Chapter V: 1 (2)

The tract of the territory lying between the Columbia on the north, the President’s range on the east, the parallel of forty-two degrees of north latitude on the south, and the ocean on the west, is the most beautiful and valuable portion of the Oregon Territory. A good idea of the form of its surface may be derived from a view of its mountains and rivers as laid down on the map. On the south tower the heights of the snowy mountains; on the west the naked peaks of the coast range; on the north the green peaks of the river range; and on the east the lofty shining cones of the President’s range—around whose frozen bases cluster a vast collection of minor mountains, clad with the mightiest pine and cedar forests on the face of the earth! The principal rivers are the Klamet and the Umpqua in the south-west, and the Willamette in the north.

{245} The Umpqua enters these in a latitude forty-three degrees, thirty minutes north.[58] It is three-fourths of a mile in width at its mouth; water two-and-a-half fathoms on its bar; the tide sets up thirty miles from the sea; its banks are steep and covered with pines and cedars, &c. Above tide water the stream is broken by rapids and falls. It has a westwardly course of about one hundred miles. The face of the country about it is somewhat broken; in some parts covered with heavy pine and cedar timber, in others with grass only; said to be a fine valley for cultivation and pasturage. The pines on this river grow to an enormous size: two hundred and fifty feet in height—and from fifteen to more than fifty feet in circumference;[59] the cones or seed vessels are in the form of an egg, and oftentimes more than a foot in length; the seeds are as large as the castor bean. Farther south is another stream, which joins the ocean twenty-three miles from the outlet of the Umpqua. At its mouth are many bays; and the surrounding country is less broken than the valley of the Umpqua.[60]

{246} Farther south still, is another stream called the Klamet. It rises, as is said, in the plain east of Mount Madison, and running a westerly course of one hundred and fifty miles, enters the ocean forty or fifty miles south of the Umpqua. The pine and cedar disappear upon this stream; and instead of them are found a myrtaceous tree of small size, which, when shaken by the least breeze, diffuses a delicious fragrance through the groves. The face of the valley is gently undulating, and in every respect desirable for cultivation and grazing.

The Willamette rises in the President’s range, near the sources of the Klamet. Its general course is north northwest. Its length is something more than two hundred miles. It falls into the Columbia by two mouths; the one eighty-five, and the other seventy miles from the sea. The arable portion of the valley of this river is about one hundred and fifty miles long, by sixty in width. It is bounded on the west by low wooded hills of the coast range; on the south by the highlands around the upper waters of the Umpqua; on the east by the President’s range; and on the north by the mountains that run along the southern bank of the Columbia. Its general appearance as seen from the heights, is that of a {247} rolling, open plain, intersected in every direction by ridges of low mountains, and long lines of evergreen timber; and dotted here and there with a grove of white oaks. The soil is a rich vegetable mould, two or three feet deep, resting on a stratum of coarse gravel or clay. The prairie portions of it are capable of producing, with good cultivation, from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, and other small grains in proportion. Corn cannot be raised without irrigation. The vegetables common to such latitudes yield abundantly, and of the best quality. The uplands have an inferior soil, and are covered with such an enormous growth of pines, cedars and firs, that the expense of clearing would be greatly beyond their value. Those tracts of the second bottom lands, which are covered with timber might be worth subduing, but for a species of fern growing on them, which is so difficult to kill, as to render them nearly worthless for agricultural purposes.

The climate of the country between the President’s range and the sea, is very temperate. From the middle of April to the middle of October, the westerly winds prevail, and the weather is warm and dry. Scarcely a drop of rain falls. During the remainder of the year, the southerly winds {248} blow continually, and bring rains; sometimes in showers, and at others terrible storms, which continue to pour down incessantly for many weeks.

There is scarcely any freezing weather in this section of Oregon. Twice within the last forty years the Columbia has been frozen over; but this was chiefly caused by the accumulation of ice from the upper country. The grasses grow during the winter months, and wither to hay in the summer time.

The mineral resources of Oregon have not been investigated. Great quantities of bituminous coal have however been discovered on Puget’s Sound,[61] and on the Willamette. Salt springs also abound; and other fountains highly impregnated with sulphur, soda, iron, &c., are numerous.

Many wild fruits are to be met with in the territory, that would be very desirable for cultivation in the gardens of the States. Among these are a very large and delicious strawberry, the service berry, a kind of whortleberry, and a cranberry growing on bushes four or five feet in height. The crab apple, choke cherry, and thornberry are common. Of the wild animals, there are the white tailed, black tailed, jumping and moose deer; the elk; red and black and grey wolf; the black, brown, and grisly bear; {249} the mountain sheep; black, white, red and mixed foxes; beaver, lynxes, martin, otters, minks, muskrats, wolverines, marmot, ermines, wood-rats, and the small curly-tailed short eared dog, common among the Chippeways.

Of the feathered tribe, there are the goose, the brant, several kinds of cranes, the swan, many varieties of the duck, hawks of several kinds, plovers, white eagles, ravens, crows, vultures, thrush, gulls, woodpeckers, pheasants, pelicans, partridges, grouse, snowbirds, &c.

In the rivers and lakes are a very superior quality of salmon, brook and salmon trout, sardines, sturgeon, rock cod, the hair seal, &c.; and in the bays and inlets along the coast, are the sea otter and an inferior kind of oyster.

The trade of Oregon is limited entirely to the operations of the British Hudson Bay Company. A concise account of this association is therefore deemed apposite in this place.

A charter was granted by Charles II, in 1670, to certain British subjects associated under the name of “The Hudson’s Bay Company,” in virtue of which they were allowed the exclusive privilege of establishing {250} trading factories on the Hudson’s Bay and its tributary rivers. Soon after the grant, the Company took possession of the territory, and enjoyed its trade without opposition till 1787; when was organized a powerful rival under the title of the “North American Fur Company of Canada.” This company was chiefly composed of Canadian-born subjects—men whose native energy and thorough acquaintance with the Indian character, peculiarly qualified them for the dangers and hardships of a fur trader’s life in the frozen regions of British America. Accordingly we soon find the North-westers outreaching in enterprise and commercial importance their less active neighbours of Hudson’s Bay; and the jealousies naturally arising between parties so situated, led to the most barbarous battles, and the sacking and burning each others posts. This state of things in 1821, arrested the attention of Parliament, and an act was passed consolidating the two companies into one, under the title of “The Hudson’s Bay Company.”[62]

This association is now, under the operation of their charter, in sole possession of all that tract of country bounded north by {251} the northern Arctic Ocean; east by the Davis’ Straits and the Atlantic Ocean; south and south-westwardly by the northern boundary of the Canadas, and a line drawn through the centre of Lake Superior; thence north-westwardly to the Lake of the Wood; thence west on the 49th parallel of north latitude to the Rocky Mountains, and along those mountains to the 54th parallel; thence westwardly on that line to a point nine marine leagues from the Pacific Ocean; and on the west by a line commencing at the last mentioned point, and running northwardly parallel to the Pacific coast till it intersects the 141st parallel of longitude west from Greenwich, England, and thence due north to the Arctic Sea.

They have also leased for twenty years, commencing in March, 1840, all of Russian America, except the post of Sitka; the lease renewable at the pleasure of the Hudson’s Bay Company.[63] They are also in possession of Oregon under treaty stipulation between Britain and the United States. Thus this powerful company occupy and control more than one-ninth of the soil of the globe. Its stockholders are British capitalists, resident in Great Britain. From these are elected a board of managers, who {252} hold their meetings and transact their business at “The Hudson’s Bay House” in London. This board buy goods and ship them to their territory, sell the furs for which they are exchanged, and do all other business connected with the Company’s transactions, except the execution of their own orders, the actual business of collecting furs in their territory. This duty is entrusted to a class of men who are called partners, but who in fact receive certain portions of the annual net profits of the Company’s business, as a compensation for their services.

These gentlemen are divided by their employers into different grades. The first of these is the Governor-General of all the Company’s posts in North America. He resides at York Factory, on the west shore of Hudson’s Bay.[64] The second class are chief factors; the third, chief traders; the fourth, traders. Below these is another class, called clerks. These are usually younger members of respectable Scottish families. They are not directly interested in the Company’s profits, but receive an annual salary of £100, food, suitable clothing, and a body servant, during an apprenticeship of seven years. At the expiration {253} of this term they are eligible to the traderships, factorships, &c. that may be vacated by death or retirement from the service. While waiting for advancement they are allowed from £80 to £120 per annum. The servants employed about their posts and in their journeyings are half-breed Iroquois and Canadian Frenchmen. These they enlist for five years, at wages varying from £68 to £80 per annum.[65]

An annual Council composed of the Governor-General, chief factors and chief traders, is held at York Factory. Before this body are brought the reports of the trade of each district; propositions for new enterprises, and modifications of old ones; and all these and other matters deemed important, being acted upon, the proceedings had thereon and the reports from the several districts are forwarded to the Board of Directors in London, and subjected to its final order.

This shrewd Company never allow their territory to be overtrapped. If the annual return from any well trapped district be less in any year than formerly, they order a less number still to be taken, until the beaver and other fur-bearing animals have time to increase. The income of the company {254} is thus rendered uniform, and their business perpetual.

The nature and annual value of the Hudson Bay Company’s business in the territory which they occupy, may be learned from the following table, extracted from Bliss’s work on the trade and industry of British America, in 1831:[66]

Skins. No. each £. _s._ _d._ £. _s._ _d._

Beaver 126,944 ” 1 5 0 158,680 0 0
Muskrat 375,731 ” 0 0 6 9,393 5 6
Lynx 58,010 ” 0 8 0 23,204 0 0
Wolf 5,947 ” 0 8 0 2,378 16 0
Bear 3,850 ” 1 0 0 3,850 0 0
Fox 8,765 ” 0 10 0 4,382 10 0
Mink 9,298 ” 0 2 3 929 16 0
Raccoon 325 ” 0 1 6 24 7 6
Tails 2,290 ” 0 1 0 114 10 0
Wolverine 1,744 ” 0 3 0 261 12 0
Deer 645 ” 0 3 0 96 15 0
Weasel 34 ” 0 0 6 00 16 0
-------- ----------- -----------------
£203,316 9 0

Some idea may be formed of the net profit of this business, from the facts that the shares of the company’s stock, which originally cost £100, are at 100 per cent premium, and that the dividends range from ten per cent upward, and this too while they are creating out of the net proceeds an immense reserve fund, to be {255} expended in keeping other persons out of the trade.

In 1805 the Missouri Fur Company established a trading-post on the headwaters of the Saptin.[67] In 1806 the North-West Fur Company of Canada established one on Frazer’s Lake, near the northern line of Oregon.[68] In March, 1811, the American Pacific Fur Company built Fort Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia.[69] In July of the same year, a partner of the North-West Fur Company of Canada descended the great northern branch of the Columbia to Astoria. This was the first appearance of the British fur traders in the valleys drained by this river.[70]

On the 16th of October, 1813, (while war was raging between England and the States) the Pacific Fur Company sold all its establishments in Oregon to the North-West Fur Company of Canada. On the 1st of December following, the British sloop of war Raccoon, Captain Black commanding, entered the Columbia, took formal possession of Astoria, and changed its name to Fort George.[71] On the 1st of October, 1818, Fort George was surrendered by the British Government to the Government of the States, according to a stipulation in the Treaty of Ghent.[72]

{256} By the same treaty, British subjects were granted the same rights of trade and settlement in Oregon as belonged to the citizens of the Republic, for the term of ten years; under the condition, that as both nations claimed Oregon the occupancy thus authorized should in no form affect the question as to the title to the country. This stipulation was by treaty of London, August 6, 1827, indefinitely extended; under the condition that it should cease to be in force twelve months from the date of a notice of either of the contracting powers to the other, to annul and abrogate it; provided such notice should not be given till after the 20th of October, 1828.[73] And this is the manner in which the British Hudson’s Bay Company, after its union with the North-West Fur Company of Canada, came into Oregon.

They have now in the territory the following trading posts: Fort Vancouver, on the north bank of the Columbia, ninety miles from the Ocean, in latitude 45½°, longitude 122° 30′; Fort George, (formerly Astoria), near the mouth of the same river;[74] Fort Nasqually, on Puget’s Sound, latitude 47°; Fort Langly, at the outlet of Fraser’s River, latitude 49° 25′; Fort McLaughlin, on the Millbank Sound, latitude 52°;[75] Fort {257} Simpson, on Dundas Island, latitude 54½°.[76] Frazer’s Fort, Fort James, McLeod’s Fort, Fort Chilcotin, and Fort Alexandria, on Frazer’s river and its branches between the 51st and 54½ parallels of latitude;[77] Thompson’s Fort, on Thompson’s River, a tributary of Frazer’s River, putting into it in latitude 50° and odd minutes; Kootania Fort, on Flatbow River; Flathead Fort, on Flathead River; Forts Hall and Boisais, on the Saptin; Forts Colville and Oakanagan, on the Columbia, above its junction with the Saptin; Fort Nez Percés or Wallawalla, a few miles below the junction;[78] Fort McKay, at the mouth of the Umpqua river, latitude 43° 30′, and longitude 124° west.[79]

They also have two migratory trading and trapping establishments of fifty or sixty men each. The one traps and trades in Upper California; the other in the country lying west, south, and east of Fort Hall. They also have a steam-vessel, heavily armed, which runs along the coast, and among its bays and inlets, for the twofold purpose of trading with the natives in places where they have no post, and of outbidding and outselling any American vessel that attempts to trade in those seas. They likewise have five sailing vessels, measuring from one hundred to five hundred tons {258} burthen, and armed with cannon, muskets, cutlasses, &c. These are employed a part of the year in various kinds of trade about the coast and the islands of the North Pacific, and the remainder of the time in bringing goods from London, and bearing back the furs for which they are exchanged.

One of these ships arrives at Fort Vancouver in the spring of each year, laden with coarse woollens, cloths, baizes, and blankets; hardware and cutlery; cotton cloths, calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs; tea, sugar, coffee and cocoa; rice, tobacco, soap, beads, guns, powder, lead, rum, wine, brandy, gin, and playing cards; boots, shoes, and ready-made clothing, &c.; also, every description of sea stores, canvas, cordage, paints, oils, chains and chain cables, anchors, &c. Having discharged these “supplies,” it takes a cargo of lumber to the Sandwich Islands, or of flour and goods to the Russians at Sitka or Kamskatka; returns in August; receives the furs collected at Fort Vancouver, and sails again for England.

The value of peltries annually collected in Oregon, by the Hudson Bay Comp., is about £140,000 in the London or New York market. The prime cost of the goods exchanged {259} for them is about £20,000. To this must be added the per centage of the officers as governors, factors, &c. the wages and food of about four hundred men, the expense of shipping to bring supplies of goods and take back the returns of furs, and two years’ interest on the investments. The Company made arrangements in 1839 with the Russians at Sitka and at other ports, about the sea of Kamskatka, to supply them with flour and goods at fixed prices. As they are now opening large farms on the Cowelitz, the Umpqua, and in other parts of the Territory, for the production of wheat for that market; and as they can afford to sell goods purchased in England under a contract of fifty years’ standing, 20 or 30 per cent cheaper than American merchants can, there seems a certainty that the Hudson’s Bay Company will engross the entire trade of the North Pacific, as it has that of Oregon.

Soon after the union of the North-West and Hudson’s Bay Companies, the British Parliament passed an act extending the jurisdiction of the Canadian courts over the territories occupied by these fur traders, whether it were “owned” or “claimed by Great Britain.” Under this act, certain {260} gentlemen of the fur company were appointed justices of the peace, and empowered to entertain prosecutions for minor offences, arrest and send to Canada criminals of a higher order, and try, render judgment, and grant execution in civil suits where the amount in issue should not exceed £200; and in case of non-payment, to imprison the debtor at their own forts, or in the jails of Canada.

It is thus shown that the trade, and the civil and criminal jurisdiction in Oregon are held by British subjects; that American citizens are deprived of their own commercial rights; that they are liable to be arrested on their own territory by officers of British courts, tried in the American domain by British judges, and imprisoned or hung according to the laws of the British empire, for acts done within the territorial limits of the Republic.

It has frequently been asked if Oregon will hereafter assume great importance as a thoroughfare between the States and China? The answer is as follows:

The Straits de Fuca, and arms of the sea to the eastward of it, furnish the only good harbours on the Oregon coast. Those in Puget’s Sound offer every requisite facility {261} for the most extensive commerce. Ships beat out and into the straits with any winds of the coast, and find in summer and winter fine anchorage at short intervals on both shores; and among the islands of the Sound, a safe harbour from the prevailing storms. From Puget’s Sound eastward, there is a possible route for a railroad to the navigable waters of the Missouri; flanked with an abundance of fuel and other necessary materials. Its length would be about six hundred miles. Whether it would answer the desired end, would depend very much upon the navigation of the Missouri.[80]

As, however, the principal weight and bulk of cargoes in the Chinese trade would belong to the homeward voyage, and as the lumber used in constructing proper boats on the upper Missouri would sell in Saint Louis for something like the cost of construction, it may perhaps be presumed that the trade between China and the States could be conducted through such an overland communication.

The first day of the winter months came with bright skies over the beautiful valleys of Oregon. Mounts Washington and Jefferson reared their vast pyramids of ice and {262} snow among the fresh green forests of the lower hills, and overlooked the Willamette, the lower Columbia, and the distant sea. The herds of California cattle were lowing on the meadows, and the flocks of sheep from the downs of England were scampering and bleating around their shepherds on the plain; and the plane of the carpenter, the adze of the cooper, the hammer of the tinman, and the anvil of the blacksmith within the pickets, were all awake when I arose to breakfast for the last time at Fort Vancouver.

The beauty of the day, and the busy hum of life around me, accorded well with the feelings of joy with which I made preparations to return to my family and home. And yet when I met at the table Dr. McLaughlin, Mr. Douglas, and others with whom I had passed many pleasant hours, and from whom I had received many kindnesses, a sense of sorrow mingled strongly with the delight which the occasion naturally inspired. I was to leave Vancouver for the Sandwich Islands, and see them no more. I confess that it has seldom been my lot to feel so deeply pained at parting with those whom I had known so little time. But it became me to hasten {263} my departure; for the ship had dropped down to the mouth of the river, and awaited the arrival of Mr. Simpson, one of the company’s clerks,[81] Mr. Johnson, an American from St. Louis, and myself. While we are making the lower mouth of the Willamette, the reader will perhaps be amused with the sketch of life at Fort Vancouver.

Fort Vancouver is, as has been already intimated, the depot at which are brought the furs collected west of the Rocky Mountains, and from which they are shipped to England; the place also at which all the goods for the trade are landed; and from which they are distributed to the various posts of that territory by vessels, bateaux, or pack animals, as the various routes permit. It was established by Governor Simpson, in 1824, as the great centre of all commercial operations in Oregon;[82] is situated in a beautiful plain on the north bank of the Columbia, ninety miles from the sea, in latitude 45½° north, and in longitude 122° west; and stands four hundred yards from the water side. The noble river before it is sixteen hundred and seventy yards wide, and from five to seven fathoms in depth; the whole surrounding country is covered with {264} forests of pine, cedar, and fir, &c., interspersed here and there with small open spots; all overlooked by the vast snowy pyramids of the President’s Range, thirty-five miles in the east.

The fort itself is an oblong square two hundred and fifty yards in length, by one hundred and fifty in breadth, enclosed by pickets twenty feet in height. The area within is divided into two courts, around which are arranged thirty-five wooden buildings, used as officers’ dwellings, lodging apartment for clerks, storehouses for furs, goods, and grains; and as workshops for carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, tinners, wheelwrights, &c. One building near the rear gate is occupied as a school-house; and a brick structure as a powder-magazine. The wooden buildings are constructed in the following manner. Posts are raised at convenient intervals, with grooves in the facing sides; in these grooves planks are inserted horizontally; and the walls are complete. Rafters raised upon plates in the usual way, and covered with boards, form the roofs.

Six hundred yards below the fort, and on the bank of the river, is a village of fifty-three wooden houses, generally constructed {265} like those within the pickets. In these live the Company’s servants. Among them is a hospital, in which those who become diseased are humanely treated. At the back, and a little east of the fort, is a barn containing a mammoth threshing machine; and near this are a number of long sheds, used for storing grain in the sheaf. And behold the Vancouver farm, stretching up and down the river (3,000 acres, fenced into beautiful fields) sprinkled with dairy houses, and herdsmen and shepherds’ cottages! A busy place.

The farmer on horseback at break of day, summons one hundred half-breeds and Iroquois Indians from their cabins to the fields. Twenty or thirty ploughs tear open the generous soil; the sowers follow with their seed, and pressing on them come a dozen harrows to cover it; and thus thirty or forty acres are planted in a day, till the immense farm is under crop. The season passes on, teeming with daily industry, until the harvest waves on all these fields. Then sickle and hoe glisten in tireless activity to gather in the rich reward of this toil; the food of seven hundred at this post, and of thousands more at the posts on the deserts in the east and {266} north. The saw mill, too, is a scene of constant toil. Thirty or forty Sandwich Islanders are felling the pines and dragging them to the mill; sets of hands are plying two gangs of saws by night and day. Three thousand feet of lumber per day; nine hundred thousand feet per annum; are constantly being shipped to foreign ports.

The grist mill is not idle. It must furnish bread stuff for the posts, and the Russian market in the north-west. And its deep music is heard daily and nightly half the year.

We will now enter the fort. The blacksmith is repairing ploughshares, harrow teeth, chains and mill irons; the tinman is making cups for the Indians, and camp-kettles, &c.; the wheelwright is making waggons, and the wood parts of ploughs and harrows; the carpenter is repairing houses and building new ones; the cooper is making barrels for pickling salmon and packing furs; the clerks are posting books, and preparing the annual returns to the board in London; the salesmen are receiving beaver and dealing out goods. Listen to the voices of those children from the school house. They are the half-breed offspring of the gentlemen and servants of {267} the Company, educated at the Company’s expense, preparatory to their being apprenticed to trades in Canada. They learn the English language, writing, arithmetic and geography. The gardener, too, is singing out his honest satisfaction, as he surveys from the northern gate ten acres of apple trees laden with fruit, his bowers of grapevines, his beds of vegetables and flowers. The bell rings for dinner; we will now pay a visit to the “Hall” and its convivialities.

The dining-hall is a spacious room on the second floor, ceiled with pine above and at the sides. In the southwest corner of it is a large close stove, giving out sufficient caloric to make it comfortable.

At the end of a table twenty feet in length stands Governor McLaughlin, directing guests and gentlemen from neighbouring posts to their places; and chief-traders, traders, the physician, clerks, and the farmer, slide respectfully to their places, at distances from the Governor corresponding to the dignity of their rank in the service. Thanks are given to God, and all are seated. Roast beef and pork, boiled mutton, baked salmon, boiled ham; beets, carrots, turnips, cabbage and potatoes, and wheaten bread, are tastefully distributed {268} over the table among a dinner-set of elegant queen’s ware, burnished with glittering glasses and decanters of various-coloured Italian wines. Course after course goes round, and the Governor fills to his guests and friends; and each gentleman in turn vies with him in diffusing around the board a most generous allowance of viands, wines, and warm fellow-feeling. The cloth and wines are removed together, cigars are lighted, and a strolling smoke about the premises, enlivened by a courteous discussion of some mooted point of natural history or politics, closes the ceremonies of the dinner hour at Fort Vancouver. These are some of the incidents of life at Vancouver.

But we moor on the lower point of Wappatoo Island, to regale ourselves with food and fire. This is the highest point of it, and is said to be never overflown. A bold rocky shore, and the water is deep enough to float the largest vessels, indicate it to be a site for the commercial mart of the island. But the southern shore of the river, half a mile below, is past a doubt the most important point for a town site on the Columbia.[83] It lies at the lower mouth of the Willamette, the natural outlet of the best agricultural district of {269} Oregon. It is a hillside of gentle acclivity, covered with pine forests. There is a gorge in the mountains through which a road from it to the prairies on the south can easily be constructed. At this place the Hudson’s Bay Company have erected a house, and occupy it with one of their servants.

Having eaten our cold lunch, we left Wappatoo Island to the dominion of its wild hogs, and took again to our boat. It was a drizzly, cheerless day. The clouds ran fast from the south-west, and obscured the sun. The wind fell in irregular gusts upon the water, and made it difficult to keep our boat afloat. But we had a sturdy old Sandwich Islander at one oar, and some four or five able-bodied Indians at others, and despite winds and waves, slept that night a dozen miles below the Cowelitz. Thus far below Vancouver, the Columbia was generally more than one thousand yards wide, girded on either side by mountains rising very generally, from the water side, two or three thousand feet in height, and covered with dense forests of pine and fir. These mountains are used by the Chinooks as burial-places. During the epidemic fever of 1832, which almost swept this {270} portion of the Columbia valley of its inhabitants, vast numbers of the dead were placed among them. They were usually wrapped in skins, placed in the canoes, and hung from the boughs of trees six or eight feet from the ground. Thousands of these were seen.[84]

They hung in groups near the water side. One of them had a canoe inverted over the one containing the dead, and lashed tightly to it. We were often driven close to the shore by the heavy wind, and always noticed that these sepulchral canoes were perforated at the bottom. I was informed that this is always done for the twofold purpose of letting out the water which the rains may deposit in them, and of preventing their ever being used again by the living.

The 3rd was a boisterous day. The southerly winds drove in a heavy tide from the Pacific, and lashed the Columbia into foam; but by keeping under the windward shore, we made steady progress till sunset, when the increased expanse of the river indicated that we were about fifteen miles from the sea. The wind died away, and we pushed on rapidly; but the darkness was so great that we lost our course, and grounded upon a sand-bar three miles to the {271} north of Tongue Point.[85] After considerable trouble, we succeeded in getting off, steered to the northern shore, and in half an hour were again in deep water. But “the ship, the ship,” was on every tongue. Was it above or below Tongue Point? If the latter, we could not reach it that night, for the wind freshened again every instant, and the waves grew angry and fearful, and dashed into the boat at every sweep of the paddles.

We were beginning to calculate our prospects of another hour’s breathing when the shadowy outline of the ship was brought between us and the open horizon of the mouth of the river, a half mile below us. The oars struck fast and powerfully now, and the frail boat shot over the whitened waves for a few minutes, and lay dancing and surging under the lee of the noble “Vancouver.” A rope was hastily thrown us, and we stood upon her beautiful deck, manifestly barely saved from a watery grave. For now the sounding waves broke awfully all around us. Captain Duncan received us very kindly, and introduced us immediately to the cordial hospitalities of his cabin. The next morning we dropped down to Astoria, and anchored one hundred {272} yards from the shore. The captain and passengers landed about ten o’clock; and as I felt peculiar interest in the spot, immortalized no less by the genius of Irving than the enterprize of John Jacob Astor, I spent my time very industriously in exploring it.

The site of this place is three quarters of a mile above the point of land between the Columbia and Clatsop Bay. It is a hillside, formerly covered with a very heavy forest. The space which has been cleared may amount to four acres. It is rendered too wet for cultivation by numberless springs bursting from the surface. The back ground is still a forest rising over lofty hills; in the foreground is the Columbia, and the broken pine hills of the opposite shore. The Pacific opens in the west.

Astoria has passed away; nothing is left of its buildings but an old batten cedar door; nothing remaining of its bastions and pickets, but half a dozen of the latter, tottering among the underbrush. While scrambling over the grounds, we came upon the trunk of an immense tree, long since prostrated, which measured between six and seven fathoms in circumference. No information {273} could be obtained as to the length of time it had been decaying.

The Hudson’s Bay Company are in possession, and call the post Fort George. They have erected three log buildings, and occupy them with a clerk,[86] who acts as a telegraph keeper of events at the mouth of the river. If a vessel arrives, or is seen laying off and on, information of the fact is sent to Vancouver, with all the rapidity which can be extracted from arms and paddles.

This individual also carries on a limited trade with the Chinook and Clatsop Indians; such is his influence over them, that he bears among the Company’s gentlemen the very distinguished title of “King of the Chinooks.” He is a fine, lusty, companionable fellow, and I am disposed to believe, wears the crown with quite as little injury to his subjects as to himself.

In the afternoon we bade adieu to Astoria, and dropped down toward Cape Disappointment.—The channel of the river runs from the fort in a north-western direction to the point of the Cape, and thence close under it in a south-westerly course the distance of four miles, where it crosses the bar. The wind was quite baffling while we {274} were crossing to the northern side; and we consequently began to anticipate a long residence in Baker’s Bay.[87] But as we neared the Cape, a delightful breeze sprang up in the east, filled every sail, and drove the stately ship through the heavy seas and swells most merrily.

The lead is dipping, and the sailors are chanting each measure as they take it; we approach the bar; the soundings decrease; every shout grows more and more awful! the keel of the Vancouver is within fifteen inches of the bar! Every breath is suspended, and every eye fixed on the leads, as they are quickly thrown again! They sink; and the chant for five fathoms enables us to breathe freely. We have passed the bar; Captain Duncan grasps his passengers by the hand warmly, and congratulates them at having escaped being lost in those wild waters, where many a noble ship and brave heart have sunk together and for ever.

Off the mouth of the Columbia—on the deep, long swells of the Pacific seas. The rolling surges boom along the mountainous shores. Up the vale one hundred miles the white pyramid of Mount Washington towers above the clouds, and the green {275} forest of Lower Oregon. That scene I shall never forget. It was too wild, too unearthly to be described. It was seen at sunset; and a night of horrid tempest shut in upon this, the author’s last view of Oregon.

The following abstract of Commander Wilkes’ Report on Oregon came to hand while this work was in the press, and the author takes great pleasure in appending it to his work. Mr. Wilkes’ statistics of the Territory, it will be seen, agree in all essential particulars with those given in previous pages. There is one point only of any importance that needs to be named, in regard to which truth requires a protest; and that is contained in the commander’s concluding remarks. It will be seen on reference to them, that the agricultural capabilities of Oregon are placed above those of any part of the world beyond the tropics. This is a most surprising conclusion; at war with his own account of the several sections which he visited, and denied by every intelligent man living in the territory. What! Oregon, in this respect, equal to California, or the Valley of the Mississippi! This can never be, until Oregon be blessed with a vast increase of productive soil, and California {276} and our own unequalled Valley be greatly changed.

_Extracts from the Report of Lieutenant Wilkes to the Secretary of the Navy, of the examination, by the Exploring Expedition, of the Oregon Territory._[88]

The Territory embraced under the name of Oregon, extends from latitude 42° north to that of 53° 40′ north, and west of the Rocky Mountains. Its natural boundaries, were they attended to, would confine it within the above geographical boundaries.

On the east it has the range of Rocky Mountains along its whole extent; on the south those of the Klamet range, running on the parallel of 42° and dividing it from California; on the west the Pacific Ocean; and on the north the western trend of the Rocky Mountains, and the chain of lakes near and along the parallels of 54° and 55° north, dividing it from the British territory. It is remarkable that, within these limits, all the rivers which flow through the Territory take their rise.

The Territory is divided into three natural belts or sections, viz:

{277} 1st. That between the Pacific Ocean and Cascade Mountains, (President’s range) or western section;

2nd. That between the Cascade mountains and blue mountain range, or middle section;

3rd. That between the Blue and Rocky Mountain chains, or eastern section.

And this division will equally apply to the soil, climate, and productions.

The mountain ranges run, for the most part, in parallel lines with the coast, and, rising in many places above the snow line (here found to be 6,500 feet), would naturally produce a difference of temperature between them, and also affect their productions.

Our surveys and explorations were confined, for the most part, to the two first, claiming more interest from being less known, and more in accordance with my instructions.

MOUNTAINS.—The Cascade range, or that nearest the coast, runs from the southern boundary, on a parallel with the sea coast, the whole length of the territory, north and south, rising, in many places, in high peaks, from twelve to fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, in regular cones. Their {278} distance from the coast line is from one hundred to a hundred and fifty miles, and they almost interrupt the communication between the sections, except where the two great rivers, the Columbia and Frazer’s, force a passage through them.

There are a few mountain passes, but they are difficult, and only to be attempted late in the spring and summer.

A small range (the Claset) lies to the northward of the Columbia, between the coast and the waters of Puget’s Sound, and along the strait of Juan de Fuca. This has several high peaks, which rise above the snow line, but, from their proximity to the sea, they are not at all times covered.[89]

Their general direction is north and south, but there are many spurs or offsets that cause this portion to be very rugged.

The Blue mountains are irregular in their course, and occasionally interrupted, but generally tend from north by east to north-east, and from south to south-west.

In some parts they may be traced as spurs or offsets of the Rocky Mountains. Near the southern boundary they unite with the Klamet range, which runs east and west from the rocky mountains.[90]

{279} The Rocky Mountains are too well known to need description. The different passes will, however, claim attention hereafter. North of 48° the ranges are nearly parallel and have the rivers flowing between them.

ISLANDS.—Attached to the territory are groups of islands, bordering its northern coast. Among these are the large islands of Vancouver and Washington or Queen Charlotte; the former being two hundred and sixty miles in length, and fifty in width, containing about fifteen thousand square miles, and the latter a hundred and fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, containing four thousand square miles.[91]

Though somewhat broken in surface, their soil is said to be well adapted to agriculture.

They have many good harbours, and have long been the resort of those engaged in the fur trade; they enjoy a mild and salubrious climate, and have an abundance of fine fish frequenting their waters, which are taken in large quantities by the natives. Coal of good quality is found, specimens of which I obtained. The Hudson’s Bay Company have made a trial of it, but, owing to its having been taken from near the surface, it {280} was not very highly spoken of. Veins of minerals are also said to exist by those acquainted with these islands.

They both appear to be more densely inhabited than other portions of the territory. The natives are considered a treacherous race, particularly those in the vicinity of Johnson’s Straits,[92] and are to be closely watched when dealing with them.

At the south-east end of Vancouver’s, there is a small archipelago of islands, through which the canal de Arro runs.[93] They are for the most part uninhabited, well wooded, and composed of granite and pudding stone, which appear to be the prevailing rock to the northward of a line east from the strait of Juan de Fuca. They are generally destitute of fresh water, have but few anchorages, and strong currents render navigation among them difficult.

The islands nearer the main land, called on the maps Pitt’s Banks, or the Prince Royal islands, are of the same character, and are only occasionally resorted to by the Indians, for the purpose of fishing.[94]

The coast of the mainland, north of the parallel of 49°, is broken up by numerous inlets called canals, having perpendicular sides, and very deep water in them, affording {281} no harbours, and but few commercial inducements to frequent them.

The land is equally cut up by spurs from the Cascade range, which here intersects the country in all directions, and prevents its adaptation for agriculture.

Its value is principally in its timber, and it is believed that few if any countries can compare with it in this respect.

There is no part on this coast where a settlement could be formed between Frazer’s river, or 49° north, and the northern boundary of 54° 40′ north, that would be able to supply its own wants.

The Hudson’s Bay Company have posts within this section of the country: Fort McLaughlin, in Millbank sound, in latitude 52° 10′ north, and Fort Simpson, in latitude 54° 30′ north, within Dundas island, and at the entrance of Chatham sound; but they are only posts for the fur trade of the coast, and are supplied twice a year with provisions, &c.

It is believed that the Company have yet no establishment on any of the islands; but I understood it was in contemplation to make one on Vancouver’s island, in the vicinity of Nootka sound, or that of Clayoquot.[95]

{282} Owing to the dense fogs, the coast is extremely dangerous; and they render it at all times difficult to approach and navigate it. The interior of this portion of the territory is traversed by the three ranges of mountains, with the several rivers which take their rise in them, and is probably unequalled for its ruggedness, and from all accounts incapable of anything like cultivation.

The Columbia in its trend to the westward, along the parallel of 48°, cuts off the central or Blue mountain range, which is not again met with until on the parallel of 45°. From 45° they trend away to the southward and westward, until they fall into the Klamet range. This latter portion is but partially wooded.

RIVERS.—The Columbia claims the first notice. Its northern branch takes its rise in the Rocky mountains, in latitude 50° north, longitude 116° west; from thence it pursues a northern route to near McGillivray’s Pass, in the Rocky mountains.[96] At the boat encampment, the river is three thousand six hundred feet above the level of the sea (here it receives two small tributaries, the Canoe river and that from the Committee’s Punch Bowl), from thence it {283} turns south, having some obstructions to its safe navigation, and receiving many tributaries in its course to Colville, among which are the Kootanie, or Flat Bow, and the Flat Head or Clarke river from the east, and that of Colville from the west.

This great river is bounded thus far on its course by a range of high mountains, well-wooded, and in places expands into a line of lakes before it reaches Colville, where it is two thousand and forty-nine feet above the level of the sea, having a fall of five hundred and fifty feet in two hundred and twenty miles. To the south of this it trends to the westward, receiving the Spokan river from the east, which is not navigable, and takes its rise in the Lake of Cœur d’Alène. Thence it pursues a westerly course for about sixty miles, receiving several smaller streams, and at its bend to the south it is joined by the Okanagan, a river that has its source in a line of lakes, affording canoe and boat navigation for a considerable extent to the northward.

The Columbia thence passes to the southward until it reaches Wallawalla, in the latitude of 45° a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, receiving the Piscous, Y’Akama, and Point de Boise, or Entyatecoom,[97] from {284} the west, which take their rise in the Cascade range, and also its great south-eastern branch, the Saptin or Lewis, which has its source in the Rocky mountains, near our southern boundary, and being a large quantity of water to increase the volume of the main stream. The Lewis is not navigable, even for canoes, except in reaches. The rapids are extensive and of frequent occurrence. It generally passes between the Rocky mountain spurs and the Blue mountains. It receives the Koos-koos-ke, Salmon, and several other rivers, from the east and west (the former from the Rocky mountains, the latter from the Blue mountains)[98] and, were it navigable, would much facilitate the intercourse with this part of the country. Its length to its junction with the Columbia is five hundred and twenty miles.

The Columbia at Wallawalla is one thousand two hundred and eighty-six feet above the level of the sea, and about three thousand five hundred wide; it now takes its last turn to the westward, receiving the Umatilla, Quisnel’s, John Day’s, and de Chute rivers from the south, and Cathlatate’s from the north,[99] pursuing its rapid course of eighty miles, previous to passing through the range of Cascade mountains, in {285} a series of falls and rapids that obstruct its flow, and form insurmountable barriers to the passage of boats by water during the floods. These difficulties, however, are overcome by portages.

From thence there is a still water navigation for forty miles, when its course is again obstructed by rapids.

Thence to the ocean, one hundred and twenty miles, it is navigable for vessels of twelve feet draught of water at the lowest state of the river, though obstructed by many sand-bars.

In this part it receives the Willamette from the south, and the Cowelitz from the north. The former is navigable for small vessels twenty miles, to the mouth of the Klackamus, three miles below its falls; the latter cannot be called navigable except for a small part of the year, during the floods, and then only for canoes and barges.[100]

The width of the Columbia, within twenty miles of its mouth, is much increased, and it joins the ocean between Cape Disappointment and Point Adams, forming a sand-pit from each by deposit, and causing a dangerous bar, which greatly impedes its navigation and entrance.

Frazer’s river next claims attention. It {286} takes its rise in the Rocky mountain, near the source of Canoe river, taking a north-western course of eighty miles; it then turns to the southward, receiving the waters of Stuart’s river, which rises in a chain of lakes near the northern boundary of the Territory.[101]

It then pursues a southerly course, receiving the waters of the Chilcotin, Pinkslitsa, and several smaller streams, from the west, and those of Thompson’s river, Quisnell’s[102] and other streams, from the east, (these take their rise in lakes, and are navigable in canoes, by making portages); and under the parallel of 49° it breaks through the Cascade range in a succession of falls and rapids, and, after a westerly course of seventy miles it empties itself into the gulf of Georgia, in the latitude of 49° 07′ north. This latter portion is navigable for vessels that can pass its bar drawing twelve feet water; its whole length being three hundred and fifty miles.

The Chikeelis is next in importance. It has three sources among the range of hills that intersect the country north of the Columbia river. After a very tortuous course, and receiving some small streams issuing from the lakes in the high ground near the {287} headquarters of Hood’s canal and Puget’s Sound, it disembogues in Grey’s harbour;[103] it is not navigable except for canoes; its current is rapid, and the stream much obstructed.

To the south of the Columbia there are many small streams, three of which only deserve the name of rivers: the Umpqua, Too-too-tut-na, or Rogues’ river, and the Klamet, which latter empties itself into the ocean south of the parallel of 42°.[104] None of these form harbours capable of receiving a vessel of more than eight feet draught of water, and the bars for most part of the year are impassable from the surf that sets in on the coast. The character of the great rivers is peculiar—rapid and sunken much below the level of the country, with perpendicular banks; indeed they are, as it were, in trenches, it being extremely difficult to get at the water in many places, owing to the steep basaltic walls; and during the rise they are in many places confined by dalles, which back the water some distance, submerging islands and _tracts of low prairie_, giving the appearance of extensive lakes.

LAKES.—There are in the various sections of the country many lakes. The Okanagan, Stuart’s, Quisnell’s, and Kamloop’s are the largest in the northern section.[105]

{288} The Flat Bow, Cœur d’Alène, and Kulluspelm, in the middle section, and those forming the head-waters of the large rivers in the eastern section.[106] The country is well watered, and there are but few places where an abundance of water, either from rivers, springs, or rivulets, cannot be obtained.

The smaller lakes add much to the picturesque beauty of the country. They are generally at the head-waters of the smaller streams. The map will point out more particularly their extent and locality.

HARBOURS.—All the harbours formed by the rivers on the sea-coast are obstructed by extensive sand-bars, which make them difficult to enter. The rivers bring down large quantities of sand, which is deposited on meeting with the ocean, causing a gradual increase of the impediments already existing at their mouths. None of them can be deemed safe ports to enter. The entrance to the Columbia is impracticable two-thirds of the year, and the difficulty of leaving is equally great.