THE OREGON OR COLUMBIA RIVER.
The Oregon, or Great River of the West, discovered by D. Bruno Heceta,
in 1775. Ensenada de Heceta.--Rio de San Roque.--Meares' Voyage in the
Felice, in 1788.--Deception Bay.--Vancouver's Mission in
1791.--Vancouver vindicated against Mr. Greenhow in respect to Cape
Orford.--Vancouver passes through Deception Bay.--Meets Captain Gray
in the Merchant-ship Columbia.--Gray passes the Bar of the Oregon, and
gives it the Name of the Columbia River.--Extract from the Log-book of
the Columbia.--Vancouver defended.--The Chatham crosses the Bar, and
finds the Schooner Jenny, from Bristol, inside.--The Discovery driven
out to Sea.--Lieutenant Broughton ascends the River with his Boats,
110 miles from its Mouth.--Point Vancouver.--The Cascades--The
Dalles.--The Chutes or Falls of the Columbia.--Mr. Greenhow's
Criticism of Lieutenant Broughton's Nomenclature.--Lord Stowell's
Definition of the Mouth of a River.--Extent of Gray's Researches.--The
Discovery of the Columbia River a progressive Discovery.--Doctrine as
to the Discovery of a River, set up by the United States, denied by
Great Britain.
It is generally admitted that the first discovery of the locality where
the Oregon or Great River of the West emptied itself into the sea, was
made in 1775, by D. Bruno Heceta, as he was coasting homewards to
Monterey, having parted with his companion Bodega in about the 50th degree
of north latitude. We find in consequence that in the charts published at
Mexico soon after his return, the inlet, which he named Ensenada de la
Asuncion, is called Ensenada de Heceta, and the river which was supposed
to empty itself there, is marked as the Rio de San Roque. The discovery
however of this river by Heceta was certainly the veriest shadow of a
discovery, as will be evident from his own report, which Mr. Greenhow has
annexed in the Appendix to his work. Having stated that on the 17th of
August he discovered a large bay, to which he gave the name of the Bay of
the Assumption, in about 46 deg. 17' N. L., he proceeds to say, that having
placed his ship nearly midway between the two capes which formed the
extremities of the bay, he found the currents and eddies too strong for
his vessel to contend with in safety. "These currents and eddies of water
caused me to believe that the place is the mouth of some great river, or
of some passage into another sea." In fact, Heceta did not ascertain that
the water of this current was not sea-water, and as he himself says, had
little difficulty in conceiving that the inlet might be the same with the
passage mentioned by De Fuca, since he was satisfied no such straits as
those described by De Fuca existed between 47 deg. and 48 deg.
Although, however, the discovery of this river was so essentially
imperfect, being attended by no exploration, as hardly to warrant the
admission of it into charts which professed to be well authenticated,
still its existence was believed upon the evidence which Heceta's report
furnished, and as subsequent examination has confirmed its existence, the
Spaniards seem warranted in claiming the credit of the discovery for their
countryman.
No further notice of this supposed river occurs until Meares' voyage in
the Felice, in 1788. Meares, according to his published narrative, reached
the bay of the river on July 6th, and steered into it, with every
expectation of finding there, according to the Spanish accounts, a good
port. In this hope, however, he was disappointed, as breakers were
observed, as he approached, extending across the bay. He in consequence
gave to the northern headland the name of Cape Disappointment, and to the
bay itself the title of Deception Bay. "We can now with safety assert," he
writes, "that no such river as that of Saint Roc exists, as laid down in
the Spanish charts." Meares had been led from these charts to expect that
he should find a place of shelter for his ship at the mouth of this river,
and Heceta, in his plan, upon which the Spanish charts were based, had
supposed that there was a port there formed by an island: so that, as "it
blew very strong in the offing, and a great westerly swell tumbled in on
the land," it was not surprising that Meares should have concluded, from
there being no opening in the breakers, that there was no such port, and
therefore no such river.
There can be no doubt that the locality of the bay which Meares
reconnoitred was the locality of the Ensenada de Heceta; and on the other
hand it cannot be gainsayed, that Meares was right in concluding that
there was _no such river_ as that of St. Roque, as laid down in the
Spanish charts, for the context of Meares' narrative explains the meaning
of the word "such." Meares states beforehand, that they were in
expectation that the distant land beyond the promontory would prove to be
"the Cape St. Roque of the Spaniards, near which they _were said to have
found a good port_." The river, then, of St. Roque, such as it was laid
down in Spanish charts, was a river "near which was a good port," and the
disappointment which Meares handed down to posterity by the name which he
gave to the promontory, was that of _not obtaining a place of shelter for
his vessel_. Meares, it must be remembered, was not in search of the
Straits of Anian. He had already in the previous month of June ascertained
the existence of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, which he supposed might be
one of the passages into Hudson's Bay: but he was in search of some
harbour or port, where the ship could remain in safety, while the boats
might be employed in exploring the coast. (Voyage, p. 166.) Such a harbour
indeed Deception Bay most assuredly does not supply, and though Baker's
Bay within the bar of the river affords on the north side a good and
secure anchorage, yet, as Lieut. Broughton subsequently ascertained, "the
heavy and confused swell that rolls in over the shallow entrance, and
breaks in three fathoms water, renders the place between Baker's Bay and
Chinock Point a very indifferent roadstead."
Mr. Greenhow, (p. 177,) in his observations on Meares' voyage, writes
thus: "Yet, strange though it may appear, the commissioners appointed by
the British Government in 1826, to treat with the plenipotentiary of the
United States at London, on the subject of the claims of the respective
parties to territories on the northwest side of America, insisted that
Meares on this occasion discovered the Great River Columbia, which
actually enters the Pacific at Deception Bay, and cite, in proof of their
assertion, the very parts of the narrative above extracted," the substance
of which has just been referred to. Mr. Greenhow, however, has attached
rather too great an extent to the statement of the British commissioners,
which is annexed to the protocol of the sixth conference, held at London,
Dec. 16th, 1826. The documents relative to this negotiation have not as
yet been published by the British Government, but they were made known to
the Congress of the United States, with the message of President Adams, on
Dec. 12, 1827, and Mr. Greenhow has annexed the British statement in his
Appendix.
"Great Britain," it is there said, "can show that in 1788, that is, four
years before Gray entered _the mouth of the Columbia river_, Mr. Meares, a
lieutenant of the Royal Navy, who had been sent by the East India Company
on a trading expedition to the northwest coast of America, had already
minutely explored the coast from the 49th to the 45th degree of north
latitude; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De Fuca in the
name of his sovereign; had purchased land, trafficked and formed treaties
with the natives; and had actually entered _the bay of the Columbia_, to
the north headland of which he gave the name of Cape Disappointment, a
name which it bears to this day."
The language of this statement, it will be seen, is carefully worded, so
as not to go beyond the actual facts narrated in Meares' Voyage; and
further, on referring to the maps of the coasts and harbours which he
visited, it continues, "in which every part of the coast in question,
including _the Bay of the Columbia_ (_into which the log expressly states
that Meares entered_,) is minutely laid down, its delineation tallying in
almost every particular with Vancouver's subsequent survey, and with the
description found in all the best maps of that part of the world adopted
at this moment."
The entry in Meares' log-book is as follows: "July 6, lat. 46 deg. 10'; long.
235 deg. 24'; northerly; strong gales, a great sea. Passed Cape
Disappointment, _into Deception Bay_, and hauled out again, and passed
Quicksand Bay, Cape Grenville, and Cape Look-out."
There is, therefore, nothing strange in the view which the British
Commissioners really insisted upon, though it is strange that Mr. Greenhow
should have misconstrued their statement, particularly as, in a paragraph
almost immediately following, which will be referred to in full in its
proper place, they readily admit that Mr. Gray, four years afterwards,
"was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet of a great
river."
The further examination of these coasts by British subjects was suspended
for a short time, as already seen, by the interference of the Spanish
authorities. After, however, that Spain had definitively abandoned her
pretensions to exclusive rights along the entire northwest coast of
America, as far as Prince William's Sound, and agreed, by the third
article of the Convention of 1790, that occupation should be the test of
territorial title, the British Government judged it expedient "to
ascertain with as much precision as possible the number, extent, and
situation of any settlement which had been made within the limits of 60 deg.
and 30 deg. north latitude by any European nation, and the time when such
settlement was made. With this object, amongst others more immediately
connected with the execution of the first article of the Convention,
Captain George Vancouver was despatched from Deptford with two vessels on
January 6, 1791, and having wintered at the Sandwich Islands, where he was
instructed to wait for further orders in reference to the restoration of
the buildings and tracts of land, of which British subjects had been
dispossessed at Nootka, he arrived off the coast of America on April 17,
1792, in about 39 deg. 30'. He had received special instructions to ascertain
the direction and extent of all such considerable inlets, whether made by
arms of the sea, or by the mouths of great rivers, which might be likely
to lead to, or facilitate in any considerable degree, an intercourse, for
the purposes of commerce, between the northwest coast and the country upon
the opposite side of the continent, which are inhabited or occupied by his
Majesty's subjects;" but he was expressly required and directed "not to
pursue any inlet or river further than it should appear to be navigable by
vessels of such burden as might safely navigate the Pacific Ocean."
(Introduction to Vancouver's Voyage, p. xix.)
Having made a headland, which he supposed to be Cape Mendocino, Vancouver
directed his course northward, examining carefully the line of coast, and
taking soundings as he proceeded. In about latitude 42 deg. 52', longitude
235 deg. 35', he remarked a low projecting headland, apparently composed of
_black_ craggy rocks in the space between the woods and the wash of the
sea, and covered with wood nearly to the edge of the surf, which, as
forming a very conspicuous point, he distinguished by the name of Cape
Orford. Mr. Greenhow has allowed his antipathy to Vancouver to lead him
into an erroneous statement in respect to this headland. Vancouver (Vol.
i., p. 205, April 25, 1792) writes: "Some of us were of opinion that this
was the Cape Blanco of Martin d'Aguilar; its latitude, however, differed
greatly from that in which Cape Blanco is placed by that navigator; and
its _dark_ appearance, which might probably be occasioned by the haziness
of the weather, did not seem to entitle it to the appellation of Cape
Blanco." He afterwards goes on to say, that at noon, when Cape Orford was
visible astern, nearly in the horizon, they had a projecting headland in
sight on the westward, which he considered to be Cape Blanco. He here
ranged along the coast, at the distance of about a league, in hope of
discovering the asserted river of D'Aguilar. "About three in the
afternoon, we passed within a league of the cape above mentioned, and at
about half that distance from some breakers that lie to the westward of
it. This cape, though not so projecting a point as Cape Orford, is
nevertheless a conspicuous one, particularly when seen from the north,
being formed by a round hill, on high perpendicular cliffs, some of which
are _white_, a considerable height from the level of the sea." It appeared
to Vancouver to correspond in several of its features with Captain Cook's
description of Cape Gregory, though its latitude, which he determined to
be 43 deg. 23', did not agree with that assigned by Captain Cook to that
headland; but he again states, that there was a "probability of its being
also the Cape Blanco of D'Aguilar, if land hereabouts the latter ever
saw;" and that "a compact _white_ sandy beach commenced, where the rocky
cliffs composing it terminate."
Mr. Greenhow remarks: "Near the 43d degree of latitude, they sought in
vain for the river, which Martin d'Aguilar was said to have seen, entering
the Pacific thereabouts, in 1603: and they appeared inclined to admit as
identical with the Cape Blanco of that navigator, a _high, whitish_
promontory, in the latitude of 42 deg. 52', to which, however, they did not
scruple to assign the name of Cape Orford." Had these observations been
made in reference to Cape Gregory, the high cliffs of which are described
by Vancouver as _white_, they would have been intelligible; but, directed
as they are by Mr. Greenhow against a headland which Vancouver expressly
describes as a "wedge-like, low, perpendicular cliff; composed of _black
craggy rock_, with breakers upon sunken rocks about four miles distant, in
soundings of forty-five fathoms, _black_ sandy bottom," they expose Mr.
Greenhow himself to the charge of not being sufficiently scrupulous when
assailing a writer, towards whom he confesses that he feels considerable
animosity.
Having reached Cape Lookout, in 45 deg. 32' N. L., Vancouver examined with
attention the portion of coast which Meares had seen. About ten leagues to
the north of this headland, the mountainous inland country descends
suddenly to a moderate height, and were it not covered with lofty timber,
might be deemed low land. Noon, "on the 27th of April, brought them in
sight of a conspicuous point of land, composed of a cluster of hummocks,
moderately high, and projecting into the sea from the low land above
mentioned. The hummocks are barren, and steep near the sea, but their tops
thinly covered with wood. On the south side of this promontory was the
appearance of _an inlet, or small river_, the land behind not indicating
it to be of any great extent; nor did it seem accessible to vessels of our
burden, as the breakers extended from the above point two or three miles
into the ocean, until they joined those on the beach, three or four
leagues further south. On reference to Mr. Meares' description of the
coast south of this promontory, I was at first induced to believe it to be
Cape Shoalwater; but on ascertaining its localities, I presumed it to be
that which he calls Cape Disappointment, and the opening south of it
Deception Bay. This cape was found to be in latitude of 46 deg. 19', longitude
236 deg. 6' east. The sea had now changed from its natural to _river-coloured_
water, the probable consequence of some streams falling into the bay, or
into the opening north of it, through the low land. Not considering this
opening worthy of our attention, I continued our pursuit to the northwest,
being desirous to embrace the advantages of the now-prevailing breeze and
pleasant weather, so favourable to our examination of the coasts."
The purport of Vancouver's observations in the passage just cited will not
be correctly appreciated, unless his instructions are kept in mind, which
directed his attention exclusively to such inlets or rivers which should
appear to be navigable to sea-going vessels, and be likely to facilitate
in any considerable degree a communication with the northwest coast.
Vancouver seems to have advanced a step beyond Heceta in observing the
_river-coloured water_, and so determining the inlet not to be a strait of
the sea; but he rightly decided that the opening in the north part of the
bay was not worthy of attention, either in respect to his main object of
discovering a water-communication with the northwest coast, or to the
prospect of its affording a certain shelter to sea-going vessels.
Vancouver, as he approached De Fuca's Straits on 29th April, when off Cape
Flattery, fell in with the merchant ship Columbia, commanded by Mr. Robert
Gray, which had sailed from Boston on the 28th Sept., 1788. Captain Gray
had formerly commanded the Washington, when that vessel and the Columbia,
commanded by Captain John Kendrick, visited Nootka in 1788. Having given
Vancouver some information respecting De Fuca's Straits, he stated that he
had "been off the mouth of a river in the latitude of 46 deg. 10', where the
outset, or reflux, was so strong as to prevent his entering it for nine
days. This," continues Vancouver, "was probably the opening passed by us
on the forenoon of the 27th, and was apparently then inaccessible, not
from the current, but from the breakers that extended across it." Gray at
this time had not succeeded in passing the bar at the mouth of the
Columbia. After parting from Vancouver, he continued his course to the
southward for the purposes of his summer trade. The extract from his own
log-book, which Mr. Greenhow has inserted in his Appendix, will furnish
the best account of his proceedings:--"May 11th, at 4 A.M. saw the
entrance of our desired port bearing E.S.E., distance six leagues; in
steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore. At 8 A.M., being a little to
windward of the entrance into the harbour, bore away and run in E.N.E.
between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms water. When we
came over the bar, we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up
which we steered."
In the British statement it is admitted that "Mr. Gray, finding himself in
the bay formed by the discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the
Pacific, was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet of a
great river--a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares, when in
1788, four years before, he entered the same bay."
This passage has been quoted to show that the claim of Captain Gray to the
honour of having first crossed the bar of the river has not been impeached
by the British Commissioners. He gave to the river the name of his own
vessel, the Columbia.
The Columbia remained at anchor on the 12th and 13th. On the 14th of May,
Gray weighed anchor, and stood up the river N.E. by E.
The log-book of the Columbia furnishes the following extract:--
"We found the channel very narrow. At 4 P.M. we had sailed upwards of
twelve or fifteen miles, when the channel was so very narrow that it was
almost impossible to keep in it, having from three to eighteen fathoms
water, sandy bottom. At half-past four the ship took ground, but she did
not stay long before she came off; without any assistance. We backed her
off stern-foremost into three fathoms, and let go the small bower, and
moved ship with kedge and hawser. The jolly-boat was sent to sound the
channel out, but found it not navigable any further up; _so of course we
must have taken the wrong channel_. _So ends_, with rainy weather; many
natives alongside." On the following day Gray unmoored, and dropped down
the river with the tide. On the 18th he made the latitude of the entrance
to be 46 deg. 17' north. On the 20th he succeeded, after some difficulty, in
beating over the bar out to sea.
This log-book, the authenticity of which is vouched for by Mr. Bulfinch,
of Boston, one of the owners of the Columbia, affords the best evidence
that Captain Gray's claim is limited to the discovery of the _mouth of the
Columbia_, a discovery different indeed _in degree_ from Heceta's or
Vancouver's, and entitled to higher consideration, but not different _in
kind_. It must be remembered that the problem to be solved was the
discovery of the Great River of the West, but this problem was surely not
solved by Gray, who expressly states that the channel which he explored
was not navigable any further up than twelve or fifteen miles from the
entrance; "so of course," he adds, "we must have taken the wrong channel."
But such a description would hardly have convinced the world that Gray had
succeeded in discovering the Great River, unless Lieutenant Broughton had
subsequently succeeded in entering the right channel, and had explored its
course for the distance of more than one hundred miles from the sea. But
the reputation of this enterprising man needs no fictitious laurels. He
was decidedly the first to solve the difficult question of their being a
passage, such as it is, over the bar of the river.
Mr. Greenhow, in commenting upon Gray's discovery, observes, "Had Gray,
after parting with the English ships, _not returned to the river_, and
ascended it as he did, there is every reason to believe that it would have
long remained unknown; for the assertion of Vancouver, that no opening,
harbour, or place of refuge for vessels was to be found between Cape
Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, and that this part of the coast formed
one compact, solid, and nearly straight barrier against the sea, would
have served completely _to overthrow the evidence of the American
fur-trader_, and to prevent any further attempts to examine those shores,
or even to approach them."
Now the evidence of the American fur-trader, _had he not returned to the
river_, would have needed no Vancouver to overthrow it, for it would have
amounted to this, that Gray had been off the mouth of a river for nine
days, without being able to enter it; whereas Vancouver's own statement
would have been, that on the south side of Cape Disappointment there was
the appearance of an inlet or small river, "which did not however seem
accessible for vessels of our burthen," as breakers extended right across
it. Mr. Greenhow misrepresents Vancouver, when he states that Meares'
opinion was subscribed without qualification by Vancouver, for Vancouver
carefully limits his opinion of the river to its being inaccessible to
vessels of equal burthen with his own sloop of war, the Discovery.
Gray, after entering the Columbia, appears to have returned to Nootka, and
to have given to Senor Quadra, the Spanish commandant, a sketch of the
river. Vancouver, having attempted in vain to conclude a satisfactory
arrangement with Quadra in respect to the fulfilment of the first article
of the Nootka Convention, determined to re-examine the coast of New
Albion. With this object he sailed southward in the Discovery, accompanied
by the Chatham and the Daedalus. The Daedalus having been left to explore
Gray's harbour in 46 deg. 53', the Discovery and Chatham proceeded round Cape
Disappointment, and the Chatham, under Lieutenant Broughton, was directed
to lead into the Columbia river, and to signalize her consort if only four
fathoms water should be found over the bar. The Discovery followed the
Chatham, till Vancouver found the water to shoal to three fathoms, with
breakers all around, which induced him to haul off to the westward, and
anchor outside the bar in ten fathoms. The Chatham, in the meantime, cast
anchor in the midst of the breakers, where she rode in four fathoms, with
the surf breaking over her. "My former opinion," writes Vancouver, "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 a smooth sea, vessels not exceeding 400 tons might, so far as we
were able to judge, gain admittance." It may be observed that the vessels
of the Hudson's Bay Company, by which the commerce of this part of the
country is almost exclusively carried on, do not exceed 360 tons, and draw
only fourteen feet water. Captain Wilkes, in the United States Exploring
Expedition, vol. iv., p. 489, speaks of a vessel of from 500 to 600 tons,
the Lausanne, having navigated the Columbia; on the other hand, the
Starling, which accompanied the Sulphur exploring vessel, under Captain
Belcher, in July, 1839, left her rudder on the bar, and the American
corvette, the Peacock, which attempted to enter the river in July, 1841,
was lost in very fine weather, having been drifted amongst the breakers by
the set of the current.
When it is known that the vessels of the Hudson's Bay Company have been
obliged to lie-to off the mouth of the Columbia for upwards of two months
before they could venture to cross the bar, and that vessels have been
detained inside the bar for upwards of six weeks, it must be acknowledged
that Vancouver's declaration of the probable character of the river has
not fallen very wide of the mark.
On the next day the Chatham succeeded, with the flood-tide, in leading
through the channel, and anchored in a tolerably snug cove inside Cape
Disappointment; but the Discovery, not having made so much way, was driven
out by a strong ebb tide into 13 fathoms water, where she anchored for the
night, and on the following day was forced by a gale of wind to stand out
to sea, and to abandon all hope of regaining the river.
On the Chatham rounding the inner point of Cape Disappointment, they were
surprised to hear a gun fired from a vessel, which hoisted English
colours, and proved to be the Jenny, a small schooner of Bristol,
commanded by Mr. James Baker, which had sailed from Nootka Sound direct to
England, before Vancouver started. This cove or bay inside Cape
Disappointment was in consequence named, by Lieut. Broughton, Baker's Bay,
which name it retains, and it appeared from Captain Baker's account that
this was not the first occasion of his entering the river, but that he had
been there in the earlier part of the year.
The Chatham in the meantime proceeded up the inlet, and having in her
course grounded for a short time on a shoal, anchored ultimately a little
below the bay which had terminated Gray's researches, to which Gray had
given his own name in his chart. The sketch of this, with which Vancouver
had been favoured by the Spanish commandant at Nootka, was found by
Broughton not to resemble much what it purported to represent, nor did it
mark the shoal on which the Chatham grounded, though it was an extensive
one, lying in mid-channel. The bay, for instance, which Lieut. Broughton
found to be not more than fifteen miles from Cape Disappointment, was,
according to the sketch, thirty-six miles distant. Broughton left the
Chatham here, and determined to pursue the further examination of the
channel in the cutter and the launch.
At the distance of about twenty-five miles from the sea, Broughton found
the stream narrow rather suddenly to about half a mile in breadth, which
seemed to warrant him in considering the lower part, (the width of which
was from three to seven miles,) to be a sound or inlet, and the true
entrance of the river itself to commence from the point where it
contracted itself. Broughton continued his ascent for seven days, making
but slow progress against a strong stream. At the end of that time he was
obliged to return from want of provisions, having reached a point which he
concluded to be about 100 miles distant from the Chatham's anchorage, and
nearly 120 from the sea. He was the more readily reconciled to the
abandonment of any further examination, "because even thus far the river
could hardly be considered as navigable for shipping." Previously,
however, to his departure, he formally "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 civilised nation or state
had ever entered this river before." Broughton had fallen in with large
parties of Indians in his ascent of the river, and had been kindly
received by them. Amongst these was a friendly old chief, who accompanied
them almost throughout the voyage, and who assisted at the ceremony and
drank his Majesty's health on the occasion. It may be reasonably suspected
that this worthy old chief would have as readily joined the next comers in
drinking the health of the King of Spain, or the President of the United
States. From him Broughton endeavoured to obtain further information
respecting the upper country. "The little that could be understood was,
that higher up the river, they would be prevented from passing by falls.
This was explained by taking water up in his hands, and imitating the
manner of its falling from rocks, pointing at the same time to the place
where the river rises, indicating that its source in that direction would
be found at a great distance."
The furthest angle of the river which Broughton reached was called by him
Point Vancouver, and upon it stands in the present day Fort Vancouver, the
chief establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company. A little above this are
the Cascades, a series of falls and rapids extending more than half a
mile, which form the limit of the tide-way; about thirty miles higher up
are the Dalles, where the river rushes rapidly between vast masses of
rocks, and about four miles further are the _Chutes_ or Falls of the
Columbia, where the river first enters the gap in the Cascade mountains,
through which it finds its way to the ocean. Lieutenant Broughton, having
occupied twelve days in the examination of the channel, prepared to join
the Discovery without delay; but for four days the surf broke across the
passage of the bar with such violence, as to leave no apparent opening. At
last he succeeded in beating out, the Jenny schooner leading, as her
commander Mr. Baker was better acquainted with the course of the channel,
and after nearly losing their launch and the boat-keeper in the surf, they
once more reached the open sea. Such is the summary of the account, which
may be perused in full in the second volume of Vancouver's Voyage.
Mr. Greenhow (p. 248) considers that the distinction which Broughton and
Vancouver made "between the upper and lower portion of the Columbia, is
entirely destitute of foundation, and at variance with the principles of
our whole geographical nomenclature. Inlets and sounds," he continues,
"are arms of the sea running up into the land, and their waters, being
supplied from the sea, are necessarily salt; the waters of the Columbia
are on the contrary generally fresh and palatable within ten miles of the
Pacific, the violence and overbearing force of the current being
sufficient to prevent the further ingress of the ocean. The question
appears at first to be of no consequence: the following extract from
Vancouver's Journal will, however, serve to show that the quibble was
devised by the British navigators, with the unworthy object of depriving
Gray of the merits of his discovery:--'Previously to his (Broughton's)
departure, he formally 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 civilised nation or state had ever
entered this river before. In this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray's
sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw or ever was
within five leagues of its entrance.' This unjust view has been adopted by
the British Government and writers, and also, doubtless from inadvertency,
by some distinguished authors in the United States. It may, indeed, be
considered fortunate for Gray, that by communicating the particulars of
his discoveries, as he did, to Quadra, he secured an unimpeachable
witness of his claims: had he not done so, the world would probably never
have learned that a citizen of the United States was the first to enter
the greatest river flowing from America into the Pacific, and to find the
only safe harbour on the long line of coast between Port San Francisco and
the Strait of Fuca."
Mr. Greenhow may be perfectly justified in disputing the propriety of Lt.
Broughton's distinction. The words of the latter are,--"Between the ocean
and that which should properly be considered the entrance of the river, is
a space from three to seven miles wide, intricate to navigate on account
of the shoals that extend nearly from side to side, and it ought rather to
be considered as _a sound_ than as constituting a part of the river, since
the entrance into the river, which they reached about dark, was found not
to be more than half a mile wide, formed by the contracting shores of the
sound." It may fairly be admitted that the ordinary use of the terms
"sound," or "inlet," warrants the verbal criticism of Mr. Greenhow, and
that they are more usually employed to distinguish arms of the sea where
there is no fresh water, or tideways outside the bars of rivers.
Lieutenant Broughton, if we may judge from the context would have been
more correct had he used the term "estuary" instead of "sound," for, "in
common understanding," as Lord Stowell has observed, "the embouchure or
mouth of a river is that spot where the river enters the open space to
which the sea flows, and where the points of the coast project no
further." (Twee Gebroeden, 3 Robinson's Reports, p. 34.) At the same time,
after a careful perusal of Vancouver's journal, a protest must be entered
against any reader of that work, particularly against one who occupies the
position which Mr. Greenhow fills, attributing such motives to the British
navigator, or insinuating such a probability as that Gray's discovery
would have been suppressed by Vancouver, had not Gray fortunately secured
Quadra as an unimpeachable witness to it. Mr. Greenhow's jealousy for the
fame of his countryman may be excusable up to a certain point, but when he
states that Vancouver "did not hesitate to adopt unworthy means to deprive
the Americans of the reputation which they had justly earned by their
labours in exploring, and to blacken their characters as individuals," he
has allowed an unreasonable sensitiveness to hurry him into the commission
of the very fault which he censures in others, and has laid himself open
to the identical charge, mutatis mutandis, which he has set up against
Vancouver.
Had there been any _substantial_ misrepresentation on the part of
Vancouver in respect to what Gray actually did discover, "a want of good
faith" might have been reasonably imputed to him. Happily, however, for
Vancouver's memory, the extract from the log-book of the Columbia bears
out all the facts which Lieutenant Broughton alleges as to the extent of
Gray's researches. "From this point," the latter says, alluding to a
remarkable projecting point on the southern side, appearing like an
island, a little above Point George, to which the name of Tongue Point was
given, "was seen the centre of a deep bay, lying at the distance of seven
miles N. 26 E. This bay terminated the researches of Mr. Gray; and to
commemorate his discovery, it was called after him, Gray's Bay." "In Mr.
Gray's sketch," Broughton further informs us, "an anchor was placed in
this bay," so that he does not attempt in any way to misrepresent the
locality of the spot where Gray's researches terminated. Lieutenant
Broughton certainly denies the correctness of the sketch in respect to the
distance of this bay from the entrance of the river. "It was not more," he
writes, "than fifteen miles from Cape Disappointment, though according to
the sketch it measures thirty-six miles." But the log-book itself confirms
approximatively Lieutenant Broughton's statement, for it makes the
distance of the spot where Gray brought up his vessel to be about
twenty-two or twenty-five miles from the entrance between the bars, and
Cape Disappointment is six miles distant from the entrance, so that there
must have been an error in the sketch, if we admit the accuracy of the
log-book.
The result of this inquiry seems fully to warrant the position which the
British commissioners insisted on in 1826-7, that the discovery of the
Columbia river was _a progressive discovery_. Heceta made the first step
in 1775, when he discovered the bay, and concluded that "the place was the
mouth of some great river, or of some passage to another sea;" but
Heceta's report was not made public by the Spanish authorities. Meares, in
1788, confirmed Heceta's discovery of the bay, but impugned the
correctness of the Spanish charts, as to there being a river there with a
good port; his Voyages were published in London in 1790. Vancouver, having
seen Meares' account before he left England, examined the bay in April
1792, and at that time came to the conclusion that, though there was
river-coloured water in the bay, yet the opening was not worthy of
attention, as being inaccessible to vessels of the same burden as the
Discovery: his account was published in 1798. Gray, in the May following,
after having on a former occasion beat about in the bay for nine days
ineffectually, succeeded on his second visit in passing the bar, and
explored the estuary for more than twenty miles: the extract of his
log-book, which relates the particulars, was not made public before 1816.
Lieutenant Broughton in the same year may be considered to have completed
the discovery of the river, by ascending it for more than eighty miles
above the limits of Gray's researches, almost to the foot of the Cascades,
where the tide ceases to be felt: the particulars of this expedition were
published in the 2nd vol. of Vancouver's Voyage, in 1798.
The plenipotentiary of the United States, Mr. Gallatin, on the other hand,
repudiated the notion of Gray's enterprise being considered as only a step
in the progress of discovery, and maintained that the discovery of the
river belonged exclusively to the United States; that Quadra (or he should
have said, Heceta) had overlooked it; that Meares had likewise failed, and
Vancouver had been not more fortunate; and that Broughton's merit
consisted merely in performing with fidelity the mechanical duty of taking
the soundings 100 miles up its course. Upon the fact of this asserted
first discovery in 1792, followed by the settlement of Astoria in 1812,
Mr. Rush, announced, for the first time, in 1824, "that the United States
claimed in their own right, and in their absolute and exclusive
sovereignty and dominion, the whole of the country west of the Rocky
Mountains from the 42d to at least as far up as the 51st degree of north
latitude." "It had been ascertained that the Columbia extended by the
River Multnomah to as low as 42 degrees north, and by Clarke's river to a
point as high up as 51 degrees, if not beyond that point; and to this
entire range of country, contiguous to the original dominions, and made a
part of it by the almost intermingling waters of each, the United States,"
he said, "considered their title as established, by all the principles
that had ever been applied on this subject by the powers of Europe to
settlements in the American hemisphere. I asserted," he continued, "that a
nation discovering a country, by entering the mouth of its principal river
at the sea coast, must necessarily be allowed to claim and hold as great
an extent of the interior country as was described by the course of such
principal river, and its tributary streams."
Great Britain formally entered her dissent to such a claim, denying that
such a principle or usage had been ever recognised amongst the nations of
Europe, or that the expedition of Captain Gray, being one of a purely
mercantile character, was entitled to carry with it such important
national consequences, (British and Foreign State Papers, 1825-6.)
In the subsequent discussions of 1826-7, Great Britain considered it
equally due to herself and to other powers to renew her protest against
the doctrine of the United States, whilst on the other hand the United
States continued to maintain, that Gray's discovery of the Columbia river
gave, by the acknowledged law and usage of nations, a right to the whole
country drained by that river and its tributary streams.
Haying now passed in review the main facts connected with the discovery
and occupation of the Oregon territory, we may proceed to consider the
general principles of international law which regulate territorial title.