Chapter XXVIII: Introduction

Since the independence of the United States of America, the merchants of that industrious and enterprising nation have carried on an extremely advantageous commerce on the northwest coast of this continent. In the course of their voyages they have made a great number of discoveries which they have not thought proper to make public; no doubt to avoid competition in a lucrative business.

In 1792, Captain Gray,[1] commanding the ship Columbia of Boston, discovered in latitude 46° 19′ north, the entrance of a great bay on the Pacific coast. He sailed into it, and having perceived that it was the outlet or estuary of a large {18} river, by the fresh water which he found at a little distance from the entrance, he continued his course upwards some eighteen miles, and dropped anchor on the left bank, at the opening of a deep bay. There he made a map or rough sketch of what he had seen of this river (accompanied by a written description of the soundings, bearings, &c.); and having finished his traffic with the natives (the object of his voyage to these parts), he put out to sea, and soon after fell in with Captain Vancouver, who was cruising by order of the British government, to seek new discoveries.[2] Mr. Gray acquainted him with the one he had just made, and even gave him a copy of the chart he had drawn up. Vancouver, who had just driven off a colony of Spaniards established on the coast, under the command of Señor Quadra (England and Spain being then at war), despatched his first-lieutenant Broughton, who ascended the river in boats some one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty miles, took possession of the country in the name of his Britannic majesty, giving the {19} river the name of the _Columbia_, and to the bay where the American captain stopped, that of _Gray’s bay_.[3] Since that period the country had been seldom visited (till 1811), and chiefly by American ships.

Sir Alexander M’Kenzie,[4] in his second overland voyage, tried to reach the western ocean by the Columbia river, and thought he had succeeded when he came out six degrees farther north, at the bottom of Puget’s sound, by another river.[5]

In 1805, the American government sent Captains Lewis and Clark, with about thirty men, including some Kentucky hunters, on an overland journey to the mouth of the Columbia.[6] They ascended the Missouri, crossed the mountains at the source of that river, and following the course of the Columbia, reached the shores of the Pacific, where they were forced to winter. The report which they made of their expedition to the United States government created a lively sensation.[7]

{20} Mr. John Jacob Astor, a New York merchant,[8] who conducted almost alone the trade in furs south of the great lakes Huron and Superior, and who had acquired by that commerce a prodigious fortune, thought to augment it by forming on the banks of the Columbia an establishment of which the principal or supply factory should be at the mouth of that river. He communicated his views to the agents of the Northwest Company; he was even desirous of forming the proposed establishment in concert with them; but after some negotiations, the inland or wintering partners of that association of fur-traders having rejected the plan, Mr. Astor determined to make the attempt alone. He needed for the success of his enterprise, men long versed in the Indian trade, and he soon found them. Mr. Alexander M’Kay (the same who had accompanied Sir Alexander M’Kenzie in his travels overland), a bold and enterprising man, left the Northwest Company to join him;[9] and soon after, Messrs. Duncan M’Dougal and Donald M’Kenzie (also in the service of the company), and {21} Messrs. David Stuart and Robert Stuart, all of Canada, did the same. At length, in the winter of 1810, a Mr. Wilson Price Hunt of St. Louis,[10] on the Mississippi, having also joined them, they determined that the expedition should be set on foot in the following spring.

It was in the course of that winter that one of my friends made me acquainted in confidence with the plan of these gentlemen, under the injunction of strictest secrecy. The desire of seeing strange countries, joined to that of acquiring a fortune, determined me to solicit employment of the new association; on the 20th of May I had an interview with Mr. A. M’Kay, with whom the preliminaries were arranged; and on the 24th of the same month I signed an agreement as an apprenticed clerk for the term of five years.

When the associates had engaged a sufficient number of Canadian boatmen, they equipped a bark canoe under charge of Messrs. Hunt and M’Kenzie, with a Mr. Perrault as clerk, and a crew of fourteen men. These gentlemen were {22} to proceed to Mackinaw, and thence to St. Louis, hiring on the way as many men as they could to man the canoes, in which, from the last-mentioned port, they were to ascend the Missouri to its source, and there diverging from the route followed by Lewis and Clark, reach the mouth of the Columbia to form a junction with another party, who were to go round by way of Cape Horn.[11] In the course of my narrative I shall have occasion to speak of the success of both these expeditions.

[1] Captain Robert Gray was a native of Rhode Island
(born 1755), who served in the United States navy
during the Revolution. He afterwards commanded
merchant vessels for Boston firms, and visited
the Northwest Coast of America on the expedition
commanded by Captain John Kendrick (1787-90). Gray
sailed home in his ship “Columbia,” by way of the
Cape of Good Hope, and first carried the American
flag around the world. Upon his next Northwest Coast
expedition, Gray made the discovery herein cited
(May 11, 1792), upon which the United States based
its claims to the valley of the Columbia River. He
continued in the service of the merchant marine
until his death at Charleston, South Carolina, in
1806. For a brief history of the discovery of the
Northwest Coast, see Thwaites, _Rocky Mountain
Exploration_ (New York, 1904), pp. 16-21.--ED.

[2] Captain George Vancouver (born in 1758) entered the
English navy at the age of thirteen. As midshipman
he accompanied Cook in two voyages around the world.
In 1780 Vancouver was promoted to a lieutenancy, and
served with Rodney in the West Indies (1781-83).
The “Discovery,” Vancouver in command, was fitted
out in 1790 for the purpose indicated by its name.
The voyage in this vessel lasted until 1795, and
had momentous consequences. Vancouver named the
Northwest Coast of America “New Albion,” and took
possession of it for the British crown. Upon his
return to England, he prepared the narrative of his
voyage, which appeared in 1798, the year of the
author’s death.--ED.

[3] It is incorrect to say that Vancouver drove off the
Spaniards. Upon his departure from England (April
1, 1791), he had received instructions to take over
the post at Nootka Sound in accordance with the
diplomatic agreement between the governments of
Great Britain and Spain. Señor Don Juan Francisco
de la Bodega y Quadra (Cuadra) had been sent on
the part of the latter government to arrange the
transfer. Owing to a dispute as to the meaning of
treaty terms, the Spaniards were left in virtual
possession of Nootka harbor until the final
diplomatic adjustments in 1794.

Lieutenant William Robert Broughton, after serving
with Vancouver, and exploring the Columbia River as
far as Point Vancouver (1792), returned to Europe
with despatches via San Blas and Vera Cruz (1793).
The following year he was made commander of the
“Providence,” and visited the same coasts only to
find Vancouver departed. Broughton’s vessel was lost
on the coast of Formosa, but its crew was saved.
In 1804 he published a history of this voyage. He
served in the East Indies, 1810-12, retiring the
latter year from the service, when he lived at
Florence until his death in 1821.--ED.

[4] Sir Alexander Mackenzie, one of the most intrepid of
Canadian explorers, was the first to reach Pacific
waters by an overland route from the East. Entering
the service of the North West Company in 1779, he
made his first westward journey five years later,
and upon the reorganization of the company (1787)
was placed in charge of the Athabascan district,
with headquarters at Fort Chepewyan. Fired with
zeal for discovery, Mackenzie set out (1789) for
the Arctic Ocean, whither he proceeded by way
of the great river which now bears his name--an
adventurous and perilous expedition of a hundred
and two days. He immediately began preparations for
a second journey to the Pacific. For this he was
obliged to repair to London to obtain astronomical
instruments and geographical information. By the
autumn of 1791, he was again at Fort Chepewyan,
whence he proceeded to the forks of Peace River,
to prepare for departure thence the following
spring. Having crossed the divide, he came upon
Fraser River; but finding that it trended too far
southward, he crossed over by land to the ocean,
reaching his farthest point at the mouth of Cascade
Inlet, in Dean Inlet, latitude about 52° 20′ north.
Franchère’s “six degrees farther north” is correct;
but by the “bottom of Puget Sound” he must intend
the northern end of Georgian Strait, the farthest
portion of Vancouver Island. Mackenzie painted
his name and the date--July 22, 1793--upon a rock
fronting the ocean, and returned to Fort Chepewyan.
The narrative of his travels appeared in 1801. He
was knighted the following year, and died near
Edinburgh in 1820.--ED.

[5] M’Kenzie’s Travels.--FRANCHÈRE.

[6] See _Original Journals of Lewis and Clark
Expedition_ (New York, 1904); Thwaites, _Rocky
Mountain Exploration_, pp. 92-187.--ED.

[7] Lewis and Clark’s Report.--FRANCHÈRE.

[8] John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany,
in July, 1763, the son of a butcher. At the age
of seventeen he made his way to London, where he
learned English, and where in 1783 he embarked for
America. During a delay in Chesapeake Bay, he met a
compatriot who gave him information with regard to
the fur-trade. In this he embarked upon his arrival
at New York, and by 1800 had accumulated therein a
considerable fortune. His plan for the founding of
Astoria was continental in breadth of conception,
but was brought to naught by the War of 1812-15.
Astor began to withdraw from active business about
1830, and died in New York, March 29, 1848. His
chief public benefaction was the Astor Library.--ED.

[9] Alexander McKay was Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s
lieutenant on the latter’s voyage to the Pacific in
1793 (see note 4, _ante_). Later author-travellers
met him at different posts in the Athabasca
department of the North West Company, from
1797-99. In 1804, he became one of the partners
of that company, but in 1810 was induced to join
Astor’s enterprise. His fate at the capture of the
“Tonquin,” is narrated by Franchère, _post_.--ED.

[10] Duncan McDougall is but little known aside from what
Franchère relates. After transferring Astoria to
the North West Company’s agents, he remained upon
the Columbia until 1817, as partner of the British
corporation. In his appendix, Franchère gives all
that is known concerning his death.

For biographical sketches of McKenzie, the Stuarts,
and Hunt, see Bradbury’s _Travels_, vol. v of our
series, notes 2, 4, and 119.--ED.]

[11] For history of the overland Astorian expedition,
see Bradbury’s _Travels_, vol. v of our series.
Bradbury accompanied the expedition up the Missouri
River.--ED.

NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTHWEST COAST OF AMERICA