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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1878)
130 THE WEST SHORE. May. HISTORICAL ADVENTURES ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 11V MRS. V. V. VICTOR. TDK j i.. ..'.I I l-OR I UK POSSESSION OF THK COU'MUIA klVKR. When the colonics Achieved their in dependence and hecame the United States of America, Louisiana com prised all that territory, not originally belonging to Spain, lying west of the Mississippi, and smith of the 49th par allel. It had been French territory, Init was ceded to Spain, thirty years before the discovery by Gray of the Columbia river; and as, according to the above description, it embraced the whole country to the Pacific, the Col umbia river was in the Louisiana ter ritory. In 1S00, Trance regained pos session of Louisiana, and in 1S03, sold it to the United States. Thus, in ad dition to the right of discovery, which (Jreat Britain contested on the evidence of her explorers, the United States had the right of purchase. To con test that successfully, it must be proven that the parties selling had no property the territory sold, which is not so easily done. Immediately following the Lousiana purchase, President Jefferson set on foot an exploring expedition that was lo traverse the country to the Rocky mountains, anil to discover the sources of the Columbia river. We arc all fa miliar with the principal facts of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which arrived in Oregon from the sources of the Columbia rivert and wintered at its mouth in 1805-61 but very few pcr Jiaps are aware that their steps were dogged by the Northwest Fur com pany, whose intention it was to antici pate Lewis and Clark in their enterprise. While the American explorers were at the Maudan villages, they had an in terview with one of the traders of that company, who hail a post there, and frankly expressed to him their inten tion of proceeding on an exploring ex pedition to the Pacific ocean. This in formation was immediately conveyed lo a partner of the company, with the significant fact that the American ex ,pnr rs hail " hoisted the American flag." Should the Americans claim (Che country west of the Rocky moun tains, England's dream of a direct trade with China, across the American continent, would be at an end; and the Northwest company's princely, unre stricted trade with the Indians between the Oreal Lakes and the Rocky moun tains would be interfered with. There fore, the interests of the Northwest company and the home government were identical and both were inter ested in preventing the success of the American expedition. 'Pile w orking of pow erful monopolies like the Last India, the Hudson's Bay and the Northwest companies, was well understood by the English gov ernment, and had long constituted one ol it-, ablest engines of conquest in foreign countries. The King (ieorge's Sound company was a part of the ma chinery by w hich the Spanish posses sions at Nootka were to have been Wrested away from that government. The chartering ot great corporations to operate in foreign countries was a highly respectable method of invasion, and had the merit ol' being a cheap one, as well as almost to a certainty a successful one The Englishman who to-day kicks the Chinaman out of his path in Canton, is lord of that country, mid knows it. The Sepoy who was blown from the cannon's mouth in India suffered that punishment because M insolent foreign power hail, through nc of its great commercial companies, iVI'vmkIii in tsr. by I. lamasd Ml riM- deprived him of every right dear to his race, and he was human enough to wish to be revenged. The general characteristics of the fur companies of Great Britain did not differ from those of other commercial companies. Perhaps, so far as the nations were concerned, they practiced a certain degree of justice in their deal ings, as being good policy as well as good Christianity; but their dis cipline was rigid, as well with the natives'as with their own employees. In the matter of anticipating the American explorers on this occasion, the Northwest company failed, whether from want of preparation at that time is not known. The partner who was written to, says the trader who gnve information, u induced me to consent to a long and arduous tour of discovery. I am to leave about the beginning of June. Thence we shall steer our course towards the Rocky mountains, accom panied by a number of the Mandan Indians, who proceed in that direction every spring, to meet and trade with mother tribe of Indians who reside on Ihe other side of the Rocky mountains." The expedition proceeded no further, however, than the Mandau villages. Possibly the Manikins had made a treaty with Lewis and Clark that they thought best to observe. Spanish and French traders from the country of the Americans had for several years been in the habit of ascending the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone; and the natives were able to comprehend the fact of jealousies and opposition, and probably had determined to give lid only lo their old friends. What ever the causes were that interrupted the rival expedition of the Northwest company in 1S05, another attempt was made in the following year, by Mr. Simon Frazer, who, with a party of the COmnanv's men, nusficil Westward from Athabasca lake, and, crossing the Rocky (mountains' by tnelpass of the Peace river, reached the headwaters of the Tacoiachec Tcsse, discovered bv Makenzie in 1792, and which was be lieved by him to be the Columbia, where he built a fort for the prosecu tion of the company's business. Frazer was not aware for several years of the mistake he had made, but until 1S11, continued to reside as he believed, upon the Columbia, and to Hatter him self that he held the key to the tcrri- lory west of the Rockv mountains. hen he did discover his mistake he made all haste to reach the mouth of the real Columbia, but arrived just in time to find the place occupied by an American company. But let us return to Lewis and Clark, whom we left at the Mandan villages. These intrepid explorers pursued their way across the continent, meeting with no serious obstacles, until in October of that year they came amongst the HOCky mountains, to streams that flowed weitward, and following them down, arrived in the Nez Perce ountrv, and leaving their horses with that people, took boats and tloated down, with the help of Indian guides, to the ClttSOp peninsula, where they w intered within sound of the Pacific itltf. That was not a comfortable w in ter, as any of us "old Oregonians" know to a certainty. I have stood Upon the spot where the explorers had their cabin. It was upon the shore of Young's Hay, and thus protected in a measure from the winds that sweep the -e.iside of Clatsop Plains; but it does not require any great stretch of the imagination to picture the dreary dampness of the place, its loneliness, or its destitution of the ordinary elements of good living. Even such food as the natives use was not plenty, and as hunt ing amid the gloomy and wet forests of the coast mountains was almost an utter impossibility, our explorers were in danger ol being starved. In the spring of 1806, Lewis and Clark re turned to the United States to report their observations to the government. While Louisiana was alternately a French and Spanish province, a trade had been carried on with the Indians of the country bordering on the Mis souri. One Manuel Lisa, had a grant from the Spanish government by which he enjoyed the monopoly of this trade up to the close of the expe dition of Lewis and Clark. About this time a number of individuals en tered upon the fur trade, carrying com petition to so great lengths that the profits of the business were wasted, and serious quarrels occasioned. A better state of affairs ensued, when, in 1S0S, the principal traders united, and formed the Missouri Fur Company. This company spread itself over a vast extent of territory, from the Missis sippi to the Rocky mountains and be yond. It is only of those establish ments that were carried beyond the Rocky mountains that we have any thing to relate in this place. The first of these was erected by Mr. Henry, one of the partners of the Missouri company, on the headwaters of the Snake, or southern branch of the Columbia; but as early as 1810, he was obliged to abandon it on account of the sterility of the country and the hostility of the Indians. While the headwaters of the Col umbia were left to the savage tribes of the plains, an attempt was being made by a couple of enterprising men to form a settlement on the Lower Col umbia opposite the present landing of Oak Point. Ever since the apochry phal vision of Admiral Fonte, narrated in a previous chapter, there had been, us we know, many appearances of the old man from Boston," whose bus iness it was to " trade in skins," and to carry American enterprise to remote parts of the earth, after the manner of the irrepressible Yankee. On the 7th lay of July, 1809, there sailed from Boston two ships, destined to the Pa cific coast : the O'Cain, Capt. Jona than Wlnshlp, and the Albatross, Capt. Nathan Wlnshlp, the two cap tains being brothers. The O'Cain proceeded direct to California, and the lbatross sailed for the Sandwich Is lands, with twenty-five persons on board. At the Islands she provisioned, and took on board twenty-live more men, leaving port for the Columbia river on the 25th of March, 1S10, and arriving m the river early in the soring. Here Cant. Winshin ex amined the shores for some distance, and, finally, at the end of ten days, fixed upon the spot already mentioned, and commenced the work of founding a trading establishment. For a time, business progressed satisfactorily. A tract of ground was cleared and plant ed, a house erected, and while the forests about them were gay with blossoming undergrowth, and the summer was ad- Vandng, our captain and his colony of litty men rejoiced ill the prospect of a successful termination of their enter prise. But the ways of our great river were unknown to Captain Wlnshlp, As J une came on, the river began to rise in a manner most unaccountable to those who knew not that its sources were among the great Rockies, not only where Lewis and Clark had dis covered it, but far, far to the north of that; and that it received the tributary waters from many snow-fed branches. The volume of waters continued to increase, they rose up to a level with the new plantation, thev overflowed it, they covered the house-floor to a depth of two feel, ami they washed out of the ground the seeds that had been planted in it. In short, the unfitness of the place for a settlement was dem. onstrated, and as it was thought to be too late to make a new beginning th year, and the men were discourage by this unlucky ending of their enter, prise, Captain Winship was fain to re-embark his men and sail for Califor nia, to consult with his brother. Here he was met with the information of the formation of the Pacific Fur Cm. pany, with Mr. Astor at its head, and being aware that he could not compete with so powerful an organization, he abandoned the enterprise that had been entered upon with such good hopes, ami turncu nis attention to other fields. That Capt. Winship failed was no proof of want of business sagacity, as the result of Mr. Astor's enterprise sufficiently demonstrated, not long after. Among those who had been quick to perceive the value of the Oregon territory to the United States, and to commence, was a German merchant of New York, John Jacob Astor. The scheme of Mr. Jefferson of establish ing a chain of military posts across the continent, to be followed in time by a trans-continental railway, struck Astor's business judgment as being entirely feasible, and he proposed to be the first private individual in the great and promi sing field. How all these schemes have at last come out, we know. We have the military posts, the railway, the trade with China. But there were failures not a few, and struggles desperate and violent before these things were brought about. Astor made a fatal mistake at the very beginning of his enterprise. In his anxiety to put the business in the hands of experienced men, he admitted, even sought, men of the Northwest company, and made them partners in his enterprise, His head was in the lion's mouth then. But in addition to this error, there was the unfortunate fact that the government itself became so hampered by war with Great Britain in the year following Astor's settlement on the Columbia, that no assistance could be given the far-off establish ment of Astoria. Of ten partners beside himself in Astor's Company, six were Scotchmen of Canada, and about half as many were from the United States. The men were recruited from the Canadian voyageurs. In short it was but another Northwest Company, with a slight in fusion of the American clement. The history of all that befel, in consequence of this error in making up the com- 1 pany, is admirably recited in Irving's Astoria and supplemented in Fran chcrc's Narrative. Briefly, the facts are these: In 1S09, Mr. Astor dis patched a vessel, the Enterprise, to take observations along the Northwest coast, and to make arrangements with the Russians to supply their settlements in America with provisions. In Sep tember of the following year, he dis patched the ship Tonquin with the greater part of the Company, and all the Company's stores on board, on iti way to the Columbia river. The voy age sped well enough, but the voyag ers from first to last did nothing else but quarrel. The Captain, Jonathan Thorn, had been bred in the Nsvsl sci vice, anil was in the habit of com manding to be obeyed. He found, however, that passengers were not in clined to be ordered about like marines. Neither could the passengers always agree with each other; and it was with longings that all looked to the Oregon coast for relief from the enforced com panionship of a ship's narrow limit, and for freedom to express their opin ions of each other. After touching M