Short History of Oregon Chapter 7

Chapter VII

England and the United States enter the Pacific Ocean-Voyages of Captains Cook and Meares-First Voyage of Captain Gray

The three voyages related in the foregoing chapter justly entitled Spain to a claim to the entire coast from Cape Mendocino to Mount San Jacinto by title of exploration. If that title was of any value, it belonged to Spain. But in these modern times possession is a far stronger title than simple discovery, and the United States found the claim acquired from Spain hard to defend against England’s actual possession of the soil. In fact, had she depended upon it, Oregon would now be a province of Great Britain.

Accounts of these important voyages did not reach the public through the medium of the press; yet the fact that the Spaniards had made several important voyages in the Pacific and were evidently seeking to take possession of the entire coast soon became known in England and created great uneasiness. England could not stand supinely by and see her ancient enemy secure a territory which she had coveted for years, ever since the marauding expedition of Sir Francis Drake two centuries before, but which as yet she had made no direct effort to reach from the Pacific side. The year 1776 saw England involved in war with her colonies on the Atlantic coast, yet she was none the less eager to plant new ones at the other extremity of the continent, and Parliament at once renewed the offer made in 17454, of a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of the Northwest Passage, though not limiting it to exploration in Hudson’s Bay. The reward was offered to any vessel, sailing in any direction, through any straits connecting the Atlantic with the distant Pacific, north of latitude 52°.

This was inimical to the business interest of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and consequently was productive of no greater results than the former offer. The Admiralty had by this time become satisfied that it was useless to seek for the passage on the Atlantic side, since all their efforts were in some manner rendered abortive; and they decided to dispatch an expedition to the Pacific to search for the passage on that side, and to learn, if possible, the extent of Spanish and Russian occupation.

For this important task was selected the most renowned navigator of this time, Capt. James Cook, whose recent extensive explorations in the South Sea and Indian Ocean, extending into the Antarctic regions, had been so thoroughly and intelligently conducted that little was left for his successors to accomplish in the same field. It was vitally necessary that this means of entering the Pacific be discovered if England would plant colonies in this region, for communication with them by way of the Horn or Cape of Good Hope would be too tedious and uncertain.

Captain Cook’s expedition was composed of two vessels,-the “Resolution,” a craft which had just taken Cook around the world, and a consort named the “Discovery,” commanded by Capt. Charles Clerke. In every particular the vessels were fitted for the work expected of them.

On the 12gh of July, 1776, eight days after the bell of Independence Hall had rung out to the world the glad tidings that a free people had pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” in the cause of liberty, Cook sailed from Plymouth on his mission. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and spent nearly a year in exploring the coast of Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, and the Friendly and Society group of islands. It was not until the 18^th of January, 1778, that he encountered the Hawaiian group of islands, making thus one of the most important discoveries in the Pacific. Upon these he bestowed the name of Sandwich Islands, out of courtesy to the First Lord of Admiralty. After a brief stay at this mid-ocean refuge, he resumed his course eastward, and on the 7^th of march espied the coast of New Albion, near the forty-fourth parallel. This was the coast of Oregon in the vicinity of the Umpqua River. After being forced by head winds as far south as Rogue River, he sailed a northerly course well out to sea, and did not again see land until he reached latitude 48°. To the prominent headland he then saw he gave the name “Cape Flattery,” because of the encouraging condition of affairs.

Sailing northward from Cape Flattery, Cook cast anchor in Nootka Sound, where he found the natives very intelligent. They possessed copper, iron, and brass, and were familiar with the methods of working them. They were extremely friendly, and bartered valuable furs for trinkets of any kind, although preferring metal to anything else. From here again sailing northward, Cook reached an immense snow-peak standing near the water’s edge, which he at once recognized as the Mount St. Elias discovered by Behring.

Returning, Cook sailed for England by the way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope. The object of going to Canton was to dispose of a large collection of furs made by both men and officers, chiefly by trading for them with the natives of Nootka Sound. They had not been purchased for market, nor had they been selected according to their commercial value, and many had been rendered unsalable by being used for clothing and beds. However, for this miscellaneous collection of furs the Chinese paid $10,000.

It was early in October, 1780, when the “Resolution” and “Discovery” reached England, after an absence of four years and three months, during which time the country had been engaged in war with her American colonies and her two enemies across the Channel. Cook and his expedition had almost been forgotten in the excitement of current events, and until the complications of war were removed, England had neither time nor inclination to attempt further discoveries or plant new colonies, and so the Lords of the Admiralty pigeon-holed the official record of the voyage, to be published after the establishment of peace.

In the winter of 1784-85 Cook’s journal was published and though the “yarns” of his sailors had been freely circulated, the authorized account of Cook’s explorations was a revelation to the people and caused a display of great eagerness to take advantage of the golden opportunities therein pointed out.

The extent and value of the west coast of America being now well understood, Russia, France, and England despatched numerous expeditions to exploit the region, and more particularly to secure the fur trade of Nootka Sound. Noteworthy among these was the voyage of Captain Barclay, an Englishman, in 1787, he having entered upon his chart the location of the generally discredited Straits of Fuca; also the voyage of Capt. John Meares, a former lieutenant of the Royal Navy, who sailed in the fur trade on his own responsibility under Portuguese patronage, reaching Nootka Sound, the general rendezvous of the fur trade, in the “Felice Adventurer,” accompanied by the
Ighigenia Nubiana,” early in the spring of 1788. Meares secured from Maquinna, an Indian chief, permission to erect a small house to shelter his men while at work, and leaving a portion of his crew there engaged in constructing a small schooner, he sailed down the coast.

Sailing southward, on June 29, 1788, Mearres observed a broad inlet in latitude 48° 39´,-the Straits of Fuca. Continuing southward, he found what he named “Deception Bay,” and which was undoubtedly the mouth of the Columbia River; but not discovering that it was a river, he passed on, sailed as far south as Tillamook Head, and then returned to Nootka, where he met his companion ship, the “Iphigenia,” which had arrived from the north with a large cargo of furs. When Captain Meares’s men had completed the little schooner, she was launched and christened the “Northwest American.” She was the first vessel constructed on the Pacific coast north of Mexico.

About this time there appeared at Nootka two American vessels, the “Columbia Rediviva,” commanded by Capt. John Kendrick, and the “Lady Washington,” by Capt. Robert Gray, these two ships having sailed from Boston on September 30, 1787.

The new born republic of the United States, as soon as a treaty of peace was signed, began at once to resume those maritime commercial ventures which the war with England was suspended. American vessels visited the ports of every country, and the whale fishing around Capt Horn, which had been abruptly terminated, was resumed.

In 1784 an American vessel entered the harbor of Canton, and in 1787 five vessels were engaged in the China trade. Untrammelled by the commercial restructions which Parliament imposed upon British subjects, Americans could engage in the fur trade with every prospect of success. It was for this purpose the “Columbia Rediviva” and “Lady Washington” (two names now so intimately associated with Oregon) had started from Boston with a load of Indian goods, and had come to anchor in Nootka Sound. Their voyage thither had not been unattended with adventure. In January, soon after passing Cape Horn, a severe storm separated the two consorts. The “Lady Washington” continued the voyage, and reached the Oregon coast in August, where, near the forthy-sixth parallel, Captain Gray ran his vessel aground in attempting to enter an opening in the land which he had explored in a boat and believed to be the entrance to the great River of the West. While in this position the ship was attacked by Indians, and in repelling them and getting the craft into deep water again, one man was killed and the mate wounded. This place Gray called “Murderer’s Harbor,” and it is considered by Greenhow to have been the mouth of the Columbia, and by Bancroft as Tillamook Bay. Captain Gray then proceeded to Nootka, where lay the three vessels belonging to Meares, his appearance being a great surprise to the Englishmen.

Soon after the arrival of the two American vessels, Captain Meares sailed with all his furs for China. The “Columbia” and “Lady Washington” remained at anchor in Nootka Sound until spring, and later returned to Boston, arriving there on August 19, 1790.