THE WEST SHORE.
Thirteenth Year.
FEBRUARY, 1887.
Ni'xnr.H 1
THE RIVER OF THE WEST.
BOUT the history
of the great Co.
umbia clings a
flavor of ro
mance and ad-
Vy'S when tasted by
; v those who sail
5s
IV M
upon the river's
bosom, adds a new
charm to the en-
J) chantments of it
scenery. For two
centuries the Col
ambia was a myth
ical stream, or rath
er, a shadowy reality, whose exact loca
tion could not be discovered, and which
could not be sufficiently resolved from
tradition and romance to assume tangi
ble form and being. In the minds of
geographers and explorers, it occupied
a place second only to that held by the
supposititious Northwest passage, and
was sought with a zeal rivaling the long
quest for the fabulous Straits of Anian.
By land and by sea was it sought, until,
finally, when the explorers of England,
Spain and France had failed to find it,
a Yankee trader discovered the entrance,
and, a few years later, two captains of
xin-w
the United States army followed it fiotn
its source in the Rocky mountains to
where it low iUelf in the bound lea ex
pantM of the Pacific
The first intimation of the exiatenco
of such a stream came throagh Spanish
sources, early in the seventeenth cen
tury. After conquering Mexico and
Peru and gaining a foothold in the In
dies, at Manila, the Sj-nnianl turned
their attention to the exploration and
settlement of the northern coaaL Nu
merous eijxxlitionit were writ out, but
because of poor navigators, unsuitable
equipments and the ravages of scurvy,
that dread scourge, of the was in Mkwa
days of daring explorations in unknown
waters, little was accrojlihed for many
years. In 1003, Ensign Martin d Aguil
ar, in command of a small frtignla which
had been the consort of a larger vessel,
the Capituna, under com mand of Sahaa
tiao Yiacaino, became separated from
his superior, in a storm, and while the
latter turned about and made his way
back to Mexico, continued the northern
voyage. On the nineteenth of January,
in latitude forty. three degree, be pAMd
a point which he named Cape Blanco, a
name still retained on our map, and
the first ever given to any portion of