Mexico, leaving Captain Kendrick in charge at Nootka. Kendrick continued his explorations, discovered many new bays, islands and sounds and, in August, 1791, bought a tract of land at Nootka from the Indian chiefs, Maquina and Wicannish. About a month later he sailed for the Sandwich islands where, unfortunately, he was killed by the natives. His death removed an important witness and had he lived the American claim to much of the coast doubtless would have been as good as that of any other nation. Gray, having delivered his passengers to Mears in China, returned to the American coast, reaching it near Cape Mendocino. Sailing northward to Nootka, Gray encountered a strong current which issued from a bay in the coast line. Failing to gain an entrance into the bay and the river which he felt sure emptied into it, he sailed northward, discovered the Portland Canal in 54 degrees 30 minutes and returned to winter quarters at Clyoquot Sound. Early in the spring Gray sailed southward determined to solve the problem of the strong current which he had found issuing from the bay where the Spanish charts showed the River San Roque to empty. He missed meeting Quadra, the Spanish commissioner sent to Nootka to settle the Spanish-British controversy, but a few days after passing Nootka Sound fell in with Capt. George Vancouver, the British commissioner. With their vessels hove to, Gray and Vancouver on May 7, 1792, exchanged greetings, Gray telling the British commander of his intention to look more closely for Heceta's River San Roque. Vancouver, who had just sailed past its mouth, doubted the existence of the river, his journal saying that he had sought the mouth of the stream "under the most favorable circumstances of wind and weather" and that he was satisfied "no such river existed in that latitude." Leaving Vancouver to continue his voyage to Nootka, where the Spanish commissioner was awaiting his arrival, Gray continued southward and discovered Gray's Harbor. To this bay he gave the name of Bulfinch, in honor of one of his Boston employers. May 11th he arrived opposite the mouth of the Columbia River and without losing any time headed his vessel into the breakers, slipped over the bar and came to anchor in the broad bay opposite the present Town of Astoria. For nine days the ship Columbia remained in the river that has since borne her name. For some twenty or thirty miles Gray explored the stream, traded with the natives, and May 20th he sailed out over the bar on his way to Nootka. There he told Quadra of his discovery and left with the Spanish commander a chart of the river's mouth. Vancouver, after leaving Gray, seems to have been in no haste to reach Nootka, but entering the Straits of Fuca explored the inland waters of what is now known as Puget Sound. This work was nicely under way when Vancouver met two Spanish vessels, the schooners Sutil and Mexicana, commanded by Galiano and Valdes who already had explored the northern waters. The commanders of the rival expeditions agreed to work together and after completing their explorations circumnavigated Vancouver Island and arrived at Nootka August 28th. There is rather conclusive evidence that Kendrick was the first man to sail around the island, which by common consent was given the name Quadra and Vancouver. The Quadra part of the name has long since disappeared from the map. While Vancouver was sailing around the inland waters, bestowing upon the islands, bays, inlets and sounds the names of his British friends Quadra was at Nootka preparing for the settlement of the claim of Mears to certain "buildings and tracts of land" seized by Martinez. Gray and Ingraham, the latter the former mate of the Columbia but then in command of the United States brig Hope, when they sailed from Nootka left with Quadra a statement in which they testified that at the time of Martinez' arrival at Nootka and his reported seizure of Mears' "buildings and tracts of land" the only building on the bay was an old hut made by Indians; also that they never had heard of Mears' having purchased any land from the Indians; but that Captain Kendrick had made such a purchase. Maquina, the chief, confirmed this by stating that the only land he had ever sold was the tract purchased by Kendrick. Vancouver, seeing the Mears' claim thus crumble down, lost interest in the diplomatic part of his mission. Quadra offered him the small plot of ground which Mears temporarily had occupied, but this was refused and on October 13th, Vancouver sailed away in quest of the river discovered by Gray. Arriving at the mouth of the river Vancouver sent Lieutenant Broughton and the Chatham to explore it and sailed to San Francisco Bay. Broughton entered the river on October 20th and was greatly surprised to find the brig Jenny, of Bristol, anchored in the bay. The Jenny, a few days earlier at Nootka had heard of the discovery and had beaten Vancouver and Broughton to the river. Broughton continued his explorations for some distance up the river and then sailed to San Francisco Bay where he and Vancouver decided that the wide mouth entered by Gray was a bay and that the point reached by the American was not in the Columbia River at all. It was a flimsy foundation upon which to base their effort to rob Gray of the honor-one which British diplomacy could not establish. CHAPTER II THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE-PRESIDENT JEFFERSON SENDS HINT TO NAPOLEONNAPOLEON SURPRISES JEFFERSON'S COMMISSIONERS-WHAT THE PURCHASE IN CLUDED PURCHASE LEADS TO LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION INTO GREAT UNKNOWN DOMAIN-WINTER AMONG THE MANDANS-SACAJAWEA JOINS EXPEDITION AND BECOMES ITS GUIDE AND SAVIOUR-HER GREAT WORK NEVER RECOGNIZED BY CONGRESS-WHAT JEFFERSON HOPED FOR-PUBLICATION OF REPORT DELAYED LEWIS DIES SUDDENLY-REPORT AT LENGTH ISSUED DISPLEASING TO PRESIDENT COMPLETE REPORT NOT MADE FOR A HUNDRED YEARS. The American desire to open the Mississippi River to the rapidly growing commerce of the Middle West led to the acquisition of Louisiana, an empire of unknown boundaries. France owned Louisiana. Napoleon acquired it from Spain by trading Tuscany for it. But France at that time was at the point of war with England and the trade was kept a secret, Spain continuing to hold Louisiana as trustee for France. Meanwhile Napoleon was preparing to send an army to New Orleans to hold the territory against possible British opposition. Spanish rule had become onerous to the people of the West, and it became doubly irritating when Spain suddenly abrogated American use of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Appeals were sent to the Government in Washington to expel the Spanish from Louisiana. While this agitation was at fever heat the secret trade between Spain and France became known in the United States, and it further inflamed the public. Napoleon's sweeping military successes alarmed the world. Americans feared that Louisiana would become the great soldier's foothold for an invasion of the states. Jefferson instructed Robert E. Livingston, the American minister in France to hint to Napoleon that the United States would not regard with silent equanimity the bartering of New Orleans and the blockading of the Mississippi. Livingston proposed to buy New Orleans and with it a much larger territory than Jefferson had suggested, and he intimated very strongly that the United States would be forced into giving assistance to England, unless Napoleon consented. His difficulties already were great, and he was in need of money. He acted at once, not even waiting for the arrival of the other United States commissioner, Monroe, and proposed to Livingston that the United States buy the whole of Louisiana, and April 30, 1803, a treaty was signed, the United States agreeing to pay $20,000,000, $5,000,000 of which the United States was to retain as indemnity for injuries to American shipping inflicted by the French between 1793 and 1799, in their effort to coerce the United States into joining France in attacking England. Napoleon's offer was a surprise to the commissioners, and they went entirely beyond their instructions in accepting his proposal. They acted beyond their powers when they made the treaty. They had expected to meet much difficulty even in approaching Napoleon for the cession of New Orleans. Their astonishment in having thrust upon them half of a mighty continent for a picayune was overwhelming. They were obliged, in accepting it, to cast aside their own political policies and to negate Jefferson's as well, and when they returned to the United States to report to him, he, utterly surprised, yet no doubt inwardly delighted, though it necessitated a profound amendment of his governmental theories, at once set about to discover, if he could, means of justifying the complete reversal of his course, in the pursuit of which he for years had preached the strict construction of the Constitution. Here was a case where his preachments were dashed upon the rocks of fact and a fate he never had foreseen. Measured by his interpretations of the Constitution it had been brutally violated by his commissioners. But his vision grasped the greatness of the violation, and, master letter-writer that he was, his busy pen now became busier in carrying to his friends and supporters the news of that which had been achieved, urging silence upon the constitutional questions involved and instructing members of Congress in the desirability of dealing with the question "with as little debate as possible." He referred to the act as a "fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good of the country.” His term, "fugitive occurrence," is one of the most interesting that he ever penned, and it opened wide the gate that permitted him to escape from theories the fine spinning of which had occupied him for years. Congress did not long debate the question but the fur flew while it was in debate, and the treaty was ratified October 20, 1803. The Government did not know precisely what it had acquired. Napoleon did not knew what he had sold. When his councillor, Marbois, suggested to him the obscurity of the western boundary, Napoleon retorted: "If an obscurity does not already exist, perhaps it would be good policy to put one there.” Fine Napoleonic wit! Nevertheless Napoleon was so well pleased with his minister's handling of the negotiation that he gave him 192,000 francs. In 1898 the commissioner of the Land Department, Hon. Binger Hermann, carefully prepared a map from the records showing that the purchase included. everything west of the Mississippi River, excepting what we now know as Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. The territory now embracing these states was acquired in later years by reason of Captain Gray's discoveries, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the entry of American settlers. It was the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory that led to the acquisition of the "Oregon country." Possibly, if Jefferson had abided by the letter of his constitutional theories, and had refused to buy, the nation might never have extended its boundaries to the Pacific ocean by way of the Columbia River. Jefferson became an unconstitutional expansionist under the pressure of a surprising opportunity, and yet there are indications that his imagination was picturing a greater America before he had heard of the success of his agents' negotiations with Napoleon. For in January of 1803 he had asked Congress to provide moneys to carry an exploring expedition from the Missouri River to the Columbia. Congress assented, and the formation of the Lewis and Clark expedition began. |