A History of Oregon, 1792-1849.

by William Henry Gray.

INTRODUCTORY.

The reader will observe that when we commenced furnishing the historical articles for the _Marine Gazette_, we did not know that they would be of sufficient interest to justify arranging them in book form; but few articles had been given, however, before there was a call for back numbers of the paper, which were not on hand. It was then decided to continue the articles, giving an opportunity to correct errors in statement of historical facts, and collect such as were printed, with all just criticisms, review the whole, and complete the ma.n.u.script for publication.

As will be seen, we have endeavored to narrate events in plain language, and as nearly in the order of occurrence as possible.

We make no claim to literary merit or attractive style; the facts we have collected, the proofs we are able to give of the policy and practices of one of the most gigantic frauds ever continued for a series of years by one professedly civilized and Christian nation upon another, in chartering and continuing to license a monster monopoly; and the manner in which they have sought for a series of years to prevent American trade and settlement of the western portion of our country, is contained in the following pages. We can only give the princ.i.p.al events, which in the future may be better arranged in an interesting and authentic history, which we must leave for others to write. The reader will find in the following pages:--

I. The American history of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural companies.

II. The causes of failure of the Protestant missions, the causes of Indian wars, and the causes that must tend to the utter destruction of the Indian race on the American continent.

III. The adverse influences that the early settlers had to contend with in coming to and settling in the country, fully explained.

IV. A concise history of the early settlement of the country, a short sketch of many of the public men in it, their public character and proceedings, and the organization of the provisional government.

V. The mining and agricultural interests of the country.

There are two grounds upon which every fact is based:--

1. Personal knowledge, observation, and partic.i.p.ation in what is stated for one-third of a century.

2. The written and printed statements of others, so compared that conclusions are intended to be without a possibility of truthful contradiction; thus making this a standard history of the country for the time included within the period from its discovery by Captain Robert Gray to 1849.

HISTORY OF OREGON.

CHAPTER I.

First discovery of the river.--Natives friendly.--British ship.--Brig _Jennet_.--Snow _Sea Otter_.--The _Globe_.-- _Alert._--_Guatimozin._--_Atahualpa._--Lewis and Clarke.

--Vancouver.--Hamilton.--Derby.--_Pearl._--_Albatross._--First house built in 1810.--Astor's settlement.--The _Tonquin_.--Astor's Company betrayed to the Northwest Company.

In all countries it is difficult to trace the history of their early discovery and settlement. That of Oregon is no exception. The Spanish claim, and it is generally conceded, that they were the discoverers of the coast, and gave names to the princ.i.p.al capes and to Fuca's Straits.

No evidence can be found in national archives, or among the native tribes of the country, that gives the discovery of the Columbia River to any civilized people but to the Bostons (Americans); so that, so far as civil history or national testimony is concerned, we are without any, except the conjectures of men as ignorant as ourselves. Hence we are left to the alternative of searching the old logs of vessels and such old books as have been written, and, in connection with the legends and statements of the aborigines of the country, form an opinion as to its discovery, and from such dates and conclusions commence its civil history. That of Oregon begins eight years previous to the commencement of the present century.

A ship, owned by Messrs. Barrell, Bulfinch & Co., of Boston, and commanded by Captain Robert Gray, discovered and entered the mouth of the third great river upon the American continent. It then had no name known to the civilized world. This unselfish American, instead of following the example of many contemporary British navigators by giving his own name to the majestic river he had discovered, gave it that of his n.o.ble ship, _Columbia_.

On the 7th of May, 1792, he discovered and ran in abreast of Cape Hanc.o.c.k, and anch.o.r.ed, and on the 11th ran ten miles up this river on the north side, which is now known as a little above Chinook Point, and at 1 P.M. they came to anchor. On the 14th they weighed anchor and ran, according to the ship's log, fifteen miles, which would bring them up abreast of Tongue Point, where their ship grounded upon a sand bar for a short time, but they backed her off into three fathoms of water and anch.o.r.ed. By sounding they discovered that there was not sufficient water to pa.s.s up the river in their present channel. Having filled all their water-casks, repaired, painted, and calked the ship, and allowed the vast numbers of Indians that thronged around them in the most peaceable and friendly manner, to visit and traffic with them, on the 20th of May, 1792, they went to sea again.

On the 20th of October of this year, the _Chatham_, commanded by Captain Broughton, of the British navy, entered the river. He grounded his ship on what is now called the Sulphur Spit, and found in the bay the brig _Jennet_, Captain Baker, from Bristol, Rhode Island. Captain Broughton explored the river in his small boat as high up as the present site of Vancouver, and left the river with his ship on the 10th of November.

In 1797, five years later, the snow _Sea Otter_, Captain Hill, from Boston, visited the river.

In 1798, the ship _Hazard_, Swift, master, owned by Perkins, Lamb & Co., Boston, visited the river. This same ship visited the river again in 1801.

In 1802, this same Boston company sent the ship _Globe_, Magee, master, to the river.

During the year 1802, a brisk, and something like a permanent American trade appears to have been in contemplation by this Boston company. They sent the ship _Caroline_, Derby, master, from Boston, and the ship _Manchester_, Brice, master, from Philadelphia.

In 1803, Lamb & Company sent the ship _Alert_, Ebbets, master; also the ship _Vancouver_, Brown, master. This year, the ship _Juno_, Kendricks, master, from Bristol, Rhode Island, owned by De Wolf, entered the Columbia River for trade.

In the year 1804, Theodore Lyman sent the ship _Guatimozin_, b.u.msted, master, from Boston. The Perkins Company sent the ship _Hazard_, Swift, master, to the river the same year.

In 1805, Lyman & Company sent the ship _Atahualpa_, O. Potter, master, from Boston. Lamb & Company sent the ship _Caroline_, Sturges, master, from the same place.

On the 15th of November, 1805, Lewis and Clarke, with their party, having crossed the Rocky Mountains under the direction of President Jefferson, of the United States, arrived at Cape Hanc.o.c.k; remaining but a few days, they crossed the Columbia River and encamped near the mouth of a small river still bearing the name of these two explorers. They left their encampment in March, 1806, and returned across the continent and reported the result of their expedition to the government.

This expedition consisted of one hundred and eighty soldiers or enlisted men. On arriving at the Mandan Village, on the Missouri River, in 1804, they encountered the influence of the Northwest British Fur Company, who, on learning their object, at once made arrangements to follow and get possession of the country at the mouth of the Columbia River.

In 1806, soon after Lewis and Clarke left their encampment on their return to the United States, the ship _Vancouver_, Brown, master, entered the river, having been sent out by Thomas Lyman, of Boston, in expectation of meeting Lewis and Clarke's party at the mouth of the river. The Lamb Company sent the ship _Pearl_ the same year, under the command of Captain Ebbets. Lyman, in addition to the _Vancouver_, sent the brig _Lydia_, Hill, master, to the river, making three American ships from Boston in the year 1806.

In 1807, the ship _Hamilton_ arrived in the river, sent by Thomas Lyman, of Boston, L. Peters, master. The Perkins Company sent the _Hazard_, Smith, master.

In 1808, the ship _Derby_, Swift, master, sent by the Perkins Company.

Lyman sent the ship _Guatimozin_, Glanville, master; both made successful trips in and out of the river.

In 1809, the Perkins Company sent the ships _Pearl_ and _Vancouver_ into the river, the former commanded by Smith, the latter by Whittimore.

In 1810, the ship _Albatross_, from Boston, T. Winship, master, entered the river and sailed as high up as Oak Point, where the captain erected a house, cleared a piece of land for cultivation, and planted a garden.

This year, John Jacob Astor, of New York, organized the Pacific Fur Company, in connection with Wilson Price Hunt, of New Jersey. These two gentlemen admitted as partners in the fur trade, Messrs. McKay, McDougal, and David and Robert Stewart. These four last-mentioned partners, with eleven clerks and thirteen Canadian voyageurs, and a complete outfit for a fort, with cannon and small-arms, stores, shops, and houses, with five mechanics, were all embarked on the ship _Tonquin_, Captain Jonathan Thorn, master, in September, 1810, and sailed for the Columbia River, where they arrived, March 24, 1811.

The present site of the town of Astoria was selected as the princ.i.p.al depot for this American Fur Company, and called by them, in honor of the originator of the company, ASTORIA. This establishment was soon in full operation. The timber and thick undergrowth within musket range of the establishment were cleared away, and a kitchen-garden planted outside the stockade.

In the highly-interesting narrative of Gabriel Franchere, we read that, "in the month of May, 1811, on a rich piece of land in front of our establishment [at Astoria], we put into the ground twelve potatoes, so shriveled up during the pa.s.sage from New York that we despaired of raising any from the few sprouts that still showed signs of life.

Nevertheless, we raised one hundred and nineteen potatoes the first season. And, after sparing a few plants to our inland traders, we planted fifty or sixty hills, which produced five bushels the second year; about two of these were planted, and gave us a welcome crop of fifty bushels in the year 1813."

They were cultivated at Astoria, by the old Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies, in their little fort gardens. A few Indian chiefs were presented with the seed, but no general distribution was made among them, as they were considered as the Bostons' root, and no better than those of the Indians, abounding in the country, which required less labor to cultivate. Up to the time of the arrival of the American missionaries, there never was an extra supply of potatoes in the country. In other words, the potato was a luxury enjoyed by none except the highest grades of the Fur Company's servants and distinguished visitors; its cultivation was not generally encouraged by the company.

In October, 1810, after dispatching the _Tonquin_, Mr. Astor fitted out the ship _Beaver_, twenty guns, Captain Sowles, master, with Mr. Clark, six clerks, and a number of other persons, to join the establishment at Astoria. The ship touched at the Sandwich Islands; Mr. Clark engaged twenty-six Kanakas as laborers for the establishments on the Columbia River, where the ship arrived, May 5, 1812.

On the 15th of July, 1813, Mr. David Thompson, under the direction of the Northwest Canadian British Company, arrived at Astoria. I use the word Canadian, as applied to the Northwest Fur Company, that was established by the charter of Louis XIII. of France, 1630, in what was then called Acadia, or New France, forty years before Charles of England gave his charter to the Hudson's Bay Company. This Northwest Fur Company, in the transfer of the sovereignty of Acadia, or New France, to England, in 1714, at the treaty of Utrecht, was acknowledged as having a legal existence, by both nations, and was allowed to transfer its allegiance and continue its trade under the protection of the British sovereign, as it had done under that of France.

As soon as the government and people of the United States entered upon active measures to explore and occupy the country west of the Rocky Mountains, this Canadian Northwest Fur Company dispatched Mr. Thompson to explore the Columbia River, and make an establishment at its mouth; but, on account of delays and mistaking the course of the various rivers through which the party traveled, Mr. Thompson did not arrive at Mr.

Astor's American establishment till in July, 1813; his object was to forestall Mr. Astor in the settlement of the country. He was received, kindly treated, and furnished with such goods and supplies as he and his party required, by Mr. McDougal, who was then in charge of Fort Astor, and, in company with David Stewart, returned as high up the Columbia as the Spokan,--Mr. Greenhow says Okanagon,--and established a trading-post, while Mr. Thompson went among the Kootenai and Flathead tribes, and established a trading-hut. It is due to those parties to state that as late as 1836, a square, solid, hewed log bastion, erected by Stewart's party, was still standing at Spokan, while no vestige of the Thompson huts could be found in the Flathead country. At Spokan, garden vegetables were produced about the fort, which the Indians in that vicinity learned to appreciate, and continued to cultivate after the fort was abandoned in 1825, having been occupied by the Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies till that time.

In the spring of 1811, the chief agent of the Pacific Fur Company, Mr.

Hunt, with other partners, Crooks, McKenzie, and McClellen, with a party of sixty men, started across the continent. They were extremely annoyed by the opposition fur traders on their route, and also by hostile Indians. Such of the party as did not perish by famine and hostile Indians, and British fur traders, arrived at Astoria on the 28th of January, 1812.