large vessel standing in under Cape Disappointment; . . . she was the British sloop-of-war, Raccoon, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Black," . . . The long-looked-for British ship had come, and on the 12th of December (Henry says the 13th) the American flag was hauled down at Astoria to make place for the Union Jack. The station itself was rechristened Fort George. More than two months later (February 28, 1814) Mr. Hunt appeared once more, in the brig Pedlar, purchased by him for the purpose of carrying away Astor's property. He was too late, and sailed away again, first to the north, then down the coast to California and Mexico.1 1 Most of the Canadian partners of Mr. Astor accepted posi tions with the Northwest Company, as did also many of the clerks and laborers. A few, including Mr. Gabriel Franchere, went back 114 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST to Canada overland in the spring of 1814, with the Northwest Company's express. Franchere's " Narrative," and two similar books, also by clerks of the Astor Company, A. Ross's "Fur Hunters of the Far West " and Ross Cox's " Adventures on the Columbia," are the principal sources for the history of the Astor enterprise. AH of these have long been out of print. The " Henry-Thompson Journals," recently published, throw addi tional light on some phases of the history, and Irving's " Astoria " contains some matter taken from manuscript sources not now accessible. CHAPTER VIII the Hudson's bay company When Mr. Hunt bade farewell to the Colum- changes on bia (April 2, 1 8 14), he left the British rivals in ^Colum- full control not only of the fort at the mouth of the river, but of all the avenues of trade be tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, from California to Alaska. A few days later their first supply ship, the Isaac Todd, entered the river with a cargo containing everything , necessary for the trade of the entire depart ment. She also brought additional men, and these added to the list of Astorians already engaged, gave the Northwest Company a force sufficient to occupy the country at least as fully as Astor had done. They, however, made no important change in the trade for several years, till Donald M'Kenzie established the Walla Walla Fort (18 18), and began to send trapping parties along Lewis River. This greatly ex tended the area covered, and increased the profits in a marked degree. In 1821 a noteworthy change occurred in the Union of fur trade of the British dominions. The Hud- J^™ son's Bay and Northwest companies, whose panies, 182. "5 Il6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST agents had long been destroying each other in their bitter contest for the possession of the northern forests, were now united under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company.1 The dream of Alexander Mackenzie had been real ized. From Montreal to Fort George, from St. James, near the head of Fraser River, to the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay, the wilderness {¦IP ' «i .>:iil:' HKjjHflHIH JfjAj j*ff it jmdt--'7*** "iiU/^^-"'" - Fort Walla Walla. traffic was at last organized under a single management, and carried on absolutely without competition except where the British came in contact with Americans or Russians. York Factory on Hudson Bay was the eastern em porium, and the residence of the company's 1 In 1816 actual war broke out in the Red River valley, where Lord Selkirk had established a colony for the Hudson's Bay Com pany, across the path of the Northwesters . The union was brought about by the interference of government officials. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 117 governor, Sir George Simpson. Fort George, at the mouth of the Columbia, was to be the western emporium. In 1824 Dr. John McLoughlin arrived on Dr. the Columbia to take charge of the western McLoughlin 0 builds Port department. One of his first steps was to Vancouver, abandon Fort George and to establish new l824~l82S headquarters at Point Vancouver.1 Here was an ideal location for a trading center. The Willamette, en tering the Columbia a short distance be low, had its sources nearly two hundred miles to the south ; the Cowlitz opened an avenue for trade toward Puget Sound ; 1 -i r .1 /-^ i Dr- John McLoughlin, 1824. while tor the Colum bia itself, breaking through the Cascades a few miles above Vancouver, the site was the best that could be found. On a fine prairie about three quarters of a mile from the river, McLoughlin built the first Fort Vancouver, and occupied it in 1825. Four years later another establishment was built on the low 1 The point reached and so named by Broughton in October, 1792. Il8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ground near the river bank. It was simply a stockade made of posts about twenty feet in length, inclosing a rectangular space thirty- seven rods long by eighteen rods in width, which contained all the principal buildings, in cluding Dr. McLoughlin's residence. The ser vants of the company, with their Indian families and friends, lived just outside, where in course of time a considerable village grew up. Such was the famous Fort Vancouver, round which clusters so much of the romance, as well as the more sober history, of early Oregon.1 Dr. 1 A fascinating picture of life at this western emporium of the fur trade is given by Mrs. Eva Emery Dye in her " McLoughlin and Old Oregon." THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 1 19 McLoughlin remained in charge of the estab lishment for twenty-two years, managing the company's business with rare success ; and by his firm control over the Indians of the entire Oregon country, his kindness and hospitality to American traders, missionaries, adventurers and colonists, richly deserving the title, " Father of Oregon," bestowed upon him by the pioneers. Vancouver was the clearing house for all the The fur business west of the Rocky Mountains. Here Vancouver the annual ships from London landed supplies and merchandise, which were placed in ware houses to await the departure of the boat bri gades for the interior ; here was the great fur house, where the peltries were brought together from scores of smaller forts and trading camps, scattered through a wilderness empire of half a million square miles. They came from St. James, Langley, and Kamloops in the far north west ; from Umpqua in the south ; from Walla Walla, Colville, Spokane, Okanogan, and many other places in the upper portions of the great valley. Hundreds of trappers followed the water courses through the gloomy forests and into the most dangerous fastnesses of the mountains, in order to glean the annual beaver crop for delivery to these substations. We do not know precisely what the total business amounted to; but in 1828 a visitor to Vancou ver (Jedediah Smith) learned that McLoughlin 120 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Agriculture and other business had received during the year thirty thousand beaver skins, worth two hundred and fifty thou sand dollars, besides a large quantity of other furs. Aside from the fur trade, which was the principal business, Vancouver was also the cen ter of other activities. By 1828 a fine farm had Fort Vancouver. been opened on the prairie about the fort, and fields of wheat, oats, corn, peas, and barley flourished in the rich soil of this favored local ity. As the years passed, more and more land was brought under cultivation, until the farm aggregated several thousand acres, " fenced into beautiful corn fields, vegetable fields, orchards, gardens, and pasture fields, . . . interspersed with dairy houses, shepherds' and herdsmen's THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 121 cottages." J In 1 8 14 the Isaac Todd brought to the Columbia from California four head of Spanish cattle ; the Astor people already had a few hogs, obtained from the Hawaiian Is lands, and also several goats. These were the beginnings of the live stock interest of the Northwest. In 1828 the Vancouver pastures fed about two hundred cattle, fourteen goats, and fifty horses ; while ranging the surround ing woodlands were about three hundred swine. The numbers of all kinds of animals increased with surprising rapidity. At first it had been the intention merely to raise grain and vege tables for the use of the establishment itself ; but in course of time a large amount of wheat was sold to the Russians, and to American whalers in need of supplies. There was a flour mill at the fort, and on a neighboring stream a large sawmill, which not only produced lum ber for home use, but also an occasional cargo for shipment to the Hawaiian Islands. The fort had its mechanics, representing all the ordinary trades, — smiths, carpenters, tinners, coopers, and even a baker. Several coasting vessels had been built by the carpenters prior to 1828. Although business was the first consideration at Vancouver, and Dr. McLoughlin tolerated 1 Quoted from Dunn, " The Oregon Territory and the British North American Fur Trade," Philadelphia, 1845, P- I07- 122 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Social no idlers, yet, on the whole, life was pleasant ilfeat there. The officers were nearly all well-edu- Vancouver . J ... cated gentlemen, who enjoyed good living, books, and agreeable company. Their dining hall at Vancouver was not merely a place where the tables were supplied with good food, but the scene of bright, intelligent conversation, conducted with perfect propriety, and pleasing to the most refined guests. The wives of the officers were usually half-caste women, yet in many cases they are said to have been excellent housekeepers and good mothers. They and their children did not eat with the men, but had tables in a separate hall. In other respects home life was much as it is in ordinary com munities. The children spent most of the summer season out of doors, engaging in all manner of sports, and gaining special skill in horsemanship. In the winter a school was often maintained at the fort.1 Religious services were conducted on the Sabbath, either by McLough lin himself or by some visiting missionary or priest. The village had its balls, regattas, and other amusements, rendering it a place of much gayety, especially about June, when the brigades of boats arrived with the up-river traders, and 1 John Ball, a New England man who came with Wyeth in 1832, taught the first school at Vancouver in the winter of 1832- 1833. He raised a crop of wheat in the Willamette valley in the summer of 1833. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 123 their crews of jovial, picturesque French voya- geurs. Fort Vancouver dominated the fur trade of The mo- Oregon almost as completely as if the country ^°e^ls 0f had actually been the private property of the the Hud- Hudson's Bay Company. When American c0nmspany traders began to enter the Columbia valley, they soon found themselves at the mercy of this great monopoly which controlled the Indian tribes, possessed unlimited capital, and could afford to raise the price of beaver skins to ten times their ordinary value in order to drive out a competitor. While McLoughlin treated all strangers well and even generously at Fort Vancouver, he permitted no interfer ence with the trade, which his strong position in the country enabled him to control. We must now inquire by what right these British subjects had come into possession of the Pacific Northwest, and how their presence affected the rights and interests already secured in this country by the people of the United States. CHAPTER IX THE OREGON QUESTION How the The war that ruined Astor's trading project Oregon was cioseci ^y the treaty of Ghent in Decem- question J J . arose, 1817 ber, 1814. The governments of Great Britain and the United States agreed that " All terri tory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, . . . [should] be restored without delay. . . ." Mr. Astor seems to have thought that since his fort on the Columbia had been taken possession of by a British warship, the Northwest Company ought now to give it up, together with the sur rounding country. He was not yet prepared to abandon an enterprise which had so deeply excited his interest, and he urged the United States government to secure the restoration of Astoria. In July, 181 5, six months after the close of the war, the American Secretary of State gave notice to the British government that the Columbia would be reoccupied under the treaty; and two years later (September, 18 17) our government ordered Captain Biddle (ship Ontario) to go to Astoria and " assert the claim of the United States to the [Oregon] country in 124 THE OREGON QUESTION 125 a friendly and peaceable manner. . . ." When, the British minister at Washington, Mr. Bagot, learned of this last act, he entered a protest, declaring that Astoria was not one of the " places and possessions " referred to in the treaty, since the fort had been purchased by British subjects before the Raccoon entered the river. Nor was the Columbia valley "ter ritory . . . taken . . . during the war," but a region " early taken possession of in his Majesty's name, and . . . considered as forming part of his Majesty's dominions." a Here was a sharp conflict of claims between the United States and Great Britain, which required twenty- nine years to settle, and is known in history as the Oregon question. The first point to be agreed upon was as to Formal which nation had the right to occupy the coun- ofS^atlon try at the time, setting aside the greater ques- country, tion of the final right of ownership. Here, ^g er ' certainly, the Americans had the advantage; for although Broughton may have taken formal possession in October, 1792, nothing had been done by the British government or people between that date and the year 181 1 to make good their claim to the lower Columbia. On the other hand, the American trader, Gray, had 1 It was claimed that Lieutenant Broughton took formal pos session of the Columbia country when he entered the river in October, 1792. 126 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST shown Broughton the way into the river; Lewis and Clark had explored from its fountains to the sea ; and Astor had taken and held posses sion till the events of the war forced him to retire. Whatever rights Great Britain may have gained as a result of explorations north of the Columbia, the planting of forts on tribu taries of this river, or the mapping of the coast north and south of the estuary, the plain fact remained that Americans had been in posses sion of the territory at the mouth of the river when the war came, and therefore they ought to be in possession after its close. The British government admitted the force of these argu ments, and on the 6th of October, 1818, their agents at Fort George allowed Mr. J. B. Prevost to run up the American flag.1 This was the formal restoration of the territory to the United States, and meant that Americans were now at liberty to occupy it if they chose to do so. First treaty Two weeks later, October 20, 18 18, dip- ' ' '"'"u. lomatic representatives of the two countries occupation, r October 20, 1818 1 Prevost had been appointed joint commissioner with Biddle, and sailed with him on the Ontario to Valparaiso. Thence Biddle proceeded to the Columbia and took formal possession of the country, Aug. 9, 1818, though no British officer there had in structions to hand over the fort. Meantime, however, Prevost learned that such instructions had been issued, and, being invited by a British naval officer to accompany him northward, he sailed to the Columbia and received possession. THE OREGON QUESTION 127 concluded a treaty in which the Oregon ques tion was mentioned. At that time there was no dividing line between the territories of Great Britain and the United States west of the Lake of the Woods, and it was agreed to take the 49th parallel as the boundary from this point to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. The British diplomats wished to establish a boundary west of the Rockies as well, where upon the Americans offered to extend the line of 490 to the Pacific Ocean. This the other party declined, thinking that it would not give Great Britain all the territory she could reason ably claim, and indicating that they thought the Columbia River should form the dividing line from the point where the 49th parallel crossed its easternmost branch to the sea. The American government was not willing at this time to press its claim, and so we accepted a provision for the "joint occupation" of the Oregon coun try for a term of ten years. This meant simply that Englishmen and Americans had an equal right to trade and settle in every part of the country ; but that neither the one nor the other could have absolute control over any part of it till the question of ownership should be de termined. The treaty also guarded the rights of other nations.1 It is well to remember that 1At this time neither Spain nor Russia had formally given up their claims to territory in the Oregon country. In 1819, 128 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in this first diplomatic discussion over Oregon, the United States was willing to accept the 49th parallel as a boundary, while Great Britain would probably have been satisfied with the Columbia. Lack of On many accounts it seems very unfortunate th^Oregon that the question could not have been settled country. in 1818 by dividing the country on the 49th Keiiey *" parallel as was done after so much wran gling twenty-eight years later. Possibly a little greater determination on the part of our gov ernment might have brought this about, and saved us the long quarrel with Great Britain. But the fact is that very few people were then giving the slightest thought to the far- off region beyond the Rockies. Bryant wrote of it in 18 1 7 as, — " The continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound Save his own dashings." 1 however, when Florida was purchased by the United States, Spain yielded to our government all her rights north of the 42d parallel of latitude, so that whatever rights she may once have had in the Oregon country henceforth belonged to the United States. Five years later an agreement was made between the United States and Russia by which the two nations established the line of 54° 40' as a boundary for trading purposes. Thus the question of the ownership of the Oregon country was left to be worked out between the people of the United States and the government of Great Britain. 1 Because of the popularity of the poem " Thanatopsis," in which the lines appeared, the name "Oregon" was brought promi nently before the country. Bryant obtained the word from Carver's Travels. THE OREGON QUESTION 129 Only one person seems to have been fully alive to the fact that we had rights there which ought to be carefully looked after. This was an eccentric Boston schoolmaster named Hall J. Kelley, who began now to agitate the Oregon question. It may be that some of Kelley's pamphlets or John Floyd letters reached men connected with the United J^e o^eon States government. At all events, on the 20th question in of December, 1820, a young Virginian by the December name of John Floyd brought the question for- 2°> l82° ward for the first time in the Congress of the United States. He wished "to inquire into *he situation of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and the expediency of occupying the Columbia River." In January, 182 1, he made a report on the subject of our rights west of the Rockies, and a little later presented a bill for planting a fort at the mouth of the Co lumbia, and for granting lands to settlers. It was many months before Floyd was able The first to get a hearing; but in 1822 he brought in cons^- 00' o sional de- another bill which aroused much interest in bate on Congress and drew the attention of the country Fl^s ' to the Oregon question. In the debate which speech occurred Floyd took the leading part. He was one of those men who have the power of look ing beyond the present, and seeing in imagi nation the changes likely to occur in future years. Though he lived in Virginia, Floyd 130 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST knew what was going on beyond the moun tains, and was thrilled by the spectacle of America's wonderful growth, which he believed to be due largely to her free system of govern ment. In the space of forty-three years, he said, Virginia's population had spread westward more than a thousand miles. He evidently believed it would not be long before Americans would reach the Rockies, and stand ready to descend into the Oregon country. This was a new thought, just beginning to take hold of the American people, and as yet quite startling to most men who, in spite of what had already been done, found it difficult to conceive of the American population actually expanding till it should reach the Pacific. But he only hinted at these things, knowing very well that most members of Congress would regard predictions of this kind as the merest folly. Floyd's main argument had to do with the importance of the Columbia River to American commerce. Our people ought to have the benefit of the fur trade now going to British subjects; many whalers from New England annually visited the Oregon coast and needed some safe port in which to refit and take supplies ; the trade with China would be greatly advanced by maintain ing a colony on the Pacific. He tried to show that the Missouri and Columbia together would form a good highway for commerce across the THE OREGON QUESTION 131 continent, and that the entire distance between St. Louis and Astoria could be traversed with steamboat and wagon in the space of forty-four days. Other speakers also urged the commercial Mr. Barnes's importance of a fort at the mouth of the Co- rema*a°ie x _ predictions lumbia. Mr. Bailies of Massachusetts declared that in all probability there would one day be a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which would be an added reason for maintaining a colony on the Pacific. Most persons feared that Americans going to this distant land would separate from us and set up a government for themselves ; but Mr. Bailies pointed out that such a canal would bind them closely to us. Yet, if they should form an independent American state on the Pacific, even this would be better than to have that region pass into the hands of foreigners, or be left a savage wilderness. " I would delight," said the speaker, "to know that in this desolate spot, where the prowling cannibal now lurks in the forest, hung round with human bones and with human scalps, the temples of justice and the temples of God were reared, and man made sensible of the beneficent intentions of his creator." The country, he said, had made marvelous progress within the memories of living men, and with the fervor of an ancient prophet he continued: "Some now within 132 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST these walls may, before they die, witness scenes more wonderful than these ; and in after times may cherish delightful recollections of this day, when America, almost shrinking from the ' shadows of coming events,' first placed her feet upon untrodden ground, scarcely daring to anticipate the greatness which awaited her." The practi- To show how the hard-headed, practical men caimans comprising the majority in Congress treated view of the r o J J » Oregon such idealists as Floyd and Bailies, we have quest i. in 0nly ^ ^um ^ ^e opposition speech of Mr. Tracy of New York. He declared that there was no real demand for a fort and colony on the Columbia. No one had shown that it would benefit commerce. It was visionary to expect an overland commercial connection with the Pacific Ocean. Military posts ought not to be used to draw population far away into the wilderness, but merely to protect the fron tier. Mr. Tracy had received accurate infor mation about the territory along the Columbia, from men who had visited that region, and was sure that its agricultural possibilities had been greatly overestimated. As a final argument, he declared that the people on the Pacific and those on the Atlantic could never live under the same government. " Nature," said Mr. Tracy, "has fixed limits for our nation; she has kindly interposed as our western barrier mountains almost inaccessible, whose base THE OREGON QUESTION 133 she has skirted with irreclaimable deserts of sand." l On the 23d of January, 1823, after a long and Defeat of vigorous debate, Floyd's bill came to a vote in FIoyd's biU the House of Representatives and was defeated, one hundred to sixty-one. The time had not yet come for an American colony on the Pa cific, because the government was unwilling to ^ plant such a settlement, and the people were not yet thinking of Oregon as a " pioneer's land of promise." Only a few men, and those of the rarer sort, looked forward to the occupation of the Columbia region as a step toward the establishment of a greater America, with a frontage on the Pacific Ocean similar to that which we then had upon the Atlantic.2 We must now turn from Congress, where Diplomatic Oregon bills were brought up nearly every ses- "v^Ore'on5 1 From the time of Long's exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1819), the western portion of the Great Plains was called the-" Great American Desert.'' 2 Strangely enough none of the speakers in the House seemed to suspect that we might not have a right, under the treaty of joint occupation, to plant a military colony at the mouth of the Columbia, or that Great Britain had an actual claim to the coun try which was protected by that treaty. Only one man appeared to understand the situation clearly, Senator Benton of Missouri. He believed that if the British re mained in sole possession of Oregon till 1828, the year that the treaty of joint occupation was to expire, they would remain for a still longer period ; and in a speech in the Senate he favored an American colony on the Columbia as a means of maintaining our rights in the country. 1 824-1 827 134 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST sion till the end of 1827, but always in vain, to see what was being done for Oregon elsewhere. The discussion of 1822-1823 had brought the matter home to the people and the govern ment in such a way that statesmen began to see the importance of settling the question. An attempt was made in the year 1824, but it failed. Great Britain claimed a right for her people to trade and make settlements in any part of the Oregon country, admitting that our citizens had the same, but no greater right. Our government, through Secretary of State, J. Q. Adams, claimed that we had a clear title to territory on the Pacific as high up as 5 1 u, but we were willing once more, as in 1818, to take the 49th parallel. This first negotiation was con ducted by Mr. Richard Rush. Two years later the government sent over its most accom plished diplomat, Albert Gallatin. John Quincy Adams was at that time President of the United States, and Henry Clay Secretary of State. It was these three men who, under Gallatin's skill ful leadership, had secured the favorable treaty of peace with Great Britain in 18 14. Now they were all working together once more, though in a different way, trying to obtain treaties which should settle several important commercial questions, as well as the Oregon boundary. Gallatin spent more than a year in London, had many long discussions with the THE OREGON QUESTION 135 British diplomats, and secured four separate treaties, one of which, agreed upon August 6th, 1827, referred to the Oregon question but did not settle it. Gallatin, like Rush, offered to extend the Gallatin's 49th parallel to the Pacific as the boundary, Jf™^,. but Great Britain insisted on her right to cause the territory west and north of the Columbia, and no compromise could be reached. Her representatives entered upon long arguments to show that their government had rights below the 49th parallel. They denied that Gray's discovery of the river, or even Lewis and Clark's exploration, gave Americans an ex clusive right to the Columbia valley ; and they properly laid great stress upon the explo rations which British navigators like Cook and Vancouver had made along the coast north of the river. But while these arguments had a measure of justice in them, there is reason to believe that Great Britain was simply deter mined upon delay in settling the question. Her subjects had expended large sums of money to develop the trade of that country; they were in control, gathering their annual cargoes of furs, and the government was natu rally anxious to protect their interests. Our people had created no property rights in Ore gon since Astor's time ; very few had ever set foot west of the Rockies, and it would probably 136 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST be many years before they would be prepared to settle in the country. Meantime the British fur traders might as well continue to profit from their advantages. But once let Americans rather than Englishmen come into practical control of the Columbia valley, and the British government would soon be ready to settle the question. Gallatin knew this, and so did Presi dent Adams. They were therefore the less unwilling to accept a simple renewal of " joint occupation " for an indefinite time. America must wait for the full establishment of her rights in Oregon upon the movements of the American pioneers. CHAPTER X PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS We have seen that in 1800 the region west of The west the Alleghanies had a population of about three about l8z0 hundred and twenty-five thousand. Twenty years later, when Mr. Floyd and a few others began to dream about expansion to the Pacific, the West already contained more than two million people, nearly one tenth of whom (two hundred thousand) were living beyond the Mississippi. The country had entered upon a period of marvelous growth. Many thousands of emigrants were crossing the mountains each year, forests were leveled as if by a sort of magic, and a single season often saw great stretches of wild prairie transformed into fields of wheat and corn. In such pioneer states as Indiana and Illinois the wild game was rapidly disappearing from the river valleys as new settlers entered to make clearings and build homes. Many of the rude hamlets of twenty years before had given place to progressive and wealthy towns, thriving upon the business of the growing communities about them. Louis ville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and St. Louis 137 138 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST had already become places of note, and con trolled the commerce of the West much as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore dominated the eastern section of the United States. The western rivers were alive with noisy little steamboats, one of which had re cently ascended the Missouri to the mouth of Platte River.1 Roads were being opened every where, and the Erie Canal was under construc tion from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The frontier of settlement was in the western part of Missouri, whence a trail had already been opened to Santa Fe, while others led far into the great plains toward the west and northwest. TheAmeri- Beyond the frontiers the trapper hunted trad^of the ^e beaver streams, and the trader carried his far west2 tempting wares to the Indian villages, much as they had done twenty, fifty, or a hundred years before. Yet in some respects great changes had occurred in the western fur trade. From the time of Lewis and Clark's return and the opening of the Missouri River country, Ameri can traders had shown a strong disposition to 1 The Western Engineer, employed as part of Long's exploring equipment in 18 19. 2 Under the above title Captain H. M. Chittenden has recently given us a remarkably complete, accurate, and interesting history of the fur trade throughout the great region west of the Missis sippi. His book, which cost years of patient research, was pub lished in 1902 (3 vols.). PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 1 39 organize for the better regulation of the busi ness. The Missouri Fur Company, founded in 1808 for the purpose of controlling the trade of the Missouri River, was the pioneer of such associations in the United States, and it soon made St. Louis a great fur-trading center.1 But, while remarkably successful elsewhere, this company did not succeed after all in gaining commercial possession of the upper Missouri, because of the hostile Blackfeet. In 1822 a new company was organized at St. Louis by General William H. Ashley, whose plan in the beginning was to establish trading posts at favorable points on the upper Missouri, like the mouth of the Yellowstone, and keep agents in the country. The Blackfeet, however, could not be pacified, and this method had to be given up. Ashley then adopted the policy of sending bands of trappers to form camps in the best beaver districts, and trap out the streams one after another. Under leaders like David Jackson and Wil- American liam L. Sublette, these parties not only gath- ^fthe ered the fur harvest of some of the Missouri Rockies fields, but traversed the country for great dis tances to the southwest, far into the Rocky Mountains. Finally they entered the region tributary to the Columbia, and came into com- 1 Astor tried to combine with this company, but was unable to do so. 140 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST petition with the traders and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company.1 It was the clashing of skirmishers. Behind the one party was a powerful commercial organization, and a proud but distant government jealous of their legal rights ; behind the other was a rapidly expand ing nation, whose people would one day be pre pared to follow the traders across the Rockies, and plant American colonies on the coasts of the South Sea. wanderings In 1 826 General Ashley turned over his £ srmthiah business to Jedediah S. Smith, David Jackson, and William L. Sublette. The first of these (Smith) immediately set out from their Rocky Mountain camp and with a few men crossed the desert and mountains to California, arriving at San Diego in October, 1826. He remained in the country during the winter, and the fol lowing summer returned to Salt Lake. In spite of severe sufferings on his first trip, Smith went back to California the same season, losing most of his men at the hands of the Mojave Indians. In California he got together a new 1 Several instances are recorded of American trapping com panies getting the advantage of British parties in some way and securing their furs. In 1825 General Ashley got possession, for a trifling sum, of about seventy-five thousand dollars' worth of Hud son's Bay furs. We do not know exactly how these peculiar feats of wilderness commerce were performed, though it is pretty cer tain that the free use of whisky upon opposition trappers was one of the means employed. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 141 party, and in 1828 crossed the mountains north ward to Oregon. On the Umpqua River his company was attacked by the Indians and all ex cept the leader and three others killed. Smith also lost his entire catch of furs, his horses, and other property, so that when he arrived at Fort Vancouver (August, 1828) he was in desperate straits. Dr. McLoughlin received him kindly, supplied all his needs, and even sent men to the Umpqua to recover the furs stolen by the savages. Nearly all were secured, and these McLoughlin purchased at the market price, giving the American trader a draft on London for the sum of twenty thousand dollars. From Vancouver Smith went up the Columbia to Clark's Fork, and then to the rendezvous of his company in the Rocky Mountains, hav ing gained the distinction of making the first overland trip from the United States into Cali fornia, and also the first from California to Oregon. The next spring (1830) Smith, Jackson, and Wagons Sublette took the first loaded wagons into the pra°sss. South Rocky Mountains to the head of Wind River, Captain having driven from the Missouri along the line of the Platte and the Sweetwater. The partners reported that they could easily have crossed the mountains by way of South Pass. The discovery of this natural highway, so important in the history of the entire Pacific I42 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST coast, must be credited to Ashley's trappers, some of whom first made use of it in 1823. Three years later a mounted cannon was taken to Salt Lake by this route, and four years after that loaded wagons crossed over for the first time to the west flowing waters. These vehicles belonged to the train of Captain Bonneville, a Frenchman in the United States army, who turned fur trader in 1832, hoping to gain a fortune like General Ashley. The story of his romantic marches and long de tours through the great western wilderness has been charmingly told by Irving in his " Ad ventures of Captain Bonneville." In the space of about three years he traversed a large por tion of the Lewis River valley, and went down the Columbia as far as Fort Walla Walla.1 But the gallant captain was no match for the shrewd American traders, or for the well-organ ized British company controlling the Columbia River region, and therefore his venture turned out a complete failure. wyeth's In the same year that Bonneville set out for Icheme- ^e West an enterprising Bostonian, Captain the first trip Nathaniel J. Wyeth, also entered the Oregon to Oregon country for the purpose of trade. Wyeth had long been familiar with the writings of Hall J. Kelley concerning Oregon, and in the sum- rA few of his men, under Joseph Walker, went to California in 1833-1834. Some of them remained there as settlers. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 143 mer of 1831 he arranged a plan to send a ship around Cape Horn while he, with a party of landsmen, was to proceed across the country hoping to meet the vessel near the mouth of the Columbia. A company of Boston mer chants furnished the vessel, which sailed in the fall of 1 83 1. Wyeth gathered a small party of men, formed a sort of " Wild West " camp on an island in Boston Harbor, greatly to the astonishment of most people, and in spring was ready to begin the overland march. Knowing that the trip would have to be made partly by land and partly by water, the ingen ious Yankee invented a machine which could be used either as a wagon bed or a boat. This the Latin scholars at Harvard College named the " Nat Wyethium." He found it less useful than at first supposed and left it at St. Louis. At that place Wyeth and his men joined a party of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company under William L. Sublette, with whom they made the trip to the Rocky Mountains by means of a pack train. Here some of the men turned back discouraged, so that the last por tion of the trip was made with only eleven men. This little party reached Vancouver, October 24, 1832. The ship had not arrived, and they soon learned that she had been wrecked at the Society Islands. Wyeth there fore returned to Boston in 1833, leaving a few 144 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of his men, who became the first agricultural settlers of Oregon. The business ' part of the enterprise had failed completely. Wyeth'ssec- But Wyeth was plucky, and had great faith ondexpedi- -m ^ pr0Spects f01- a profitable commercial enterprise in the Oregon country. The salmon fishery of the Columbia was a possible source of great wealth, and he proposed to couple fur trading with it. He therefore induced the Boston partners to supply another ship, the May Dacre, which was sent down the coast in the fall of 1833. Wyeth himself made the trip overland once more in the summer of 1834. This time he took a number of wagons from St. Louis, with goods which had been or dered by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. When the company refused to receive them, Wyeth selected a place near the junction of the Lewis and Portneuf rivers, where he built Fort Hall and began trading with the Indians on his own account by means of an agent left there. He then passed on down the river, reaching Vancouver in September. Once more the energetic captain was disappointed, for the May Dacre, which had been expected to reach the Columbia early in the summer, during the salmon fishing season, came in tardily the day after the land party arrived. Nothing could then be done about fishing, so Wyeth sent her to the Hawaiian Islands with a cargo of timber, PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 145 while he spent the winter in trapping beaver on* the streams south of the Columbia, princi pally the Des Chutes. By the middle of Feb ruary he was back at Vancouver, the guest of McLoughlin. His trading plans were now all ruined. Nothing could be done with the fur trade in opposition to the Hudson's Bay Com pany. His trading establishment at Fort Hall did not prosper, the fisheries and other com merce amounted to little. Wyeth lingered in the country till the summer of 1836, when he returned to Boston and soon closed out his business in Oregon. Some of the men left by him began the business of farming, with the assistance of the Hudson's Bay Company. Thus Wyeth's enterprise is in a very real sense a bridge between the purely commercial era of northwestern history and the era of actual colonization.1 But there was also another motive, very 1 Wyeth kept a regular journal, which has been preserved in the family of one of his descendants. A few years ago the manu script was sent from Massachusetts to Oregon and published (1899), together with a large number of Wyeth's letters, under the editorial direction of Professor F. G. Young, secretary of the Oregon Historical Society. The volume forms an invaluable source for the study of conditions in Oregon, and the state of the western fur trade, during the years covered. A very rare book on the first part of the first Wyeth expedition is the little volume by John B. Wyeth, published at Boston in 1833. Only a few copies are now in existence. It is, however, being reprinted under the editorship of Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D. 146 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Indian different from that influencing the fur trader, •missions in the West *nat was drawing men into the great western wilds and on toward the Pacific Ocean. This was the desire on the part of many good men to do something for the improvement of the Indians. There was nothing new in this any more than in the fur trade ; but in the one case as in the other the period we have now reached witnesses a great expansion of effort and better organization. A few missionaries had labored among the Indians west of the Alleghanies since the first settlers crossed those mountains, and some of the tribes had made good progress in the direction of civilization. With the pur chase of Louisiana, however, it became the policy of the government to induce those living east of the river to go to the new territory on the western side in order to make room for the expanding white settlements.1 Some crossed over freely, or at least with little objection, but others refused to go. After a time the govern ment undertook to remove them. This caused great distress among the Indians, and likewise produced a mighty wave of sympathy for the red men. The newspapers recited their suf ferings, and quoted the pathetic speeches of 1 Writing of the significance of Louisiana shortly after the purchase, Jefferson said, " It will also open an asylum for these unhappy people [the Indians], in a country which may suit their habits of life better than that they now occupy, which perhaps they will be willing to exchange with us." PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 147 Indian chiefs, forced to leave " the land of their fathers, where the Indian fires were going out." Missionaries followed, without hesitation, to the strange lands where " new fires were lighting in the West," and soon a considerable number of devoted men were at work among the tribes living between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. Some were laboring among peo ples they had known east of the river; some sought out new fields on the Missouri, the Kansas, the Platte, and other streams, where they preached, taught the Indian children to read, and often induced the natives to till the soil and live in permanent houses, instead of wandering about in pursuit of game. Some times the government employed the mission aries as teachers or Indian agents, and often assisted them by providing a blacksmith to make tools and farming implements. Since these things were going on in many TheNez places throughout the West, and since a few Percesdel«- r o gation to St. persons like Hall J. Kelley had already been Louis writing about the Oregon Indians in connection with plans for settling that country, it is not strange, but perfectly natural, that men should at last undertake to Christianize the tribes living on the Pacific coast. A little incident occurring in 1831 or 1832 (the date is in doubt), was sufficient to start the first missionaries across the mountains. As the story goes, the nations 148 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of the upper Columbia had learned from British traders something about the white man's reli gion. Wishing to know more, the Nez Perces sent four of their leading men to St. Louis to see General Clark, whom they remembered as having once visited their country, to ask for " the white man's book of heaven," as the Bible was called among them. These Indians, set ting out on their strange and interesting mission, crossed the mountains and the plains in safety and reached St. Louis, where they were kindly received by General Clark. Two of them died while in the city. The remaining two started for their own country in spring, but one died before reaching the mountains. Beginnings The story of these four Indians, and their wiiiamette ^on§ j°urney to the East in search of spiritual mission help and guidance, was soon published in the religious papers and created the keenest interest. First to respond to the call for teachers was the Methodist denomination, which in 1833 commis sioned Rev. Jason Lee to begin work among the Flatheads.1 Learning of Wyeth's plan to return to Oregon in spring, Lee arranged to have all the provisions and equipments for the new mission taken to the Columbia in the May Dacre, while he and his nephew, 1 The Indians who went to St. Louis were often spoken of as Flatheads, though in fact they appear to have belonged to the Nez Perce's branch. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 149 Daniel Lee, and three laymen, Cyrus Shep- ard, P. L. Edwards, and C. M. Walker, joined Wyeth's overland party and made their way to the Columbia. They decided, for various rea sons, to let the Flatheads wait and to begin work among the Indians on the Willamette. All went down to Vancouver, arriving in the month of September, 1834. When the May Dacre came in with their supplies, the mis sionaries explored the country for a suitable site. " On the east side of the river [Willa mette], and sixty miles from its mouth, a loca tion was chosen to begin a mission. Here was a broad, rich bottom, many miles in length, well watered and supplied with timber, oak, fir, Cot tonwood, white maple, and white oak, scattered along its grassy plains." J They immediately began preparing materials for a house and when the rains of winter came had a respect able shelter. At the same time land was fenced for cropping, a barn built, and other improvements made ; so that the establish ment took on the appearance of a prosperous woodland farm. The missionaries were not the only settlers The first in the Willamette valley. On arriving here cor1e0sn°n they found about a dozen white men already 1 Lee and Frost's " The First Ten Years of Oregon," reprinted by the Oregonian, Sunday edition, October n to January 10, 1903-1904. 150 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST occupying little farms, scattered along the river, where they lived in log cabins with Indian wives and families of children. Most of them were former servants of the Hudson's Bay Company who had either become unfit to range the forest, or preferred to settle down to cultivate the soil and live a quiet life. Dr. McLoughlin furnished them stock and pro visions, as he did the men left in the country Old Mission House, Oregon. Progress of the mission by Wyeth, receiving his pay in wheat when the crops were harvested, and in young stock to take the place of full-grown animals which he supplied. Here was the beginning of the first agricultural colony in Oregon, and it was this mixed community into which the mission aries now came as a new influence, tending to bring about better social conditions. From the first, the missionaries were more successful in their efforts among the neighbor ing settlers than with the surrounding Indians. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 151 They opened a school, maintained religious services, and soon organized a temperance so ciety which, partly through Dr. McLoughlin's influence, many of the white men joined. The Indian children were admitted to their school, and some of them made fair progress in learn ing. Orphans were adopted into the mission family from time to time, receiving in this way greater benefits from their contact with civili zation. In 1837 the mission was reenforced by the arrival of twenty assistants sent from the East in two vessels.1 New efforts were now made to Christianize the Indians of the Wil lamette, and the following year a branch mission was begun at the Dalles of the Columbia. This became an important station ; but the work in the valley did not flourish, for the natives were a sickly, degraded race, almost beyond the reach of aid, and were rapidly dying off. Let us now see what was going on in other Parker's portions of the Oregon country. The story of tour the Nez Perces delegation to St. Louis had affected other denominations as well as the 1 The first party arrived in May, and contained Dr. and Mrs. Elijah White, with two children ; Mr. Alanson Beers, his wife and three children ; three young women, Miss Pitman, who was soon married to Rev. Jason Lee and who died the following year, Miss Susan Downing, who married Mr. Shepard, and Miss Elvira Johnson ; and one unmarried man, Mr. W. H. Wilson. The second company, arriving in September, consisted of seven persons: Rev. David Leslie, wife and three children, Miss Mar garet J. Smith, and Mr. H. K. W. Perkins. 152 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Methodists, and in 1835 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent out Dr. Samuel Parker to inquire into the prospects for missionary work among the Ore gon Indians. Mr. Parker was accompanied by a pious young physician, Dr. Marcus Whit man. Together they made the overland trip from Liberty, Missouri, with a party of Rocky Mountain trappers. Arriving at Pierre's Hole, they found Indians of several Columbia River tribes, who all seemed anxious to have missionaries settle among them. Thinking, therefore, that the main point was now gained, Dr. Whitman returned to the East to bring out assistants and supplies to begin one or more missions. Dr. Parker went on, under Indian guidance, to the Columbia, arriving at Fort Vancouver on the 16th of October. Here he spent the winter as the guest of Dr. McLough lin, and when spring came set out for the upper country. He stopped at Fort Walla Walla, where he preached to a multitude of Indians. Then journeying up the valley of Walla Walla River he observed, some twenty miles from the Columbia, " a delightful situation for a mission ary establishment. ... A mission located on this fertile field," he says, " would draw around [it] an interesting settlement, who would fix down to cultivate the soil and to be instructed. How easily might the plow go through these PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 153 vallies, and what rich and abundant harvests might be gathered by the hand of industry." From this place he went up the Lewis River, where he seems to have fixed upon another site for a mission, and then struck off northward, ex ploring the beautiful valley of Spokane River. Here, too, were many Indians, who appeared to be anxious for religious instruction. Later in the year (1836) Dr. Parker sailed from Van couver for the Hawaiian Islands, whence he returned to the Atlantic coast by way of Cape Horn, reaching his home at Ithaca, New York, in May, 1837, after an absence of more than two years.1 When Dr. Whitman returned to New York The whit- in the fall of 1835, with a report that the Co- man.Party°f ^~ x missionaries lumbia River Indians were eager for teachers, the board at once commissioned him to super intend the planting of a mission in that coun try. He had some trouble to find helpers, but at last Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Spalding consented to go with Whitman and his newly married wife. Mr. W. H. Gray also joined the party. It must have required a great deal of courage for these two women to undertake the overland trip, which thus far had been accomplished by none but men. At Liberty, Missouri, the mis sionaries joined a company of fur traders, and 1 The following year Dr. Parker published his interesting little book called "An Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains." 154 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Beginningsof the interiormissions traveled with them to the mountains. In ad dition to saddle horses and pack animals, Whit man had provided his party with a one-horse wagon. At that time there was no road be yond Fort Hall, but on account of Mrs. Spald ing's feeble health, which made it impossible for her to keep the saddle, he drove this vehi cle as far as Fort Boise on Lewis River, thus opening a new stage in the wagon road to the Columbia. Arriving at Fort Vancouver in September, the women were left under the protection of Dr. McLoughlin's family, while the men went up the river to begin the missions. On the Walla Walla River, about twenty miles above the fort, was a place which the Indians called Waiilatpu, where the first establishment was begun. In this prairie country timber was very scarce, and therefore the missionaries built their house of " adobes," large brick made of clay and baked by exposure in the sun.1 This finished, the second station was begun on the Clear water, at its junction with the Lapwai, a short distance below the point where Lewis and Clark, in 1805, reached the navigable waters of the Columbia. The place was in the midst of the Nez Perces country, about one hundred 1 These particular brick were twenty inches long, ten inches wide, and four inches thick, as Dr. Whitman wrote to a fellow- missionary on Platte River. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 155 and twenty miles east of Waiilatpu. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding took up their abode here while the Whitmans remained at the Walla Walla station. The Indians of this country were far superior Expansion in every way to those of western Oregon. g^anT^ They were wanderers during a good share of mission the year, but the winters were usually spent in fixed places, where they could be reached with ease. It was not long before many of them became interested in the schools estab lished at both missions for their benefit, and after a time some were taken into the church. Special efforts were made to teach them to depend more upon agriculture and less upon hunting, fishing, and the search for camas roots. It was easy to cultivate the soil in this region, as Dr. Parker foresaw, so that the Indians were soon raising little fields of corn and patches of potatoes, which added much to their comfort and well-being. In the spring of 1837 Whitman planted twelve acres of corn and one acre of potatoes, besides peas and bar ley. A few cattle were early procured from the East, and these multiplying rapidly, and being added to from time to time, soon devel oped into considerable herds, of which the Indians secured a share. In the fall of 1838 a small party came from the East overland to reenforce the up-river missions. It consisted interiormissions 156 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of Rev. Cushing Eells and wife, Rev. Elkanah Walker and wife, Rev. A. B. Smith and wife, Mr. W. H. Gray and wife, and Mr. C. Rogers.1 Now it was determined to occupy the northern most of the three mission fields selected by Dr. Parker, the Spokane country, where the families of Walker and Eells establish themselves in the spring of 1839.2 Life at the Thus the tribes of the interior country were at last brought under the influence, of a few men and women wholly devoted to their wel fare, and understanding with a fair degree of clearness how to guide these barbarians along the path of civilization. The task was stu pendous; but the missionaries knew it was not impossible, and labored with exemplary courage. They preached to the natives as regularly as possible, gathered the children and their elders in the schools, translated portions of the Bible into the Indian language and printed them on a little press, the gift of the Hawaiian missionaries ; they helped the Indians build houses for themselves, showed them how to till their fields and lead water upon the grow ing crops; they erected rude mills to grind 1 Gray, who came to the Columbia in 1836 with Whitman and Spalding, had gone back to secure help, and was married before returning. 2 This place was known as Tsimakane. For a short time a station was also occupied at Kamiah, on Lewis River. PIONEERS OF THE PIONEERS 157 their corn and wheat. Work was more than abundant for these few men and women, yet this only made their condition the more pitiable for its intense loneliness. The families were so widely separated that visits required a great deal of time, which could seldom be spared. Once a year the men from the several stations Tsimakane Mission. gathered at Waiilatpu to conduct the annual business of the mission, and occasionally two or three families managed to be together for a brief time. But for the most part they de pended on letters sent by Indian carriers to keep them in touch with their fellow-workers, and on trading or trapping parties to bring news from down the river, where social life was so much brighter, and where ships came in from 158 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST foreign shores. Toward the end of the long summer, when the corn was ripening in the field, they looked with longing for the annual pack train coming down from the Blue Moun tains, which usually brought letters from friends in eastern homes, and sometimes a welcome traveler or missionary. CHAPTER XI THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT The United States government, in all its Ten years of departments, dropped the Oregon question ^if I827- when Gallatin secured the second treaty of 1837 joint occupation. For nearly ten years after that date neither Congress nor the executive made any move of importance toward settling the dispute with England, or assisting Ameri can citizens to gain a foothold within the Oregon country. Yet this period, 182 7-1 837', is of great importance in the history of Oregon because of the doings of the first pioneers as described in the preceding chapter. Trappers, traders, and missionaries had entered the region ; and while little impression was made upon the business of the Hudson's Bay Company, a few Ameri cans remained to till the soil and to instruct the Indians in religious things. This created a bond between the United States and the dis tant Columbia which forced the government to take an interest in that country. The ques tion of the future of Texas had also compelled the United States to concern itself about the Mexican territories, and at one time (1835) 159 160 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST President Jackson was anxious to buy northern California in order to secure the fine harbor of San Francisco. Accordingly, he sent an agent, Mr. W. A. Slacum, to the Pacific to collect information for the government, and on this voyage the first official visit was paid to Oregon. siacum's Slacum arrived in the Columbia River at Oregon ^he end of the year 1836, with particular in structions from President Jackson to govern his doings there. He was to visit all the white settlements on and near the Columbia, as well as the various Indian villages ; to make a com plete census of both whites and Indians, and to learn what the white people thought about the question of American rights in Oregon. Briefly, he was to " obtain all such information . . . as [might] prove interesting or useful to the United States." Mr. Slacum performed his work with a good deal of thoroughness. He made charts of the Columbia River, locating all the principal Indian villages ; visited Fort Vancouver to learn about the fur trade and other business of the establishment; and went up the Willamette valley to the Methodist mission, calling at nearly every settler's cabin passed on the way. He was pleased with the country, found the missionaries doing good work among the French and other settlers, and became enthusiastic over the agricultural THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 161 advantages of the Willamette valley. He pro nounced it " the finest grazing country in the world. Here there are no droughts," he says, " as on the Pampas of Buenos Ayres or the plains of California, whilst the lands abound with richer grasses both winter and summer." Mr. Slacum believed that if the settlers could Thewuia- be better provided with cattle, which were as ™ette Cattle 1 Company, yet comparatively scarce, the prosperity of the 1837 country would be assured ; and with this idea the Oregon people heartily agreed. The Hudson's Bay Company, while generous in providing farmers with work oxen, were not prepared to sell breeding stock freely, because their herds were not yet large enough to more than supply their own needs. The only prac tical way to obtain more cattle was to bring them overland from California, where the Mexican ranchers were slaughtering many thousands each year for the sake of the hides and tallow which they sold mainly to Boston shipowners.1 There was one settler in the Willamette valley who was familiar with Cali fornia, having lived there several years before coming to Oregon. This was Ewing Young, a man of considerable talent and enterprise, who 1 One of the most entertaining books on early California is Richard H. Dana's classic story, " Two Years Before the Mast." It gives an account of the author's experience while a sailor on one of the " hide and tallow " ships trading along the California coast. M 162 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST now headed a movement for bringing cattle from the South.1 Slacum encouraged the project in every way, especially by offering to carry to California without expense the men who were to go for the purpose of securing cattle. An association was formed, with Young at its head, that took the name of the "Willamette Cattle Company." A fund of several thousand dollars was subscribed, partly by Dr. McLoughlin for the fur company, partly by the Methodist mission, and the remainder by individuals. Mr. Slacum himself took a small financial inter est in the company. Ewing Young and P. L. Edwards, with a few others, took passage in the Loriot (Slacum's ship) to California, where they bought eight hundred head of cattle at three dollars apiece, and forty horses at twelve dol lars apiece. After many vexations and hard ships they arrived in the Willamette valley with six hundred head of stock, the remainder having been lost by the way. The bringing of these cattle, in the fall of 1837, marks the opening of a new era for Oregon. 1 Young was a noted frontiersman, originally from Tennessee, who early began trading in New Mexico. From there he went to California in 1829 and came to Oregon overland with a few others in 1834, driving a band of horses. One of his companions on this trip was the famous Oregon agitator, Hall J. Kelley, of Boston. Kelley had expected to bring out a colony to Oregon in 1832; but failing to secure colonists, he finally started on his own account, going to Mexico, thence to California, and finally with Young to Oregon. THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 163 It gave a great stimulus to stock raising, for which the country was specially adapted, pro moted the prosperity of the settlers already there, and, by the reports which soon traveled eastward, caused many people in the Mississippi valley to look with longing eyes toward this land of ease and plenty, thus preparing the way for the colonizing movement which was about to begin. Mr. Slacum returned to the United States Renewal of and made his report to the erovernment. In 0res°n , 1 <-> agitation in December, 1837, this document, so interesting Congress as the earliest particular account of the Willa mette settlement, was presented to Congress and immediately aroused great interest. One of the points which Slacum insisted upon was that the United States must never accept a northern boundary for Oregon that would give to the British government the great harbor of Puget Sound. In other words, his idea was that we should hold out sturdily for the 49th parallel, already thrice offered, and refuse utterly to take Great Britain's offer of the Columbia boundary. This doubtless strength ened the determination of a few leaders in Congress to secure a law for the military occupation of the Columbia, similar to that which Mr. Floyd tried to obtain fifteen years earlier. At all events, the Oregon ques tion now came up once more and remained 164 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST before Congress, in some form, during the succeeding ten years, till Oregon was effectively settled by the pioneers, a favorable treaty obtained from Great Britain, and an American territory created on the Pacific coast. Linn's bill Of the many men who took part in the Ore- TanuareTnd §on discussions, between the years 1837 and June, 1838 1843, none was more active or determined than Dr. Lewis F. Linn, senator from Missouri. He believed thoroughly in American rights on the Pacific, was inclined to belittle the British claims, and insisted on the urgent ne cessity of taking military possession of the Columbia River. He proposed also to estab lish a territorial government for Oregon. His first bill for these purposes was presented to the Senate in January, 1838, and in June Dr. Linn brought in a report on the Oregon ques tion. This was a lengthy document, containing a history of the events on which our right to the Oregon country rested, and trying to show that the British claim was not well founded. In these respects it differed little from the earlier report by Floyd; yet on many points Linn was able to give information never before presented to the country. For example, he described the road to Oregon, which had re cently been traversed by two women in the Whitman-Spalding party. Many brief docu ments containing valuable information were THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 165 printed as appendices to the report, which thus became a sort of text-book for the study of the Oregon question. Thousands of copies were printed, and in the next few years they were distributed all over the country, especially through the West, with the result that num bers of men soon became interested in "our territory on the Pacific," as Oregon was fre quently called.1 Other influences were working to the same jason Lee's effect. Jason Lee, the superintendent of the ^etu™- The 1 Jarnham Willamette mission, returned to the United party States in the summer of 1838 "to obtain addi tional facilities to carry on . . . the missionary work in Oregon territory." He traveled over land with a few companions, passing through the frontier settlements of Missouri and Illinois, where he accepted invitations to lecture and to preach in the churches. A principal aim was to raise money for his missionary enterprise, but incidentally Lee aroused a good deal of enthusiasm for the far-off country, so rich in natural resources, where he had lived during the preceding four years, almost within sight of the Pacific Ocean. At Peoria, Illinois, he left one of two Indian boys who had gone east with him, and perhaps partly on that account a special interest was aroused at that place. In 1 When the pioneers began to go to Oregon copies of Linn's Report were among the very few books taken across the plains. 166 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the following spring Mr. Thomas J. Farnham of Peoria, with a company of fourteen men, undertook the overland trip to Oregon. He failed to keep his party together, and finished the journey with but three associates. Farn ham visited the Whitman mission, and later the Willamette settlement, after which he took ship to the Hawaiian Islands and to California. On his return to the United States he pub lished popular accounts of the Oregon country, as well as of California, which were widely read and helped to swell the rising tide of interest in the far west. Petitions The settlers in the Willamette valley in trusted Farnham with a memorial to Congress, asking that the protection of the United States government might be extended over them. Lee had carried with him from Oregon a simi lar petition, which was presented to Congress in January, 1839, by Senator Linn. It spoke of the fertility of the Willamette and Umpqua valleys, the unsurpassed facilities for stock raising, the mild and pleasant climate of west ern Oregon, and the exceptional opportunities for commerce. A special point was made of the growing trade with the Hawaiian Islands, whose, people needed the beef and flour pro duced in the Willamette valley, and would soon be able to exchange for them coffee, sugar, and other tropical products required by the and memorials THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 167 Oregon settlers.1 " We flatter ourselves," say the thirty-six signers of the memorial, " that we are the germ of a great state. . . . The country must populate. The Congress of the United States must say by whom. The natural re sources of the country, with a well-judged civil code, will invite a good community. But a good community will hardly emigrate to a country which promises no protection to life or property. . . ." Lee personally wrote a letter to Congressman Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, in which he reenforced the statements made in the petition.2 " It may be thought," he says, " that Oregon is of little im- 1 The discovery of these islands by Captain Cook in January, 1778, proved of great importance in Pacific coast history. Their situation made them the natural calling place for all vessels com ing up the coast from Cape Horn, and also for ships crossing the Pacific to or from China. When discovered, the several islands of the group were occupied by barbarous tribes, each independent of all the others. About the close of the eighteenth century there arose a great chief called Kamehameha, who succeeded in uniting most of the tribes, and in opening trade with the owners of ships calling at the Islands. A prosperous era now began. In 1820 American missionaries established themselves at Honolulu, and soon this place became a center of civilization affecting all the tribes. The relations of the Hawaiian missionaries with the Ameri can people in Oregon, and afterward in California, was always very close. Visits were occasionally made to the Pacific coast, and, as stated in the last chapter, the Hawaiian missionaries pre sented those on the Columbia with a small printing-press, the first ever used on the Pacific coast of the United States. z Cushing made a report to the House of Representatives in 1839 which in some respects supplemented the report made by Linn to the Senate the year before. 168 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST portance ; but depend upon it, sir, there is the germ of a great state." The Oregon people desired from Congress two things : first, the protection of the laws of the United States; second, a guarantee that they might keep the lands already taken up by them. Linn, Cush ing, and other men made a faithful effort to obtain such laws ; but the prevailing sentiment was against them, and no bill passed either house of Congress till 1843.1 The Oregon We have now to describe a movement aris- EmigTati'on m§ outside of Congress in the summer of 1838, society; its which added largely to the effect of the agita- purpose" tion begun by Linn and Cushing. This was the so-called Oregon Provisional Emigration Society, organized at Lynn, Massachusetts, in August, 1838. The society was not a mission ary organization purely, though most of its leading members belonged to the Methodist denomination. Its aim was " to prepare the way for the Christian settlement of Oregon." It proposed to enlist several hundred Christian families, send them to Oregon overland, and 1 It was, indeed, a very difficult matter to draw up a bill for the extension of our national authority over Oregon without violating either the letter or the spirit of the treaty of joint occupation. Many members of Congress refused to support the bills presented by Linn and others because it was feared their passage might embroil us with Great Britain. See on this point the valuable paper of Dr. J. R. Wilson on " The Oregon Question," published in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, March and September, 1900, THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 169 encourage them to make use of all the advan tages for stock raising, commerce, fishing, etc., that the country afforded. But this was not to be the only aim of the settlement, for which the founders of the society had " nobler pur poses in view." They believed it might be pos sible to Christianize the Indians, -educate them, and make them citizens of a new common wealth in which they were to have all the rights and privileges of white citizens. The theory was that while the Indians east of the Rockies had already become hopelessly degraded, those in the Oregon country were still mainly sound, and if taken in time might be saved. The society published a monthly magazine The called at first The Oregojiian. The phrase and Indian s Advocate was afterward added to the title. It was edited by Rev. Frederick P. Tracy, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who was also the secretary of the society. In the num bers of this magazine we find a large amount of information concerning the Oregon of seventy years ago.1 The editor grew eloquent 1 Apparently only eleven numbers were printed. It begins with October, 1838, and ends with August, 1839. Files of this paper are very rare. The writer has seen and used two: the first is in the State Historical Library of Wisconsin, at Madison, the other in the private library of Hon. F. V. Holman of Port land, Oregon. Doubtless there are others, especially in Massa chusetts. It contains Linn's and Cushing's reports, a review of Parker's book, letters from missionaries, and other matter con cerning Oregon. 170 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in the effort to set before his readers the pos sibilities of this great country. He called it " the future home of the power which is to rule the Pacific, . . . the theater on which mankind are to act out a part not yet performed in the drama of life and government." Oregon's "far- spreading seas and mighty rivers [were] to teem with the commerce of an empire " ; her " boundless prairies and verdant vales [were] to feel the steps of civilized millions ; . . . " — Colonizing Such enthusiasm, supported by much valu- p an ai s ^^ information, must have produced consid erable effect, since the magazine reached a circulation of nearly eight hundred copies. But in addition to this the society also sent an agent into the western states to enlist emigrants, who were to go to Oregon in the spring of 1840. Nothing came of the colonizing scheme, although the plans had been carefully worked out. It is a most interesting fact that the society had gained the good will of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, and their promise to pro vide the Oregon colony with merchandise at rates to be agreed upon. The organization appears to have dropped into the background by the end of the year 1839. But by this time there were little knots of men in various parts of the United States, — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, — who thought of forming emigration societies to THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 171 colonize Oregon. There was some delay in carrying out these plans ; but the idea had be gun to take hold of the popular mind, and a few years would see the wagon trains gathering for the wonderful journey across the continent. We left Jason Lee busily at work in the Lee's mis- eastern states raisins: money and men for his mis- slona7 t. e> J colonizatic sionary reenforcement. He was remarkably sue- scheme cessful, securing, with the help of the Methodist board, the large sum of forty-two thousand dol lars. He got together a company of over fifty persons — men, women, and children — with whom he sailed from New York in the ship Lau sanne on the 10th of October, 1839. In the fol lowing May they reached the mouth' of the Columbia from Hawaii, and on the ist of June all were safely landed at Vancouver. Here the party separated. One of the ministers, Rev. J. H. Frost, was sent to the mouth of the Columbia ; Rev. A. F. Waller took charge of a station at Willamette Falls ; two others, Rev. W. W. Cone and Rev. Gustavus Hines, went to the Umpqua to begin a new mission, which did not succeed ; Mr. Brewer and Dr. Babcock, laymen, reen- forced the station at the Dalles ; and Rev. J. P. Richmond, with his family and Miss Clark as teacher, went Up to the station already begun near Fort Nesqually on Puget Sound. The rest of them passed up the Willamette to the central mission near the present capital city of Lieutenant Wilkes 172 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Salem, where some took lands, and helped to change this establishment into the true Ameri can colony it now became. About the same time a number of Rocky Mountain trappers settled in the valley, and still further increased the American influence. The colony now con tained more than a hundred people. visit of In the year 1841 Oregon received a visit from Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, commander of the Pacific Exploring Squadron sent out by the United States government in 1 838.1 Wilkes took pains to travel through all the settled por tions of the Willamette valley, and gives a de tailed account of what he found there. Near the mouth of the river was a group of young men building a small vessel, which they called The Star of Oregon, and which was after ward taken to San Francisco and exchanged for cattle. At the falls were Waller's mission and a trading, or rather salmon-packing, station of the Hudson's Bay Company. At a place called Champoeg there were four or five cabins, in one of which Wilkes was entertained by an old seaman, named Johnson, who had fought in the glorious naval battle between the Constitu- 1 Two other noteworthy visitors to Oregon during this year were Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Com pany, who was on his trip around the world, and a French diplo mat, Duflot de Mofras, at that time connected with the French legation in Mexico. Each wrote a book, in which some account of Oregon is contained. THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 173 tion and the Guerriere} Farther up the river were observed " many small farms of from fifty to one hundred acres, belonging to the old ser vants of the company, Canadians, who [had] settled here ; they all [appeared] very comfort able and thriving." Twelve miles above Cham- poeg dwelt the Catholic priest, Father Blanchet, " settled among his flock, . . . doing great good to the settlers in ministering to their temporal as well as spiritual wants." The traveler passed a few more farms before reaching the first of the buildings belonging to the Metho dist mission. Wilkes was entertained by Mr. Abernethy, whose family was one of the four living in the " hospital " erected by Dr. White — "a well-built frame edifice with a double piazza in front, . . . perhaps the best building in Oregon." A ride of five miles brought him to "the mill," 2 where he found "the air and stir of a new secular settlement ; . . . the mission aries [had] made individual selections of lands to the amount of one thousand acres each, in the prospect of the whole country falling under our laws." He was convinced that they were now more interested in building up the country than in laboring further among the few remaining Indians. Neither did they care to leave the 1 Johnson afterward built the first house in the city of Port land. 2 This was near the present site of Salem. 174 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Willamette valley in order to find a more hopeful mission field, but preferred to remain here and direct the future development of the new colony they had done so much to create. Among these people Wilkes heard much about a plan to establish a provisional government for Oregon. This he discouraged, believing that there were as yet too few American settlers to make the experiment a success. Relations Wilkes found some of his countrymen dis- with the p0Sed to complain of the Hudson's Bay Corn- Bay pany ; but he appears to have given little heed Company tQ faese mutterings, knowing that there was no serious cause of trouble between the two nationalities. In a very real sense the Ameri can settlers were dependent upon the fur com pany, and owed to it much of the prosperity they enjoyed. McLoughlin generously assisted the newcomers with stock and supplies, ad vancing in this way large sums in the aggre gate ; the fort was the regular market for all the wheat and other surplus produce raised in the valley, and its stores furnished all the gro ceries, clothing, shoes, and other manufactured goods which brought homelike comforts to every little cabin, and luxury to a few of the more pretentious dwellings in the settlement. The fur company, too, was the wall of defense against the Indians of the entire country with out which Oregon could not have been settled THE COLONIZING MOVEMENT 175 when it was by feeble parties of missionaries and others from the United States. It must not be supposed that the British traders neg lected to look sharply after their own commer cial and national interests ; but these were not often directly opposed to the interests of the settlers. Moreover, the officers of the company in Oregon — McLoughlin, Douglas, Ogden, and most of the others — were liberal and humane men, inclined to deal fairly with the Americans who had at least as good a right as themselves to be in the country.1 Therefore, in summing up the causes bringing about the colonization of the Pacific Northwest we must not omit to mention the presence on the Columbia of the great British trading establishment, which in most respects served the purpose of protection and help to settlers as well as an American fort could have done. The year after Wilkes's visit, Oregon re- Dr. white's ceived the first considerable party of the emi- comPany of grants coming from the United States by the 1842 overland route. Dr. Elijah White, who had arrived in the country in 1837, returned to the East by sea in 1840. Soon after this the gov ernment began to think of sending an Indian 1 They must have known, also, that if serious offense had been given to the American government in the ill treatment of their citizens in Oregon, the government of Great Britain would be placed at a disadvantage in the contest for territory in Oregon. 176 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST agent to Oregon, and early in the year 1842 White was appointed to this position, with in structions to take out as many emigrants as could be got together in the West. White delivered lectures in various places, interviewed pioneers in Missouri and elsewhere, and soon had a company of about one hundred and twenty men, who started from Independence, Missouri, in May, and made a successful jour ney across the mountains. The party took wagons as far as Fort Hall, using pack horses from this place to the Columbia.1 The Ash- While this company was on its way across .rurt°n _ the plains, Lord Ashburton and Daniel Web- Ireaty, 1842 r ' ster were discussing, at Washington all the ques tions remaining unsettled between the United States and Great Britain ; and on the 9th of August, they signed what is called the Ash burton Treaty. Americans had hoped that the Oregon question might be settled at this time ; but in the negotiations it was soon found that Great Britain was not yet prepared to make concessions, and the treaty omitted all mention of the matter. 1 About the same time the government sent' out Lieutenant John C. Fremont to explore a route into the Rocky Mountains. This was the first of his " path-finding " expeditions. CHAPTER XII THE GREAT MIGRATION Many people were grievously disappointed at The Oregon the outcome of the Webster-Ashburton nego- SItuatlonin 1842 tiation, because of the silence of the treaty con cerning Oregon. Yet, looking back from this distance, it is difficult to see how any serious evil could result from a further delay in settling the question. It had already waited a quarter of a century, during most of which time Ameri cans had no interests in the region west of the Rockies. Now they not only had the begin nings of an actual settlement in the Willa mette valley, but everything foreshadowed such a large emigration to the Columbia tha.t our position would soon be much stronger than that of our adversary. The situation was a little like that on the Mississippi prior to the Louisiana Purchase ; and just as Jefferson wanted time to plant strong American com munities on the banks of this river before forcing an issue with France, so far-sighted statesmen of forty years later were glad to see the pioneers preparing for the journey to n 177 178 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The prospect for emigration in 1843. White's letter Other causes;the Oregon country Oregon, because this would strengthen the American claim as against Great Britain.1 Certainly at the time the Ashburton Treaty was signed American prospects were brighten ing. In the same month (August, 1842), Dr. White wrote a letter from the mountains in which he assured the frontiersmen that the Oregon colony would prove successful, that his company would reach the Willamette in safety, and that a good pilot 2 could be procured to bring out a company the following spring. This was doubtless one of the causes inducing the pioneers to prepare for the overland march in 1843. But there were many others. The long agitation in Congress, reports, speeches, newspaper articles, and letters had given the pio neering class considerable information about the Oregon country. They knew that the Willa mette valley was a favored land for the farmer and stockman, possessing a rich soil, mild cli- 1 President Tyler, writing three years later (October 7, 1845) to Mr. Calhoun, says that he hesitated to take up the Oregon negotiation after the treaty of 1842, "believing that under the convention of joint occupation we stood on the most favorable footing. Our population was already finding its way to the shores of the Pacific, and a few years would see an American Settlement on the Columbia sufficiently strong to defend itself and to protect the rights of the U. States to the territory.'' 2 This term, ordinarily used to designate a person who steers ships, or directs their course especially into harbors, was com monly employed sixty years ago by travelers in the Rocky- Mountains as an equivalent for the term " guide." THE GREAT MIGRATION 179 mate, and such a combination of prairie and forest, with springs of pure water everywhere, as would make the opening of new farms pecul iarly easy and pleasant. In the western states, the settlers had suffered much for the lack of easy transportation, their crops bringing scarcely enough to pay for the labor expended upon them ; but in Oregon they would have a navigable river at their doors, and the ocean but a short distance away. The market for grain was said to be good, cattle were reported to be worth four times what they were bringing in western Missouri, and in each case the cost of production was very much less. Oregon, also, had other resources, aside from these exceptional agricultural advantages. Her streams were full of the finest salmon, which might be packed and shipped at a good profit ; splendid forests of fir and pine, extending down to the water's edge, invited the establishment of lumber mills ; and unlimited water power was at hand for all manufacturing purposes. Such a combination of elements, the pioneers thought, would insure the development of a prosperous state on the shores of the Pacific. For several years, the western people had "Hard experienced continuous " hard times," with low ^J™"' prices for everything they had to sell, and al- the spirit of , , •, , ,1 ¦ j. adventure, most no opportunity to improve their condi- patr;otjsm tion either in farming or other business. The 180 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST spirit of unrest on these accounts was wide spread. Moreover, many persons in the south western states were beginning to feel very keenly the evils. of slavery, which was causing violent agitation throughout the country, and were anxious to remove their families beyond the reach of its influence. But underneath all other motives was a distinctly American love of adventure, the product of generations of pioneering. It was the spirit of the frontiers men of the olden time : the longing to open new " trails," to subdue strange lands, and make new settlements. True, men had abun dant opportunity to " move " without crossing the western mountains. They might go from Ohio to Michigan, Wisconsin, or Iowa ; from Kentucky to western Missouri, Arkan sas, or Texas. But, while thousands were each year doing this, such migrations after all were hardly satisfying to those remembering the deeds of pioneer ancestors who had traversed the " Wilderness Road " into Kentucky, and settled in a wild region amid constant dangers and alarms from hostile savages. The stories of Boone, Kenton, Clark, and scores of others were still recited around frontier firesides by old men and women who spoke out of their own vivid recollections of these border heroes. Such tales fired the imaginations of the young, and prepared a generation of men for a new THE GREAT MIGRATION ISI feat of pioneering, more arduous' in some respects than that of seventy years before. And what an alluring prospect was theirs ! A ,^*^ ^>.«.,Wv'J^-;; Sweetwater Gap, on the Oregon Trail. journey of two thousand miles through an un inhabited wilderness; the crossing of a vaster system of mountains than any of which the fathers knew ; majestic snow peaks, deep, dark canons through which the rivers rushed and 1 82 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Collectingthecompanies roared in their headlong progress toward the west ; tedious stretches of barren plain ; valleys of enchanting loveliness ; and at last the noble river and the great, strange, inspiring sea ! Add to all this the belief, which many held, that their going to Oregon would benefit the United States in its contest with Great Britain over territorial rights, and we have a combina tion of motives powerful enough to set hun dreds of pioneers in motion. The approach of spring (1843) found num bers of men in various sections of the country preparing for the march. The companies had been organizing for many months. Correspond ence committees in western Missouri received names of intending emigrants as early as Sep tember, 1842. An emigration agent from St. Louis, Mr. J. M. Shivley, spent the winter in Washington, kept the people of the West in formed as to the progress of legislation respect ing Oregon, and tried to induce the Secretary of War to provide a company of troops to es cort the emigrants. Senator Linn once more brought up his bill for the establishment of a territorial government and the granting of lands to settlers. It passed the Senate on the 3d of February by the close vote of twenty-four to twenty-two. Although afterward killed in the House of Representatives, the enthusiasm and hope aroused by the passage of the bill through THE GREAT MIGRATION 183 the Senate had much to do with starting new re cruits to the place of rendezvous. So did, also, the public meetings held in various places, like Columbus and Chillicothe, Ohio, and Spring field, Illinois, to discuss the Oregon question and to adopt resolutions urging Congress to pass the Linn bill. A few men of large influ ence in the western communities had decided to emigrate, and they undertook to persuade others by means of newspaper articles, personal interviews, and public addresses. In Bloom- ington, Iowa, the entire population appears to have been affected by what men called the " Oregon fever " ; they held several public meet ings, organized an emigrating party, adopted rules concerning equipment, the route to be taken, and other details of preparation for the journey. Independence, Missouri, had for some years Organizing been the general outfitting place for companies J^^ of traders, trappers, and emigrants going to the far West. The village lay a few miles from the Missouri River, near the present site of Kansas City, and was the radiating point for many wilderness highways, including the great Santa Fe and Oregon " trails." All the small parties from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, In diana, Illinois, and Iowa, as well as those from Missouri, gathered at this place. By the mid dle of May many had arrived, driving in from 1 84 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Peter H. Burnett;the start; Elm Grove all directions two, three, a dozen or twenty wagons at a time, with loose stock following behind the train. They now made arrange ments for the start, adopting a body of rules, and choosing a pilot to conduct them through the mountains. The pioneers were then ready to move forward. Probably the leading man of this emigration was Peter H. Burnett, a young lawyer from Platte County, Missouri, who had done much to get the company together. He kept a diary during the course of the journey, and on reach ing the Willamette wrote a number of letters for the New York Herald, giving an account of the trip. Looking back from his far western home to the time of beginning their march from Missouri, and realizing both its difficulties and the significance of what had been done, he says: "On the 22d of May we began one of the most arduous and important trips under taken in modern times." The first camp, at Elm Grove, on account of its strange pictur- esqueness, produced a strong impression upon the mind of Burnett, as it probably did on others. " I have never witnessed a scene," he says, "more beautiful than this. Elm Grove stands in a wide, gently undulating prairie. The moon shed her silvery beams on the white sheets of sixty wagons ; a thousand head of cattle grazed upon the surrounding plain ; fifty THE GREAT MIGRATION 185 campfires sent up their brilliant flames, and the sound of the sweet violin was heard in the tents. All was stir and excitement." By the time they had crossed the Kansas Electing River (June i) a good many others had joined ^c"sn' f the company, which now numbered one hun- the dred and twenty wagons, nearly one thousand comPany persons of all ages, and more than five times as many animals. Stopping to complete the organization, Peter H. Burnett was chosen cap tain, J. W. Nesmith orderly sergeant, and nine others designated to form a council. A few days later, however, Burnett resigned, and the company was divided into two parts. Each division had sixty wagons ; but one was com posed mainly of those who had few or no loose cattle, and called " the light column " ; while the other contained the owners of the herds, large and small, with which this emigration was en cumbered, and took the name of "the cow-col umn." There was a separate captain for each. The leader of the second division was Cap- "ADay tain Jesse Applegate, a man whom the people ^w_l of Oregon delight to honor as one of the noblest column," of the pioneers. He is remembered as a states- jeSseap am man, a surveyor, a pathfinder through the south- Applegate ern mountains, and in general a leader in all the varied activities of frontier life in the North west. But, fortunately, he was also a writer of elegant English prose ; and one of the most 186 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Daybreak ; arousing the camp Corralingthe stock delightful productions of his pen is an account which he wrote in 1876 of a typical day on this long march " with the cow-column." Since this essay gives us so lifelike a picture of the great emigration in motion toward the west, and since it describes the camping methods in use for many years among trapping parties and traders, as well as emigrants to Oregon and California, we cannot do better than to tran scribe a portion of it.1 " It is four o'clock a.m. ; the sentinels on duty have discharged their rifles — the signal that the hours of sleep are over — and every wagon and tent is pouring forth its night tenants, and slow kindling smokes begin largely to rise and float away in the morning air. Sixty men start from the corral, spreading as they make through the vast herd of cattle and horses that make a semicircle around the en campment, the most distant perhaps two miles away. " The herders pass the extreme verge and carefully examine for trails beyond, to see that none of the animals have strayed or been stolen during the night. This morning no trails lead beyond the outside animals in sight, 1 The paper was first read by Mr. Applegate before the Ore gon Pioneer Association in 1876, and published in their pro ceedings ; recently it has been reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (December, 1900). THE GREAT MIGRATION 187 and by five o'clock the herders begin to con tract the great moving circle, and the well- trained animals move slowly towards camp, clipping here and there a thistle or a tempting bunch of grass on the way. In about an hour five thousand animals are close up to the en campment, and the teamsters are busy select ing their teams and driving them inside the corral to be yoked. The corral is a circle one hundred yards deep, formed with wagons con nected strongly with each other ; the wagon in the rear being connected with the wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains. It is a strong barrier that the most vicious ox cannot break, and in case of attack from the Sioux would be no contemptible intrenchment. " From six to seven o'clock is a busy time ; Getting breakfast is to be eaten, the tents struck, the !:fadJf°r the day's wagons loaded and the teams yoked and march brought up in readiness to be attached to their respective wagons. All know when, at seven o'clock, the signal to march sounds, that those not ready to take their places in the line of march must fall into the dusty rear for the day. There are sixty wagons. They have been divided into fifteen divisions or platoons of four wagons each, and each platoon is entitled to lead in its turn. The leading platoon to-day will be the rear one to-morrow, and will bring up the rear unless some teamster through in- 1 88 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST dolence or neligence has lost his place in the line, and is condemned to that uncomfortable post. It is within ten minutes of seven ; the corral but now a strong barricade is every where broken, the teams being attached to the wagons. The women and children have taken their places in them. The pilot (a borderer A Buffalo Hunt. who has passed his life on the verge of civiliza tion and has been chosen to his post of leader from his knowledge of the savage and his ex perience in travel through roadless wastes) stands ready, in the midst of his pioneers and aids, to mount and lead the way. Ten or fif teen young men, not to-day on duty, form another cluster. They are ready to start on a buffalo hunt, are well mounted and well armed, THE GREAT MIGRATION 189 as they need to be, for the unfriendly Sioux have driven the buffalo out of the Platte, and the hunters must ride fifteen or twenty miles to find them. The cow drivers are hastening, as they get ready, to the rear of their charge, to collect and prepare" them for the day's march. " It is on the stroke of seven ; the rush to Breaking and fro, the cracking of whips, the loud com- camJ>; for- 0 L ward along mand to oxen, and what seemed to be the the trail inextricable confusion of the last ten minutes has ceased. Fortunately every one has been found and every teamster is at his post. The clear notes of a trumpet sound in the front; the pilot and his guards mount their horses ; the leading divisions of the wagons move out of the encampment, and take up the line of march; the rest fall into their places with the precision of clockwork, until the spot so lately full of life sinks back into that solitude that seems to reign over the broad plain and rushing river as the caravan draws its lazy length to wards the distant El Dorado. . . . " The pilot, by measuring the ground and The timing the speed of the horses, has determined noonlng the rate of each, so as to enable him to select the nooning place as nearly as the requisite grass and water can be had at the end of five hours' travel of the wagons. To-day, the ground being favorable, little time has been lost in preparing the road, so that he and his pioneers 190 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Session of the " council " The drowsy afternoon are at the nooning place an hour in advance of the wagons, which time is spent in preparing convenient watering places for the animals, and digging little wells near the bank of the Platte. As the teams are not unyoked, but simply turned loose from the wagons, a corral is not formed at noon, but the wagons are drawn up in columns, four abreast, the leading wagon of each platoon on the left, the platoons being formed with that in view. This brings friends together at noon as well as at night. " To-day an extra session of the council is being held, to settle a dispute that does not admit of delay, between a proprietor and a young man who has undertaken to do a man's service on the journey for bed and board. Many such cases exist, and much interest is taken in the manner in which this high court, from which there is no appeal, will define the rights of each party in such engagements. The council was a high court in the most exalted sense. It was a senate composed of the ablest and most respected fathers of the emigration. It exercised both legislative and judicial powers, and its laws and decisions proved equal, and worthy of the high trust reposed in it. . . . " It is now one o'clock ; the bugle has sounded and the caravan has resumed its west ward journey. It is in the same order, but the evening is far less animated than the morning THE GREAT MIGRATION 191 march. A drowsiness has fallen apparently on man and beast ; teamsters drop asleep on their perches, and even when walking by their teams ; and the words of command are now addressed to the slowly creeping oxen in the soft tenor of women or the piping treble of children, while the snores of the teamsters make a droning accompaniment. . . . " The sun is now getting low in the west, Forming the and at length the painstaking pilot is standing eveningcamp; ready to conduct the train in the circle which nightfall he has previously measured and marked out, which is to form the invar iable fortification for the night. The leading wagons follow him so nearly around the circle that but a wagon length separates them. Each wagon follows in its track, the rear closing on the front, until its tongue and ox chains will perfectly reach from one to the other ; and so accurate [is] the meas ure and perfect the practice, that the hindmost wagon of the train always precisely closes the gateway. As each wagon is brought into posi tion it is dropped from its team (the teams being inside the circle), the team is unyoked, and the yoke and chains are used to connect the wagon strongly with that in its front. Within ten minutes from the time the leading wagon halted, the barricade is formed, the teams un yoked and driven out to pasture. Every one is busy preparing fires ... to cook the evening 192 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Arrival at Fort Hall, August 27 meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the night. . . ." The watches "begin at eight o'clock p.m. and end at four o'clock a.m." The daily routine, here so graphically de scribed, must have become extremely weari some to the pioneers and their families after a few months spent upon the dusty, dreary The Old Trail along the Swf.etwater. " trail." At the end of ninety-eight days, on the 27th of August, the company reached Fort Hall, the trading post built by Wyeth in 1832 and afterward sold to the Hudson's Bay Com pany, which had become a famous way station on the overland route. They were now on the eastern border of the Oregon country, and two- thirds of the distance to the Willamette had THE GREAT MIGRATION 193 been traversed. The hardships already en dured from storm, flood, and the unavoidable mishaps of the long journey across the plains were very great; yet all were aware that the most difficult portion of the trip was still before them. Thus far the road had been compara tively good ; at least, the wagons always had a well-marked trail to follow. But this practically terminated at Fort Hall, which was connected with the lower country only by a pack trail. . No loaded wagons had ever passed the fort, and when the pioneers set out from their homes in the spring it was generally understood that the wagon road ended at this place. However, they soon found that it would be impossible to secure enough pack horses to carry their fami lies and property to the Columbia, as the small parties of previous years had done, and so it became necessary to go forward with the wagons at all hazards. The company was large, they could send roadmakers ahead to prepare the way, and might be able to overcome even the worst difficulties by united effort. Besides, they had with them Dr. Whitman of the Walla Walla mission, who had taken his light wagon, without a load, as far as Fort Boise in 1836, and who knew more about the possibility of opening a wagon trail through the region still to be traversed than any of the other men. Whit man felt certain they could succeed, urged the . From Fort Hall to Waiilatpu down the Columbia 194 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST company to make the venture, and offered to act as guide. His services to the emigrants from Fort Hall westward were very great, and are remembered with gratitude by the early pioneers of the Northwest.1 They left Fort Hall on the 30th of August, passed Fort Boise September 20, and ten Mt. Hood. days later came in sight of the Grand Ronde, the famous circular valley of the Blue Moun tains. Its peaceful beauties are said to have so impressed the travelers, after the toils and hardships of the days spent in the desert, that 1 The circumstances inducing Dr. Whitman to make the win ter journey from his mission on the Walla Walla to Boston and Washington will be narrated in Chapter XIV. THE GREAT MIGRATION 195 some broke into tears of joy as they looked down upon it from the high plateau above. Ten days later they reached Whitman's station, where many of them bought supplies of wheat and potatoes for the trip to western Oregon. A portion of the emigrants arranged to leave their cattle in the Walla Walla valley ; some drove herds overland; while the families, the wagons, and other property were taken down the Columbia in boats and rafts. By the end of November all had reached the Willamette valley.1 1 Most of the sources from which this account of the great emigration is written were discovered by the writer while search ing through files of old newspapers preserved at Madison, Wis consin, St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri. A portion of the matter thus found has been reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, where it can be conveniently referred to. The most important single source for the journey is the Burnett Herald letters, reprinted in the Quarterly for December, 1902. A series of other short letters appears in the Quarterly for June, 1903, and still others in several recent numbers. The Quarterly, edited by Professor F. G. Young, secretary of the society, was begun in March, 1900, and has now completed the fifth volume. In it has already been gathered a large amount of valuable source material relating to the history of the Northwest, as well as numerous special articles by pioneers and others. CHAPTER XIII THE FIRST AMERICAN. GOVERNMENT ON THE PACIFIC importance The emigration whose organization and ofthe movements have just been described marks a emigration J of 1843 new starting point in the history of the North west. Up to this time we have been dealing with events which may be looked upon as introductory ; now we begin actually to see the process of state building on the shores of the Pacific. Just as in Virginia the colony can hardly be said to have been planted prior to the arrival of Delaware's party in 16 10; as in Massachusetts it was the great company brought out by Winthrop in 1630 which firmly established the English people, although the beginnings of settlement already existed ; so on the Pacific coast the emigration of 1843 closes the period of experiment, and gives us a true, self-supporting American colony. In the present chapter we shall do scarcely more than point out some of *the changes produced in Oregon during the succeeding three years as a result of this influx of new people. The earliest attempts to form a provisional 196 FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 197 government for the Willamette colony were Beginnings made several years prior to 1843; but, as we onheag'- ¦' / ^ " tation for a shall see, the organization was not put into government effective operation till after the new emigrants arrived.1 When our people began going to the country there were no American laws to control their actions, and no government what ever except that which was exer cised over Brit ish subjects by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. The missionaries in the Willamette valley, and the other settlers who gradually collected there, regarded this as one of their prin cipal grievances, . 11 Governor George Abernethy. and repeatedly petitioned Congress to extend the laws of the United States over them. But, as we have seen, 1 In the history of the Northwest the terms " emigrants " and " emigration " have commonly been used instead of " immi grants " and " immigration." The custom will be preserved in these pages. 198 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST that body could not be induced to take any action. In 1840, with the arrival of the Lau sanne company and the Rocky Mountain trap pers of that year, the American party felt greatly strengthened and began to talk of organizing a provisional or temporary government on their own account, in the expectation of giving it up whenever the United States should be prepared to extend its authority over the country. The French settlers, however, being attached to the fur company, remained satisfied with conditions as they were. The first Early in 1841 an incident occurred which toward an brought out sharply the need of some regular organiza- authority, and set in motion plans to secure a political organization. Ewing Young, the pio neer stockman of the Willamette valley, whose connection with the cattle company has already been described, had, in the course of nine years' residence in the country, become possessed of a large herd of cattle and considerable other property. In February of this year he died, without making any provision by will for the disposition of his estate, and so far as known leaving no heir. His neighbors were naturally very much interested in the case, and it is claimed that those who gathered at Young's funeral issued a call for a general meeting to consider what was to be done with this prop erty. On the 17th of February, when the tion, iS FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 199 public meeting occurred, resolutions were of fered providing for a committee to draft a con stitution and laws. This body was selected on the 1 8th, and besides the settlers chose Dr. Ira L. Babcock of the Methodist mission to be su preme judge with probate powers. They pro vided also for a clerk of courts and recorder, a high sheriff, and three constables. The meeting then adjourned to the second Tuesday in June. Dr. Babcock, on the 15th of April, appointed an administrator for Ewing Young's property, this being, it is believed, the first of ficial act of the Oregon provisional government. When the June meeting took place it was The plan found that the committee appointed to draft a constitution and laws had done nothing, not even so much as to meet for consultation. The reason was plain enough. In their anxiety to gain the support of the French settlers the missionary party, which controlled the earlier meetings, had succeeded in making the French priest, Father Blanchet, chairman of the com mittee. But he refused to take any interest in the matter and failed to call the committee to gether. Blanchet now resigned, and his place being filled by an American it seemed that something would probably be done. The com mittee was instructed to meet on a particular day and report to a meeting of the settlers set for October. But now a new obstacle appeared miscarries wolf meeting 200 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in the person of Lieutenant Wilkes, who showed himself decidedly opposed to the plan of a pro visional government. The result was that the whole matter was dropped for more than a year. The In the fall of 1842 Dr. White arrived as In- s^umeTir/6 dian agent> bringing his company of one hun- 1843; 'he dred and twenty new settlers. Although the French party had also been strengthened, it now appeared to some of the Americans that the time for action had come. The matter was discussed during the winter, and with the ap proach of spring a favorable opportunity arose to secure a public meeting. The settlers' herds had suffered much from the ravages of wild beasts, an evil which called for some means of exterminating the forest foes. On the 2d of February, 1843, a group of persons gathered at the Oregon Institute appointed a committee to " notify a general meeting," which was held on the second Monday of March. The committee was prepared with resolutions advising that bounties be paid for killing wolves, lynxes, bears, and panthers ; that a subscription fund be raised for that pur pose ; and that officers be appointed to manage the business. These being adopted, the more important and interesting resolution was offered, " That a committee [of twelve] be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of taking steps for the civil and military protection of the FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 201 colony." J This also received a favorable vote, and now the plan to create a provisional gov ernment was fully launched. Only two months were allowed to intervene The provi- between the appointment of the committee and slonal g°v" 1 * ernment the meeting to consider its report. It was a voted at time of great political activity in the settle- 2^75 ment. The French people were still generally Mount Rainier from the South. opposed to the scheme, as they declared in a formal address to the colonists prepared about this time, and many of the Americans were far from enthusiastic. There was much un certainty in the minds of the settlers as they 1 This resolution was proposed by Mr. W. H. Gray, who was then living in the Willamette valley, and who bore a prominent part in the affairs of the colpny at this time. 202 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST gathered at Champoeg on the 2d of May. The committee, however, reported in favor of establishing a government. When a motion was made to adopt this report, the vote was very close and some one called for a division of the house. At this point arose the stalwart figure of "Joe" Meek, one of the most pic turesque of the " mountain men," and a person of considerable influence among certain classes in the community. Stepping out grandly in front of the crowd of excited men he shouted : " Who's for a divide ? All in favor of the re port and of an organization, follow me." The count was made, we are told, after half an hour of the greatest confusion, and resulted in fifty- two (52) votes in favor of and fifty (50) against the resolution. So the project to organize a provisional government was carried. Election of The officers recommended by the committee officers; the were chosen before the adjournment. Thev July meet- J ¦> ing were a supreme judge, a clerk and recorder, a high sheriff (Joe Meek was very properly elected to this post), three magistrates, three constables, a major and three captains of mi litia. A legislative committee composed of nine members was also chosen at this meeting, and instructed to report a code of laws to be voted on by the people July 5. The pioneers who gathered at Champoeg to hear a 4th of July address by Rev, Gustavus Hines remained over FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 203 to the next day and ratified the provisions of the so-called First Organic Law.1 "We the people of Oregon Territory," so Agovem- the preamble of this famous document recites, ™entby * " compact " for purposes of mutual protection, and to se cure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and regula tions until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us." Here we have the well-known American method of forming a government by " compact," or agreement. Two hundred and twenty-three years earlier, when the Pilgrim Fathers met to draw up their " Mayflower Compact," this principle was employed for the first time in American history, and soon afterward the early colonists of Connecticut followed it in their " Fundamental Orders." When, at a later time, American pioneers crossed the Alleghanies to eastern Tennessee, and found themselves be yond the jurisdiction of any seaboard state, they formed the " Watauga Association." Simi lar pioneer governments were created in Ken tucky, on the Cumberland River, and elsewhere.2 1 This document, as well as the provisional constitution of 1845, may be conveniently found in Strong and Schafer's "Gov ernment of the American People,"' Oregon edition, Boston, 1901, Appendix. 2 The people of Vermont, for example, had a government of their own, created by compact or agreement among themselves, for fourteen years before the state was admitted to the Union. 204 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The emigra tion of 1843 saves the provisional government Govern mental improvements made in 1844- 1845 The Willamette settlers were following in the footsteps of their ancestors. The work of the pioneers at Champoeg was of very great importance in the history of Oregon and the Pacific coast; for it called the attention of men everywhere to the Ameri can colony in this region ; it quickened the interest of the United States government; and announced to Great Britain that her subjects were no longer completely dominant in the Pacific Northwest. Yet, while the Americans then in the country deserve great credit for taking the first steps, these results were largely due to the appearance of the great emigration in the fall. It changed the small American majority into an overwhelming one ; provided able political leaders, like Burnett, Applegate, McCarver, Nesmith, Waldo, and Lovejoy; in creased the property of the country ; and gave a feeling of security and stability which only numbers can impart. The government as adopted in July, 1843, while probably the best that could then be secured, was in some respects very weak. In stead of a governor there was to be an execu tive committee of three. The land law, which was of greater interest to most of the settlers than any other feature, was especially defective, because it allowed the Catholic and Protestant missions to claim each an entire township, aside FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 205 from the land their members held as individual settlers. Lastly, there was no way to raise money for the support of the government except by private contributions, a thoroughly inefficient and always disappointing method. The legislative committee of 1844, made up mainly of the newcomers, revised the entire system, providing for a governor, a house of representatives, a more satisfactory judiciary, a new land law permitting none but actual settlers to hold claims, and above all a means of raising taxes to support the government. This last was the keystone of their political arch, as the leaders well knew, and they were wise enough to fit it exactly to its purpose. The law required that every settler's property should be assessed according to regular rates, and in case any one refused to pay the tax ap portioned to him, he was to lose the right to vote and all other benefits of the government. If his claim were jumped, the court could not relieve him ; if a thief were to drive off his cattle or slaughter them in the pasture, the sheriff and the_ constables would turn a deaf ear to his appeal for help. He would become an outlaw. In these ways the provisional government Success of was completed. The new scheme was adopted the p,rovl" r -i sional gov- by a large majority on the 26th of July, 1845, ernment and Oregon at last had a constitution similar 206 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Effect of the greatmigrationon later emigrations in most respects to that of an ordinary state. It was a good government, — firm, just, and effective in all its departments. The settlers supposed it was to last only a few months, be lieving the United States was about to take control of the country ; but in fact this event did not occur till nearly four years later. In the meantime there was no reasonable cause of complaint against the government maintained by the sturdy, sober, order-loving pioneers themselves. While these political matters were being settled, western Oregon was filling up with new people whose coming was due very largely to the success of the 1843 emigration. When that company started, many thousands of people followed their movements with anxiety, not a few regarded them as foolish adventurers, and Horace Greeley declared: " This emigration of more than a thousand persons in one body to Oregon wears an aspect of insanity." a When they reached the Columbia in safety, proving that loaded wagons could be taken through without serious difficulty, a great change in- 1 New York Tribune, July 22, 1843. He feared that their provisions would give out, their stock perish for want of grass and water, their children and women starve. '' For what," ex claimed Mr. Greeley, "do they brave the desert, the wilderness, the savage, the snowy precipices of the Rocky Mountains, the weary summer march, the storm-drenched bivouac and the gnaw- ings of famine ? " FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 207 stantly came over the thought of the country with respect to Oregon. It was a startling thing to eastern people to be told, by a man who had made the trip, " You can move here [from Missouri] with less expense .than you could to Tennessee or Kentucky." Moreover, many prominent pioneers wrote home giving favorable accounts of the country. Burnett said, " If man cannot supply all his wants here, he cannot anywhere." Another declared : " The prospect is quite good for a young man to make a fortune in this country, as all kinds of prod uce are high and likely to remain so from the extensive demand. The Russian settlements in Asia [Alaska?], the Sandwich Islands, a great portion of California, and the whaling vessels of the Northwest coast procure their supplies from this place." McCarver found " the soil of this valley . . . equal to that of Iowa or any other portion of the United States; . . ." and T. B. Wood wrote, " The prairies of this region are . . . equal to any in Missouri or Illinois." Such letters were commonly printed, first in the local paper of some western town, then in the more widely read journals of the country, with the result that Oregon took its place in the popular mind by the side of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas, as a territory possessing attractions for the home seeker. The emigrating company of 1844 numbered 208 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The emigra- about fourteen hundred. The parties reached tionofi844 t^e ]y[issourj frontier early in the spring and set out in good time. But the wetness of the season caused many delays, so that they reached the western slope very late, and mostly in want of provisions. A small party was hurried for ward to bring supplies from the Willamette valley, some bought food of the missionaries on the Walla Walla, and even of the Indians, and finally, late in the fall, most of them reached their destination in a sorry state. The rains having already set in, there was no chance to provide proper shelter, and many suffered great inconvenience, if not actual hardship. The earlier settlers were forced to listen to a good deal of repining from the newcomers ; but, as one of them wrote, this " only lasted during the winter. In the spring, when the clouds cleared away, and the grass and flowers sprang up beneath the kindling rays of a bright Oregon sun, their spirits revived with reviving nature, and by the succeeding fall they had themselves become old settlers, and formed a part of us, their views and feelings, in the meantime, having undergone a total change." J In the year 1845 Oregon received the largest 1 Quoted from Burnett's " Recollections of an Old Pioneer," New York, 1880. The portion of this book relating to Oregon, which contains a large amount of valuable matter on early con ditions, the emigration of 1843, etc., has been reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. V. Meek's" cut-off " FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 209 of the early emigrations, a body of nearly three The emigra- thousand people. They started, not in a single ^°n°{ caravan like the earlier parties, but in com- horrors of panies of fifty, seventy-five, a hundred, or two hundred wagons. All went well till after they passed Fort Boise, where the emigrants encoun tered Stephen H. L. Meek, who offered to guide them over a trail by way of the Malheur River, said to be much shorter than that commonly used.1 Unfortunately, about one hundred and fifty wagons followed him into the most barren and desolate country that eastern Oregon con tains, and where as it proved there was no road except an old pack trail. Stock perished, food gave out, the emigrants became desperate in their anxiety to find water. When they reached a little oasis in the desert, they formed a camp, while mounted men to the number of one hundred scoured the country in every direction for water, only to return at nightfall without finding it. This was continued for several days in succession. Meantime the children and the weaker adults were falling sick, and many of them were dying. In the midst of this despair a galloping horseman brought the glad news of the discovery of water. The hated guide had found it. Grief was now turned to joy; loud shouts rang out; there was laughing and clapping of hands. But some 1 Sixty wagons had turned off at Fort Hall to go to California. 2IO A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Populationof Oregon; its distri bution stood reverently silent, with bowed heads and eyes brimming over with tears of thankfulness. The stream found proved to be a branch of the Des Chutes River, along the course of which the travelers passed down to the Dalles, whence a few days brought them to the Willamette. They had suffered the most terrible agony on the route, wasted forty days of precious time, and worse than all, lost about seventy-five of their number.1 Those emigrants who followed the customary route entered the valley at the usual time without serious mishap. The population of Oregon, which was doubled by the arrival of the emigrants of 1845, now numbered about six thousand, settled in five counties, of which all but one were in the Willa mette valley. They were Yamhill, Clackamas, Tualatin, Champoeg, and Clatsop. In the elec tion of 1845 the total vote for governor was five hundred and four. The following year it was more than doubled, and a new county, Polk, had been added to the list of those lying south of the Columbia, while there was now also a county, named Columbia, north of the river. Origin of the The new northern county has its explanation sPett1eme°nUtnd Partly in the fact that a few Americans were by this time settled on the waters of Puget Sound. When the colonists first began coming to Ore- 1 The names of thirty-four, nearly all adults, were printed in the eastern papers of the next year. FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON PACIFIC 211 gon they were usually dependent on the Hud son's Bay Company for supplies, stock, tools, and in general everything necessary to start them in farming. McLoughlin, believing that Great Britain would at last come into posses sion of the region north of the Columbia, tried to prevent American settlers from taking claims on that side of the river, directing them all to the Willamette. For a time this plan worked well, but when the best lands of the valley were all taken up, and Americans became so numer ous in the country as to feel somewhat independ ent of the fur company, a few pioneers began to think of taking claims north of the river. Of the party which arrived in the fall of 1 844 a few men, under the lead of M. T. Simmons, tried to reach Puget Sound overland, but failing, returned to the neighborhood of Vancouver, where they spent the winter. The following sum mer Simmons started out once more, with six companions, made his way up the Cowlitz to the head of navigation, and then westward to the lower end of the Sound. One of their fellow- emigrants of the previous year, John R. Jackson, was already established in a cabin on the high land north of the Cowlitz, and the pioneers also saw the large farm opened some years before by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a branch of the fur company. They were de lighted with the prospects of the Puget Sound 212 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Hud son's Bay Company accepts the protection of the provisionalgovernment country, with its splendid opportunities for commerce and manufactories ; and returning for his family, Simmons settled, in October, on a claim near the site of Olympia. Four other families and two single men took claims in the same neighborhood, and thus was the foundation laid for a new community in the north. While these sturdy frontiersmen were hew ing a road through the jungle north of Cowlitz Landing, the settlers in the Willamette were winning their greatest political victory by in ducing the officers of the fur company to bring themselves, their people, and all the property of the organization under the protection of the provisional government. This was achieved on the 15th of August. The monopoly, which had dominated the affairs of the Northwest for a quarter of a century, had at last sunk to a subordinate position ; and the Oregon question, so far as control of the country itself was con cerned, had been settled by the pioneers.1 1 McLoughlin made a special arrangement with the officers of the government, whereby the company was to be taxed only on the merchandise which it sold to settlers. Jesse Applegate is the man who negotiated this important agreement. CHAPTER XIV THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA The change which had occurred in the rela- How the settlementof Oregon tions between Americans and Englishmen in Oregon no doubt had its effect upon the Brit- affected the ish government at home. So long as the Hud- 0reg°n 45 o question son's Bay Company was in control west of the Rockies, there was every reason, from their point of view, to continue the principle of "joint occupation." But the tables had at last been turned: American settlers were in full posses sion of the region south of the Columbia, and were even beginning to open the forests north of the river. It must have been clear to Great Britain for these reasons that further delay in settling the Oregon question would be wholly to her disadvantage. In the United States a remarkable agitation The Oregon had begun in the spring of 1843. It was due in a^ancm™ part to the failure of Linn's bill, and in part to a nat;> July. rumor that the government at Washington was willing to give up the region north of the Co lumbia to Great Britain if she would persuade Mexico to sell us northern California. Many local meetings were held in various parts of the 213 1843 214 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Origin of the demand for 540 40' as the northernboundary " Fifty-four forty or fight" Mississippi valley, and these resulted in the calling of an Oregon convention at Cincinnati in July, 1843.1 Nearly one hundred delegates were in attendance, and not only the Mississippi valley, but the entire country was interested in their proceedings. This convention adopted resolutions declar ing that the United States had an undoubted right to the country west of the Rocky Moun tains between the parallel of 42 ° on the south and 54" 40' on the north. In other words, the line established in 1824 to separate American interests from those of Russia was regarded as the rightful northern boundary of the United States in the Pacific Northwest. This would have shut Great Britain out from the territory west of the Rockies, notwithstanding the ex plorations of her Mackenzies, her Thompsons, Cooks, and Vancouvers ; and would have left no beaver ground on the Pacific slope for her traders, who had controlled the commerce of that region for thirty years. This was claiming too much for the United States. But there was some slight ground for it, and besides many Americans were out of patience with Great Britain for refusing to 1 The idea of a Mississippi valley convention to consider the Oregon question originated at Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio States man for this period is the best source of information on the entire movement. Its files were consulted in the library of the Wis consin Historical Society at Madison. THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 215 accept the compromise line of 49° so often offered. They therefore took up the idea of the more northerly boundary, and insisted that the country must go to war with our adversary rather than abandon any part of the " Oregon country." The next year (1844), when the Dem ocratic convention met and nominated James K. Polk for the presidency, the western dele gates succeeded in making the Oregon ques tion a part of their platform ; and so it came about that the entire country was treated to the strange campaign cry of " Fifty-four forty or fight," which probably helped somewhat to win the election for Mr. Polk. After the failure to provide for the north- The Oregon western boundary in the Ashburton Treaty, qut!,st\on President Tyler had begun other negotiations with the British government, but always in vain. On the 4th of March, 1845, he went out of office with, as he wrote, the " one wish re maining unfilled," that he could have settled the Oregon question. President Polk at once took it up, declared in his inaugural address that our claim to the Oregon country was un doubtedly just, and soon entered into a new correspondence with Great Britain. In spite of the Democratic platform and campaign utter ances, he again offered to compromise on the 49th parallel. When the British minister re fused to accept the offer, Mr. Polk withdrew it, 2l6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST indicating that no further concession could be expected from the United States. Later in the year he asked Congress for authority to' put an end to the treaty of joint occupation. This was granted ; but many prominent members like John C. Calhoun, fearful that these steps might lead to war, urged the President to give Great Britain an opportunity to make some offer on her part, which he consented to do. The tardy concession came at last, June, 1846, in the shape of an offer from the British gov ernment to settle the long dispute by taking the 49th parallel as the boundary. The President submitted the question to the Senate, which ad vised him to accept, and on the 15th of June the treaty was signed. The Oregon question was now settled, and that in a way which was perfectly fair to all parties concerned. Oregon to Before the close of the year (December 3) territorial ^e people of Oregon learned of the signing government of the treaty with Great Britain, and supposed that the United States would at the next ses sion of Congress establish a territorial govern ment over them. This, indeed, was the desire of the President, and a bill for the purpose actually passed the House of Representatives, but could make no progress in the Senate. The reason was not far to seek. In drawing up the constitution for their provisional gov ernment the pioneers inserted the famous THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 217 clause from the Ordinance of 1787, declaring that " neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime," should ever be permitted in the territory. This was made a part of the Oregon bill presented by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and very naturally called out the opposition of strong proslavery leaders like Calhoun. So the congressional session of 1 846-1 847 President closed with no provision for Oregon. The £olkand President felt a deep interest in this far west- Benton ern settlement, and caused Secretary of State ^ore^n Buchanan to write a letter to the Oregon people people encouraging them to expect favorable action at the next session of Congress (1847- 1848), which was already at hand when the letter reached the Pacific. Buchanan made no clear statement of the reason for the failure of the Douglas bill. At about the same time, however, a letter was received in Oregon from Senator Thomas H. Benton, who threw the blame upon Calhoun, but declared : " You will not be outlawed for not admitting slavery. . . „ I promise you this in the name of the South, as well as of the North." . . . It was something to know that the leaders congress at the national capital still remembered them; againasked 1 ' to pass a yet the pioneers had been patient for a long Mi; star- time, waiting for the government to give them ^Oregon some sort of recognition ; and now that the 218 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST quarrel with Great Britain was closed, it was hard for them to understand why action should be longer delayed. President Polk was as good as his word, recommending strongly to the next Congress the passage of an Oregon bill. But the opposition was at work once more, as in the previous year, and might have been equally successful but for a piece of startling news carried across the mountains during the winter that roused public feeling in favor of Oregon, and practically forced Congress to act. This was the report of the Whitman massacre, into the causes and the history of which we must now inquire. The up-river The missions planted on the upper Columbia Sd their by Dr- Whitman and his associates in 1836 and problems the years following were influenced very little by the colonizing movement described in the pre ceding chapters. Their location on the broad interior plains prevented them from quickly be coming centers of extensivcsettlements like the Willamette mission, so favorably located near the coast. Therefore, while western Oregon had been growing into a state, the up-river mission aries were laboring faithfully to teach the ele ments of civilization to a horde of barbarous natives. For a few years their success was sufficient to bring considerable encouragement. But, as the novelty of the new life and teaching wore off, the interest also slackened ; Catholic THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 219 priests came into the country, teaching by dif ferent methods from those used by the Prot estants, and this tended to disturb the relations between the missionaries and their wards; worse than all, a number of dissipated, rene gade Americans wandered among the tribes, doing all the mischief in their power. At last discouragements mounted to such Action of a height that the American board at Boston, the^merf' °_ can board regarding the work in Oregon as almost a closing the complete failure, passed a resolution to close ^fj**™ the missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai, retain ing only the one in the north.1 News of this action reached Dr. Whitman in the fall of 1842. A meeting of the missionaries was at once called, and an agreement reached that the missions should not be given up. Moreover, Dr. Whitman asked and received permission from the assembly to return to the East and lay the whole matter before the board in person. Whitman left his station on the Walla Walla October 3, 1842, with a single white compan- whitman's ion, Mr. A. L. Lovejoy, expecting to cross the ^™l°eurs1.ide) mountains before the snows of winter arrived. October to This he might readily have accomplished had ^ '* 42~ all gone well; but on reaching Fort Hall he learned that the Indians were likely to arrest 1 This action was probably due to exaggerated reports of the difficulties in Oregon written by one or two men formerly con nected with the missions. 220 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST his progress if he should continue by the direct road, and therefore he turned south, making the long detour by Taos and Bent's Fort. On this journey winter overtook the travelers, violent storms and deep snows impeded their march ; while the biting cold, exposure, and lack of proper food would have destroyed any but the most hardy pioneers. At last, early in Janu ary, they reached Bent's Fort, where Lovejoy remained till the following summer, while Whitman pushed on to St. Louis and thence to Boston and Washington. whitman in -y^e are fortunate in having two accounts of the East ... .... , , , , , this intrepid missionary when he reached the Atlantic coast.1 He wore his wilderness garb — fur cap, buckskin trousers, and all — to the city of New York and into the office of the great editor, Horace Greeley, who described him, referring to his clothing, as " the roughest man we have seen this many a day." Again, on board the steamboat Narragaizsett, going from New York to Boston, he impressed a traveler as one of the strangest figures that had "ever passed through the Sound since the days of steam navigation " ; yet, " that he was every inch a man and no common one was 1 One is Horace Greeley's editorial, in the New York Tribune (daily) of March 29, 1843; the other a letter to the New York Spectator, published April 5, 1843. Both are reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society for June, 1903. THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 221 clear." At Boston he succeeded in getting the board to withdraw its order to abandon the missions. He wished them to send out a few good families to settle about the stations as supports to the missionaries. At Washington he urged the Secretary of War to establish along the Oregon trail a line of forts and farming stations, which might serve as a pro tection against the Indians and also furnish emi grants with needed supplies. By the middle of May he was back at Independence, ready to take up the line of march with the great company gathering there. We have already spoken of his important services on the route. Although the Indians welcomed Whitman Decline of back in the fall of 1843, with every indica- fg^J™' tion of pleasure at his safe return, yet from this time the missionaries gradually lost their power over the surrounding peoples.1 Their 1 Mr. Spalding, indeed, wrote in June, 1843, tnat "tne cause of religion and of civilization has steadily advanced among this people from the beginning." He declared that at his station twelve Indians were members of the church, and more than fifty had been received on probation ; the school, which was exceptionally prosperous, had increased from one hundred to two hundred and thirty-four, chiefs and other great men as well as the children learning to read and to print. Sixty families had each raised over one hundred bushels of grain, and the herds were increasing rapidly. There is scarcely a doubt, however, that so far as the school was concerned, and probably in other respects, Lapwai was at this time the most prosperous of the mission stations, and this report is the most cheering one that we get. 222 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST letters thenceforth contained many complaints, showing that conditions were becoming more and more disheartening. By the close of the year 1845 it seemed to them that the only thing that could save the missions was the settlement of Christian families in the country, as Whitman had advocated for several years. But such help failed to come, and the lonely workers in this great wilderness were left alone to meet the awful fate which was about to ingulf them. The crisis Before the end of the summer of 1847 many reached, Q£ ^e Cayuses became so surly and insolent 1847; causes J •> of hostility that Whitman seems to have thought seriously of abandoning Waiilatpu and removing with his family either to the Dalles or to the Willamette valley. Unfortunately this plan was too long delayed. When the emigrants of that year ar rived, many of their children were sick with the measles, a disease which soon spread rapidly among the Indians as well. Dr. Whitman treated both the whites and the Indians ; but while the former usually recovered quickly, the latter, on account of their unwholesome mode of life, died off in alarming numbers. It is not surprising that this was so, but it could not be expected that the natives would under stand the true reason for it. What they saw was that Whitman was saving the whites and letting their own people perish. Nay, was he not actually causing their death by administer- THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 223 ing poison instead of the medicine he pretended to be giving them ? This suspicion, horrible to contemplate, took fast hold upon the minds of the Cayuses, and was the immediate cause of their determination to kill Dr. Whitman as they were accustomed to kill sorcerers in their own tribe, who, as they believed, sometimes caused deaths among them. The blow fell on the afternoon of the 29th Themassa- of November, 1847, when Dr. Whitman, his ,cre- NoveQra" ber 29, 1847 wife, and seven other persons at the mission were put to death in the most barbarous manner. Five more victims followed within a few days ; while half a hundred women and children, largely emigrants who were stopping at the station, were held as captives in one of the mission houses. The savages supposed that by keeping con- Rescue of ^ trol of these helpless ones they could save them- th? 1 J prisoners selves from the vengeance of the white settlers in Oregon ; for they gave out word that all cap tives would be put to death at the first news of war from down the river. Fortunately, before this came, Peter Skeen Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company arrived from Vancouver, pushing through at the utmost speed on learning of the massacre, to try to save the captives. It was no easy matter to do this ; but by exerting all his influence and authority, Mr. Ogden finally succeeded in ransoming not alone those at of war 224 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Waiilatpu, but the people at the Spalding mission as well — a total of fifty-seven persons. All were taken down the river, finding friends and homes among the settlers of the Willa mette valley, where they were soon joined by the missionaries from the northern station.1 Declaration When the news of the massacre reached the Willamette valley (December 8), it produced the wildest alarm. No one knew how far this atrocity might be the result of a union among the up-river tribes for the purpose of destroying all of the white people in Oregon. They pro posed, however, not to wait till the Indians could reach the valley, but to send a force of men up the river at once. So great was the excitement and enthusiasm that in a single day a company of troops was raised, equipped as well as possible, furnished with a flag made by the women of Oregon City, and hurried for ward to the scene of danger. In a short time an entire regiment was provided, by means of which, in the space of a few months, the Cay uses were severely punished, and peace with its blessings was once more restored to the Ore gon colony.2 1 A generation after these events took place Jesse Applegate alluded feelingly to this service of Mr. Ogden as " an act of pure mercy and philanthropy, which money could neither hire nor reward." 2 The Indians who committed the murders were afterward secured, tried, and executed. THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 225 But the war was a severe drain upon the strong feei- people. The provisional government had no c^gfesT' funds, and money had to be raised in order to keep men in the field. The difficulty was nobly met; well-to-do settlers, merchants, and others loaned money, and farmers generally furnished supplies of grain and other food. Large quan tities of goods were purchased of the Hudson's Bay Company, practically as a loan, although individual settlers gave their notes by way of security. It was generally expected that the United States government would take this burden of debt upon itself, this being the least it could do to make amends for leaving the people of Oregon so long defenseless. At this crucial time, when the colony was shrouded in the darkest gloom, men remembered the nu merous appeals which had vainly gone up from this far-off valley to the national capital, and a feeling of bitterness against a seemingly un grateful government was mingled with their grief and fears. Had Congress done its duty, so they believed, this evil would not have befallen them. In the excitement of those December days Lastme- the Oregon leaders prepared a ringing memo- ™onalto rial to the national legislature, and started " Joe " Meek eastward to carry it to Washington. " Having called upon the government so often in vain," they say, " we have almost despaired of 226 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST receiving its protection ; yet we trust that our present situation, when fully laid' before you, will at once satisfy your honorable body of the necessity of extending the strong arm of guard ianship and protection over this distant, but beautiful portion of the United States' domain. Our relations with the proud and powerful tribes of Indians residing east of the Cascade Mountains, hitherto uniformly amicable and pacific, have recently assumed quite a different character. They have shouted the war whoop, and crimsoned their tomahawks in the blood of our citizens. . . . Circumstances warrant your memorialists in believing that many of the powerful tribes . . . have formed an alli ance for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against our settlements. . . . To repel the at tacks of so formidable a foe, and protect our families and property from violence and rapine, will require more strength than we possess ... we have a right to expect your aid, and you are in justice bound to extend it. . . . If it be at all the intention of our honored parent to spread her guardian wings over her sons and daughters in Oregon, she surely will not refuse to do it now, when they are struggling with all the ills of a weak and temporary government, and when perils are daily thickening around them, and preparing to burst upon their heads. When the ensuing summer's sun shall have THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 227 dispelled the snow from the mountains, we shall look with glowing hopes and restless anxiety for the coming of your laws and your arms." Joe Meek, accompanied by nine sturdy asso- The news ciates, set out from the headquarters of the ^nWashm2" army at Waiilatpu on the 4th of March, 1848, and in just sixty-six days reached St. Joseph, Missouri. Six days later (May 17) he arrived at St. Louis, and now the dreadful story of the Whitman massacre was flashed all over the land, producing a feeling of sympathy and anxiety for the Oregon people that nothing in their previous history had been able to excite. Meek went to Washington and laid his dis patches before President Polk. They were at once sent to Congress, together with a message calling on that body to act, and act quickly, in order that troops might be hurried to the de fense of Oregon before the end of the summer. No great haste was possible, for the question of slavery was beginning to overshadow all else, and the strongest passions were aroused on this subject in the course of the debate on the Ore gon bill. Yet so much general interest was felt in the safety of Oregon that the measure was finally passed, just before the adjournment of Congress, August 13, after a continuous ses sion of twenty-one hours. President Polk signed the bill and appointed General Joseph Lane of Indiana governor of 228 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The terri tory of Oregon; GeneralLane gov ernor the territory of Oregon. Joe Meek was given the office of United States marshal in the new government. Gov ernor Lane, Meek, and a number of others started for Oregon by way of Santa Fe and California late in August. They succeeded, though with much diffi culty, in reaching San Francisco, where the governor and marshal took ship for the Colum- GENERAL JOSEPH LANE- bia. They arrived at Oregon City March 2, 1849, and on the fol lowing day the new territorial government was proclaimed.1 1 This was the day before Polk's administration came to an end. General Lane acted as governor less than two years, re signing in June, 1850. In 185 1 he was elected to represent the territory in Congress, and filled the office until 1859, when he took his seat as one of the United States senators from Oregon. In i860 he was nominated for Vice President on the ticket with John C. Breckenridge. He died in 1881. CHAPTER XV THE NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA For most Americans the history of the Conditions Pacific coast had thus far been summed up caleifor^ia in the story of Oregon. The Mexican (until 182 1 the Spanish) territory south of the parallel of 42° had sometimes attracted the notice of public men. and once or twice produced some effect upon the government's plans concerning Oregon. But until about 1840 very little atten tion was paid to this vast province, where four or five thousand people were living in compar ative idleness, scattered about through the valleys and over the plains of that fair and sunny land. The principal occupation was the keeping of herds, which required little labor. The " Boston Ships" as the American traders were called, plied up and down the long coast line, visiting the harbors and inlets where they exchanged groceries and manu factured goods for the cartloads of beef hides and bags .of tallow brought down from the ranches. Sometimes sailors, attracted by the easy life Americans of the Californians, deserted from these vessels California 229 230 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and became residents in the country. Other Americans came overland as hunters and trappers, like Jedediah Smith, Ewing Young, and the Walker party sent out by Captain Bonneville. Many of them remained to marry native women, secure grants of land, and be come citizens. After a time the region became pretty well known among the class of frontiers men who were beginning to go to Oregon, and in 1 841 the first emigrant train made its way overland, partly by the Oregon trail, to the Sacramento valley. Thereafter the annual migrations to the far West were usually divided, a portion branching off at Fort Hall to go to California, although Oregon still re ceived by far the larger share. Captain In 1 839 Captain John A. Sutter, formerly a soldier in the Swiss army, went to California by way of Oregon, and in 1841 he secured from the Mexican governor eleven square leagues of land in the Sacramento valley. He built a strong fort of adobes on the site of the present city of Sacramento, began raising grain and cattle on a large scale, and also traded with the Indians for furs. Sutter employed a num ber of Americans upon his estate, and by furnishing supplies to others enabled them to settle in this interior section of California. The fort was on the main emigrant routes from the United States and Oregon, which Sutter and Sutter's Fort THE NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA 23 1 helped to make it in a few years the center of the most important American community in the country. The Mexican government was not strong Rum0rsof during this period even at home, while the war great distance to California from the Mexican capital, the difficulties of communication, and the scattered condition of the population made Sutter's Fort in 1849. her rule in this province so feeble as to be almost ridiculous. The result was numerous revolutions, in which the Americans usually took part, and such a state of political unrest that men accustomed to a settled and strong government could scarcely be blamed for wish ing a change. The interest which the United States already had in Oregon, the continued emigration of her people by sea and land to California, the letters written back by these 232 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST emigrants, the reports of official visitors and the books of far West travelers produced a feeling that our country must finally become possessed of the southern as well as the north ern section of the Pacific coast. After 1836 there was always danger of war between the United States and Mexico over the question of annexing Texas to the Union, thus increas ing the feeling of uncertainty respecting Cali fornia. It was well understood that in case of hostilities this province would doubtless be captured by the American fleet.1 The Bear By the spring of 1 846 there were several hun- lune, illo'' ^red Americans scattered through the country, the most numerous body of them in the vicinity of Sutter's Fort. Lieutenant John C. Fre mont, the " Pathfinder," with his surveying party, had wintered in California, where he came into conflict with the government authorities. He then marched north toward Oregon, but turned back from Klamath Lake on receiving a visit from Gillespie, a secret agent of the United States. The settlers about the fort became convinced from his actions that war had broken out, and some of them decided that it would be the proper thing for them to declare 1 In 1842 Commodore Jones, believing that war had broken out between the two nations, actually took possession of Monterey and hoisted the American flag. He gave up the place a few hours later on learning his mistake. THE NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA 233 California independent of Mexico. This they did at Sonoma, June 14, 1846, raising the famous lone star flag with the rudely painted figure of a bear upon it (the " Bear Flag " ). Now followed an armed conflict, which might The war of perhaps have been avoided, between the United conquest States and the Californians. Fremont took a prominent part in it, as did also Commo dore Stockton of the American fleet. The United States government sent General Kearny to California by way of Santa Fe, and after a few months of fighting the territory came defi nitely into American hands. When the treaty of peace was signed, February 2, 1848, the con quest was confirmed to us. A military gov ernment had already been established, the laws changed somewhat in accordance with Ameri can ideas, and a new system of administration substituted for that formerly maintained by Mexico. It was expected that these changes would The gold promote the prosperity of California, which ' very might at last hope to become a rival of Oregon upon the Pacific coast.1 But no one dreamed 1 When the Bear Flag Revolt occurred, Captain Sutter (who was a German Swiss and never mastered the English language perfectly) wrote exultantly to a friend, " What for progress will California make now!" The manuscript letter from which this is quoted is in possession of Mr. P.J. Healy of San Francisco, who kindly permitted the writer to examine his valuable col lection. 234 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of the wonderful transformation about to take place. On the 24th of January, ten days before the treaty of peace was signed, James W. Mar shall made his world-famous discovery of gold on the American River, some fifty miles above Sutter's Fort. He and Captain Sutter wished to keep the benefits of the find to themselves, but the secret escaped, as great secrets usu ally do, and in a few weeks the inhabitants of California were hurrying north with shovel and pan, hoping to wash quick fortunes out of the sands brought down from the mysterious Sierras. So great did the " rush " become that at San Francisco and other towns ordinary lines of business were suspended, stores, ware houses, and even printing offices were deserted, vessels touching at San Francisco had to re main in port because the crews escaped to the mines. Picks, shovels, and pans rose to famine prices. The news Before the summer closed news of the dis- rc etches Oregon, covery had reached Oregon, producing an August, excitement scarcely less intense than that i8a8 caused by the Indian war just ended. Resolu tions were instantly taken, plans made, and in a few days a company was on its way south ward. Soon a regular tide of travel, on foot, by pack train, and wagon, set in across the Sis- kiyous. Oregon lost within a single year a very large proportion of its male inhabitants. THE NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA 235 Some of the most prominent men passed into this new emigration ; for example, Peter H. Burnett, soon to become the first governor of the state of California. When General Lane and Joe Meek reached San Francisco on their way northward, they saw numbers of Oregon men, some of whom, leaving the Willamette valley or Puget Sound almost penniless, were already returning to their families with thou sands of dollars in gold dust. The news was carried across the Rockies, The "Forty- and before the arrival of winter hundreds, thou- mners"; progress of sands, on the Atlantic coast were preparing for California the voyage to Panama, expecting to cross the Isthmus and take ship to San Francisco. Others in the interior impatiently waited till the grass should start in the spring, when twenty-five thousand persons, in an almost continuous caravan, moved westward to the valley of the Sacramento. But this was only the beginning. Month after month, and year after year, the excited multitudes pressed on to this new El Dorado. All were looking for the golden treasure ; but while most men sought it in the river drift, many took the surer methods of carrying supplies to the mines, or of cultivat ing the soil in order to produce flour, bacon, fruit, and other necessities which during the early years of the gold rush brought such fabu lous prices. Hundreds of new occupations 236 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST were opened, and fortunes made in the most diverse ways. No young western community had ever been advertised as was California during these years ; and few, even of the most prosperous, had grown as rapidly as she. San Fran- The mining camps were soon extended so as cisco the t embrace a large portion of the territory west commercial or J emporium of of the Sierras ; towns like Stockton and Sac- coast aC' ° ramento grew up as interior supply stations; while San Francisco, at the great harbor of California, rose at one bound to be the place of chief importance among Pacific coast seaports. Here was the emporium of all the trade of this rapidly growing population, having relations with the eastern coast, with Mexico, Central and South America, Australia, Hawaii, and in general all countries interested in the trade of the great gold-producing territory which for tune had recently tossed into the lap of the United States. Men from the eastern cities employed their capital and their business skill in building up at San Francisco great com mercial establishments, whose influence has been felt throughout the later course of Pacific coast history. They did not confine them selves to California, but came northward to the Columbia River, to Puget Sound, and the smaller harbors along the Northwest Coast ; to the interior districts of the Oregon country, wherever opportunities for profitable commerce THE NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA 237 were to be found. San Francisco's population of a few hundred in 1848 grew by i860 to more than 56,000, in another decade it became 150,000, and by 1880 exceeded a quarter of a million. We cannot follow this wonderful movement change in in detail, but it is easy to see that the discovery ^ep^fi"e of gold produced startling changes in the rei a- coast tions between the northern and southern sec- 1S0ry tions of the Pacific slope. When the Oregon bill was before Congress in the spring of 1848, some wished to couple with it a bill for a Cali fornia and a New Mexican territory also ; but others declared that the " native-born " territory of Oregon should not be unequally yoked with " territories scarcely a month old, and peopled by Mexicans and half-Indian Californians." Two years after this incident California had a population, mainly American, of 92,000 and was ready for statehood, ten years later she had 380,000, and in another decade more than half a million ; while the territory of Oregon, which in 1850 included the entire district west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California, had in that year less than 14,000 people. By 1870 the Pacific Northwest, then divided into the state of Oregon and the two territories of Washington and Idaho, had a total popula tion of only 130,000 as against California's 560,000. 238 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST California These facts tell the story of how the natural theeNoarth-WS course of the Pacific coast's development was west changed by the magic of gold. The long list of American explorers, traders, and mission aries, whose deeds and sacrifices glorify the early history of the Pacific Northwest, were largely forgotten by a nation entranced with the story of the " Forty-niners." The far- reaching influence of Oregon as the oldest American territory on the Pacific coast faded quickly from the memories of men. The Oregon Trail was already deep worn through the sand hills along the Platte and Sweetwater, Bear River, and the Portneuf, by the wagons of the Oregon pioneers ; it was lined with the crumbling bones of their cattle, and marked by the graves of their dead ; yet instantly, after the passage of the thronging multitudes of '49, it became the " California Trail," and to this day most men know it by no other name. California, in a word, so completely over shadowed the Northwest in wealth, in com merce, and in population, that to the people of the country in general this state has seemed to be about all of the Pacific coast. CHAPTER XVI PROGRESS AND POLITICS, 1849-1859 The relations between the Northwest and California's California were naturally very close. Those ^ebttnotgf Oregon men who went to the gold mines were seasoned pioneers, who had already partly conquered and civilized one great section of the Pacific coast. They were a valuable element in the new and mixed population that now poured into the southern territory, helping to bring order out of disorder, and to establish an effective government for the new state as they had already done for their own colony. It is of course impossible, as well as unnecessary, to measure California's debt to the Northwest during the early years of the gold rush ; but it was undoubtedly very great. On the other hand, there is much truth in NewCaiifor- the claim that the rapid development of Cali- ^aSn'ew fornia gave an entirely new aspect to life in the Northwest Northwest. The first effect of the gold dis covery was to draw away one half or perhaps two thirds of the able-bodied men of Oregon, and to leave the country with insufficient labor 239 240 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST to cultivate the fields already opened. But this was only a temporary drawback. The mines afforded a wonderful market for every thing the northern region could produce. Packers visited the farms, buying up the sur plus flour, meat, lard, butter, eggs, vegetables, and fruits. A large number of boats entered the Columbia, ascending to the new village of Portland on the Willamette, where they took on cargoes of provisions as rapidly as these could be collected from up the river. Cargoes of lumber were carried away from the mills already es tablished, and these proving insufficient to meet the demand, others were built and put into operation at various points along the Columbia. Farmers, merchants, laborers, manufacturers, speculators, in fact all classes of settlers in Oregon, reaped a magnificent harvest from the filling up of California, and the new wealth of gold. Debts were canceled, homes improved, and the conditions of life made easier and more pleasant than they had been in the strictly pioneer time ; new enterprises of all sorts were started in the Willamette settlement, machinery was imported for the use of the farmer, roads opened, and steamboats placed upon the rivers. The new territorial government, which fortu nately came just at the beginning of the new- age, was of great benefit to the people in many ways. Among other things it enabled them to PROGRESS AND POLITICS 241 make some provision for a system of common schools,1 and to secure for this region a cheaper, more frequent, and regular mail service. Under these circumstances the population increased much more rapidly than formerly ; in spite of the glittering attractions of California property rose in value and general prosperity prevailed. When the discovery of gold was first reported Prosperity in the autumn of 1848, there were only a few sfou„edPuget settlers on Puget Sound, most of whom were colony engaged in making shingles and getting out timber for the Hudson's Bay Company. This was almost their only means of securing the supplies needed to support their families. About twenty-five of the men immediately set out for the gold mines, leaving a very small remnant of population in the country. In a few months many of them returned with an abundance of money, to be used in making improvements. Samuel Hancock tells us that when he came back to Olympia in the fall of 1849, after spending a year in the mines, " everything bore the impress of prosperity." Among other things a grist mill had been JThe pioneers of the Northwest showed commendable enterprise in the establishment of high-grade schools, the earliest of which was the Oregon Institute founded by the Methodist missionaries at Salem in 1841. It afterward grew into the Willamette Uni versity. The second was Tualatin Academy, the beginning of Pacific University. Common schools were also maintained by private subscription before the public school system went into effect. 242 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST erected, which was of great benefit to the com munity. Beginnings The settlement on Puget Sound received onPuge't™2 sPecial benefits from the great demand for Sound lumber which came from San Francisco and the other California towns. No portion of the Pacific Northwest was better fitted by nature to supply this need; for here the forests usually came down to the water's edge, while many of the smaller inlets, some of them excellent har bors for ocean vessels, afforded the very best sites for sawmills. Early in the year 1849 the brig Orbit put into Budd's Inlet (Olympia) for a load of piles. This was the beginning of the lumber trade with San Francisco. In a short time mills were running near Olympia (Tumwater), at the mouth of the Dewamish (Seattle), at Steilacoom, Cape Flattery, New Dungeness, Port Townsend, and other places. With lumber selling at sixty dollars per thou sand feet, as it did for a time, the business was immensely profitable. The dis- Aside from lumber the California communi- coir7 °f t'es were m great need of fuel, and the people of San Francisco made anxious inquiries about the possibility of getting coal near the harbors of the Northwest Coast. An inferior quality had been found north of the Columbia before 1850. In 185 1 Samuel Hancock began search ing near Puget Sound, and with the help of the PROGRESS AND POLITICS 243 natives found what seemed to be an important deposit of this useful mineral. Other discov eries were made at later times on Bellingham Bay, near Seattle, and at other points all con venient to good harbors. Some of these were soon worked, with the result that thousands of tons of coal were shipped to San Francisco annually. All of these things brought about a very prosperous condition in the little colony. Since the country south of the Columbia increase in had been settling up for a comparatively long popu atlon time, the lands there had been pretty carefully picked over; and this fact, together with the commercial advantages of Puget Sound, caused some of the emigrants of these years to go northward in search of homes. The lumber mills gave employment, while the explorations in search of coal, and for other purposes, were bringing to light new farming lands in the rich valleys back from the Sound, where the settlers now began to take claims. But for several years little progress was made in agri culture, flour and seed grain actually being im ported from San Francisco at great expense in exchange for a portion of the lumber sent down. The census of 1850 gives 1111 as the total population north of the Columbia. Three years later a special enumeration showed 3965- In that year, for the first time, Puget Sound drew a considerable part of the emigration to 244 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the Northwest, thirty-five wagons crossing the Cascades by a new road which the northern settlers had opened from the Yakima River to Olympia. Agitation The people about Puget Sound found them- rUoriaier~ selves completely separated from those on the government Willamette, and living as it were in a world of their own. This was due largely to the diffi culty of communication between the Columbia River and the Sound. The feeling was strengthened by the fact that all the regular trade of this section was with San Francisco. Since their situation rendered them independ ent of the Columbia River commercially, they came to believe that their country should also have a separate government. Agitation for dividing the territory began in 1851, and the next year matters were brought to a head. In September, 1852, a newspaper called the Co lumbian x was begun at Olympia for the pur pose of advocating the project, and one month later (October 27) a meeting was held which determined on choosing delegates to a conven tion. This was to decide whether or not to 1 Files of this paper, from September, 1852, to December, 1853, the entire period of its existence, as well as complete files of the Pioneer and Democrat, and the Puget Sound Herald, were con sulted in the private library of Hon. C. B. Bagley of Seattle. The writer also obtained from Mr. Bagley the loan of his files of the Washington Statesman, Walla Walla, which proved invalu able for the study of the early history of the "Inland Empire.'' PROGRESS AND POLITICS 245 ask Congress to erect the district north and west of the Columbia into a territorial govern ment. Although some of the people living along the river, to whom Oregon City was more convenient than Olympia, objected to the plan, the proposed meeting was held on the 25th of November, and a memorial asking for the change sent to General Lane who then represented the territory in Congress. On the 15th of January, 1853, the Oregon legislature, sympathizing with the demand of the northern settlements, adopted a similar memorial ; but before this reached him Lane had introduced a bill for creating the territory of Columbia. It passed on the 10th of February, 1853, with the name Washington substituted for Columbia, a change with which the people of the new terri tory were very well satisfied. General Isaac I. Stevens, who had been commissioned to survey a northern route for a Pacific railroad, was appointed governor. He arrived at Olympia on the 26th of November, 1853, and the new organization was put in operation.1 1 General Stevens was a trained soldier and engineer, a gradu ate of West Point. His success in finding a practicable line for a railroad immediately gave him great influence with the peo ple of Washington, who believed thoroughly in the future of their section. He served as governor till 1857, was then elected delegate to Congress from the territory, remaining in that posi tion till the breaking out of the Civil War, when he went to the field of action. He was killed while gallantly leading his divi- 246 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Beginnings As the gold discovery promoted the pros- ^0"" PeritY of the Willamette valley and Puget Oregon Sound, so it also led to the planting of new communities in other favorable districts of the Northwest. The region known as southern Oregon contains the two important valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. It had al ready become known to the pioneers, partly through explorations for a southern emigrant road made in 1846 under the direction of Jesse Applegate. A portion of the emigration of that and the following years came to the Wil lamette over this route ; and when Oregon men began going to the gold mines of California, the country became still better known. Wagons and pack trains, men on foot and on horse back, were continually passing back and forth ; so that it was not long before a few individuals, impressed with the beauty of the landscape, the excellence of the grass and water, and the op portunities for farming and stock raising, began to think of locating claims in these valleys. The Jesse Applegate, who was the most noted yaUeyUa explorer of southern Oregon, was himself led to settle in Umpqua valley.1 In the spring sion at Chantilly. The " Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens," by Hazard Stevens, 2 vols., Boston, 1900, gives a full account of his services and much valuable matter on the history of the Northwest. xHe founded and named the town of Yoncalla, which became his home. General Lane also took a claim in this valley, near the town of Roseburg, and spent his declining years in retirement. PROGRESS AND POLITICS 247 of 1850, he with a number of others organized a company to take up lands and establish town sites. It happened that while these pioneers were making their way down toward the sea, they met a party of Californians who had entered the Umpqua by ship for the same purpose. The two companies thus accident ally brought together formed a new association which undertook to colonize the Umpqua valley. Settlers and miners quickly overran the region. The county of Umpqua, embrac ing the whole of southern Oregon, was created by the territorial legislature in 1851. The valley of Rogue River received settlers Rogue about the same time, and here the influence a"^lhe of gold discoveries was strongly felt. California southern miners had already prospected the Sierras to the borders of the Oregon country; and just at the close of the year 185 1 rich placer mines were discovered on Jackson Creek, a branch of Rogue River. A new rush began, Californians and Oregonians both taking part in it, so that in a very short time the village of Jacksonville had a population of several hundred, and a number of other mining centers were estab lished in the same neighborhood. Settlers pushed in at the same time to take up the fertile lands along the Rogue River and its branches. While these things were going for ward in the upper portions of the valleys of 248 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Indian oat- breaks; the Rogue River War southern Oregon, settlements were also begun near the mouths of the rivers, especially at Port Orford and about Coos Bay. The discovery of coal near Coos Bay gave it a large trade with San Francisco. The various centers of popula tion were connected with one another by means of mountain roads or trails ; the interest in gold mining stimulated emigration, and a population of several thousand people was soon to be found within this territory, which at the beginning of the California gold rush was an absolute wilder ness, occupied by native barbarians. When the early missionaries and settlers came to Oregon they found the Indians under the control of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, whose officers were able to secure for the whites such lands and other privileges as the Indians had to bestow. The company was very suc cessful in preventing conflicts between the two races. Only rarely were the settlers molested by the natives during these years, the most notable exception being the Whitman massacre in 1847. When the United States took con trol, in 1849, the situation had become more difficult to handle. Settlers were by this time becoming numerous ; the Indians had begun to fear for the safety of their lands, and they were not yet convinced of the national government's power. Soon afterward troubles began, es pecially in the newly occupied territory of PROGRESS AND POLITICS 249 southern Oregon, where miners and travelers were occasionally murdered, and settlers driven from their lands. In some cases, it must be confessed, the whites were to blame as well as the red men. But the time soon came when the tribes of southern Oregon were ready to go on the war path, and then hundreds of innocent persons suffered the untold horrors which have always marked such savage outbreaks. Men were shot down on the highway or in the field ; at dead of night unprotected families were be sieged in their cabins, the men killed outright, the women and children enslaved, and homes burned to the ground ; sometimes whole settle ments were either massacred or driven away. This war, usually called, from the most terrible of the tribes concerned in it, the Rogue River War, began in 185 1. It lasted, with some in termissions, till 1856, when the Indians being removed to reservations the settlers were at last secure in the possession of their homes.1 Southern Oregon was not the only section other of the Northwest to suffer from the uprising Indianwars of the natives during this period. On Puget Sound, too, the Indians began to murder white men as early as 1850, though no general out break occurred until several years later. In 1 In this war General Lane performed most important services for Oregon, both as warrior and peacemaker. The Indians stood in great awe of him. 250 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 1854-1855 General Stevens, as superintendent of Indian affairs, made treaties with nearly all of the tribes both in eastern and western Washington, and it was supposed that these would put an end to all conflict between the two races. But as a matter of fact the natives, seeing the country filling up with white people, were about ready for a general war in defense of what they considered to be their own coun try. The situation here was not different from that which brought on the great Indian wars in other sections of the United States. Just as New England had its King Philip's War, and the middle West its struggles with Tecum- seh and Black Hawk, so the people of the Pacific Northwest, when settlement threatened to crowd the Indians off their lands, were forced to meet great combinations of native tribes under Chief John, Leschi, Kamiakin, and others. Except in southern Oregon, these wars came mainly in the years 1855-1858. They included many harrowing incidents, like the murder of the settlers in White River valley near Puget Sound, the daring attack upon the little village of Seattle in the spring of 1856, the slaughter of the emigrants on the Malheur River, and massacres at the Cascades. The United States government maintained troops at various places throughout the Northwest, and in some cases these rendered most effective service during PROGRESS AND POLITICS 251 the Indian war; but their numbers were too small to meet the great emergency, while diffi culties arose between the territorial officers and the military commanders that caused the burden of the war to fall mainly upon the people themselves. Volunteer companies were called into the field, who with some severe fighting and much attendant hardship were able to bring this distressing period to a close. The Indians here as elsewhere found it necessary to accept the bounty of Congress in the shape of a reservation, with pay for the lands which they gave up to the government. Most of the treaties went into effect in 1859. Several years prior to the close of the Indian The Oregon wars, the question of statehood for Oregon be- ">nstltu- ' t. e> tional con- gan to be seriously discussed, and in 1856 a bill vention, for admitting the territory into the Union was ggpt"^er introduced in Congress by General Lane. 1857 Though this failed, another bill passed the House at the next session, authorizing the people to frame a state constitution. It did not pass the Senate, but the legislature of Ore gon Territory had already provided for submit ting the question of holding a convention to the voters at the June (1857) election. It was carried by a large majority, delegates were chosen from the several counties, and on the third Monday in August the convention met in the town of Salem. September 18 a state 252 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST constitution was adopted, which being submitted to the people was ratified by a vote of 7195 in favor to 3195 against. The state government went into operation in July, 1858, although Ore gon was not formally admitted to the Union till the 14th of February, 1859.1 1 The population of Oregon in i860 was 52,465, and of Wash ington Territory, 11,594. General Isaac Ingalls Stevens. CHAPTER XVII THE INLAND EMPIRE The Indian wars of the Pacific Northwest, Extent and like those of New England, western New York, c^v^Tf and various sections of the Mississippi valley, Empire were followed by a period in which population spread rapidly over previously unoccupied terri tory. Thus far settlement had been practically confined to the region between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific, including the Willa mette valley, Puget Sound, the Cowlitz and Columbia districts, the valleys of southern Oregon, and a few points near the seacoast. This was only a small part of the Oregon coun try, the eastern section, from the Cascades to the Rockies, containing more than three times as large an area. Above the point where the Columbia breaks through the Cascades, one hundred and ninety miles from the sea, it re ceives branches from the north whose sources lie far beyond the American boundary of 49°, others from the south rising below the 42d par allel, and still others from every part of the west slope of the Rockies between these two bound ary lines. They drain an American territory 253 254 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Its agri culturalpossibilitiesbegin to be understood embracing about two hundred thousand square miles, nearly one fourth larger than the com bined areas of the New England states, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. A por tion of it is occupied by the forested ranges of the Bitter Root and Blue mountains ; but in general it is a region of great plains, relieved by wooded valleys and gently sloping hills. The climate, soil, and productions, all vary greatly from those of western Oregon, and the natives were superior to the western Indians in intellect as well as in strength, energy, and warlike valor. Owing to the light rainfall over the greater portion of the Inland Empire, some early travel ers pronounced the entire region unfit to be the home of civilized man. But the mission aries proved that the natural grasses afforded excellent pasturage for cattle and sheep,1 and that the soil in many places would produce bounteous crops of grain and vegetables even without irrigation; while with an artificial supply of water surprising results could be obtained. Several of the valleys, like Walla Walla and the Grand Ronde, which lay in the path of the emigrants to Oregon, attracted the attention of the pioneers at an early time by 1 Dr. Whitman wrote in October, 1847, just before his death : "The interior of Oregon is unrivaled by any country for the grazing of stock, of which sheep is the best. This interior will now be sought after." THE INLAND EMPIRE 255 the evident fertility of their lands ; and as early as 1847 it seemed certain that the first of these would soon be occupied by farmers. But the Whitman massacre of that year destroyed these prospects, and another decade was to pass away before plans of settlement could be resumed. In the meantime other sections of the Inland Empire were beginning to receive attention on account of the rich farming iands they were supposed to contain. When General Stevens reached Olympia, in General November, 1853, after completing the survey of ^e^-3 the northern railroad route, he declared to the tions people of Puget Sound that there were several great stretches of territory in eastern Washing ton which invited settlement. " I can speak advisedly," he says, " of the beautiful St. Mary's valley just west of the Rocky Mountains and stretching across the whole breadth of the terri tory; of the plain fifty miles wide bordering the south bank of the Spokane River; of the valley extending from Spokane River to Col- ville ; of the Cceur d' Alene Prairie of six hun dred square miles; the Walla Walla valley. The Nez Perce country is said to be rich as well as the country bordering on the Yakima River." His treaties with the native tribes soon after- The Indian ward were expected to throw some of these ^"^settie- tracts open, and other treaties made about the ment 256 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST same time with the Indians of eastern Oregon looked to the settlement of portions of that country. But when the Indians went on the war path in 1855 this entire region, except a small district protected by the military post at the Dalles, was once more closed to the peace ful tiller of the soil. The prairies and open river valleys, instead of being dotted over with settlers' cabins or the white-sheeted wagons of > CCEUR D'ALENE, 1853. emigrants, were traversed in all directions by long files of marching men, and troops of gal lant cavalry. Yet this only served to make the whole country more familiar to the people of western Oregon and Washington, and to in crease the desire to settle there as soon as the Indian troubles should be over. THE INLAND EMPIRE 257 By this time (1859) there was an additional Gold hunt- motive for emigration to the Inland Empire. ^ Q^c°Jdes Even before the Indian war there had been more or less prospecting for gold in the eastern country, and in 1855 discoveries were made at Colville, though at that time little could be done with them. In the years 185 7-1 858 occurred a rush to Fraser River in British Columbia. For a time it was supposed this region would prove very rich ; but soon disappointments crowded upon the Americans who had gone there, and a great outpouring took place. The men who left these mines spread over and prospected large sections of the eastern country, with results only less wonderful than those ob tained in California ten years earlier. Rich gold districts were opened near Colville ; on the Clearwater, Salmon River, Boise River, John Day's River, Burnt River, Powder River; the Owyhee, Kootenai, Deer Lodge, Beaverhead; the Prickly Pear, and other places. Californians streamed northward as Oregonians had gone south in '48 and '49. Mining camps grew in a few months to towns of several thousand people, and sometimes disappeared quite as rapidly, when richer diggings were opened elsewhere, or water for gold washing failed. By rapid stages the prospectors passed up the several branches of the Columbia, until they stood once more upon the summit of the 258 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Carrying supplies to the mining camps Rockies, this time coming from the west. At South Pass, Helena, and many other camps, they met and mingled with the crowds of gold seekers arriving from the East. These were " tenderfeet " to the rugged men who had spent twelve or fifteen years in the mining districts of California, British Columbia, eastern Ore gon, Washington, and Idaho, and who rather gloried in the name " yonder siders," applied to them by the other class. When the miners turned toward the north east the pack trains headed in the same direc- Pack Train on Mountain Trail. tion, carrying the eager gold seekers with their outfits, and following from camp to camp with regular supplies of bacon and flour, picks, shovels, pans, quicksilver, and other neces sities of the business. From ten to fifty horses THE INLAND EMPIRE 259 or mules usually made up the train, though sometimes more than one hundred animals were employed. They were loaded with packs vary ing from two hundred to four hundred pounds. At first many of these trains set out from the Willamette valley directly, crossing the Cascade Mountains ; but in a very short time (as early as 1862) the Oregon Steam Navigation Com pany, with headquarters at Portland, made ar rangements for carrying goods up the river as far as old Fort Walla Walla, then as now called Wallula. Intermediate points were The Dalles and Umatilla Landing. At Walla Walla, located a few miles above WaiiaWaiia the site of the Whitman mission, a military "£reatdls- ' J tributmg post had been established in 1856, which soon center drew about it a small settlement. This place now became the distributing center for a min ing region embracing nearly the whole of the eastern country. The Dalles sent goods up the John Day valley ; Umtilla carried to Pow der River, Owyhee, Boise Basin, and a few other places in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho; but Walla Walla sent its pack trains not only to most of these camps, but to Col ville, Kootenai, the Salmon and the Clearwater, the Prickly Pear and the upper Missouri. The trails radiated in all directions from this little town, and during the packing season long lines of horses and mules were ever coming and 260 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST going. In winter the feeding yards of the, valley were filled with poor, worn creatures, whose scarred backs and ugly girth marks proved the class to which they belonged.1 The packers themselves were an important social element in Walla Walla and Wallula, sometimes giving grand balls which the entire community would attend. Many of them were enterpris ing young men who have since made themselves felt in business and professional life. The The Columbia River, though affording with tr^cfo b^ *ts branches over two thousand miles of navi- steamboat gable water, is divided into sections by frequent wagon natural obstructions like the Cascades, Dalles, Great Falls, and Priest's Rapids. As the in terior trade grew, the navigation company built boats on section after section, until it became possible to go from Portland to Lake Pend d'Oreille on the North Fork almost wholly by water. This development resulted in part from the opening of trade with the Rocky Mountain country. Active mining operations began in what is now Montana, but then eastern Washington and western Dakota, in 1862. The earliest diggings were located west 1 The number of pack animals maintained in, the valley is almost incredible. In the winter of 1866-1867 between five hun dred and six hundred were kept within seven miles of Wallula. During ten days in the month of July, 1869, when times were dull, trains aggregating five hundred and fifty-nine packs were fitted out at Walla Walla. THE INLAND EMPIRE 26l of the Rockies, but soon rich discoveries were made east of the mountains also. Packers from Walla Walla crossed over at once, carry ing hundreds of tons of supplies at very great expense. A military road, from Fort Benton on the upper Missouri to Walla Walla, had been constructed between the years 1859 and 1862, under the direction of Captain John Mullan. It was always passable for pack trains, but soon Fort Benton, 1853. fell into such a state of disrepair that loaded wagons could not safely pass over it. Soon the demand became loud for the reopening of this highway. Work was done upon it at various times, with the result that many wagons, drawn by six or eight pairs of mules, carried flour and bacon, produced in the Willamette 262 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST valley, from the head of navigation on the Columbia to Helena on the Missouri, a dis tance of only about six hundred miles. Competition Pacific coast commodities now came into EaTaTd competition with those brought from St. Louis West; rapid in many little steamboats; and thus the predic- loTw tions of Mr- F1°yd were in away *ulfilled: a commercial route had been opened across the continent by steamboat and wagon. The city of Portland, as the western emporium of this trade with the Inland Empire and Montana, entered upon a period of rapid and substantial growth, which has continued almost unbroken to the present time. Agriculture From the beginning of this migration toward m the walla ^q interior, the most favorable portions of the Walla * valley country were eagerly sought after by those wish ing to engage in agriculture or stock raising. The rapid progress of mining stimulated this movement, so that in spite of the long delay in beginning the settlement of the Inland Em pire, a farming population finally spread over its fertile valleys and plains much more rapidly than would have been the case if no gold rush had occurred. The first district to be occupied was the Walla Walla valley, where the presence of the United States military post afforded a home market for products, and where the lands were not only fertile but easily tilled, compara tively well watered, and conveniently near to Copyright, 11)04, by Geo SI. Weister. View of Portland. THE INLAND EMPIRE 265 the Columbia River and the lower settlements. It will be remembered that this valley was about to be occupied in 1847, when the Whitman mas sacre suddenly drove all whites west of the Cas cades. A few pioneers held claims there at the outbreak of the later Indian war, and these had to be abandoned also. When the treaties were completed in 1859, many persons were ready to take up lands in the country, while the emi gration of that year furnished several hundred settlers.1 In 1 860 Walla Walla County had 1 300 white people, and within the next six years the government surveyed about 750,000 acres of land in the valley, most of which was imme diately taken up for agricultural purposes. The chief crop was wheat, which yielded at the rate of forty to fifty bushels, and was turned into flour for export to the numerous mining camps supplied from this center. In 1865 the amount thus sent out was 7000 barrels. At the same time other products, like hay, onions, potatoes, and wool, were shipped down the river. In 1870 Walla Walla County had 5174 inhabit ants. By that time the valley was fairly well settled, containing many beautiful farms, with comfortable and even handsome dwellings, sur- 1 The Olympia Pioneer and Democrat of September 30, 1859, says that eight hundred emigrants had settled in the Walla Walla valley, while twenty families had taken claims on the Yakima, and thirty on the Klickitat and through the country from the Dalles to Fort Simcoe (on the Yakima). 266 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Settlementof the Grand Ronde valley rounded by gardens, fruit orchards, and orna mental trees. For many years the emigrants to Oregon had passed with regret the beautiful valley of the Grand Ronde, nestled so peacefully among the Blue Mountains. After all danger from the natives had been removed, and the Walla Walla country partly filled up, settlers began to take claims in this attractive region, notwith standing its distance from the sea. A few were left there by the emigration of 1861, but it was the great company of 1862 which finally occu pied the country. About two thousand, so the newspapers of the time declare, remained in the valley, while the rest, some eight thousand, went down the Columbia. The first winter was one of great privations ; but the next sum mer a crop was raised on the newly broken lands, which furnished an abundance of provi sions. La Grande was the principal town, and soon became the county seat of Union County, which included the Grand Ronde within its boundaries. From the first it was a place of considerable importance, being the supply cen ter for the valley until other towns, like Union, Summerville, and Oro Dell, divided the territory with her. A wagon road built in 1863 con nected the Grand Ronde valley with Walla Walla for trading purposes, while other roads and trails made it possible for this upper settle- THE INLAND EMPIRE 269 ment to send its products to the mines of Boise valley, Owyhee, and other places. The abun dance of timber on the slopes of the Blue Moun tains, and the fine water power of the mountain streams, promoted the building of sawmills, of which there were four in 1864. A description of the valley, written in the spring of 1868, in dicates that excellent progress had been made in the first five years after settlement began. " The waste prairie has changed to fenced and cultivated farms, and in all directions the handi work of intelligence and industry is visible. Comfortable houses and outhouses have been built, orchards planted ; from the poor emigrant has sprung the well-to-do farmer." County roads crossed the valley in all directions, while two good toll roads had been built through it. The population of Union County in 1870 was 2552. These two illustrations of the Walla Walla other agri- and Grand Ronde valleys are sufficient to g^"^^ show how population spread over the fine farm ing districts of the Inland Empire during the years immediately following the gold rush to this region. Many other districts had a simi lar history. Boise valley, Powder River, the Clearwater and Spokane, the high valleys of western Montana, — all had their farming com munities, producing such supplies as the min ing districts could use. The Yakima valley east of the Columbia was situated much like 270 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the Walla Walla, and was settled about the same time. By 1870 the amount of produce seeking a market from the upper Columbia was already larger than the demand to be supplied in that country, although only a small fraction of the tillable lands had as yet been taken up. The people needed better means of transporta tion, in order that they might ship their wheat and flour down the river to a larger and more stable market. The entire inland country waited impatiently for railroads to connect its scattered communities, and to afford the much- desired outlet to the sea.1 1 A short line of railroad, from Walla Walla to Wallula, was first projected as early as 1862 ; but it was not until 1868 that active work was begun upon it. The road was completed in 1874, largely through the energy and financial enterprise of Dr. D. S. Baker. It was the first railroad in the territory of Washington. CHAPTER XVIII THE AGE OF RAILWAYS The Inland Empire was not alone in de- The North- manding railroad facilities at this time. The ™est , ¦n t tv demands entire Pacific Northwest was as yet altogether railways lacking in this important means of develop ment, and by 1870 the people of that section were everywhere insisting that railways be built. Many years earlier, when the Oregon question was still unsettled, and when emigration to the Columbia by means of wagons and ox teams had but just begun, several schemes were brought forward for the establishment of a transcontinental line to extend to some point on the lower Columbia, or to Puget Sound. One such project was presented to the public in 1845-1846 by Asa Whitney. He proposed to build the road on condition that the United States government grant to his company a belt of land sixty miles wide, stretching from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. Another scheme was to make the road a national one, the funds for construction to come from the sale of lands along the line. This was advo cated by Mr. George Wilkes, of New York, 271 272 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Pacificrailwaysurveys, 1853-1857 The first Pacificrailway completed, 1869 who in 1845 wrote a book on the subject, petitioned Congress, and asked the support of state and territorial legislatures in favor of his project. A few years later the rush to California gave rise to plans for a road to San Francisco Bay. Thomas H. Benton was one of the earliest advocates of this line. In 1853 surveys were begun by the national government along three different routes — one to cross the Rockies by way of South Pass, one at a point south of that place, and another far to the north, near the head waters of the Missouri. When General Stevens surveyed the last-named route, he pro nounced it by far the most feasible of all, and the people of the Northwest began to think that the first transcontinental railway might be built through their section, notwithstand ing California's greater wealth and population. But the times were unfavorable for railroad building, because of the great struggle be tween the North and South over the ques tion of slavery, which occupied the attention of the whole country and finally led to the Civil War. While this conflict was raging, however, the government made provision (1862) for the first of the transcontinental railways by chartering the Union Pacific Company to build westward from the Missouri, and the Central Pacific to THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 273 build from the Pacific coast eastward. The rapid development of California between the years 1849 and i860 made San Francisco the natural terminus rather than either of the north ern ports so much discussed twenty years earlier.1 The central route was chosen because this was the most direct line to northern Cali fornia. The road was" to cross the Rockies at South Pass, follow the Humboldt River, and enter the Sacramento valley by the old Cali fornia Trail. The work of construction was soon begun at both ends, and pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Great numbers of Chi nese laborers, who had begun to come to Cali fornia shortly after .the gold discovery, were employed on the western division. Finally, on the 10th of May, 1869, the two sections were brought together at Promontory Point, fifty miles west of Ogden, Utah, where the cere mony of driving the golden spike completed the gigantic undertaking. This event marks an era in the history of iheraii- the Pacific coast. That vast region, once so ^ «" S * widely separated from the remainder of the country, was now brought into close touch with the other sections, and began to share fully in 1 Sacramento, at the head of navigation on the Sacramento River, was called the terminus of this road ; but the line was at once extended to San Francisco, which became the terminus in fact. 274 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The North west still unprovided with rail ways the life of the nation as a whole. The journey from the east coast to San Francisco by way of Panama had required three and a half weeks ; it was very expensive and extremely unpleasant. By the overland stage the trip was still more costly and difficult. But at last, with the com pletion of the railroad, the Mississippi valley had been brought within a week's journey of the Pacific ; travel to the far West was cheap and pleasant ; mails became frequent and regu lar ; many varieties of western products began to be sent east in exchange for manufactured goods. Above all, a new movement of emigra tion set in to the Pacific coast which resulted in planting many of the most delightful farming and fruit-raising sections of California, and, as we shall see, brought about important changes in the Northwest as well. Yet, in spite of the indirect benefits which it brought to the people of the Northwest, the Central Railway was not at all sufficient for their needs. It barely touched the Oregon territory at the southeast corner, without actu ally reaching any part of the settled area. In order to make it of great use to this section, other roads would have to be built through the Northwest connecting with the Central. The routes for such branch lines were clearly marked out by nature. One was the old emi grant road from the Columbia to Fort Hall, THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 275 along which Wilkes had proposed to carry his national railroad in 1845; the other was the wagon route which had been opened from the Columbia by way of the Willamette, southern Oregon, and the Siskiyou Mountains to the Sacramento valley. Several years before the Central Railway The Oregon was completed, California parties began survey- forniaaraji. ing this line to the Columbia ; and although way, 1868- nothing came of it at the time, other schemes I'''°' and surveys were set on foot which finally led to railroad construction in Oregon. In April, 1868, ground was broken at Portland for two roads, one to run on the east side, the other on the west side, of the Willamette River. Five years later the East Side Railroad was completed to Roseburg, in the Umpqua valley, thus bringing the southern Oregon country into connection with the Willamette and the Columbia. From this point the pro cess of construction was very slow, the south ern portion being finally completed in 1887 to connect with the Central Pacific. Meantime, in 1874, Mr. Henry Villard be- Henry came interested in this line and in the railroad XlUardavnd the northern development of the Pacific Northwest generally, railways His first grand enterprise was the opening of railway transportation along the Columbia, on the south bank, connecting Portland with The Dalles, the Walla Walla country, and eastern 276 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Oregon. To bring this about he organized, with the enterprising Portland men who con trolled the navigation of the Columbia, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The line was first built to Baker City, in the Henry Villard. Powder River valley, and later extended to meet the Union Pacific at Granger, Wyoming, running practically along the old emigrant trail up the Lewis River valley. Before this plan could be fully carried out, Mr. Villard also secured control of the Northern Pacific, which had been in process of building from Duluth THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 277 at the western extremity of Lake Superior for several years. The union of all these interests under his management gave a mighty impulse to railroad development, such as the country had never before seen. Construction was hurried forward at utmost speed both from the east and from the west, and on the 8th of September, 1883 (in western Montana), the last spike was driven by Mr. Villard in the presence of a throng of visitors from both coasts, and from nearly every country of the Old World.1 One of the orators on this occa sion was Senator J. W. Nesmith, of Ore gon, who as a young man had crossed the plains in the great wagon train of 1843. The early settlers of the North west had spent the best years of their lives 1 "The Memoirs of Henry Villard," 2 vols., Boston, 1904, con tains a very interesting sketch of the railroad history of the Northwest to the time of completing the Northern Pacific. The earliest railways in Oregon were portage roads around the ob structions in the Columbia River and were owned by the Naviga tion Company at the time Villard took control. James Willis Nesmith. road build ing 278 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST under pioneer conditions ; but fortunately many of them lived to see the dawning of the new day made possible by their labors and sacrifices. Later rail- Railroad building did not cease with the year 1883, but has been almost continuous from that time to the present. The main line of the Northern Pacific, the Columbia and Lewis River road, the new Great Northern line to the Sound, the connection northward with the Canadian Pacific and southward with the Cen tral Pacific, form the outlines of a system which has gradually been extended, by- means of branches, into many new productive regions of the Northwest. The results, while marvelous in themselves, are only such as had long been foretold by those familiar with the resources of the Northwest, and with the effects produced by railroads in other parts of the United States. This becomes plain when we compare the slow progress of the Northwest during the early period with the rapid development which has taken place in the past thirty-four years, and especially in the past twenty-one years, since the completion of the Northern Pacific. Distribution In 1870, when this great movement was just fiabout beginning, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho had 1870 a combined population of 130,000, of which 91,000 belonged to Oregon and only 24,000 to her northern neighbor. Almost exactly one half (64,200) of the total population of the North- THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 279 west was still living in the Willamette valley, which even without railroads always had an outlet to a seaport market. The other half was widely distributed, in southern and eastern Oregon, along the coast and the Columbia River in both Oregon and Washington, and through the numerous mining camps of Idaho.1 The metropolis of the Northwest was Portland, which boasted 8293 inhabitants — an increase since the census of i860 of 5425. The great valley of western Oregon was in The wa- 1870 the only district of this entire region ^UeyLd that was fully settled by an agricultural popu- southern lation ; and even here, while the lands were nearly all occupied, large portions of them remained unfilled. The grain raised on the farms was shipped down the river to Portland in steamboats, and great herds of cattle were driven across the mountains to supply the min ing camps as far east as Montana, and to stock the ranches now beginning to be established in many portions of the Inland Empire. The towns of the valley, aside from Portland, were. all mere villages, centers of an agricultural trade. Southern Oregon, where farming, stock 1 Southern Oregon had about 12,000 people, eastern Oregon 10,500, the coast and Columbia River districts 4250. The coun ties bordering on the Sound had one half of the 24,000 people in Washington, while the region east of the Cascades had 7000 of the remainder. Idaho contained 15,000 people (lacking one), scattered through a score or more of mining camps. 280 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Lumberingon Puget Sound; social con ditions raising, and mining were all carried on together, was enjoying a fair degree of prosperity; but here also, as on the upper Columbia, no great development in agriculture was possible with out railroads to open up a wider market for the products of the soil. The Coos Bay district had already become famous for its coal, and in 1874 sent 45,000 tons to San Francisco. Puget Sound was acquiring a world-wide reputation for its manufactories of lumber. Soon after the opening of the California market, capitalists from the East and from San Fran cisco began here the establishment of those enormous lumbering plants which have been the wonder of so many visitors to the Pacific coast. The small water-power mills of the pioneering time sank into insignificance or ceased to exist ; while monster steam mills, planted at a few of the most favorable points, practically monopolized the business. Each of the great sawmills supported a settlement, made up at first almost entirely of the company's employes. After a while, with the occupation of the farming lands in their vicinity, some of these grew into important market and shipping points. But the towns of western Wash ington were for a long time behind Walla Walla both in wealth and in population. In 1870 Olympia, the largest of them, had but 1200 people, while Seattle had 1100, and THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 28 1 Tacoma 73. As late as twenty years ago Seattle had scarcely outgrown the conditions of a village. There was some talk of connect ing this region by rail with Oregon on the south, and with the Inland Empire on the east. But nothing had as yet been done, and the Sound country was almost completely shut off from all other sections of the Northwest. Social conditions had been very unsatisfactory in the little lumbering communities, because there were so many single men without homes, and but few families. This difficulty was keenly felt, and very unusual efforts were made to over come it. In 1866 a shipload of young women was brought to Seattle from the East. This led to the planting of many new homes, promoted farm life, and brought about a great improve ment in the character of the settlement. Puget Sound and the entire Northwest owe a debt of gratitude to these excellent women, many of whom, fortunately, are still living to enjoy the prosperity which their coming to this far- off coast did so much to create.1 Such, briefly, was the situation of the North- General con- west at the beginning of the railroad age. It NortLtst^ was a region containing a score or more of dis- in 1870 tinct settlements, most of which had little in 1 " They have proved a blessing to every community from the Cowlitz north to the boundary line." C. B. Bagley in Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, March, 1904. 282 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST common with any of the others. Each went its own way, producing what it could, selling what it might, in the mines, in San Francisco, and in Portland. Because there was little intercourse between the sections, there was a good deal of jealousy and ill will. Politically the Northwest was now divided into three parts, Idaho having been set off as a separate territory in 1863; but the lack of unity within the separate divisions made possible numerous schemes for changes in boundaries, the creation of new territories, and so on. At one time there was a plan to unite the Willamette valley and Puget Sound into one state, making another of the entire inland country; again it was proposed to annex the Walla Walla country to Oregon ; to unite northeastern Washington with northern Idaho, and make a separate state of this ; to attach southeastern Washington to southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Railroad The railroads soon produced a great trans act? formation in almost every respect. The men emigration who were responsible for the construction of these lines were especially anxious to attract emigrants to the Northwest, in order to de velop its great resources and thus create busi ness for the roads. Emigration bureaus were formed in cities of the Atlantic coast; pam phlets describing the advantages of the country THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 283 were distributed broadcast ; and northwestern farm lands were widely advertised in the news papers. As a result the population of this region began to increase with great rapidity as compared with the period prior to 1870. As already stated, the total for that year was 1 30,000. In the ten years from 1870 to 1880 there was an addition of 1 52,500 ; in the next decade 465,000; while from 1890 to 1900 the gain was 330,000. It is interesting to note that, while California was far in advance of the Northwest when the period began, and continued to lead for another ten years, her increase since 1880 has been very much less. From 1870 to 1880 she re ceived 304,447; in the next decade 343,436; and in the last 271,655. In other words, dur ing the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 this northern region gained 795,000 people as against California's 615,000. The growth of cities is yet more striking. The growth Thirty-four years ago Portland was the only ofcities town approaching 10,000 population. It was al ready flourishing, but from this time its prog ress was remarkable. The census of 1880 gives the city 17,577; that of ten years later 46,385 ; and the last (1900) 90,426. On Puget Sound the village of Tacoma, with 73 inhabit ants in 1870 and only 1100 in 1880, leaped by 1890 to 36,000. During the last ten-year period, however, very little gain was made, the 284 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST census of 1900 showing only 37,714. Seattle presents the spectacle of a town which has grown in twenty years from a village of 3533 people to a city of 80,271 people. This sur prising result is due largely to the railroads, although Seattle has in recent years gained enormously on account of the trade with Falls of the Spokane. Alaska. East of the Cascade Mountains, towns have of course grown less rapidly; but there has been substantial progress in all three of the states comprising the Pacific Northwest.1 Idaho in 1900 had two cities of over 4000 each: Boise, 5957, and Pocatello, 4045; east ern Oregon had two: Baker City, 6663, and 1 Washington was admitted into the Union on the nth of November, 1889; Idaho on July 3, 1890. ^AjUm^ A t<* 66 View of Seattle. THE AGE OF RAILWAYS 287 Pendleton, 4406 ; and eastern Washington two, Walla Walla and Spokane. The first of these contained 10,049 inhabitants; the latter, 36,848. Considering that Spokane is an inland town, Spokane her history has been an extraordinary one. A «palo„se> few pioneers settled on " Spokane Prairie " as country early as 1862, and stores were opened near the bridge to supply the wants of miners going east into the mountains. But for some years the place remained very insignificant. In 1880 it had but 350 inhabitants. The rapid growth since that time is due mainly to the fact that the railroad opened up near Spokane one of the most wonderful wheat-raising districts in the world, the so-called " Palouse " country, stretching southward toward Lewis River. Having a magnificent water power in its falls, Spokane quickly became a great center for the manufacture of flour, as well as a distributing point both for the rich agricultural region to the south and the mining districts to the north and east. CHAPTER XIX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF TO-DAY The present The development of every country depends an age of Up0n the number, ability, and enterprise of the mation people inhabiting it. The Pacific Northwest has been especially fortunate in the character of its settlers, who were men and women of the best class from almost every portion of the United States. Until very recently, however, their numbers have been so limited that it has not been possible to make use of more than a small portion of the natural resources which this region affords. As the early traders de voted their energies to securing furs of wild animals, so the early settlers, coming a few thousand annually with ox teams, were inter ested mainly in obtaining good farms, on which to raise grain and cattle. Although some of them desired to do so, they were unable to make much use of the almost limitless forests of excellent timber, the valuable fisheries of the coasts and rivers, and the opportunities for manufacturing so lavishly provided by nature. And so it has been down to the present time. Men have come to the Northwest primarily for its free lands. The quantity of these which 288 THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF TO-DAY 289 could be taken up and converted into farms at slight expense was so vast that until now the increase in population has resulted mainly in an enlargement of the cultivated areas. While a few towns have grown with wonderful rapid ity, increasing trade, rather than manufacturing, has been the chief cause. Now, however, the population and wealth of the Northwest have both reached the point where a rapid develop ment of all kinds of resources becomes possible ; and the astonishing activity manifested every where is proof that this country is undergoing a great transformation. From a people pur suing agriculture and commerce as almost the only interests, they are changing rapidly to a complex society, engaged in a multitude of dif ferent occupations. Good beginnings have already been made in Manufactur- many lines of manufacturing. Flour and lumber ™^ mol-* ' are being exported to the markets of the world ; pects manufactures of iron, wool, and paper have reached large proportions ; salmon canning is a leading industry of the coast region ; and ship building has attained great prominence.1 But 1 From the earliest settlement of the country the Columbia River and Puget Sound districts have beenengaged in this important busi ness, for which their situation probably affords greater advantages than are possessed by any other portion of the United States. Most of the vessels thus far constructed have been of wood ; but the launching of the battleship Nebraska at Seattle on the 7th of October, 1904, proves that the Northwestern shipyards are already equipped for building the heaviest iron ships. 290 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in most of these lines there is room for almost indefinite expansion. For example, the North west has the greatest body of standing timber now to be found in the United States. The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are rapidly disappearing, while the demand for timber in the middle West and the East is increasing. The result is a wholly new activity in northwestern lumber, marked each year by the establishment of many new mills in every portion of the country, and a rapidly growing export trade. Conditions The lumber business here, as in the older of life in the states, has been a pioneer among manufac turing: industries. Plants for the manufacture of excelsior, furniture, wagons, and carriages naturally group themselves around the lumber mills ; while the successful establishment of one line of industries always tends to attract others to the same locality. These influences have helped to build up the interior towns, many of which now begin to take on the appearance of cities. They are providing themselves with the modern conveniences, such as electric light ing, water, and sewer systems ; streets are scientifically graded, and in a few cases electric railways have already been built. Socially, also, these smaller places are following in the foot steps of the large seaport cities of the North west, which in turn keep close touch with the towns THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF TO-DAY 291 great centers of population on the Atlantic coast. Churches, benevolent societies, and fraternal orders are everywhere ; the common school system is well developed, and high schools, until recently confined to the larger places, are at present being established in all towns of any importance.1 The movement for town and school libraries, local historical soci eties, commercial clubs, women's clubs, and other means of intellectual, moral, and scientific development, has already produced good results. The rural districts have been less fortunate. improve- Most of the farms are large, even in the well- ments in . . farm life settled Sections, thus scattering the population thinly over the country. Moreover, roads have generally been bad, making it difficult for farmers to communicate with each other, or with the neighboring towns. In short, farm life, while independent, healthful, and profitable in a financial way, has here as in many other places been a life of comparative isolation, with all the drawbacks incident to that fact. A strong movement for good roads has recently been inaugurated ; rural mail delivery prevails almost everywhere ; and many lines of telephone have been established. Just at present there is 1 There are also numerous academies and colleges maintained by private or denominational means, while each of the three states has its agricultural college, its normal schools for the training of teachers, and its state university. 292 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST a decided interest in the building of electric railway systems, a movement which promises to produce a great improvement in the conditions of farm life. At the same time the methods of agriculture are changing, grain raising in many places giving way to dairying, hop raising, and fruit growing, all of which tend to break up the over-large farms, and to draw the country population more closely together. Theirriga- One of the most significant movements of mentm0Ve" ^e Present time is the development of irriga tion schemes, in which the national government, the state governments, and private parties are all taking an active interest. The Inland Empire contains immense stretches of other wise excellent land which receives naturally too little moisture to produce paying crops. Much of this is so located that water can be supplied artificially; and when this is done a previously desert spot is instantly transformed into a garden. Some of the most charming districts of the Northwest, like Payette valley in Idaho, the Yakima valley in Washington, and Hood River in Oregon, illustrate the effects of irrigation. There are now on foot well-matured plans of reclamation, which, when completed, will provide homes for nearly half a million people on lands till now covered with sage brush. The present extraordinary growth of Idaho and eastern Washington is explained THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF TO-DAY 293 by this fact. But this is not all. The benefits of irrigation are becoming so well understood that the fruit growers and dairymen of southern Oregon are employing it in order to overcome the disadvantages of their long dry season; and even in the Willamette valley, where the rains continue longer in spring and begin ear lier in fall, ditches are being opened to irrigate ordinary farm land. The possibilities pre sented by this newly awakened interest are far- reaching. Under irrigation a few acres will support a family, and indeed large farms are out of the question. The general adoption of this method of agriculture would mean the fre quent division of the present farms and the mul tiplication of homes, with all the advantages of a dense population over a sparse one. We have thus indicated some of the forces The new now at work tending to transform the Pacific ^North- Northwest, and to give it the importance which west the vastness of its territory and multiplicity of its resources have long foreshadowed. Its ad vantages are becoming understood, and the region is at last beginning to receive that full tide of immigration for which it waited longer than any other great section of the West. It is a movement of both capitalists and laborers. Some are attracted by the opportunities for agriculture ; some by the rich and extensive mineral deposits awaiting development; and 294 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST others by their interest in commerce and manu facturing. Thoughtful men everywhere have been impressed by the advantage which this region is acquiring from the extension of Amer ican commerce in the Orient; from the pro spective construction of the Panama Canal ; and from the plans now matured for opening the Columbia River beyond the Great Falls, so as to allow large vessels to penetrate far beyond the Cascade Mountains and bring the Inland Empire to the sea. Blending of Just at this time, when growth in all material the two ages things is proceeding at so rapid a rate, and when the people of this great section are turning their eyes with joyful anticipation toward the future, the historic past is likewise claiming for itself, through the centennial anniversary of Lewis and Clark's exploration, an increased measure of attention. This is one of the fortunate things in the present situation ; for if the spirit of the pioneer age, its rugged independence, strong homely virtues, and wholesome aspirations, can be carried over and blended with the best the new time gives, the future greatness of our civilization in the Northwest is assured. APPENDIX GOVERNORS OF OREGON Provisional Government David Hill, Alanson Beers, and 1 . „ r~ o L o . Joseph Gale . . . . . . } Ist Exec- Com-> l843 to 1844 P. G. Stewart, O. Russell, and 1 _, -r- /- 00 W. J. Bailey . . . . . . / 2d Exec' Com-' l844 t0 l845 George Abernethy June 3, 1845, to March 3, 1849 Territorial Government Joseph Lane March 3, 1849, to June 18, 1850 Kintzing Pritchett .... June 18, 1850, to Aug. 18, 1850 John P. Gaines Aug. 18, 1850, to May 16, 1853 Joseph Lane May 16, 1853, to May 19, 1853 George L. Curry May 19, 1853, to Dec. 2, 1853 John W. Davis Dec. 2, 1853, to Aug. 1, 1854 George L. Curry Aug. 1, 1854, to March 3, 1859 State Government John Whiteaker A. C. Gibbs . George L. Woods La Fayette Grover S. F. Chadwick W. W. Thayer Z. F. Moody . Sylvester Pennoyer William P. Lord T. T. Geer . . George E. Chamberlain March 3, 1859, to Sept. lo, 1862 Sept. 10, 1862, to Sept. 12, 1866 Sept. 12, 1866, to Sept. 14, 1870 Sept. 14, 1870, to Feb. 1, 1877 Feb. 1, 1877, to Sept. 11, 1878 Sept. 11, 1878, to Sept. 13, 1882 Sept. 13, 1882, to Jan. 12, 1887 Jan. 12, 1887, to Jan. 14, 1895 . Jan. 14, 1895, to Jan. 9, 1899 . Jan. 9, 1899, to Jan. 14, 1903 . Jan. 14, 1903, to 295 296 APPENDIX GOVERNORS OF WASHINGTON Territorial Government Isaac I. Stevens 1853 to 1857 Fayette McMullen 1857 to 1859 R. D. Gholson 1859 to 1861 W. H. Wallace 1861 to 1862 W. M. Pickering 1862 to 1866 George E. Cole 1866 to 1867 Marshal F. Moore 1867101869 Alvin Flanders . ... .... 1869101870 Edward S. Salomon 1870 to 1872 Elisha P. Ferry 1872 to 1880 W. A. Newell 1880 to 1884 Watson C. Squire 1884101887 Eugene Semple ... 1887 to 1889 Miles C. Moore 1889 State Government Elisha P. Ferry 1889 to 1893 John H. McGraw 1893 to 1897 John R. Rogers 1897 to 1901 Henry McBride 1901 to 1905 Albert E. Mead 1905 GOVERNORS OF IDAHO Territorial Government William H. Wallace Caleb Lyon . David M. Ballard . Samuel Bard Gilman Marston Alexander H. Connor Thomas M. Bowen Thomas W. Bennett David P. Thompson March 10, 1863, to Feb. 26, 1864 . Feb. 26, 1864, to April 10, 1866 April 10, 1866, to March 30, 1870 . March 30, 1870, to June 7, 1870 June 7, 1870, to Jan. 12, 1871 . Jan. 12, 1871, to April 19, 1871 . April 19, 1 87 1, to Oct. 24, 1 87 1 Oct. 24, 1871, to Dec. 16, 1875 . Dec. 16, 1875, t0 July 24> J876 APPENDIX 297 Mason Brayman July 24, 1876, to Aug. 7, 1878 John P. Hoyt Aug. 7, 1878, to July 12, 1880 John B. Neil July 12, 1880, to March 2, 1883 John N. Irwin . . . March 2, 1883, to March 26, 1884 William M. Bunn .... March 26, 1884, to Sept. 29, 1885 Edward A. Stevenson . . . Sept. 29, 1885, to April 1, 1889 George L. Shoup April 1, 1889, to , 1890 State Government George L. Shoup 1890 to 1891 N. B. Willey 1891 to 1892 William J. McConnell 1893 to 1897 Frank Steunenberg 1897 to 1901 Frank W. Hunt 1901 to 1903 John T. Morrison 1903 to 1905 Frank R. Gooding 1905 U. S. SENATORS FROM OREGON Delazon Smith . . . Joseph Lane . . . Edward D. Baker . Benjamin Stark Benjamin F. Harding James W. Nesmith Feb. 14, 1859, to Nov. 3, 1859 . Feb. 14, 1859, to March 3, 1861 . March 4, 1861, to Oct. 21, 1861 . Oct. 21, 1861, to Sept. 11, 1862 . Sept. 11, 1862, to March 3, 1865 . March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1867 George H. Williams . . . March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871 Henry W. Corbett . . March 4, 1867, to March 3, 1873 James K. Kelley . . . March 4, 187 1, to March 3, 1877 John H. Mitchell March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879 John H. Mitchell .... March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1897 John H. Mitchell . March 4, 1901 (term expires March 3, 1907) La Fayette Grover .... March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883 Joseph N. Dolph . ... . . March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1895 George W. McBride .... March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1901 Henry W. Corbett (Appointed by Governor, not seated ; 1897) Joseph Senion Oct. 8, 1898, to March 3, 1903 Charles W. Fulton, March 4, 1903 (term expires March 3, 1909) 298 APPENDIX U. S. SENATORS FROM WASHINGTON Watson C. Squire .... March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1897 John B. Allen March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1893 John B. Allen . . (Appointed by Governor, not seated ; 1893) John L. Wilson March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1899 George Turner March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1903 Addison G. Foster .... March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1905 Levi Ankeny . . March 4, 1903 (term expires March 3, 1909) Samuel H. Piles . March 4, 1905 (term expires March 3, 191 1) U. S. SENATORS FROM IDAHO William J. McConnell . . . January, 1 891, to March 3, 1891 George L. Shoup January, 1891, to March 3, 1901 Fred T. Dubois March 4, 1891, to March 3, 1897 Henry Heitfeld . ... March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1903 Fred T. Dubois . March 4, 1901 (term expires March 3, 1907) Weldon B. Heyburn, March 4, 1903 (term expires March 3, 1909) CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES FROM OREGON Territorial Period Samuel R. Thurston .... Feb. 15, 1849, to April 9, 185 1 Joseph Lane June 2, 185 1, to Feb. 14, 1859 Statehood Period La Fayette Grover Lansing Stout . . George K. Shiel . John R. McBride . J. H. D. Henderson Rufus Mallory . . Joseph S. Smith . James H. Slater . Joseph S, Wilson • Feb. 15, 1859, to March 3, 1859 March 4, 1859, to March 3, 1861 March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1863 March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1865 March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1867 March 4, 1867, to March 3, 1869 March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1871 March 4, 187 1, to March 3, 1873 (Died before qualifying, 1873) APPENDIX 299 James W. Nesmith . . . March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1875 George A. La Dow .... (Died before qualifying, 1875) La Fayette Lane Oct. 25, 1875, to March 3, 1877 Richard Williams . . . March 4, 1877, to March 3, 1879 John Whiteaker ... . March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881 M. C. George March 4, 1881, to March 3, 1885 Binger Herman March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1899 W. R. Ellis March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1899 Thomas H. Tongue, March 4, 1897, to Jan. 11, 1903 (died in office) Malcolm A. Moody .... March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1903 Binger Herman, June 1, 1903 (present term expires March 3, 1907) John N. Williamson . . March 4, 1903 (present term expires March 3, 1907) CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES FROM WASHINGTON Territorial Period Columbia Lancaster 1854 to 1855 J. Patton Anderson 1855101857 Isaac I. Stevens 1857 to 1861 W. H. Wallace 1861 to 1863 George E. Cole 1863 to 1865 A. A. Denny 1865 to 1867 Alvan Flanders 1867 to 1869 S. Garfielde 1869101872 A. B. McFadden 1872 to 1874 Orange Jacobs 1874 to 1878 Thomas H. Brents 1878 to 1884 C. S. Voorhees 1884 to 1888 John B. Allen 1888 to 1889 Statehood Period John L. Wilson March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1895 W. H. Doolittle March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897 S. C. Hyde March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1897 W. L. Jones, March 4, 1897 (present term expires March 3, 1907) James Hamilton Lewis . . . March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1899 300 APPENDIX F. W. Cushman March 4, 1899, to Nov. 4, 1905 William E. Humphrey . March 4, 1905 (present term expires March 3, 1907) CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES FROM IDAHO Territorial Period William H. Wallace . Edward D. Holbrook Jacob K. Shafer . . Samuel A. Merritt Stephen S. Fenn . . John Hailey . . . George Ainslie . . Theodore F. Singiser John Hailey Fred T. Dubois March 4, 1864, March 4, 1865, March 4, 1869, March 4, 1871, March 4, 1873, March 4, 1877, March 4, 1879, March 4, 1883, March 4, 1885, March 4, 188 to March to March to March to March to March to March to March to March to March 7, to Jan. 1865 18691871187318771879 3.3.3>3.3,3, 3, 1883 3,18853, 1887 , 1890 Willis Sweet Edgar Wilson . James Gunn Thomas L. Glenn Burton L. French Statehood Period . January, 1890, to March 3, 1893 March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897 March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1901 . March 4, 1901, to March 3, 1903 March 4, 1903 (present term expires March 3, 1907) INDEX Abernethy, George, visited by Lieutenant Wilkes, 173; gov ernor, see Appendix. Adams, John Quincy, relation to Oregon Question, 134, 136. Agriculture, 61; among Indians, 65> H7. IS5-I56» 22M at Van couver, 120, 121; possibilities of, on Columbia overestimated, 132; begun by Wyeth's men, 145; at or near Willamette Mission, 149- 150; at interior missions, 152, 155, 156, 221; in Willamette valley, state of in 1841, 173— 174; advantages of, for, 160- 161, 178-179, 206-207; effect of gold discovery on, 210; state of about 1870, 279, 292, 293; on Puget Sound,2ii, 212, 243, 281; in southern Oregon, beginnings of, 246, 247, 280; irrigation, ef fects on, 293; in Inland Empire, possibilities tested by missiona ries, 254, 255; testimony of Gen eral Stevens, 255; development delayed by Indian War, 255- 256; promoted by mining, 262; in Walla Walla valley, 262—266; in Grand Ronde valley, 266— 269; other inland sections, 269- 270; development waits on rail ways, 270, 280; effects produced by railways, 282-285 ; new con ditions in, 286, 289, 291-293. Africa, way around, opened by Vasco da Gama, 3. African Association, in London, Ledyard explores for, in Africa, 56. Alarcon, Spanish explorer, 6. Alaska, N. W. Coast and, Chap. II, 15—27, 31; see Bering, Cook, Cuadra, Russia, Great Britain; Astor trades with Russians in, 101, 112, 115; H. B. Co. like wise, 121; southern boundary fixed, 128, 207; Seattle's trade with, 284. Albatross, 112, 113. Albion, New, 12, 13. Alleghany Mountains, crossing of, by pioneers, 58; communication with East, 61. America, Central, 2, 3. American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, sends Dr. Parker to Oregon, 152. See Missions. American Fur Company, organized by Astor, 100. See Astor. American Philosophical Society, Jefferson's connection with, 50, 5 1. Anian, Straits of, mentioned by Carver, 49. Applegate, Jesse, " A Day with the Cow-Column " quoted, 185-192; 204; negotiates with H. B. Co., 212; on P. S. Ogden, 214; in southern Oregon, 246-247. Arctic Ocean, new knowledge con cerning, gained by Hearne, 23, 48; by Mackenzie, 97. 301 302 INDEX Argonaut, British vessel seized by Spaniards at Nootka Sound, 32- Aricara villages, visited by Hunt's party, 106. •' Ark," or flatboat, used on Mis sissippi, 61. Arkansas River, 44, 45. Armada, Spanish, destroyed by British seamen, 15. Armstrong, Captain John, tries to explore the West, 56. Ashburton, Lord, makes treaty with United States for Great Britain, 176. Ashley, General William H., or ganizes Rocky Mountain Fur Co., 139; secures H. B. Co. furs, 140; and the discovery of South Pass, 142. Assiniboin River, 97. Astor, J. J., plans Western fur trade, 100; see Columbia River fur trade; urges U. S. to secure Astoria after treaty of 1814, 124; tries to combine with Mis souri Fur Co., 139. Astoria, founded, 103 ; described by Franchere, 103 ; emporium of Columbia River fur trade, 103-114 ; bought by N. W. Co., and afterward taken by the British warship Raccoon, 113; name changed to Fort George, 113 ; restoration to U. S., 126. Athabasca River, 97. Australia, Cook explores, 23 ; trade with California, 236. Babcock, Dr. Ira L., goes to Dalles mission, 171 ; elected supreme and probate judge by Willamette valley settlers, 199. Baffin's Bay, 23. Bagley, C. B., private library of, 244; quoted, 281. Bagot, , British minister to U. S., protests against the On tario's being sent to Colum bia, 125. Baker, Dr. D. S., builds Walla Walla and Columbia River Rail way, 270. City, 276, 284. Balboa, discovers Pacific Ocean, I, 2 ; explores, 4, 27. Ball, John, with Wyeth, first school teacher in Oregon, 122. Bear, grizzly, Lewis's encounter with, 80. Bear Flag revolt, 232-233. Bear River, trail along, 238. Beaver, abundance of, on Colum bia, 95. Beaver, Astor's second ship to Columbia, 107 ; sails to China, 112. Beers, Alanson, and family, 151. Bellingham Bay, coal found near, 243- Benton, Thomas H., on Oregon Question, 1 33 ; writes letter to Oregon people, 217 ; advocates railroad to San Francisco Bay, 272. , Fort, 261. Bent's Fort, 220. Bering, Vitus, Danish navigator in service of Russia, discoveries, 22, 31. Strait, I ; discovery of, 22, 23, 26. Bible, inquiry for, by Columbia River Indians, 147-148. Biddle, Captain, dispatched to Columbia, 124, 126. , Nicholas, edits Lewis and Clark's journals, 93. Bighorn Mountains, crossed by Hunt's party, 166. Bitter Root Mountains, crossed by Lewis and Clark, 85, 86. INDEX 303 Blackfoot Indians, attitude tow ard Hunt's party, 106 ; 139. Black Hawk, 250. Blanchet, Rev. Father, mission of, in Willamette valley, 173 ; atti tude toward provisional govern ment, 199. Blockhouses, Fort Mandan a series of, 78. Blue Mountains, timber of, 269. Blue Ridge Mountains, Jefferson's home near, 50. Boise, population of, 284. , Fort, 194, 209. valley, mining in, 257, 259 ; agriculture in, 269. Bonneville, Captain, fur trader, operations in Oregon country, 142. Boone, Daniel, 50, 58, 76 ; inter viewed by Bradbury, 106 ; 180. Boston Ships," on California coast, 229. Boston merchants, engage in the fur trade of N. W. Coast and China, 37-39. Bradbury, English naturalist, his "Travels in America" quoted, 106. Brewer, , missionary assistant, goes to Dalles, 171. British Columbia, gold rush to, 257- Broughton, Lieutenant, enters Co lumbia River, 42 ; takes posses sion of country for Great Britain, 125-126. Bryant, William Cullen, popular izes name " Oregon," 128. Buchanan, James, writes to Ore gon people, 217. Buffalo, herds seen by Lewis and Clark, 78 ; in camp at night, 80; hunted by emigrants, 189. Burnett, Peter H., helps raise emi grating company, 184 ; quoted, 184-185, 207, 208; letters to N. Y. Herald, 195; "Recollec tions," 208 ; goes to California, 235- Burnt River, 257. Cabrillo, Spanish explorer, explores coast of California, 7, 8, 14, 31. Calhoun, John C, and Tyler, 178 ; opposes Oregon Territorial Bill, 216, 217. California, origin of name, 6 ; dis covery of, 7 ; coast explored, 7, 8,9; Drake in, 12, 13; Viz caino explores, 14 ; planting of presidios and missions, 16, 17, 18 ; northern explorations from, 18-21 ; ranches in, 161 ; condi tions about 1846, 229 ; Sutter's Fort, 230 ; Mexican War, con quest of California, 231-233; gold discovery and its effects, 234-238 ; on N. W., 239-248 ; railroad built to, from the East, 272-273 ; from Oregon, 275 ; recent growth of, compared with that of N. W., 283. , Gulf of, explored, 6, 7 ; men tioned, 44, 45. Peninsula, discovery, at tempted colony, 5 ; missions in, '7- Trail, 238. Canal, Erie, 138. , Interoceanic, first suggested in 1523, 4. Canton (China), becomes center of the N. W. fur trade, 28. Cape, Fast, named by Cook, 26. Flattery, saw-mill at, 242. of Good Hope, 13, 38. Horn, 33. Prince of Wales, I, 26. Carver, Captain Jonathan, travels in the West, 46-47 ; uses the name "Oregon," 47; his map, 304 INDEX 48-49 ; plan to seek the N. W. Passage, 49. Cascade Mountains, divide the Ore gon country into an eastern and a western section, 253 ; broken through at one point by the Columbia River, 117, 253. Cascades of the Columbia, passed by Lewis and Clark, 89 ; obstruc tion to navigation, 260. Catholics. See Missions and Blan chet. Cattle Company, Willamette, for mation and effects of, 161-163. Cauldron Linn, 107. Cayuses. See Whitman massacre. Cedros Island, reached by Ulloa, 6. Celilo, or Great Falls of Columbia River, 89 ; obstructs navigation, 260 ; canal around, 294. Central America, passage through sought, 2, 3, 4. Central Pacific Railway, 273. See Railways. Champlain, French explorer, 43. Champoeg, visited by Wilkes, 172 ; settlers' convention at, to adopt a plan of self-government, 202- 204. Charles the Fifth, 9. Chillicothe, town in Ohio where Oregon meetings were held in 1843, 187. China, trade with, in furs begun, 28; from U. S. opened, 36; Ledyard's plan to trade with, 36-37 ; Boston merchants send Columbia to Canton, 37 ; Astor's project, 101; Beaver sails for, 112; Russian trade with, 101 ; the China trade and Oregon question, 130; Chinese laborers build Central Pacific Railway, 273- Chinook Indians, trade with Lewis and Clark, 90. Chittenden, Captain H. M., writes a history of the fur trade, 138. Churchill River, 23. Cibola, Cities of, 6. Cincinnati, 137. Cities, growth of, in California, 236-237 ; in N. W., 283-285. Civil War, effect of, on Pacific rail road projects, 272. Clackamas, county of, 210. Clark, George Rogers, Jefferson writes to, ahout a transcontinen tal expedition, 52. , John, fur trader of Astor's party, builds Spokane House, no. , Miss, missionary teacher, goes to Nesqually mission, 171. , William, selected as com panion by Lewis, 71 ; early career of, 71-72; brother of George Rogers Clark, 71 ; rela tions with Lewis on the journey, 72 ; appointed Indian agent for the West, 92; receives Nez Perces visitors, 198 ; death, 92. See Lewis and Clark's Expedi tion. Clark's Fork, of Columbia River, 85 ; D. Thompson builds fort on, 109 ; Astor's men on, 1 10 ; reached by steamboats, 260. Clatsop, county of, 210. , Fort, camp of Lewis and Clark in Oregon, 90. Indians of lower Columbia, 90. Clay, Henry, 134. Clayoquot Harbor, Columbia win ters in, 38 ; Tonquin destroyed in, 104-105. Clearwater River, Lewis and Clark embark at, 86 ; Lapwai mission on, 154; gold mining on, 257, 259 ; agriculture on, 269. Cceur d'Alene Prairie, 255. INDEX 305 Colleges, in the N.W., 241. Colorado River, discovered by Alarcon, 6; alluded to, 44, 45. Columbia and Lady Washington, on N. W. coast, 37-42. Columbia River, first seen by Heceta, 21 ; Carver's lack of knowledge of, name "Oregon" applied to, 47 ; entered by Gray in ship Columbia, given vessel's name, 38-39 ; sought by Mac kenzie overland, 97-98 ; ex plored by Lewis and Clark, 69-93 '• occupied for trading purposes by Astor, 99-1 14 ; con trolled by N. W. and H. B. Cos., 1 14-123; American traders visit, 139—145; missions planted on, 145—158 ; beginnings of American colonization on, 144, 149-150; British desire boun dary at, 127, 135, 211 ; main portion of river falls to U. S. by treaty of 1846, 216 ; naviga tion of, 260; improvement of, 294. fur trade, begun by Astor party in 181 1, Astoria built, 102-103 > N. W. Co.'s agents build trading posts on upper Columbia, but arrive at mouth of river too late to prevent American occupation, 108—109 > ship Tonquin destroyed, 104- 105; Hunt's overland party, 105— 107 ; ship Beaver arrives at Astoria, 107 ; Fort Okanogan founded, 109-110; expansion of trade, no— ill; news of war, effect of, m-113; N. W. Co. in control, trade renewed, 115 ; H. B. Co. absorbs N. W. Co., 116; dominates fur trade of northern half of North America, 116; Dr. John McLoughlin in charge on the Columbia, 117; builds Fort Vancouver as western emporium, 1 1 7-1 1 8 ; description of fort and business at, 1 18-123; monopoly methods, 123, 145; value of the trade, 120. Columbus, town in Ohio where an Oregon convention was agitated in 1843, 183, 214. Colville, trading post at, 119; min ing near, 257, 259. Commerce, influence of East India trade on explorations, 3, 5 ; Spanish, with Philippines, 9, 14; of trans-Alleghany country with New Orleans, 61, 62; cut off by Spaniards, 63 ; influence on Louisiana Purchase, 63-64 ; a highway for, to the Pacific, see Lewis and Clarke Expedition and Oregon question ; Wyeth's commercial scheme, 142—145 ; between Hawaii and Oregon, 166, 169, 170; Fort Vancouver as a market, 1 74 ; facilities for, in early Oregon, 179, 207 ; on Puget Sound, 212; in California, 229 ; importance of San Fran cisco, 236 ; her commercial in fluence on N.W., 236-237, 240, 241, 242, 243 ; of Puget Sound, 242, 243, 244; of Inland Empire, 258-260, 262, 265, 266, 270; of small towns, 279; of Spokane, 285 ; causes growth of cities, 289; Montana trade, 260-262; of Portland, 262-279, 283; com mercial development of Puget Sound, 283-284 ; world com merce of Pacific N. W., 289, 294. See Columbia River Fur Trade and Missouri River. Compact, government by, illus trated by Oregon provisional government, 203. Cone, Rev. W. W., missionary, 171. 306 INDEX Congress. See Oregon question and Oregon, Washington, and Idaho territories. Constitution, 102, 172-173, Constitutional convention, in Ore gon, 255 ; adoption of Constitu tion, 260. Cook, Captain James, explores N. W. Coast, 22-27, 28> 42> 48- Inlet, in Alaska, 28. Coos Bay, settlements begun at, 248; coal mining at, 280. Coppermine River, explored by Hearne, 23. Coronado, 6. Cortez, Hernando, explores Pacific coast, 4, 5, 6, 7; 31. Coues, Dr. Elliott, historian, his muster roll of Lewis and Clark's party, 75 ; editor of journals, 93, 108. Council Bluff, named by Lewis and Clark, 77. Cowlitz River, 117. Cox, Ross, " Adventures," etc., 114. Cuadra, Spanish navigator, on N. W. Coast, 21, 25; 31. Cushing, Caleb, report on Oregon question, 167, 168. Dakota, 260. Dalles of Columbia, or Long Nar rows, 89; native fish market, 94; 171, 256. Dana, Richard H., "Two Years before the Mast," 161. Darien, 1, 2. Dartmouth College, Ledyard at tends, 33, 34. "Deception Bay," named by Meares, 39. Democratic convention, 1844, en dorses "Fifty-four-forty," 215. Des Chutes River, Wyeth traps beaver on, 145; followed by 1845 emigration, 210. Discovery and Resolution, Cook's ships, 23-26. Douglas, James, factor of H. B. Co., 175. , Stephen A., introduces Ore gon Territory Bill, 217. Downing, Susan, missionary, 151. Drake, Sir Francis, cruise in Pacific, 10-14. Du Bois River, Lewis and Clark camp at, 75. Dunn, John, " Oregon Territory," etc., quoted, 121. Dye, Eva Emery, author of "Conquest," 75; "McLoughlin and Old Oregon," 118. Edgecumbe, Mt, discovered, 21; named, 25. Edwards, P. L., with Lee, 149; in Willamette Cattle Co., 162. Eells, Rev. C, missionary at Tsimakane, 156. Elizabeth, Queen, 10, 13. Elm Grove, emigrant camp at, 184. Emigration, to Kentucky, Tennes see, etc., 58; necessary for safety of Mississippi River, 65; to Mis souri valley, 76; no need to cross Rockies, 94; few had crossed in 1827, 135; settle ment of Oregon question waits upon, 136; to middle West, 1820, 137, 138; early settlers on Willamette, 149, 150; to Oregon stimulated, 163; politi cal conditions favoring, 167; Oregon Provisional Emigration Society, 168-170; Jason Lee promotes, 171, 172; condition of emigrants of 1841, 172-174; White's company, 175, 176; the great emigration, 177-195; causes of, 177-180; organiza tion, 182, 184, 185, ,190; the INDEX 307 march, cow-column, 185-192; at Fort Hall, 192, 193; the road westward, 193, 194; Whitman as guide, 194; reaches Wil lamette, 195; sources for, 195; effect on provisional govern ment, 196, 204; on later emi grations, 206, 207; of 1844, 207-208; of 1845, 208-209; new road followed, 209-210; later, see Puget Sound, Cali fornia, Inland Empire, Southern Oregon, Railways. Empress of China, ship which opened the China trade, 36. England, 15,. 28, 29, 33, 34, 52. Exploration of Missouri and Co lumbia valleys. See Lewis and Clark Expedition, Missouri River, and Columbia River. of the North. See Hearne, Samuel, and Mackenzie, Sir Alexander. of the Pacific coast, by Balboa and his companions, from Panama to the Gulf of Fonseca, 4; by Cortez, from Mexico to the Cali fornia Peninsula, 5 ; by Ulloa, to latitude 280, 6; by Cabrillo and Ferelo, to about latitude 420, 7- 9; by Drake, 10—14; by Viz caino, 14; by Russians in Alaska, to about 6o°, 16, 21, 22; by Perez, from Monterey to about 540 40', 18-20; by Heceta and Cuadra, to about 580, 20-21; by Cook, from 440 to above Cape Prince of Wales, 22-27. • of the West, by Champlain and Nicolet, from Canada to Wisconsin, 43-44; by Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle, to the Gulf of Mexico, 44; Verendrye discovers the Rocky Mountains, 45-46; the French hope to reach the Pacific via the Missouri and a west-flowing river, 45-46; Carver in the West, see Carver. Farnham, T. J., visits Oregon, 166; writes on California and Oregon, 166. Felice, British ship seized by Span- , iards at Nootka Sound, 37. Ferelo, Spanish explorer, with Ca brillo, 7, 8. Fisheries, whale, on N. W. Coast, 130, 207; Wyeth's salmon fish ing project, 144, 145, 169; value of, 179, 289. Flathead Indians, mission planned for, by Methodists, 148; traders among, 109, no. Fletcher, Francis, historian of Drake's voyage, 10 ; quoted, 13- Florida, 16; Jefferson tries to buy West Florida, 64; purchase of Florida, 128; Spanish rights on Pacific granted to United States in treaty with Spain, 1 28. Floyd, Charles, with Lewis and Clark, dies on journey, 77. , John, begins Oregon agitation in Congress, 129; speech on Oregon bill, 1 30-1 31; his pre dictions fulfilled, 262. Fonseca, Gulf of, reached from Panama, 4. Forests of the N.W. See Lumber ing- " Forty-niners," 235. Fox River, 44. France, 9, 15, 43-46; attempt to control the West, 63 ; sells Lou isiana to U. S., 68. Franchere, Gabriel, clerk of P. F. Co., " Narrative," 102-103, • '4> goes to Canada, 1 1 3. Franciscans, founders of California missions, 17—18. 3o8 INDEX Fraser, Simon, British explorer, descends Fraser River to the Pacific, 98. River, Mackenzie navigates, 97- Fremont, John C, first "path- finding" expedition, 176; in California, 232, 233. Frost, Rev. J. H., missionary, 171. Fuca, Juan de, legend of, concern ing strait, 25. Fur trade, of Canada, begun by Champlain, 43; plan of French to trade across the continent, 46; British H. B. Co. organized, its trade, 96-97 ; N. W. Co. suc ceeds French traders of Canada, 97; its westward operations, 97- 98 ; Mackenzie's trading project, 98 ; Northwesters threaten to take possession of the Columbia, 98. See Columbia River, Hudson's Bay Company, and Northwest Company. , of the N. W. Coast, begun by Cook's men, 29 ; British traders, Hanna, Meares, etc., 29- 32; occasions the Nootka Sound controversy, 32-33; Americans interested in N. W. Coast, Led- yard's trading project, 35-36; Boston merchants send ships to the N. W. Coast, 37-39. See Columbia River. — — , of the United Slates, as old as the American colonies, in fluence of, in early times, 95-96; government trading houses, 65 ; lack of organization prior to , Lewis and Clark's exploration, 96; effects of exploration on, 100, I38-I39- See Astor, Columbia River, and Missouri River. Gallatin, Albert, negotiates treaty with Great Britain, 134-136, 159. Gama, Vasco da, 3. Genet, French minister to U. S., his plans, 63. George, Fort. See Astoria. Gillespie, Lieutenant A., with Fre mont in California, 231. Golden Hind. See Drake. Good Hope, Cape of, 13. Government, first American, on the Pacific. See Oregon provisional government. Grand Ronde valley, entered by Hunt, 107; crossed by emi grants, 194; settlement of and conditions in, 266-267. Gray's Harbor, discovered by Gray, 38; native of, reports Tonquin disaster, 104. Gray, Robert, on ship Lady Wash ington, 37 ; on Columbia to China and to Boston, 38; discovers Columbia River, 38-40. Gray, William H., with Whitman, 153; goes East and returns with wife, 156; helps form provisional government, 201. Great Britain, 16; sends out Cap tain Cook to explore N. W. Coast, 24, 29; Nootka conven tion, 3Z> 34. 48, 49, 53; interest in the West, 64, 109, n 1; and the Oregon Question, 124-126, 163, 164, 168, 175, 176, 177- 178; hopes to secure northern part of Oregon, 211; U. S. will ing to give it up, 213, 214, 215; concedes 49th parallel boundary, treaty, 216. Greeley, Horace, quoted, 206; edi torial on Whitman, 220. Green Bay, 44. Green River vallev, 106. Grenville Point, Heceta takes pos session for Spain at, 20. Guerriere, 173. Gulf of Mexico, 44. INDEX 309 Hall^ Fort, 176; emigration of 1843, at, 193-194. Hancock, Samuel, 241, 242. Hanna, James, begins N. W. Coast fur trade, 29. Haro, Spanish sea captain, 31. Haswell's diary, quoted, 37. Healy, P. J., owner of California manuscripts, 233. Hearne, Samuel, explorations of, Coppermine River, 23, 48. Heceta, Spanish navigator, 20; dis covers Columbia River, 21, 31, 39- Helena, mining camp at, 258. " Henry-Thompson Journals, The," 109, 114. Hines, Rev. Gustavus, missionary, 171; address at Champoeg, 202. Holman, F. V., 169. Holland, 15. Hood River valley, illustrates ef fects of irrigation, 292. Howard, British sea captain, 15. Howse Pass, discovered by D. Thompson, 108. Hudson Bay, 16; port at, 19; York Factory, 116. Hudson's Bay Company. See Fur trade of Canada and Columbia River fur trade. Description of the trade at Hudson Bay, 97; conflict with N. W. Co., Red River Colony of Lord Selkirk, 116; consolidation with N. W. Co., 116. Hudson, Henry, perishes in the search for Northwest Passage, 22. Humboldt River, route of Central Pacific Railway, 273. Hunt, Wilson Price, partner of P. F. Co., 105 ; gathers party for Columbia, 105; the overland journey, 106-107; sails from Astoria in ship Beaver, in; trade at Sitka, 112; goes to Hawaii, 112; to Columbia, atti- tude on affairs there, 112-113; leaves Columbia River, 113. Idaho, mining in, 258, 259; agri culture, 269; plan to unite north eastern Washington with north ern Idaho, etc., 282; admitted into the Union, 284; cities of, 284; population in 1870, 279; present extraordinary growth of, due in part to irrigation, 292. Illinois, Oregon emigration move ment in, 170, 183. Independence, town in Missouri, starting point of emigration par ties going to Oregon, California, Santa Fe, etc., 183. Indian affairs, for the West, Clark in charge of, 92. War, Cayuse, causes of, 222- 223; the Whitman massacre, 223; captives ransomed, 223- 224; the Oregon provisional government proclaims war, 224; preparations and military opera tions, 224-225; effect on Con gress, 225-227; the Rogue River War, causes and results, 248- 249 ; other wars, 249-25 1 ; effects on emigration to Inland Empire, 255, 256. Indians, California, 8, 13, 17, 18; Northwest, 19, 20. See Fur trade, Missions, and Indian War. Inland Empire, source for the study of, 244; discussed, 25 3-270;. its extent and character, 253-254; agricultural possibilities, 254- 255; effect of Indian War on settlement of, 256; discovery of gold in and its effect, 257-258; " tenderfeet " and " yondersld- ers," 258; pack trains, 258-260; steamboats on upper Columbia, 3io INDEX wagon roads, 260-262; compe tition between St. Louis and Portland for Montana trade, 261- 262; agriculture in Walla Walla valley, 264-266; in Grand Ronde valley, 266, 269; railroad agita tion, 270. Iowa, emigration from, to Oregon, 183. Iphigenia, British ship, seized at Nootka by Spaniards, 37. Irrigation, employed by mission aries at interior missions, 156; development of, in Pacific N. W., 292-293. Irving, Washington, "Astoria" re ferred to, 106, 107, 114; "Cap tain Bonneville," 142. Isaac Todd, N. W. Co.'s ship, ar rives at Fort George, 115; brings cattle to Columbia River, 121. Jackson, Andrew, President, inter est in Pacific coast, 160; sends Slacum to Oregon, 160-161. , David, fur trader, 139, 140, 141. , John R., settles near Puget Sound, 211. Jackson Creek, in southern Ore gon, gold found on, 247. Jacksonville, Oregon, founded, 247. James the First, instructions to London Co. about exploration toward the Pacific, 43. Jamestown, 15. Jefferson, Thomas, two sources of interest in the West, 49-5 1 ; his letter to Steptoe, 51-52; letter to G. R. Clark, 52; relations with Ledyard, 53-56; with Mi- chaux, 56; concerned for safety of the Mississippi, 63-64; tries to buy New Orleans and West Floridav64; connection between defense of the Mississippi and Jefferson's plan to extend the Indian trade, 64-66; and the proposal to send an exploring expedition up the Missouri, 66; outline of the message of Janu ary 18, 1803, which provides for a government expedition " to the Western Ocean," 64-67; Jeffer son buys Louisiana, relation of this incident to the proposed ex pedition, 68; sends Lewis and Clark, 69-93. John, Chief, 250. John Day's River, mining in, 257; packing to, 259. Johnson, Elvira, missionary, 151. , seaman, settled at Cham poeg, 172. Joliet, French trader and explorer, 44. Jones, T. Ap. C, commodore, takes Monterey, 232. Joint-Occupation, Treaty of, 127; definition of, 127; 2d Treaty of, 136. Journals of Spanish priests with Perez, 18; Jefferson's instruc tions to Lewis concerning, 72; publication of Lewis and Clark's, 93; Thompson's, 108; Henry- Thompson's, 109, 114; Wyeth's, edited by F. G. Young, 145. Kamiah, interior mission, 156. Kamiakin, Indian chief, 250. Kamtchatka, 54. Kamloops, fort of H. B. Co. on Fraser River, 119. Kansas City, 183. Kansas River, traders from, seen by Lewis and Clark, 76. Kearny, General S. W., in Cali fornia, 233. Kelley, Hall J., begins Oregon agi tation, 129; influences Wyeth, 142, 147; visits Oregon, 162. INDEX 3" V Kendrick, Captain John, 37. Kenton\ Simon, 180. Kentucky, early settlement of, population in 1800, 58. Klamath Lake, Fremont returns from, to California, 232. Klickitat, 265. Kootenai, fur-trading station, no; mining region of, 257, 259. La Charette, Boone's home, 75, 106. Lady Washington, ship, on N. W. Coast, 37. La Grande, town in Grand Ronde valley, 266. Lane, General Joseph, appointed governor of Oregon Territory, sketch, 227-228; 235; intro duces Washington Territory Bill in Congress, 245; services in Rogue River War, 249; settles in southern Oregon, 246; 251. Langley, fort of H. B. Co. on Fraser River, 119. Lapwai. See Missions. La Salle, explorer of the Missis sippi, 44. Ledyard, John, early life, 33-34; with Captain Cook, 34; back to America, seeks support for trad ing expedition to N.W. Coast, 35- 36; publishes account of Cook's expedition, 36; in France, 53- 54; meets Jefferson, 55; plans to explore North America from Nootka Sound eastward, 55; his Siberian journey, 55—56; in Africa, death, 56. Lee, Rev. Daniel, missionary, with Jason Lee, 149. . , Rev. Jason, founds Oregon mission, 148-149; returns to the East, 165; his influence on Con gress, 167; raises colonizing party for Oregon, reaches the Columbia on Lausanne, 171. Leschi, Indian chief, 250. Leslie, Rev. David, missionary, 151. Lewis, Captain Meriwether, early life, 69-70; Jefferson's private secretary, 70; character, 70; chosen to lead exploring expedi tion, 69; return journey to Wash ington, 92; governor of Missouri Territory, mysterious death, 92. See Lewis and Clark's Expedi tion. and Clark's Expedition, ori gin of, 57-68; appointment of leaders, 69-71 ; instructions, 72— 74; preparations, the party, 74- 75; the start, 75-76; Indian council, 77; at Fort Mandan, 78-79; from Mandan to the Rockies, 79-82; Shoshones, Sa- cajawea, 82; the west slope of the Rockies, 82-86; on the Co lumbia, 86-89; reach the Pacific, 89; at Fort Clatsop, 89-90; re turn journey, 92; sources for the study of, 93. River, discovered and named by Clark, 85 ; name " Snake River" not used in this book, 85- River Desert, 107. Liberty, Missouri town, outfitting place for trapping parties, 153. Linn, Dr. Lewis F., U. S. Senator from Missouri, active in behalf of Oregon, his report on, 164- 165; 166; 168; his bill passes Senate, 182; popular agitation to secure passage through the House, 183, 213-214. Livingston, Robert R., instructed to buy New Orleans and West Florida, 64. Lolo Trail, followed by Lewis and Clark, 85. Lovejoy, A. L., companion of Dr. Whitman, 219, 220. 312 INDEX Louisiana, conditions in Lower, 63, 64 ; purchase of, 68 ; transfer of Upper, witnessed by Captain Lewis, 75. Louisville, important western town, 137- Lumbering, exceptional advantages " for, in Pacific N. W., 289-290 ; earlier development, see Manu facturing. Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, explores Mackenzie River, also a route to Pacific, 97 ; fur-trading project of, 98, 99 ; nearly realized, 116. Mackinac, Hunt secures men from, 105. Magellan, Spanish navigator who first rounded South America, 2. Malheur River, 209, 250. May Dacre, Wyeth's ship, 144, 148-149. Mayflower Compact, 203. Mammoth, Jefferson's efforts to get bones of, 51. Mandan, villages visited by St. Louis traders, 75 ; reached by Lewis and Clark, 78. ¦ -, Fort, Lewis and Clark's camp, winter of 1804-1805, 78-79. Manufacturing ships, 4 ; first built on N.W. Coast, 37, 38, 49 ; ark, or flatboat, 61 ; Lewis and Clark build canoes, 86 ; ships built at Vancouver, 121 ; on Willamette, Star of Oregon, 172; on upper Columbia, 260 ; importance of shipbuilding industry, 289 ; lum ber mills, at Vancouver, 121 ; opportunities for, in Willamette valley, 179 ; erection of, pro moted by gold rush to California, 240 ; on Puget Sound, begin nings of, 242 ; later development of, 280 ; in Grand Ronde valley, 269 ; flour mills, at Vancouver, 121 ; erected by missionaries on upper Columbia, 156 ; The Mill (Salem), 173 ; in Walla Walla valley, 265 ; special de velopment at Spokane, 285 ; other lines of manufacturing, 289-290. Marquette, Father, French priest and explorer, 44, 46. Marshall, J. W., discovers gold in California, 134. Martinez, Spanish navigator, seizes British ships at Nootka Sound, 31-32- McCarver, M. M., 204; quoted, 207. McLoughlin, Dr. John, arrives at Fort George, 117; builds Fort Vancouver, 117; management of fur trade, 11 7-1 23; enter tains Jedediah Smith, 141, Wyeth, 145, Dr. Parker, 152, the Whitman party, 154; equips men for farming, 150; promotes temperance society, 151 ; sub scribes -to the Willamette Cattle Co., 162; makes loans of stock and supplies to American set tlers, 1 74 ; tries to prevent them from settling north of the Co lumbia, 211 ; accepts the pro visional government, 212. M'Dougal, D., P. F. Co. partner, no. Meares, Captain John, N.W. Coast trader, ship seized by Spaniards, 32, 39- Meek, Joe, first sheriff of Oregon, 202; sent to Washington, 225, 227 ; appointed U. S. marshal, 228, 235. , Stephen H. L., misguides emigration of 1845, 209. Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sends Alarcon, Cabrillo, and Ferelo to explore Pacific coast, 6, 7. INDEX 313 Mexico, 4, 5, 6, 9. Michaux, Andre, has project to explore the West, failure, 56. Missions, in Lower California, 17 ; in California, planting of, 17- 18 ; French project for on Pacific, 46 ; in middle West, 146-147 ; the Nez Perces dele gation to St. Louis, 147-148. , Methodist, in Oregon, be ginnings on Willamette, 148- 149 ; influence on Willamette settlers, 149-150; progress of, 151 ; reinforcements, 151, 165, 171— 172; expansion of effort, 1 71-172; becomes a colony, 173- , Congregational or Presby terian, Parker's tour into the Oregon country, 151, 153 ; mis sion sites chosen, 152, 153; the Whitman party, 153 ; journey of, 154; begins two stations, 154- 155 ; expansion of work, 155, 156; social conditions, 156-158 ; problems of, 218, 2 [9; action of American Board, see Whit man ; decline of, 1843 '° "847, 221, 222 ; the Whitman mas sacre, 222, 224 ; break-up of interior missions, 224. , Catholic, in Willamette val ley, 173; political influence of, 199 ; in interior, 218, 219. Mississippi River, 16 ; explored by French, 43-44 ; geographi cal effect of, 45 ; Missouri branch, 45—46 ; West dependent on, 61, 62 ; early commerce of, 61, 62 ; opposition of Spain on, 62, 63 ; Jefferson's interest in, 63—68. See Lewis and Clark's Expedi- dition. Missouri, Oregon emigrations ren dezvous in, 153, 183, 208. River, see Mississippi ; prom ises a route to the Pacific, 45-46 ; Carver's plans, 47, 49 ; exploration of, see Lewis and Clark's Expedition ; a commer cial route to the Pacific, 130, 262 ; fur trade of, 96, 97, 100, 138, 139, 141 ; road from, to Walla Walla, 261 ; railroad route to Pacific, 272. M'Kenzie, Donald, fur trader with Astor and N. W. Co., no, in, 115, 116. Mofras, Duflot de, visits Oregon, 172. Moluccas, importance of spice trade with, 3, 5. Monopoly. See Hudson Bay Co., 123. Monroe, James, helps secure treaty with France in 1803, 64. Monterey, harbor discovered, 8 ; fortified mission at, 18; base for northern explorations, 18-20. Montreal, Astor secures men from, 105, 109. Morris, Robert, favors Ledyard, 26. M'Tavish, J. G., N. W. Co. fur trader, brings war news to Columbia, m ; secures transfer of Astoria to N. W. Co., 112- i'3- Mullan, Captain John, builds Mul- lan Road, 261. Napoleon, secures Louisiana from Spain, 57 ; sells to U. S., 68. Nebraska, battleship built at Seattle, 2S9. Nelson River, route of fur trade to Hudson Bay, 98, 99. Nesmith, J. W., with 1843 emigra tion, 185; 204; at Northern Pacific Railroad celebration, 277. Netal River, now Lewis and Clark's River, site of Fort Clatsop, 90. New Archangel (Sitka), 101. 314 INDEX New Orleans, the market for the trans- Alleghany West, 6 1 ; Jef ferson tries to buy, 64. New York, Astor seeks to center fur and China trade at, 100-101. Nez Perces Indians, send delega tion to St. Louis, 147-148; 151, 154. Nicaragua Lake, discovered, 4. Nicolet, Jean, French trader, 43. Nolan, Philip, Jefferson writes to about wild horses, 51. Nootka convention, treaty between Spain and Britain, 32. Sound, discovered by Perez, 19 ; Cook names, 25 ; and the Columbia, 28-42 ; first sale of sea-otter skins in Canton, 28 ; effects of, 29 ; early fur trade, 30 ; Nootka Sound the center of, 30—31 ; Russia pushes down the coast, 31 ; Spanish rights threatened, 31 ; Spain fortifies Nootka Sound, 32 ; Spaniards seize British vessels at Nootka, 32; the Nootka Sound con troversy and its settlement, 32- 33 ; influence upon American interests in the Pacific N. W., 33. North Dakota, Fort Mandan in, 78. Northwest America, first sea-going vessel built on N. W. Coast, 37. Coast, definition of, 20 ; and Alaska, 15-27. Company, origin and growth of, 97 ; occupation of the coun try west of the Rockies, 97-98, 108-109 ; acquisition of Astoria as a result of the War of 181 2, 111-113 ; consolidation with H. B. Co., 115-116. Passage, 3, 16, 22. Ogden, Peter Skeen, factor of H. B. Co., 1 75 ; saves Waiilatpu captives, 223, 224. Ohio, population in 1800, 58; Oregon meetings in, 183, 213- 214. Statesman, newspaper, source of information on Cincinnati Oregon convention of 1843, 2I4- Okanogan, Fort, founded by Astor party, III. Olympia, beginnings of, 212; pros perity after the gold rush, 241, 242 ; territorial government be gun at, 245 ; population in 1870, 280. Onalaska, or Unalaska, Ledyard explores, 34. Ontario, warship sent to Columbia, 124, 126. Orbit, brig which began the lum ber trade from Puget Sound to California, 242. Oregon Historical Society, publica tions of, 145, 195, 208, 281. , origin of name, 47, 128. provisional government, early political conditions, 197 ; first step toward self-government, 198-199 ; cause of failure, 199- 200; new agitation, the " wolf- meeting," 200; Champoeg meet ing, 201-202 ; officers chosen, 202; the first organic law, 203; government by compact, 203 ; weakness of the first provisional government, 204-205; saved by the great emigration, 204-205; its final success, 206; the H. B. Co. accepts its authority, 211- 212; effect on Oregon question, 213; undertakes a war against the Cayuse Indians, 224 ; termi nates, 228. question, situation on Colum bia when War of 1812 came, 108-1 13; sale of Astoria to N.W. Co., 1 1 3 ; taken by Raccoon, 113; question of its restoration under INDEX 315 treaty of Ghent, 124; British rights first asserted in 181 7, 125; U. S. to have right of possession of Columbia till question of ownership could be settled, 1 25- 126 ; Joint-Occupation Treaty, 1 26-1 27 ; first discussion of boundary, 127-128; lack of national interest in Oregon, Bryant's " Thanatopsis," Kelley's pamphlets, 128-129; in Con gress, 1 29 ; Floyd's resolution, report, and bill, 129 ; second bill, debate, Floyd's argument, 1 29-1 3 1 ; Bailies's predictions, 131-132; Tracy's "practical" views, 132; defeat of bill, 133; Benton's Senate speech, 132; first diplomatic discussion over Oregon, 134; second diplomatic discussion, Gallatin, 135-136; reasons for failure, 136; the question dropped, 1827-1837, 159; Slacum in Oregon, 160-162; report, 163 ; Oregon discussion resumed in Congress, Linn's bill and report, 164-165; Jason Lee in the East, T. J. Farnham's visit to Oregon, petitions and memo rials, 165-168 ; Cushing's report, 167; Oregon Provisional Emi gration Society, 1 68-1 70 ; local emigrating companies, 1 70 ; Lee's colony of 1840, 171-172 ; Oregon in 1841, 172-175 ; White's company of emigrants, 1842, 175-176; the Ashburton Treaty, 176; the great emigration of 1843, 177-195; see Emigra tion. — Establishment of provi sional government for Oregon ; see provisional government. — Effect on Oregon question, 213; Oregon convention at Cincinnati, 213-214 ; " Fifty-four-forty," 214-215 ; Polk President, his attitude, 215; Britain offers com promise, 216. State, agitation for statehood, adoption of Constitution, and admission into the Union, 251- 252. Steam Navigation Company opens river trade with Wallula, 259; extends operations on upper Columbia, 260, 262; becomes the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., 276. Territory, President Polk recommends creation of, 216, 218, 227; bills for, 216, 218, 227; slavery influence in Con gress opposes, 217, 218, 227; passage, 227 ; General Lane, first governor, 227; government inaugurated, 228 ; terminates, 252. Trail, 238. Oregonian and Indian's Advocate, 169. Oregonian, The Sunday, of Port land, Oregon, reprints Lee and Frost's " First Ten Years of Ore gon," 149. Orient, trade with, from Pacific N. W„ 295. Pacific Fur Company. See Astor and Columbia River Fur Trade. Palouse, wheat-raising region of Pacific N.W., 285. Panama Canal, affects Pacific N. W., 294. , Isthmus of, 1, 235, 274. Parker, Dr. Samuel, A. B. C. F. M., missionary, explores Oregon, i5i-'53- Peace River, ascended by Mac kenzie, 97-99. Pedlar, ship used by Hunt, 113. Pen d'Oreille, Lake, N. W. Co. fort at, 109; navigation to, 260. 3i6 INDEX Perez, Juan, explores N. W. Coast, 18-20, 31. Perkins, Rev. H. K. W., mission ary, 151. Philippines, discovered by Magel lan, conquest and commerce with, 9. Pioneer and Democrat, Puget Sound newspaper, used as source, 244, 265. Pitman, Miss, 151. Platte River, Oregon Trail along, 141, 185, 238. Pocatello, city in Idaho, popula tion of, 284. Polk, James K., elected President, 213 ; settles Oregon question, 214. Population, of middle West about 1800, 58; in 1820, 137; of Ore gon, in 1841, 172; in 1846, 210; of California, in 1850 and i860, 237; of the N. W., in 1850 and i860, 237; of Oregon and Washington, in i860, 252; of the Inland Empire, 266, 269; distribution of, in N. W., about 1870, 278-280; later growth, 283-285 ; prospects for increase due to irrigation, manufacturing, etc., 292-294. Portland, a new village at time of California gold rush, 240; em porium of trade to Inland Em pire, 262; metropolis of the N. W., 1870, 279; progress of population, 283. Portneuf River, trail along, 238. Port Townsend, lumber mill at, 242. Portugal, 3; flag of, used by British N. W. traders, 29, 32. Powder River, mining on, 257, 259; agriculture on, 269. Prevost, J. B., receives Columbia country from British at Astoria, 126. Prickly Pear River, 259. Princess Royal, British ship seized by Spaniards at Nootka, 32. Puget Sound, Fort Nesqually and Methodist Episcopal mission on, 171 ; first settlement on, 210- 212; California miners from, 235; commercial progress of, 236, 241 ; lumbering on, 242; dis covery of coal, 242-243 ; in creased population, 242, 244; demands separate territory, 244, 245 ; project of railroad to, 271 ; population on, 279; lumbering, 280, 281; social conditions, im portation of women from the East, 281; growth of cities on, 283, 284. Agricultural Company, 211. Herald, used as source, 244. " Quarterly," of Oregon Historical Society, 195, 208, 281. Raccoon, British warship, takes Astoria, 113. Railways, 6 1 ; inland country waits for, 270; Walla Walla and Co lumbia River line, 270 ; age of, in Pacific N. W., 271 ; early Pacific railway projects, Asa Whitney, 271; George Wilkes, 271-272; influence of Civil War on, 272 ; first Pacific railway completed to San Francisco Bay, 273; effect of, 273-274; insuffi cient for N. W., 274; connect ing lines planned, 274, 275; Oregon-California Railway, 275 ; Henry Villard, 275-277; Ore gon Railway and Navigation Co., 276 ; Northern Pacific com pleted, 277; later railway build ing, 278; effect of, 278-285. Resolution and Discovery, Cook's ships, 23. INDEX 317 River of the West, early ideas con cerning, 43-44; relation to Mis souri, 45, 46; Carver's report and map, 46—49; Jefferson and, 53. See Columbia. " Rocky Mountain Exploration," by Reuben Gold Thwaites, quoted, 72. Rocky Mountains, Verendrys dis covers, 46: crossed by Lewis and Clark, 82; difference in character of east and west slopes, 82, 84, 92 ; Mackenzie crosses by Peace River, 97; David Thompson crosses by Howse Pass, 108; eastern boundary of Oregon, 127; a supposed inac cessible barrier to westward emigration, 132; explored by Long, 133; American fur traders enter, 139; Jedediah Smith crosses to California and to Ore gon, 140-141; wagons taken into, 1830, 141 ; discovery of South Pass, 141 ; first wagons to cross, 142; road opened to Fort Hall, 144; completed to Co lumbia, 1843, I93- Rogers, Rev. C, missionary, 156. Rogue River valley receives set tlers, 247. War. See Indian War. Roseburg, Oregon and California Railway completed to, 275. Ross, Alexander, clsrk of P. F. Co., at Okanogan, the " Fur Hunters," quoted, no; 114. Rush, Richard, negotiates with Britain on Oregon, 134, 135. Russia, explorations of, in Alaska, 16, 20, 22, 25; government of, arrests Ledyard, 54; treaty with U. S., 128; Astor's trade with Russians in Alaska, 101, 112; H. B. Co.'s trade with, 121. Sacajawea, guide to Lewis and Clark, 75, 82. Sacramento valley, 231. Salem, origin of, 172, 173; consti tutional convention at, 251. Salmon River, Captain Clark de scends, 85; mining on, 257, 259. San Carlos, mission of, 18. Sandwich Islands, Cook discovers, 24; account of, relations with Oregon and California, 167. San Diego Harbor, discovered, 7; named, 14; fortified, mission at, 17, 18. San Francisco, becomes the com mercial emporium of Pacific coast, 236; population, 237. San Jacinto (Mt. Edgecumbe), 21, 25- San Miguel, Gulf of, where Balboa reaches the Pacific, I; Bay of, later called San Diego, 7 ; Island of, 8. Santa Fe, possible route to Pacific by way of, 53. Santa Marguerita, a discovery made by Perez, 19. Santiago, exploring ship of Perez and Heceta, 18, 20. Saskatchewan River, 97. Scribner's Magazine cited, 90. Sea-otter, importance of, 28, 29, and ff. Seattle, beginnings of, 242; ship load of women arrive at, 281 ; her marvelous growth in twenty years, 284; battleship Nebraska built at, 289; importance of Alaska trade, 284. Selkirk, Lord, founds Red River colony, 116. Serra, Father Junipero, founds Cali fornia missions, 17. Shepard, missionary, 151. She Whaps River and Lake, fur trade upon, 1 10. 3i8 INDEX Shively, J. M., Oregon emigration agent at Washington, 182. Shoshone Indians, aid Lewis and Clark, 82. Siberia, Ledyard's journey in, 55. Sierras, gold found in, 234. Simmons, M. T., pioneer settler on Puget Sound, 211, 212. Simpson, Sir George, governor of H. B. Co., 117; visits Oregon, 172. Siskiyou Mountains, crossed by Oregon men going to California, 234; railway across, 275. Sitka, 101. Slacum, W. A., sent to Pacific coast, 160; visits Willamette valley, 160-161; promotes cattle com pany, 161-162; returns to U. S. and reports, 163. Smith, A. B., missionary, 156. , Jedediah, 119; visits Cali fornia, 140; crosses to Oregon, 141; attacked by Umpqua In dians, 141 ; at Vancouver, 141 ; takes wagons to Rocky Moun tains, 141. Snake River. See Lewis River. Society Islands, Wyeth's ship wrecked at, 143. Sonora, Cuadra's ship, 20, 21. South Pass. See Rocky Mountains. Sea, discovered by Balboa, I, 2; explored, 5, 44, 45. Sowles, Captain, in charge of ship Beaver, 112. Spain, her power on the Pacific, 9, 10; decline of, 15, 16; plans of, 16, 17; executes plans, 17-21 ; gives up exclusive claim to N. W. Coast, 32; treaty with U. S., 128. Spalding, Rev. H. H., joins Whit man, 153; wife an invalid on journey, 154; they settle at Lapwai mission, 154-155; his account of the mission, 221. Spectator, The, New York news paper used as source, 220. Spokane, beginnings of, and ac count of development, 285. House, P. F. Co. trading station, built by Clark, III. River, no. Star of Oregon, a vessel built on Willamette, in 1841, 172. St. Elias, named, 25. Steptoe, Jefferson writes letter to, 5'- Stevens, General Isaac I., appointed governor of Washington Terri tory, 245-246; sketch of, 245- 246; opinion of inland country, 255; explores Northern Pacific Railroad route, opinion of, 272; his treaties with Indian tribes, 255-256; " Life of," by Hazard Stevens, 246. St. James, H. B. Co. fort, 119. St. Louis, Captain Lewis at, 75; important western trade center, 138, 139- Stock-raising, beginnings of in N. W., 121; advantages of Wil lamette valley for, 160; Willa mette Cattle Co., 161-163; favored land for, 178; in Inland Empire, 254, 279; dairying, 292; in southern Oregon, 246, 280. " Strait," the search for a, 2, 3. Strong and Schafer, " Government of American People " cited, 203. Stuart, David, P. F. Co. partner, builds Fort Okanogan, 109-110. . Robert, P. F. Co. partner, sent East from Astoria, wanders in Rocky Mountains, no. Sublette, William L., Rocky Moun tain fur trader, 139, 140, 141, 143. Sutter, Captain John A., settles in California, 230, 233, 234. Sutter's Fort, 230^-231. INDEX 319 Tacoma, beginnings, population in 1870, 281; rapid growth, 283- 284. Taos, 220. Tecumseh, Indian chief, 250. Tennessee, population in 1800, 58. " Thanatopsis," popularizes the name "Oregon," 128. Thompson, David, geographer of N. W. Co., appears at Astoria, 108; discovers Howse Pass, 108; plants forts on upper Columbia, 109; opposes P. F. Co., 109; journal quoted by Dr. Coues, 108. Thorn, Captain Jonathan, in charge of Tonquin, 102; at mouth of Columbia, 103; at Clayoquot, trouble with Indians, death, 104, 105. Three Forks, of the Missouri, Lewis and Clark at, 81. Thwaites, Dr. Reuben Gold, quoted, 72; publishes plan of Fort Clat sop, 90; edits Lewis and Clark's journals, 93; John B. Wyeth's book, 145. Tonquin, Astor's first ship to the Columbia, 102; loss of men at mouth of river,- 103; northern cruise, destruction of, 104-105. Tracy, Rev. Frederick P., editor of Oregonian and Indian's Ad vocate, 169. , of New York, speech on Floyd's bill, 132-133. Trappers, American, sent to Rocky Mountains by Ashley, 139; come in contact with H. B. Co. trap pers, 139-140; party of settlers in Willamette valley, 172. Tribune, the New York, cited, 206, 220. Tsimakane, mission on Spokane River, 156. See Missions. Tualatin, County, in Oregon, 210; Academy, 241. Turner, Professor Frederick J., " Significance of Frontier," quoted, 95, 96. Tyler, President John, quoted on Oregon question, 178. Ulloa, Spanish explorer, sent out by Cortez, 5, 6, 7, 31. Umatilla Landing, 259. Umpqua, Fort, 119. valley, settlement of, 246— 247; railroad to, 275. Union Pacific, 276. See Railways. Vancouver, Captain George, 42. , Fort. See Hudson's Bay Company. Verendrye, discovers Rocky Moun tains, 46. Villard, Henry, interested in Ore gon railways, 275; organizes Oregon Railway and Navigation Co. to build line up Columbia valley, 276; secures control of Northern Pacific Railroad, 276; completes Northern Pacific Rail road, 277; " Memoirs of," 277. Vizcaino, Spanish explorer, in Cali fornia, 14, 15, 17. Waiilatpu. See Missions. Waldo, Daniel, 204. Walker, C. M., with Jason Lee, 149. , Rev. Elkanah, missionary at Tsimakane, 156. , Joseph, leads portion of Bonneville's men to California, 142. Walla Walla River, Fort Walla Walla at mouth of, 115 ; mission site selected on, 152-153 ; mis sion on, 154. valley, settlement of, 259, 260, 261 ; development, 262, 320 INDEX 265—266 ; military post in, 259 ; commercial activity of Walla Walla town, 259-260 ; impor tance of, 280. Waller, Rev. A. F., missionary at Oregon City station, 171. Wallula, 270. War of 1812, effect on Oregon, see Oregon question. Washington Statesman, source used, 244. — — Territory, included in early Oregon, see Oregon Territory, Columbia River, and provisional government ; early settlement, see Puget Sound ; agitation for separate territory, 244 ; first newspaper, 244 ; first territorial meeting, 244 ; second meeting, memorial to Congress, 245 ; Lane's bill for creation of the Territory of Columbia, 245 ; amended and passed, 245 ; Gen eral Stevens governor, 245 ; gold in, see Mining and In land Empire ; becomes a state, 284. , State of, admitted, 284 ; cities of, 283, 284, 285 ; effects of commerce and of irrigation, 289, 292. Wayne, Anthony, 71. Webster, Daniel, concludes Ash burton treaty, 176. Western Engineer, steamboat used by Long's exploring party, 138. White, Dr. Elijah, comes to Ore gon, 151, 173; appointed Indian agent, takes emigrants to Ore gon, 175-176, 200. Whitman, Dr. Marcus, with Dr. Parker, 152 ; brings mission aries to Oregon, 153-154 ; founds interior missions, 154- 155; guides emigration of 1843, 193—194 ; reasons for his famous winter ride, 218-219 ; difficulties and hardships on journey, 219, 220; missions decline, 221— 222 ; the Whitman massacre, 223 ; Whitman's opinion of inland country, 254. Whitney, Asa, his railroad project, 271. Wilderness Road, 58, 180. Wilkes, Lieutenant Charles, in Oregon, 172-174. , George, plans national rail road to Pacific, 271-272, 275. Willamette Cattle Company, 161— 163. , Indians of, a sickly, degraded race, 151, 173. Mission. See Missions. valley. See Emigration and Stock-raising. Wilson, Dr. J. R., on Oregon question, 168. , W. H., missionary, 151. Wind River Mountains, crossed by Hunt's party, 106, 141. Wisconsin Historical Society, library of, used, 214. Wood, Tallmadge B., quoted, 207. " World Encompassed, The," Fletcher's account of Drake's voyage, 10. Wyeth, Nathaniel J., interested in Oregon, 142 ; trading project, 143 ; first journey to Columbia, 143 ; return to Boston, second journey, 144 ; plans ruined, 145 ; influence on^ settlement of Ore gon, 145 ; his journals and let ters, 145. Yakima valley, settlement of, 265 ; agriculture in, 269 ; an irrigated section, 292. Yamhill County, Oregon, 210. INDEX 321 Yellowstone River, described by Lewis and Clark, 80. Yoncalla, founded and named by Jesse Applegate, 246. York, Captain Clark's negro serv ant, 75. York Factory, 116. Young, Ewing, organizes cattle company, 161— 162; death, es tate, 198-199. , Professor F. G., edits Wyeth's journals, 145 ; Quarterly, 195. Young's Bay, 90. Tarr and McMurry's Geographies A NEW SERIES OF GEOGRAPHIES IN TWO, THREE. OR f"VS VOLUMES By RALPH S. TARR, B.S., F.Q.S.A. Cornell University FRANK M. McMURRY, Ph.D. Teachers College, Columbia University TWO BOOK SERIES Introductory Geography 60 cents Complete Geography $1.00 THE THREE BOOK SERIES First Book (4th and 5th Years) Home Geography and the Earth as a Whole 60 cents Second Book (6th Year) Worth America 7S cents Third Book (7th year) Europe and Other Continents ... 75 cents THE FIVE BOOK SERIES First Part (4th year) Home Geography 40 cents Second Part (5th year) The Earth as a Whole .... 40 cents Third Part (6th year) Worth America 75 cents Fourth Part (7th year) Europe, South America, Etc. ... 50 cents Fifth Part (8th year) Asia and Africa, with Review of North America 40 cents To meet the requirements of some courses of study, the section from the Third Book, treating of South America, is bound up with the Second Book, thus bringing North America and South America together in one volume. The following Supplementary Volumes have also been prepared, and may be had separately or bound together with the Third Book of the Three Book Series, or the Fifth Part of the Five Book Series : SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUMES Wew York State ... 30 cents The Wew England States . 30 cents Utah 40 cents California 30 cents Kansas 30 cents Ohio 30 cents Virginia 30 cents Pennsylvania .... 30 cents Texas ... 35 cents When ordering, be careful to specify the Book or Part and the Series desired, and whether with or without the State Supplement. published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA PIONEER HISTORY SERIES By CHARLES A. McMURRY Designed as a complete series of early history stories of the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, suitable as an introduction for children to American History. Illustrated and equipped with maps. Cloth i2mo 40 cents each Pioneers on Land and Sea The first of the three volumes deals with the chief ocean explorers, Columbus and Magellan, and with the pioneers of the Eastern States, Canada, and Mexico, such as Champlain, Smith, Hudson, De Leon, Cortes. These stories furnish the gateway through which the children of our Atlantic States should enter the fields of History. The attempt is to render these complete and interesting stories, making the experiences of pioneer life as graphic and real as possible. Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley Such men as La Salle, Boone, Robertson, George Rogers Clark, Lincoln, and Sevier supply a group of simple biographical stories which give the children a remarkably good introduction to History. Teachers are begin ning to believe that children should begin with tales of their own home and of neighboring states, and then move outward from this centre. For eastern children these stories form a very suitable continuation to " Pioneers on Land and Sea," and vice versa. Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and the West In some respects these western stories are more interesting and striking than those of the states farther east, because of their physical surroundings. Children of the Western or Mountain States should enjoy these stories first. The various exploring expeditions which opened up the routes across the plains and mountains are full of interesting and instructive incidents and of heroic enterprise. The chief figures in these stories are men of the most striking and admirable qualities, and the difficulties and dangers which they overcame place them among the heroes who will always attract and instruct American children. Incidentally, these narratives give the best of all intro ductions to western geography. They are largely made up from source materials furnished by the explorers themselves. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA STORIES OF CALIFORNIA BY ELLA M. SEXTON With many illustrations Cloth i6mo $1.00 net "As a concise and interesting history of California, it deserves a place in our schools and libraries, so that every child may read it." — Pacific Churchman. " This volume comprises some excellent contributions to history, as it certainly comprises some notable contributions to romance. The little book is one which will appeal, therefore, to readers old and young. Several of the stories explain in some degree the remarkable physical character istics of California, but the writer's chief aim has been to unfold to children and their parents the life of bygone days." — The Outlook. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA FIRST LESSONS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY By EDWARD CHANNING Professor of History in Harvard University ; Author of "A Student's History of the United States," etc. Illustrated Cloth i2mo 60 cents net "The arrangement of the subject-matter is new, and must be pleasing to the children, especially if they have used one of the elementary histories built on the common plan." — Charles L. Clay, Superintendent of Schools, Harvard, Mass. " By presenting centres of interest through picturesque and personal inci dents, connected with the greater events of our country, you have certainly afforded our pupils an excellent opportunity to become familiar with its his tory." — Mrs. M. L. Breen, Wooster School, New Haven, Conn. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR GRAMMAR GRADES By EDWARD CHANNIWG Professor of History in Harvard University ; Author of " Student's History of the United States^' " First Lessons in United States History," etc. WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS Half leather i2mo 90 cents net " I have examined Channing's ' Short United States History ' and find it a (Valuable book. A great amount of new and valuable information is used in a scholarly way to throw light on the great chapters in American history. It is refreshing reading from the beginning to the end." — John A. Callahan, Principal of the Nonotuck Street School, Holyoke, Mass. " It is concise, methodical, attractive, and durable. It is just the kind of a book to put in the hands of pupils." — A. W. Emerson, Principal of the Washington Irvittg High School, Tarrytown, N. Y. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA