Jf
January.
THE AVE ST SHORE.
71
THE LAND OF RED APPLES AND RAIN,
l'Y 0. P. MASON.
There's a land lying q the Northwest
That is lashed by the waves of the sea,
Where the evening sun sinking to rest.
With gold tinges mountain ami lea.
With a climate exceedingly mild,
Aud alternate rich vallt-y and plain,
Dense foresU, gigantic ami wild,
Ti the land ot "red apples and ruin."
Unknown in this land is the dearth
Thut oft visits "the fair golden State,"
Here the soil yields the products of earth
bv Buunuaw, i couiu not relate.
Every year thure's an over supply,
And never short cropping of grain,
For here it is never too diy,
In the land of "r.ed apples and rain."
Ah I grand is the Yo-sem-i-te
And the mountain of Cnlormln,
but if picturostiue beauty you'd see,
Up the "grand old Columbia go."
Magnificent landscapes so grand,
VO attempt a description were vain,
Of the towering crags as they stand
In the laud of "red apples and rain."
Our mountains are covcrei with snow,
Ml. Horn), Saint Helens, Rainier,
But the vales are all Edens, you know,
Where flowers keep blooming all year.
In the greenwood the pretty birds sing
So wild aud so sweet a refrain,
It appears like perpetual spring
In the laud of "red apples and rain."
To those who, desiring to come
To a country so favored and blessed,
And secure lor themselves a good home
In this lovely land of the West.
Droad acres of arable laud
Lie vacant within our domain,
Awaiting the husbandman's hand,
In the laud of "red apples aud rain,"
Oh, beautiful land of the West !
Dear Oregon, I'm wedded to thee;
I love your dense forests the best,
I love your grand mountain and lea.
Aud if ever from theo I shall roam,
No matter for pleasure or gain,
May I live to return to my home
In the land of "red apples and rain."
"For Hie Information of our Ivisl.-ni rMdsrt.
we win iute that union is generally ipokeu ot
us "The Land of lied Apples mid Haiti."
HISTORICAL ADVENTURES ON' THE
PACIFIC COAST."
INCIUKXISOI VMKklCAN I K AUK AM l HSIOVKRV.
As we have now come to n time
and events intimately connected with
the history of Oregon, it will be proper
to retrace our steps a few years in order
to make plain the beginning of Amer
ican history on the Northwest coast.
After the United States had achieved
Independence, they began to think of
commerce on the high seas. At first
they resumed their whale and seal fish
eries in the southern ocean, and ex
tending their ventures, began to trade
with the Califomiaus for hide and tal
low; and Anally, to make voyages di
rect to China. Hut owing to the state
of manufactures in America, they had
few goods which they could exchange
in China for the teas, silks, and other
merchandise of that country; neither
had they specie enough to export for
these articles. Their captains' had
managed, by picking up sandal-wood,
abalono shells, cabinet-woods, and sim
ilar articles, among the Califomians
and islanders, to make up occasional
cargoes to exchange for the much-desired
tea, without which, in spite of the
affair of Boston harbor, the New Kng
lander was not quite happy.
just at this crisis in the commercial
affiles of the infant States, the value of
the fur trade in the Pacific became
known, chiefly through the published
accounts of Cook's last voyage. Here
was a kind of exchange just suited to
the exigencies of the case. Furs in
Canton were better than gold; and
there was no valid reason why Boston
men should Hot obtain their share of
the trade in them. A company was
formed for the purpose of carrying on
this trade between the Northwest coasl
and China. It consisted of half a dozen
merchants of Boston, who fitted out
two vessels the same wc met at
Nootka the ship Columbia, of 2:0
tons, and the slop Washington, of 00
tons burden; laden with blankets, Wads,
1.-!. : U , L..mU amitl
. 11 . 1
mirrors, cheap ornaments, molasses anl
V , 1, . t ,1. .1
rum. In addition in these articles ol
CopTritht Id UTT, by I,
of i ,. nrTvrd.
smufl. M rlftil
trade, they carried out, for distribution
at the placet visited, a quantity of the
copper coins recently issued by the
State of Massachusetts and also med
als of copper which were struck ex
pressly for the purpose, having on one
I side the representation of a vessel under
I full sail, with the names of COLUMBIA
and Washington around the margin,
and the name of their commander, J.
Kbndrick; on the reverse were the
words, ' Fitted at Boston, N.
America, for the Pacific Ocean,
by J. Barrell, S. Brown, C. Bul
pinch, J. Darby, C. Hatch, J. M.
Pintard. 1787." Thus fitted out,
the two vessels sailed from Boston on
the 30th of September, 17S7: the Co
lumbia in command of Captain John
Kcndrlck, and the Washing ton con
manded by Captain John Gray,
We have already followed the Co
htmbia from where she doubled the
Horn to Nootka Sound. After the
vessels were separated, the Washing'
ton, though proceeding more slowly,
met with no accident, and arrived off
the Northwest coast in latitude 46 de
grees, where, seeing an opening which
looked like the mouth of a river, she at
tempted to enter; but Capt, Gray found
the " reflux so strong as to prevent his
entering, for nine days." lie was also
attacked by the Indians while K ing off
the mouth of the river, one of his men
killed and the mate wounded.
Truise circumstances forced Capt.
Gray to abandon the attempt to follow
up his discovery at that time, ami he
proceeded to Nootka, arriving there a
few days before the Columbia.
On appearing oil" the harbor, the
Washington was piloted in by a tug
boat belonging to the ship Ww, John
Meares, master, trading from the
Northwest coast to Macao, in China.
Meares was looking for an lnglish
vessel, and mistook the Boston trader
for that one, An exchange of civilities
having thus been begun between the
so late antagonistic nations, was kept
up between Mr. Meares, the English
agent of a company trading under the
Portuguese Hag, and the American
captains. The plans of both nations,
also, thus became known to each other.
As we are taking note of discoveries
and discoverers, it will be not out of
place here to make mention of the re
discovery of the Straits of Fuca by
the captain of the Imperial tattle, from
Ostendj he who had a boat's crew
murdered by the Indians at Destruction
Island. Capt. Berkley, while crusing
along the coast in 1 7S7, had entered
the Strait of Fuca, aud recognizing
to be that described by the Greek pilot,
reported the finding of it, and its lati
tude and longitude, to Mr, Meares, at
Canton, just before that gentleman
sailed for Nootka, where the Amcri
can captains found him, and to whom
he said nothing about Berkley sdis
coverv; if he mentioned the straits at
all, he said he had found the 'passage
himself: and
complicated 1
this diplomatic untruth
iatte s between England
1 America afterwards,
The vessels lying at Nootka in the
autumn of 1788 were the fine, Ipmgtma
and Sorthuest Amtiica, anil the tWO
American vessels, Columbia and Hash- charts. He called the opening Dcccp
ington. The Xorthvtst America was tion Hay, and the northern headland
built at Nootka being the first vessel j Cape disappointment, which name it
built on the Northwest coast, except still retains, though it is known of
the small affair constructed bv Behr- j cially to the t'nilcd States government
ing's men of the fragments of his fine as Cape Hancock. In his account of
ship which went ashore at Bchiing's his observations, Mr. Mcnres remarks
hie, as already related. that " We can assert with safety that
Before winter came on the h'tlite no such river as that of the St. Roc ex
sailed for China, and the Iphigtnia and ists.as laid down in the Spanish charts.'1
Xrthuest Amenta for the Sandwich Capt. Gray, of the Washington, had
Mauds. Mr. Meares had gone to
Macao with the cargo of furs colIcUcd
during me ear, promising 10 return
in the spring, to meet the other vessels
at Nootka. In the meantime, how
ever, the Portuguese merchant failed
whose agent he was credited with be
ing, and he remained in China in the
capacity of manager of the new " King
George's Sound Company," to which
belonged the Argonaut and Princess
Royaiy whose history at Nootka has al
ready been given, as well as that of the
tphig-enia and Xortlra ui America.
When the Columbia and Washington
were left alone in the Sound, their
officers began to make themselves
comfortable for the winter, and to cul
tivate the acquaintance of the natives
and their chieftains. The chief of the
Nootkas was a line, stalwart savage,
called Maquinna, possessing consider
able barbarian wealth, aud the usual
characteristics of a successful native
politician cunning, courage and feroc
ity, not Unmixed with some more agree
able qualities. But, well as King Ma
qulnna could reign among his ow n
people, he was as a child in the bands
of his new acquaintances, the pale
faces. Had it been possible for him to know
that of all his v isitors who gave hint
and his subjects blankets, knives, beads,
tobacco, anil, occasionally, rum, not one
but hud designs upon his territory and
nil the products thereof, he must then
md there have renounced all acquaint-
ance with his perfidious flatterer
have gone without blankets aud to
bacco to the end of his davs. Mr.
Meares, the Englishman, obtained per
mission tii construct a hut on shore for
the convenience of his men while
building a vessel, and consequently the
territory was Knglish. Capt. Gray
received the same generous permission
in time, and the country was as much
American as it was Knglish. Com
mander Martinez kneiv the country to
I"-- Spanish, iuid built a fort to drive the
rest away ; and King Maquinna, in
happy obliviousness of the feuds be
tween his white friends, sold privileges
Indiscriminately, and took them back
in the same innocent disregard of con
sequences. Mr. Meares, ou arriving in the Sound
from China, proceeded down the coast
to where Capt. Berkley had assured
him he would find the Strait of Fuca.
Fortunately for his ambition, the strait
was her, and when he spoke about it
afterwards he could say he discovered
it, as he did, where he was told to look
for it. But one real discovery Mr.
Meares did make, and that was of
Shoalwatef Bay, which he named ; and
named also the northern promontory at
the entrance, Cape Shoal water, and the
point on the south side of the entrance,
Low Point now called Lead Ccltcr
Point.
Mr, Meares then kept on down the
coast until he saw the bay formed by
the mouth of the Columbia, which he
very Well described as seen from the
deck of his ship; but was unable to
enter it on account of the "easterly
swell rolling on the coast;" and being
alarmed at the rapid shoaling of the
water, stood out to sea again, without
knowing that he had actually looked
upon the waters of the great Ban
I Roqtte of the half imaginary Spanish
! sharper eves and Meares would have
1 , r 1. . 1
been glad a few years later to take
Nil . 1 t uj
1 vm,m um mmmiwm , auu itm evi uumy nau
. come near enough to an actual discov-
ery long desired to make it extremely
vexatious to have barely failed.
Before Mr. Meares finally concluded
his efforts at discovery, he proceeded as
far south as the Cape Falcon of the
Spanish navigators which he called
Cape Lookout, a name it still retains.
From this point he turned back, and
returned to Nootka, where our Amer
ican captain found him, ami where be
cultivated the friendship of Maquinna,
and of his cousin-royal, Mieanish, chief
of all the country about Nittinat and
Clyoquot Bays, near the enhance to
thfl Strait of Fuca, and of I.ataochc,
chief of the country bordering on t he
strait itself. From these native king,
if we may believe his statement and
when the native character is taken into
consideration, no reason appears why
we should not be obtained "the
promise of a free and exclusive trade
willi the natives of the district, as aho
permission to build any store-In uses or
other edifices which he might judge
necessary," As the native chiefs had
never yet beheld the strong defensive
structures of white men, such permis
sion was probably easily obtained.
Such was the history of the Knglish
occupation of Nootka and other points
on the Northwest coast hen the
American ships appeared, in the fall of
1 788, anil the Spanish ships in the
spring following, The Ch.bia and
Washington had wintered in the Sound,
trading with the natives, and the Kng-
llsh-Portuguese vessels at the Sandwich
Islands. The latter bad returned in
the spring the l'litgema hi distress,
and the Korthwtst America able to go
upon a cruise up the coast for fins, on
which errand she was absent when the
Princess arrived. The American sloop
Washington was also absent on a similar
errand, with Capt. Gray in command;
and the events recorded in the alfair
between Martinez and the English
captains and supercargoes were wit
nessed elnetly hy t apt. Keminck and
Mr. Ingraham, one of the males.
As elsewhere stated, after the seizure
of the English vessels and sending of
some of their officers ami crews with
them to Mexico, the others were sent
as passengers in the Columbia Ut Canton.
En November, the Spanish commander
was recalled to Mexico, whither lie
took all Ins vessels, leaving his newly
constructed fort at Nootka unoccupied.
In the following spring his place at
Nootka was filled by Cap!. Finncm
Klisa, who was scut to complete the
arrangements for a permanent estab
lishment at that point. It was not
until 1 795 that the governments of
England ami Spain finally settled their
diU'erences occasioned hv the seizure of
the English vessels; and when they (liil
so the terms of their agreement were
kept secret, and the place in dispute
equally abandoned by both nation,
But to return to the American ves
sels, whom both the disputants must
have considered too Insignificant to
create apprehension. When the Co
lumbia left the Sound for China, she
met the Washington jusl outside the
harbor, returning f rom one of her short
voyages up the coast; and the captains
there held n conference which resulted
in Capt. Gray being put in command
of the Columbia, and Capt. Kendrick re
maining with the Waihinghn, Capt.
il
ly, who seems to have had the
proper qualifications for a discoverer,
had just then come from exploring the
Strait of Fuca, into which he had pen
etrated fifty-five im'les, "in nn cast-south-east
direction, and found the pas
sage five leagues wide," which is its
true width; while Meares' published
account made it three times as wide,
and of a much greater length than it
really is. Gray had also explored the
channel seppraling Queen ( hailottc'b