Wd. and at daylight with a fair Soly: Breeze bore away along shore.
The fair and pleasant weather continued, and on the 27th at noon we
observed in the Lat: of 46.10 N. Just then the Discovery made the
Signal that we were standing into Danger, we haul'd out, this situation
is off Cape Disappointment from whence a very extensive Shoal stretches
out and there was every appearance of an opening there, but to us the
sea seem'd to break entirely across it.[152] On the 28th at Noon our
Lat: was 47.32 N and in the Evening the 29th falling calm, we came to
an anchor with the Discovery near Destruction Island, the place where
a Boat's Crew of the Imperial Eagle commanded by Mr. Berkley[153] were
barbarously murdered by the Natives as mention'd in Mears' Voyage.
None of the natives came off to us but we observ'd two canoes entering
a small Bay abreast of us. At about 3 we weigh'd per Signal and at 5
set Studding Sails with a moderate Soly: Breeze, but rainy weather. At
daylight a strange Sail was seen in the N. W. quarter standing towards
us, she hoisted American Colours. About 7 we spoke her, she proved to
be the Ship Columbia of Boston commanded by a Mr Grey,[154] on the
Fur trade. She had wintered on the Coast in Port Clynquot[155] in
Berkley's Sound. This Mr. Grey being the man who Mr Mears[156] in his
Chart has published having entered the Streights of De Fuca, and after
proceeding a considerable distance up, return'd to sea again by another
passage to the Northward of that by which he entered--Captn: Vancouver
was desirous of obtaining from him some information respecting the
Streights, he therefore hoisted a boat out, and sent an officer on
board the Columbia. Mr Grey very civilly offered him any information he
could possibly give him, but at the same time told him that Mr Mears
had been very much misled in his information and had published what
never had happened; for though he (Mr Grey) did enter the Streights
of De Fuca, and proceeded a considerable distance, where he still saw
an unbounded horizon, he return'd, but return'd by the same way he
entered. He had been two & twenty months from Boston, and had obtained
a valuable cargo of Furs. He had built a small sloop of about 45 tons
at Clyoquot which was now trading to the Northward.
He gave no very favourable account of the Northern Indians whose daring
and insolent spirit had carried them to very unwarrantable lengths.
Several attempts had been made by them to seize his, and other Vessels
on the Coast. Several people of different Ships had been treacherously
murdered, and Mr Grey's Chief Mate with two of the seamen were in
this manner murder'd while fishing round a point of Land, a small
distance from the Ship. This happen'd somewhere about the Lat: of
54-1/4°. After the Boat with the Officer return'd we made sail to the
Nd. and the Columbia stretched in for the Shore. About noon we were
nearly abreast of the much talked of Streights of Juan De Fuca, the
Discovery made our Signal to lead in. The weather was thick and Hazy
and prevented our having an observation. Cape Classet[157] at Noon bore
N 20 E 2 miles. This Cape is settled by Captn: Vancouver in the Lat: of
48.23 N and the Longe: 235.38 Et.
At one o'clock we haul'd round Green Island,[158] and as we pass'd had
a view of the Spiral Rock,[159] which is remarkable. On Green Island
is a very large Village, and from it and the Villages on the Main, a
number of canoes came off. The Natives brought a number of Otter Skins
to sell, but wou'd part with none for anything but Copper & Blue Cloth
Cloathing with Metal Buttons they were very eager after and we saw
several with Blue Coats & round Hats. Mr Mears is very much out in the
distance he makes the entrance of these Streights, he says they are
15 leagues wide, whereas the Entrance is no more than 12 leagues in
breadth. In the Evening having but little wind and it coming on thick
we brought up on the S. shore in 12 fathoms water and then observed the
Columbia following us. She had just entered the Streights. After we
came too a few fish were caught with the hook & line.
May. The following morning the 1st of May with a fine breeze at West
and clear pleasant weather we got under weigh and proceeded up the
Streights, and left the Columbia off Green Island laying too, bartering
with the Natives for Skins. Several canoes follow'd us with skins,
fish &c., to sell but the rage was copper; next to this article Cloth
& wearing apparel with Brass Buttons, Copper wrist bands, Musquets &
Swords were chiefly in demand.
Among other articles offered for sale was their children, several
were offered for a Musket or a Sheet of Copper. The women being the
first we had seen since leaving the Sandwich Islands, had not a few
attacks of Gallantry made on them by the Sailors though they were by no
means inviting. But however great the difference between them and the
Sandwich Islanders in point of Beauty much greater was it in point of
behaviour, for here the smallest degree of indelicacy towards one of
these Ladies, shock'd their modesty to such a degree, and had such an
effect on them, that I have seen many of them burst into tears, they
would endeavour to hide themselves in the bottom of their canoes and
discover the most extreme degree of uneasiness and distress.
Some of the canoes were very large and contain'd a whole family of men
& women and a considerable part of their Household furniture, large
Bladders full of their delicious Whale Oil was in every canoe and the
little Infants in their Cradles were plied with large quantities of it
by their Mothers. As we got the Breeze fresher, the canoes soon dropp'd
off.
About 6 o'clock in the evening having run about 20 leagues from the
Entrance in a Bite on the S. side in 8 fathoms, from this the Streights
appear'd to widen, but we saw some very distant land in which there
were many apparent large openings. So far as we had yet proceeded
up these Streights, we had seen no opening, nor the appearance of
any Harbour, on the Southern, or Continental Shore; now two or three
openings presented themselves, and as the great object of the voyage
was if possible to discover a communication by water between this Coast
and the Lakes situated on the other side of America, the Continental
Shore must of course be kept always aboard and all openings minutely
explored.
Captain Vancouver was now anxious to get the Vessels into a Harbor,
and while the Vessels were refitting it was intended that the boats
should be sent to explore the openings now in sight. Accordingly the
next morning he went himself in the Pinnace, accompanied by our Cutter
(both well arm'd) to look for a Harbour. This they found at a short
distance from us, and the next morning we weigh'd and made sail for it.
The Harbour was a very complete one and shelter'd from all winds but
the water was deep and we anchor'd in 25 fathoms water not a quarter of
a mile from the Shore. This place at first was named Port Discovery,
conceiving ourselves the first that had been in it, but we afterwards
found ourselves mistaken, it having been visited by two Spanish
Vessels, and call'd Port Quadra,[160] by which name it was continued
and we settled its Lat: to be 48.2.30 N and the Long: 237.22.19 E.
Opposite to where the Vessels lay a low Point of Land run out,
where there was an excellent run of Freshwater. Here the Tents and
Observatory were set up, and there being plenty of Spruce Pine here
a party from each Ship was sent on shore to brew Spruce Beer for
the Ships' Companies. As this Beverage was well known to be a great
Antiscorbutic, the people were allow'd to drink freely of it in lieu
of their Grog. As the Chatham was very open in her upper works the
Carpenters of both Vessels were employ'd in Caulking her.
Not having met the Store ship at the Sandwich Islands as was expected
and fearing that we might probably not see her till the next Season at
those Islands, and possibly not then, should any unfortunate accident
have happen'd to her in which case we should have been somewhat
distress'd for Provisions particularly Bread & Flour, it was only
proper to guard against such disappointments and delays. The Ships
Company was therefore on the 5th put to two-thirds allowance of Bread
only. This on the coast of America cou'd be no hardship as Fish is
always to be got. We haul'd the Seine here generally every day, and in
general with success, and we frequently got Salmon Trout in it.
On the 17th Captn: Vancouver, with Lieut: Paget, and Mr. Johnstone our
Master set out in 3 Boats well Mann'd and arm'd, and victuall'd for
a week, to explore the openings between this and our last anchorage
which I spoke of. In the meantime the Vessels were refitting for sea.
The Powder was sent on shore to dry, and being in want of Plank the
Carpenters were employ'd, after the Caulking was finished, in sawing
up a fine large tree, of which there were plenty, and very convenient.
As there were no Inhabitants here we carried on all our operations
with facility; now and then a couple or 3 canoes wou'd come in with a
little Fish to sell, but this was not often, and they were very quiet
and inoffensive. They were evidently a tribe that visited the Sea Coast
but seldom, as they were generally clad in skins of Land animals, and
during our stay here, they brought but one Sea Otter skin to sell.
Once or twice they brought some fresh kill'd Venison which was very
acceptable to us, for though we could everywhere observe the track of
Deer, and shooting excursions were frequently made, we were never so
fortunate to shoot any here.
When the time arrived for the expected return of the Boats we began
impatiently to look out for them, but it was not till the 16th that
they return'd to the Ships, after nine days absence. They had examined
several arms or openings, which after running some distance inland
closed, and they had left some extensive openings unexplored to the
Eastward of this Port, where it was now intended to proceed to with
the Ships. Having got everything ready for Sea, on the 18th we sail'd
out of Port Quadra. The weather was fair and pleasant, indeed we had
enjoy'd much fine weather in Port. After getting outside, by desire of
Captn: Vancouver, we parted company with the Discovery, in order to
examine an opening in the N. W. quarter, whilst she proceeded up an arm
to which the Continent had been brought, to the Eastd. of Port Quadra.
We cross'd the Streights with a fine Breeze, and entered the opening
about 6 o'clock in the evening and came to an anchor for the night.
In the morning boats were dispatched to examine the branches which
run within this opening, which employ'd us till the 23rd. It is very
extensive being full of Islands.[15] The land is delightful, being in
many places clear and the soil so rich that the grass in several parts
grew to man height. We were surprised in such a fine country to find
scarce and inhabitants, not a smoke or a village was seen, and only two
small canoes with 3 people in each were met by the Boats in all their
cruizing; from these, three young Fawns just kill'd were purchased. We
saw several Deer on the sides of the rising grounds, but could never
kill any. The navigation in this place so full of Rocks and small
Islands was intricate and dangerous. On the 21st we touch'd a Rock on
one side, whilst at the other we had twenty-two fathoms water.
On the 23rd we again entered the Streights but a different opening to
that we came in at. We cross'd over and about Noon got into the arm
up which the Discovery went when we parted from her. Here we met with
a small tribe of Indians who came off to sell a little fish, Bows &
Arrows, and some few skins of Land Animals. We observ'd among them
some articles we knew they must have got our of the Discovery, and
they soon made sufficient (sic) that she was up the arm. The people
spoke a different language from the Indians we saw at the entrance of
Dufuca's Streights though little else about them appeared different for
they were equally as dirty. It seemed evident that their intercourse
with Ships had been limited (if indeed they ever had any) from their
surprize and astonishment at many things, and their not having about
them any European articles whatever except it might be a knife, but
they had a very good idea of bartering and wou'd not part with anything
without the value of it. Copper was yet the rage.
(To be continued.)
FOOTNOTES:
[147] The names here given of the Hawaiian Islands are not all
recognizable, but this one is evidently the modern Oahu.
[148] This officer is always referred to as Mr. Paget. Captain George
Vancouver, chief of the expedition, used the more familiar spelling and
the world has long known him as Lieutenant Peter Puget.
[149] A form of jelly-fish. Other common names are sun-fish,
sun-squalls and umbrella-jellies.
[150] This name was given to the Northwest coast of America by Sir
Francis Drake two hundred years before this voyage.
[151] This name is still in use on the Southern coast of Oregon.
[152] Here is seen the reason why the expedition doubted the existence
of a river there until Captain Robert Gray discovered and named the
Columbia River during that same year.
[153] The family and the British Columbia map-makers are particular
about this name being spelled Barkley. See Captain John T. Walbran's
British Columbia Coast Names, Pp. 33-35.
[154] This name is also misspelled throughout. He refers to Captain
Robert Gray.
[155] He refers to Clayoquot Sound but errs in making it a part of
Barkley Sound.
[156] Like errors in other names, he leaves out a letter in that of
Captain John Meares.
[157] A former name for Captain Cook's Cape Flattery. Vancouver
mentions "Classet" as the Indian name, but in a footnote gives the name
Cook had written on his chart.
[158] In 1788, Meares named this island "Tatoosh" after the Indian
chief he found there. Vancouver calls it Tatooche. See Vancouver's
Voyage (2nd Ed.), Volume II, p. 46. It is not clear where the writer
got this name of Green Island.
[159] This rock was supposed to be the one referred to in the De Fuca
record now supposed to be a myth. Vancouver refers to it in doubtful
terms.
[160] The crew may have continued the use of this older Spanish name,
but Vancouver in text and chart retained the name Port Discovery, which
continues to the present time.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE CANOE AND THE SADDLE, OR KLALAM AND KLICKATAT. By Theodore
Winthrop, to which are now first added his Western Letters and
Journals. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by John H.
Williams. With sixteen color plates and more than one hundred other
illustrations. Royal 8vo. half vellum. (Tacoma, John H. Williams,
Publisher, 1913. Pp. XXVI, 332. $5.00 net; express 30 cents extra.)
The number of books properly classed as "Northwest Americana" is
surprisingly small.
Through the instrumentality of Mr. John H. Williams, of Tacoma,
Winthrop's "Canoe and Saddle" enjoys the distinction of recently
appearing in new form, enlarged, annotated and illustrated. The new
book retains all we older men and women have prized for half a century,
and, in addition, the author's complete Western travels are presented
to us in a volume to delight every lover of good and beautiful books.
Mr. Williams' previous work had been good preparation for this still
more important undertaking. A lifelong student and newspaper editor,
he is not only an experienced writer, but also an enthusiast for the
Northwest, to which he has given two notable books of his own, "The
Mountain That Was 'God'" and "The Guardians of the Columbia." No other
volumes so well and so briefly tell so much of the scenery, physical
geography and Indian lore of our North Pacific Wonderland. It was
natural that he should see in Winthrop's graphic story the foundation
for an artistic book, which would, by reason of its added Winthrop
material and its editor's notes and illustrations, be largely a new
work.
Mr. Williams has restored in a sub title Winthrop's own name for the
book, "Klalam and Klickatat."
Two survivors of that early period, Gen. Henry C. Hodges, who, as
a lieutenant of the Fourth U. S. Infantry, was adjutant of Capt.
McClellan's railway reconnaissance in the Cascades, and Col. E. Jay
Allen, builder of the famous "Citizens' Road," which Winthrop describes
with much humor, contribute interesting recollections of the brilliant
young adventurer, and of events in which he and they played a part in
that eventful summer.
In the spring of 1853, Theodore Winthrop, then only twenty-five, came
to the Pacific Coast from Panama. Five years earlier he had been
graduated from Yale, with honors in languages and history. Not of
robust constitution, he sought health by life in the open air. Two
years were passed in the south of Europe, mainly in travel on foot
amid the Alps and in the Mediterranean countries. Study of the scenery
and historical monuments of those lands developed a naturally poetic
and imaginative mind, and prepared him to appreciate the vast panorama
that spread before him as he traveled from the Isthmus to California,
thence, after a brief stay in San Francisco, up the coast by steamer to
the Columbia, overland from there to Puget Sound, and finally across
the Cascades and through our great "Inland Empire," homeward bound, to
Salt Lake and Fort Laramie. This journey of half a year, then almost
unprecedented, is fully recorded in his letters and journals which Mr.
Williams has recovered for us.
In these wanderings Winthrop visited the young communities of the
Northwest, Portland, Salem, Vancouver, The Dalles, Olympia, Nisqually,
Steilacoom, Port Townsend, Victoria. He studied its scenery, resources
and people. He quickly won the regard of pioneer leaders, army
officers, Hudson's Bay Company factors, and of the humbler settlers as
well, by a hearty democratic appreciation of the meaning of their work
in founding future states. It was just this quality, as Mr. Williams
has well shown, that enabled Winthrop to understand the raw west. To
a real liking for people add his well trained powers of observation,
unfailing humor, a vivid imagination and a tireless love of adventure,
and we have the secret of his success as a painter of the frontier and
its life.
In his delightful introduction Mr. Williams points out and emphasizes
these qualities:
"Winthrop was probably better fitted to study and portray the West
than any other Eastern man who attempted to describe it. His books
and still more his private letters and journals show him wholly
free from that tenderfoot superiority of tone found in most of the
contemporary writings of Eastern men who visited the frontier. In
an age when sectionalism was fast driving toward civil war, his
point of view was broadly national. His pride in his country as
a whole had only been deepened by education and foreign travel.
He had come home from Europe feeling the value to humanity of the
struggle and opportunities presented by the conquest of the new
continent. In the rough battle with the forest, in the stumpy
farms on the little clearings, in the crude road that would link
the infant settlements with the outside world, he recognized
the very processes that had laid strong the foundations of the
republic to which later he so gladly gave his life. Ungainly
as was the present, this descendant of the great governors of
Massachusetts and Connecticut saw in it the promise of a splendid
and beneficent future.
"Most of our writers in the years preceding the Civil War were
either occupied with sectional discussions and local traditions,
or were looking to Europe and the past for their inspiration. * *
* For fiction, our people read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and reprints
of the English novelists. Our literature had not yet discovered
the West. Winthrop's Western books, 'The Canoe and the Saddle' and
'John Brent,' minted new ore."
George William Curtis, who was Winthrop's neighbor on Staten Island
and his closest friend in the years just before the war, bore similar
testimony, in a conversation with Mr. Williams more than twenty years
ago:
"Winthrop's death was as great a loss to American letters as was
that of John Keats to English poetry. He was far ahead of his time
in thinking continentally. Cut off before his prime, his books,
brilliant as they are, are the books of a young man. But he had
vision and power, and had he lived to improve his art, I have
always believed that he might have become the strongest, because
the most truly American, of our writers."
Readers of Books of Old Oregon are all familiar with the early
"Canoe and Saddle." It was the only work in lighter vein descriptive
of conditions on the ultimate frontier, when we had here a white
population vastly outnumbered by the Indians. The new volume will
appeal to surviving pioneers, to Native Sons and Daughters, and to all
who are genuinely interested in Northwestern history.
The original "Canoe and Saddle" tells only of its author's last days
in Washington Territory. It recounts his swift trip by boat, with the
celebrated Clallam chief, the "Duke of York," from Port Townsend to
Fort Nisqually, and thence under other Indian guidance across Naches
Pass to The Dalles. For the second part of his journey he had as his
guide a treacherous young Indian whom he calls "Loolowcan the Frowsy,"
but who was in real life, as Mr. Williams discovered from an entry
in the old "Journal of Events" kept by the Hudson's Bay Company at
Nisqually, no less notorious a character than Qualchen, son of the
chief Owhi. Both of these Klickitats, father and son, are remembered
as trouble-makers in our territorial history, and both paid with their
lives for the parts they took in the great Indian war of 1855-7. The
role played by Qualchen in murdering the Indian agent, A. J. Bolon, and
thus starting that war, is now well known.
It is proof of Winthrop's nerve that even after he saw the shifty
nature of his guide, he refused to heed the warnings of Allen and his
fellow road-builders, whom he met in the Cascades, but pushed ahead
with him over the mountains to the Yakima country, where white men
were scarcer even than on the Sound. Later, he may have realized that
but for the presence of McClellan's soldiers on the Naches, and for
the long arm of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had outfitted him for
his trip, he probably would have anticipated the fate of Bolon. But he
tells of his adventure as gaily as if he had felt no danger, and with
a zest that make his own enjoyment of its incidents contagious.
"The Canoe and the Saddle" was the first book to put our Northwestern
scenery into literature. Its account of Puget Sound, of the Cascades
with their forests, canyons, ranges and snow-peaks, and of the Columbia
basin, stamps Winthrop as a true poet and lover of nature. No better
descriptive writing has yet been inspired by the Northwest.
The original "Canoe and Saddle" had a supplement describing Panama
as Winthrop saw it in 1852 and 1854. Mr. Williams has very properly
omitted this, since it had no relevancy to the book; and he has
substituted Winthrop's letters and journals, which, with other new
matter already mentioned, make up more than a third of the volume. This
part of the book is of especial value to students of Western history,
and of absorbing interest to the few remaining pioneers who, like the
writer, crossed the plains in a "prairie schooner."