United States that this poor, lowly, humble Indian was requited with such neglect for the priceless services she rendered to the great nation. And it is to the everlasting honor and credit of the women of Oregon that they provided and reared the first and most enduring monument to the honor of the heroic Indian woman -Sacajawea. (The bronze monument in the City Park at Portland.)

The following poem by Bert Huffman, editor of the East Oregonian of Pendleton, Ore., widely published throughout the country, fittingly commemorates the just fame of that greatest heroine of her race, and the equal of her sex in any race on the continent.

"Behind them toward the rising sun

The traversed wilderness lay-
About them gathered, one by one,

The baffling mysteries of their way!
To Westward, yonder, peak on peak

The glistening ranges rose and fell—
Ah, but among that hundred paths

Which led aright? Could any tell?

"Brave Lewis and Immortal Clark!

Bold spirits of that best Crusade,
You gave the waiting world the spark

That thronged the empire-paths you made!

But standing on that snowy height,

Where westward yon wild rivers whirl.
The guide who led your hosts aright

Was the barefoot Shoshone girl."

As has been indicated heretofore, the Louisiana Purchase cleared the way for the expedition. Louisiana had been a trading token, passed back and forth between Spain and France. Under either country it was a menace to the democratic institutions of the United States. Its purchase gave this Government undisputed title to the country eastward of the headwaters of the Columbia. Gray's discovery gave it as good title to the mouth of that river as was claimed by any other nation. After the details of the purchase had been concluded Jefferson wrote to Lewis:

"The object of your mission is single, the direct water communication from sea to sea formed by the bed of the Missouri, and, perhaps, the Oregon."

Lewis was then on his way westward and this first instruction from the President must be taken as indicating his hope that the result of the expedition would be the linking up of the westward boundaries of Louisiana with the country claimed by right of Gray's discovery. The instructions under which the expedition traveled were to ascend the Missouri, cross the Rocky Mountains, seek and trace some stream to the Pacific "whether the Columbia, the Oregon, the Colorado, or any other which might offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce."

Some ten years later, November 19, 1813, Jefferson writing to John Jacob Astor, expressed his pleasure over the "progress you have made towards an

establishment on the Columbia River" which he viewed "as the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent, and that liberty and self-government, spreading from that as well as this side, will insure their complete establishment over the whole." Many years later Webster expressed

much the same thought.

William Clark was the son of John and Ann Rogers Clark, second-cousins, who were married when the bride was but sixteen years of age. He was born August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia. He was the ninth child born to his parents. When he was but two years of age his brother, George Rogers Clark, returned from a trip into the country lying west of the Alleghany Mountains with such wonderful tales of its beauties and riches that the family decided to move into the valley of the Ohio. Some thirteen years passed before this plan was carried out. The elder brother had risen to a prominent place in the affairs of the West and the family settled at Mulberry Hill, about three miles south of Louisville, Ky., then a frontier fort.

William was now fifteen, tall, powerfully framed, broad faced, with a thick shock of red hair. At the age of seventeen he became a soldier and under his elder brother served in the Wabash expedition. March 19, 1793, he became a second lieutenant in General Anthony Wayne's western army. Hard work so impaired his health that he retired from the army in 1796 and became the manager of his father's Mulberry Hill estate. In his efforts to save his famous elder brother from financial disaster, William lost the Mulberry Hill property, which had become his upon the death of his father in 1799, and it was while employed in his brother's behalf that he received a letter from Meriwether Lewis inviting him to share the dangers of the Oregon expedition.

Lewis had been Clark's comrade during one of the expeditions against the Indians and when he received the command of the expedition, asked that he might share it with Clark. Replying to Lewis' invitation Clark said:

"That is an immense undertaking freighted with numerous difficulties, but my friend I can assure you that no man lives with whom I would prefer to undertake and share the difficulties of such a trip than yourself."

Lewis was made governor of the new Louisiana territory; was commissioned brigadier-general of the territorial militia and superintendent of Indian affairs. Their new duties kept the men so busy that they were not able to prepare a report of the expedition and, after President Jefferson for some time had urged the matter upon Lewis he started for Washington with the intention of completing the work on the journals. While stopping in a wayside tavern in Tennessee, he died, or was murdered, on the night of October 11, 1809. President Jefferson now turned to Clark who engaged Nicholas Biddle to prepare the journals for publication. Eight years after the return of the expedition a report was published. It did not meet with the approval of Jefferson, who tried to collect the notes with the object of having a new report made. Clark, unknown to Jefferson, retained most of his maps and notes. For many years these were in the possession of his heirs. Almost one hundred years after the expedition had crossed the continent these maps and notes were discovered by Reuben Gold Thwaites who published them in a set of seven volumes and atlas.

If the question, "Who Saved Oregon," were submitted to a jury composed of one dozen historical writers with a request that they deliberate until they

Vol. I-2

arrived at a unanimous verdict, the jurors doubtless would do one of three things -compromise their honest opinions, be in session until the last man died, or bring in a verdict that Oregon was saved by the combined action of a large number of persons each of whom contributed thought, enthusiasm and labor to the task of bringing into the sisterhood of states three states over which the flag of no other nation ever waved for any length of time.

To Thomas Jefferson belongs the honor of taking the first of the many steps toward the saving of Oregon. Several years before he became president of the United States he wrote to Gen. George Rogers Clark saying that England had subscribed a large sum of money "for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thoughts of colonizing into that quarter." Jefferson asked Clark how he would like to lead a similar expedition if the necessary funds could be obtained.

Two years later Jefferson was in Paris where he met John Ledyard, a citizen of Connecticut, who had accompanied Cook on his voyage to the Pacific and was then in Paris to interest French capital in a trading expedition to the Northwest coast of America. French capitalists did not take kindly to Ledyard's plan and Jefferson suggested to the Connecticut man that he go overland to Kamchatka, cross the Pacific to Nootka and from there work his way back to the Atlantic by way of the river and plains route. Ledyard's roving nature responded to the suggestion and he soon was on his way.

Crossing Russia Ledyard went into winter quarters some 200 miles from the Pacific. Upon the orders of the empress, who said she had not given permission for his crossing her domain, he was recalled and returned to Paris. The Russian plan was abandoned and Ledyard promised Jefferson that he would go to Kentucky and try to reach the Pacific overland from that country. Before undertaking this trip, however, he wanted to explore the river Nile. He died a few days after he started for Egypt.

Jefferson returned to America and in 1792 assisted the American Philosophical Society, of Philadelphia, in financing an overland expedition led by Andre Michaux, a French botanist, and Meriwether Lewis. Louisiana was at that time a Spanish possession and Michaux becoming involved in plans for a filibustering expedition into the country, the expedition was abandoned.

In 1801 Jefferson became President and on January 18, 1803, in a confidential message to Congress proposed the sending into the far Northwest of an expedition for the purpose of increasing the geographical knowledge of the country. Congress took the hint which his carefully worded message concealed and provided for the expedition. It was about this time that the President learned of the secret treaty whereby Louisiana had been returned to the French Govern

ment.

CHAPTER III

JOHN JACOB ASTOR'S GREAT FUR PROJECT-SENDS TWO PARTIES WEST AND THEY ESTABLISH “ASTORIA"-FATE OF THE TONQUIN-MEN REDUCED TO SHORT RATIONS —ASTORIA IS SOLD OUT TO BRITISH-NORTHERN BOUNDARY FIXED AND "JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY" IS SIGNED FLORIDA BOUGHT FROM SPAIN-RUSSIA ISSUES TRADE DECREE OF DANGER TO THE U. S. BUT DIPLOMACY DISPOSES OF THE

DIFFICULTY.

John Jacob Astor, a native of Heidelberg, Germany, had been in America almost twenty years when the Lewis and Clark expedition returned from its long and hazardous journey to the mouth of the Columbia. The small capital which Astor had brought from his native land had been invested in the fur trade of the then northwest territories. It had increased so rapidly that, by the close of the eighteenth century, Astor was one of the wealthy men of the country but he found the increasing competition of the North-West and Hudson's Bay companies not to his liking and determined to outfit a fur trading expedition to the mouth of the river which American explorers had followed from its source in the Rocky Mountains to the sea.

Realizing that the establishment of a fur-trading station on the Pacific Coast required great capital and wide experience. Astor proposed a consolidation with the North-West Fur Company, but this offer was refused. June 23, 1810, the Pacific Fur Company was organized with Astor as president and principal stockholder, and Alexander M'Kay, Robert and David Stuart, John Clarke, Duncan McDougal, Donald McKenzie, former North-West Company employees, and Wilson P. Hunt, of New Jersey, as partners. The articles of organization provided that Astor should finance the enterprise to the extent of $400,000 and should manage the company's affairs in New York. Hunt was chosen to manage the post at the mouth of the Columbia River while the other partners were to have charge of other posts which the company intended to establish in the Indian country, or to perform other services. Canton, China, was still the center of the world's raw fur market and there the Astor traders expected to sell the peltries taken in the Columbia River Valley. Each year Astor was to send a ship load of supplies from New York to the river. Upon this ship the season's catch of furs. were to go to market.

The company was divided, one party to go overland to establish trading posts, the other to go by sea with a stock of goods and supplies. McDougal was given command of the sea expedition and September 8, 1810, he sailed from New York on the 290-ton ship Tonquin in command of Capt. Jonathan Thorn, an officer of the United States navy on leave of absence. Scarcely had the ship left the Atlantic coast than Thorn and his passengers began a quarrel which terminated only when many of them met their death together on the western

shore of Vancouver Island many months later. The mouth of the Columbia was reached March 22, 1811, and a few days later the vessel came to anchor in the bay under the hills of the present City of Astoria.

The building of the fort began April 12th, the partners already having decided to call the settlement "Astoria" in honor of the principal stockholder. The Tonquin was unloaded and early in June sailed away on her first and last trading expedition. Of the events that transpired on the ship the only record left is the story of the Indian interpreter, Lamazee, who had accompanied the expedition from Astoria. Sailing northward the Tonquin entered one of the bays on the west side of Vancouver Island. Lamazee, who, Jason Lee said, was still living in Oregon at the time of his arrival there, asserted that he had advised against entering the harbor, telling McKay and Thorn that the Indians were treacherous and warlike. In spite of that McKay began trading with the Indians whom he admitted freely on board the ship. All was going well, apparently, when Captain Thorn in some manner insulted one of the chiefs. The Indians retired and planned revenge. The next morning, before either McKay or Thorn were awake, a large canoe came along side the ship carrying about twenty Indians who held up otter skins as a sign that they wished to trade. As they appeared to be unarmed the officer in charge of the deck allowed them to come aboard. Other canoes soon arrived and before the sailors realized the danger, Indians were swarming over the decks. Thorn and McKay were called and the captain was urged to make sail at once and escape if possible. At first he ridiculed the idea but a little later he sent his men into the rigging. The invaders immediately attacked those on deck with knives and war clubs which they had concealed beneath their clothing. The fight was of short duration. Five men reached the hold of the ship, where they obtained guns and drove the invaders from the deck.

In the night it was decided to make an effort to escape. Lewis, the wounded man, refused to accompany the other four, and was left behind. His companions. headed for the sea in an open boat. They either landed on the shore or in the darkness were unable to get away from the ship, and were captured by the Indians who tortured them to death.

In the morning Lewis signalled that he was ready to confer with the Indians. Great crowds soon manned the canoes, crossed the intervening water and climbed aboard the ship. Lewis meantime disappeared into the hold. While greedily helping themselves to the white man's property the deck beneath their feet rose in the air, the sides of the vessel burst outward, and arms, legs and mutilated bodies of Indians were thrown in all directions. Lewis, by firing the magazine, had avenged the deaths of his ship mates and made a quick end to his own sufferings. Lamazee became a slave, later escaped and made his way to Astoria where he told the story of the massacre and explosion.

Under McDougal's direction the erecting of the fort at Astoria progressed satisfactorily. Buildings were completed and plans perfected for an expedition to the interior country under command of David Stuart who was ready to start when David Thompson and a party of North-West men arrived. Learning of Astor's plans for founding an American settlement on the western coast, the North-West company sent Thompson west in hope that he might arrive ahead of the Americans. Finding the country already occupied, Thompson did not tarry