and of making the last great discovery on the west coast of North America. He narrowly missed this discovery in August, 1778, when, in the American sloop Lady Washington, he made the northwest coast in forty-six degrees north. He perceived the apparent opening in the shore line at that time, but when he undertook to enter his sloop ran aground, he was surrounded by savage Indians, who made an effort to capture his vessel, one of his crew was killed, and one of his mates severely wounded, and when he had succeeded in beating off the attacking party he withdrew, and gave up the attempt at that time. Captain Gray, in the Columbia, spent the winter at Clayaquot, trading with the Indians and repairing his ship. In the spring of 1792 he sailed south, and on the 29th of April met Vancouver near Cape Flattery, and informed him that he had been off the mouth of a river in latitude forty-six degrees and ten minutes north, where the outset or reflex was so strong as to prevent his entering it for nine days. But little attention was given to this statement of Captain Gray. Vancouver continued his voyage to the Straits of Fuca, and on April 30 came to anchor at New Dungeness. In his journal he congratulates himself that he “has proceeded further up in this inlet than Mr. Gray, or, to our knowledge, any other person from the civilized world." Referring to the statement made by Captain Gray in regard to the mouth of the Columbia, he says, among other things, "It must be considered as a very singular circumstance that, in so great an extent of sea coast, we shall not until now (the Straits of Fuca) have seen the appearance of any opening in its shores which presented any prospect of affording shelter, the whole coast forming one compact, solid and nearly straight barrier against the sea. The river Mr. Gray mentioned should, from the latitude he assigned to it, have existence in the bay south of Cape Disappointment. This we passed on the forenoon of the 27th, and I then observed, if any inlet or river should be found, it must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to vessels of our burthen, owing to the reefs and broken water which then appeared in its neighborhood. Mr. Gray stated that he had been several days attempting to enter it, which at length he was unable to effect, in consequence of a very strong outset. This is a phenomenon difficult to account for, as, in most cases where there are outsets of such strength on a sea coast, there are corresponding tides setting in. Be that however as it may, I was thoroughly convinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not possibly have passed any safe, navigable opening, harbor or place of security for shipping on this coast, from Cape Mendocino to the Promontory of Classet (Flattery), nor had we any reasons to alter our opinions, notwithstanding that theoretical geographers have thought proper to assert, in that space, the existence of arms of the ocean communicating with a mediterranean sea, and extensive rivers with safe and convenient ports." Could Vancouver have lived for one hundred years, or could he

return for a brief period to the scenes of his maritime adventures of those days, and see the large ships with their immense cargoes going up the river one hundred miles to Portland, Oregon, and returning to the Pacific, he might wish that he had never penned this paragraph. But he goes on to say, in his egotistical manner, that "these ideas, not derived from any source of substantial information, have, it is much to be feared, been adopted for the sole purpose of giving unlimited credit to the traditionary exploits of ancient foreigners, and to undervalue the laborious and enterprising exertions of our own countrymen in the noble science of discovery." In this manner he argued himself into the belief that no such river existed as that reported by Captain Gray, and then he pushed on into the Straits of Fuca to make an examination of its inland waters. As he did so Captain Gray sailed to the southward to renew his investigations at the mouth of the Columbia. On the 7th of May, he says, "Being within six miles of land, saw an entrance in the same, which had a very good appearance of harbor; lowered away the jollyboat and went in search of an anchoring place, the ship standing to and fro, with a strong weather current. At one o'clock p. m. the boat returned, having found no place where the ship could anchor with safety; made sail on the ship; stood in for short. We soon saw from our masthead a passage between the sand bars. At half-past three, bore away and run in northeast by east, having four to eight fathoms, sandy bottom, and, as we drew nearer between the bars, had ten to thirteen fathoms, having a very strong tide of ebb to stem. Many canoes came alongside. At five p. m. came to five fathoms of water, sandy bottom, in a safe harbor, well sheltered from the sea by a long sand bar and spit. Our latitude observed this day was forty-six degrees north." This bay was named, by Captain Gray, Bulfinch Harbor, after one of the owners of the ship Columbia, but it is now known as Gray's Harbor, after Captain Gray, who discovered it. Continuing his account, Captain Gray says: "On the 11th, at 4 p. m., saw the entrance of our desired port, bearing east-southeast, distance six leagues, in steering sails, and hauled our wind inshore. At 8 a. m., being a little to windward of entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran east-northeast between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we came over the bar, we found this to be a very large river of fresh water, up which we steered." He sailed up the river as far as Tongue Point, and called it the Columbia, after the name of his ship. Thus Captain Gray achieved immortality by the discovery of this magnificent river, which rivals the Father of Waters in the vast extent of territory which it drains, and which is sufficient in and of itself to constitute an empire in the richness and variety of its resources and advantages. The patience which could wait for nine days for an opportunity to effect an entrance was in the end amply rewarded by an achievement of which the greatest navigators and explorers

by sea or land might well be proud. From the mouth of the Columbia river Captain Gray returned to Nootka Sound, where he furnished Bodega de Quadra with a description of his explorations and discoveries. Quadra reported the same to Vancouver. Having finished the negotiations connected with the Nootka treaty in so far as Quadra was concerned, Vancouver, on the 12th of October, sailed south along the coast in the Discovery, having as consorts the Chatham and the Daedalus, as he says, to re-examine the coast of New Albion, and particularly a river and a harbor discovered by Mr. Gray in the Columbia, between the forty-sixth and forty-seventh degrees of north latitude, of which Senor Quadra favored me with a sketch. The Daedalus was ordered to enter and explore Gray's Harbor, while the other vessels proceeded to the mouth of the Columbia river. The entrance to Shoalwater Bay seems to have been overlooked by these navigators. Captain Vancouver says: "At four o'clock on the afternoon of the 19th, when, having nearly reached Cape Disappointment, which forms the north point of entrance into Columbia river, so named by Mr. Gray, I directed the Chatham to lead into it, and, on her arrival at the bar, should no more than four fathoms of water be found, the signal of danger was to be made, but, if the channel appeared to be navigable, to proceed. The Discovery followed the Chatham until she found herself in shoal water, surrounded by breakers, when she hauled off to the eastward and anchored outside the bar in ten fathoms of water. The Chatham passed over the bar and rounded Cape Disappointment, when Lieutenant Broughton, her commander, was surprised to hear the firing of a gun from a schooner at anchor in the bay on the north side of the Columbia river. This schooner was found to be the Jenny, from Bristol, Rhode Island, commanded by Captain James Baker, whose name was given to the bay as a result of this incident. Still disposed to discredit Captain Gray's discovery and unwilling to believe that a river of any considerable size had been found here, Captain Vancouver goes on to say: "My former opinion of this port being inaccessible to vessels of our burthen was now fully confirmed, with this exception, that, in very fine weather, with moderate winds and smooth sea, vessels not exceeding four hundred tons might, so far as we are able to judge, gain an admittance." Time at last, however, rectified the mistakes of shortsighted men, and Captain Gray was subsequently awarded full credit for his achievement. Lieutenant Broughton, in the Chatham, sailed up as far as Gray's Bay, where he left his ship and with a cutter and launch, proceeded up the river, as he estimated, about one hundred miles, to a landing which he named Point Vancouver. This is the location afterwards selected by the Hudson's Bay Company as the site of its headquarters, and upon which the present beautiful city of Vancouver is built. Broughton spent twelve days in making his survey of the river to Vancouver, going and returning, during which time he says he took possession

of the river and the country in its vicinity, in his Britannic Majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had ever entered this river before. Then he recrossed the bar, following the schooner Jenny, and sailed south to join the Discovery. The only apology that can be offered for ignoring Captain Gray in this matter was the possible belief, on the part of Broughton, that Gray had only discovered the bay at its mouth and not the river itself. The truth was, however, that another factor had entered into the controversy which had been going on so long between the great powers of Europe for the possession of territory on the American continent, and that England, Spain, France, Russia and Holland were not the only nations whose claims had to be taken into consideration. The representatives of these nations were yet unwilling to believe that on the 4th day of July, 1776, there was born a new Power, which would not only have much to say about this disputed territory, but would eventually have to be taken into account, in matters of trade and commerce, and in ideas pertaining to government, throughout the whole world.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FUR TRADE-ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST.

With the exception of a few men like Las Casas in the West Indies, or at a later date, Father Junipero and others in California, who were sincere and earnest in their desire to convert the aborigines of America to the Christian religion, and who were indefatigable in their efforts to bring about that grand result, the great majority of the Spaniards who came to the new world were intent only upon the acquisition of gold, and in its pursuit they were tireless in their explorations and remorseless in the means employed to secure the great object of their ambition. The success which attended their adventures in Mexico and Peru led them to overrun a large part of the American continent, in the hope that other provinces equally rich and as easily conquered might be made to yield similar stores of wealth to these ruthless invaders. They failed to find any such rich localities, however, north of the northern borders of Mexico, but there was incidentally discovered in those regions a mine of wealth more profitable and more lasting than the gold mines of Peru, and its discoverers were not slow to take advantage of this newly-developed method of securing opulence without pursuing the ordinary occupations of labor.

This was the fur trade, and, from small beginnings in the closing years of the sixteenth century, it grew, under the patronage of royal bounty and protection, into enormous proportions, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the furs of North America became one of the great articles of a world-wide commerce. The fishing banks of Newfoundland were discov

ered about 1500, and soon became the resort of European fishermen in large numbers. It is said that in 1578 there were one hundred Spanish, fifty English, one hundred and fifty French, fifty Portuguese and twenty-five Biscayan whalers engaged in fishing in those waters. The St. Lawrence river had been discovered and named by Jacques Cartier in 1535. The fishermen from the codfish banks soon found their way up the St. Lawrence, and began to combine the trade in furs with their fishing enterprises. For more than one thousand years fur garments had been fashionable, extensively used and in great demand among the wealthy people of Europe, and for a much longer period in China and the East Indies. When it was learned that a great variety of valuable furs could be had in North America, including beaver, mink, fox, with many others, and on the coast of Alaska the most precious of all furs, that of the sea-otter, the search for, and the trade in these important articles of commerce, became a great industry, which has continued, with only such fluctuations as are incident to any and all lines of business, down to the present time. In 1605 George Weymouth began a trade in furs on the Kennebec river in Maine, and Captain John Smith, so prominently identified with the Jamestown colony in Virginia, shortly after assists in its development, making, it is said, fifteen hundred pounds profit in three months of the year 1614 out of his ventures in the same locality. As the value of this trade became more fully known, exploring expeditions were sent in all directions, more particularly north, west and south for the purpose, not of settlement or of home-building, but to foster and develop the fur trade with the Indians. It may be said without exaggeration that nearly all of North America was explored, its mountains, lakes, rivers and inland seas examined, and their areas determined, by men who were more interested in the fur trade than in anything else. Every hardship and privation that could be imagined or described was endured by the persevering and heroic men who undertook these explorations. No mountains, plains or rivers were too difficult to cross, no deserts too barren and forbidding, no Arctic regions too cold to be penetrated by these brave and hardy pathfinders, whose principal object was to find furs for the European or the Chinese markets, to establish trading posts among the various Indian tribes with which they came in contact, and to cultivate amicable and friendly relations with these children of the forest, whom they hoped to make their useful and profitable servants in the work of collecting and transporting the skins and peltries, which were as much the objects of their ambition as gold was the great incentive to the Spaniards, who so quickly overran all of South, and the southern part of North America.

These fur hunters and traders often braved the hostility of these savage Indians, and many lives were sacrificed, before friendly relations could be