1785-1792
ROBERT GRAY, THE AMERICAN DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA
Boston Merchants, inspired by Cook's Voyages, outfit two Vessels under
Kendrick and Gray for Discovery and Trade on the Pacific--Adventures of
the First Ship to carry the American Flag around the World--Gray
attacked by Indians at Tillamook Bay--His Discovery of the Columbia
River on the Second Voyage--Fort Defence and the First American Ship
built on the Pacific
It is an odd thing that wherever French or British fur traders went to
a new territory, they found the Indians referred to American traders,
not as "Americans," but "Bostons" or "_Bostonnais_." The reason was
plain. Boston merchants won a reputation as first to act. It was they
who began a certain memorable "Boston Tea Party"; and before the rest
of the world had recovered the shock of that event, these same
merchants were planning to capture the trade of the Pacific Ocean, get
possession of all the Pacific coast not already preëmpted by Spain,
Russia, or England, and push American commerce across the Pacific to
Asia.
{211} What with slow printing-presses and slow travel, the account of
Cook's voyages on the Pacific did not become generally known in the
United States till 1785 or 1786. Sitting round the library of Dr.
Bulfinch's residence on Bowdoin Square in Boston one night in 1787,
were half a dozen adventurous spirits for whom Cook's account of the
fur trade on the Pacific had an irresistible fascination. There was
the doctor himself. There was his son, Charles, of Harvard, just back
from Europe and destined to become famous as an architect. There was
Joseph Barrell, a prosperous merchant. There was John Derby, a
shipmaster of Salem, a young man still, but who, nevertheless, had
carried news of Lexington to England. Captain Crowell Hatch of
Cambridge, Samuel Brown, a trader of Boston, and John Marden Pintard of
the New York firm of Lewis Pintard Company were also of the little
coterie.
[Illustration: Departure of the _Columbia_ and the _Lady Washington_.
Drawn by George Davidson, a member of the Expedition. Photographed by
courtesy of the present owner, Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly.]
If Captain Cook's crew had sold one-third of a water-rotted cargo of
otter furs in China for ten thousand dollars, why, these Boston men
asked themselves, could not ships fitted expressly for the fur trade
capture a fortune in trade on that unoccupied strip of coast between
Russian Alaska, on the north, and New Spain, on the south?
"There is a rich harvest to be reaped by those who are on the ground
first out there," remarked Joseph Barrell.
Then the thing was to be on the ground first--that {212} was the
unanimous decision of the shrewd-headed men gathered in Bulfinch's
study.
[Illustration: Charles Bulfinch.]
The sequence was that Charles Bulfinch and the other five at once
formed a partnership with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, divided
into fourteen shares, for trade on the Pacific. This was ten years
before Lewis and Clark reached the Columbia, almost twenty years before
Astor had thought of his Pacific Company. The Columbia, a full-rigged
two-decker, two hundred and twelve tons and eighty-three feet long,
mounting {213} ten guns, which had been built fourteen years before on
Hobart's Landing, North River, was immediately purchased. But a
smaller ship to cruise about inland waters and collect furs was also
needed; and for this purpose the partners bought the _Lady Washington_,
a little sloop of ninety tons. Captain John Kendrick of the merchant
marine was chosen to command the _Columbia_, Robert Gray, a native of
Rhode Island, who had served in the revolutionary navy, a friend of
Kendrick's, to be master of the _Lady Washington_. Kendrick was of
middle age, cautious almost to indecision; but Gray was younger with
the daring characteristic of youth.
In order to insure a good reception for the ships, letters were
obtained from the federal government to foreign powers. Massachusetts
furnished passports; and the Spanish minister to the United States gave
letters to the viceroy of New Spain. Just how the information of
Boston plans to intrude on the Pacific coast was received by New Spain
may be judged by the confidential commands at once issued from Santa
Barbara to the Spanish officer at San Francisco: "_Whenever there may
arrive at the Port of San Francisco, a ship named the Columbia said to
belong to General Wanghington (Washington) of the American States,
under command of John Kendrick which sailed from Boston in September
1787 bound on a voyage of Discovery and of Examination of the Russian
Establishments on the Northern Coast of this Peninsula, you {214} will
cause said vessel to be secured together with her officers and crew._"
Orders were also given Kendrick and Gray to avoid offence to any
foreign power, to treat the natives with kindness and Christianity, to
obtain a cargo of furs on the American coast, to proceed with the same
to China to be exchanged for a cargo of tea, and to return to Boston
with the tea. The holds of the vessels were then stowed with every
trinket that could appeal to the savage heart, beads, brass buttons,
ear-rings, calico, tin mirrors, blankets, hunting-knives, copper
kettles, iron chisels, snuff, tobacco. The crews were made up of the
very best class of self-respecting sea-faring men. Woodruff,
Kendrick's first mate, had been with Cook. Joseph Ingraham, the second
mate, rose to become a captain. Robert Haswell, the third mate, was
the son of a British naval officer. Richard Howe went as accountant;
Dr. Roberts, as surgeon; Nutting, formerly a teacher, as astronomer;
and Treat, as fur trader. Davis Coolidge was the first mate under Gray
on the _Lady Washington_.
Some heroes blunder into glory. These didn't. They deliberately set
out with the full glory of their venture in view. Whatever the profit
and loss account might show when they came back, they were well aware
that they were attempting the very biggest and most venturesome thing
the newly federated states had essayed in the way of exploration and
trade. To {215} commemorate the event, Joseph Barrell had medals
struck in bronze and silver showing the two vessels on one side, the
names of the outfitters on the other. All Saturday afternoon sailors
and officers came trundling down to the wharf, carpet bags and seamen's
chests in tow, to be rowed out where the Columbia and Lady Washington
lay at anchor. Boston was a Sabbath-observing city in those days; but
even Boston could not keep away from the two ships heaving to the tide,
which for the first time in American history were to sail around an
unknown world. All Saturday night and Sunday morning the sailors
scoured the decks and put berths shipshape; and all Sunday afternoon
the visitors thronged the decks. By night outfitters and relatives
were still on board. The medals of commemoration were handed round.
Health and good luck and God speed were drunk unto the heel taps.
Songs resounded over the festive board. It was all "mirth and glee"
writes one of the men on {216} board. But by daybreak the ships had
slipped cables. The tide, that runs from round the underworld, raced
bounding to meet them. A last dip of land behind; and on Monday,
October 1, 1787, the ships' prows were cleaving the waters of their
fate.
[Illustration: Medals commemorating _Columbia_ and _Lady Washington_
cruise.]
The course lay from Boston to Cape Verde Islands, from Verde Islands to
the Falklands north of Cape Horn, round Cape Horn, up the west coast of
South America, touching at Masafuera and Juan Fernandez, and thence,
without pause, to the west coast of North America. At Cape Verde, Gray
hired a valet, a colored boy, Marcus Lopez, destined to play an
important part later. Crossing the equator, the sailors became
hilarious, playing the usual pranks of ducking the men fresh to
equatorial waters. So long did the ships rest at the Verde Islands,
taking in fresh provisions, that it was January before the Falkland
Islands were reached. Here Kendrick's caution became almost fear. He
was averse to rounding the stormy Horn in winter. Roberts, the
surgeon, and Woodruff, who had been with Cook, had become disgusted
with Kendrick's indecision at Cape Verde, and left, presumably taking
passage back on some foreign cruiser. Haswell, then, went over as
first mate to Gray. Mountain seas and smashing gales assailed the
ships from the time they headed for the Horn in April of 1788. The
_Columbia_ was tossed clear up on her beam ends, and sea after sea
crashed over the little {217} _Lady Washington_, drenching everything
below decks like soap-suds in a rickety tub. Then came a hurricane of
cold winds coating the ship in ice like glass, till the yard-arms
looked like ghosts. Between scurvy and cold, there was not a sailor
fit to man the decks. Somewhere down at 57 degrees south, westward of
the Horn, the smashing seas and driving winds separated the two ships;
but as they headed north, bright skies and warm winds welcomed them to
the Pacific. At Masafuera, off Chile, the ships would have landed for
fresh water; but a tremendous backwash of surf forewarned reefs; and
the _Lady Washington_ stretched her sails for the welcome warm winds,
and tacked with all speed to the north. A few weeks later, Kendrick
was compelled to put in for Juan Fernandez to repair the _Columbia_ and
rest his scurvy-stricken crew. They were given all aid by the governor
of the island, who was afterward reprimanded by the viceroy of Chile
and degraded from office for helping these invaders of the South Seas.
Meantime the little sloop, guided by the masterful and enthusiastic
Gray, showed her heels to the sea. Soon a world of deep-sea, tropical
wonders was about the American adventurers. The slime of medusa lights
lined the long foam trail of the _Lady Washington_ each night.
Dolphins raced the ship, herd upon herd, their silver-white bodies
aglisten in the sun. Schools of spermaceti-whales to the number of
twenty at a time gambolled lazily around the prow. Stormy petrels,
{218} flying-fish, sea-lions, began to be seen as the boat passed north
of the seas bordering New Spain. Gentle winds and clear sunlight
favored the ship all June. The long, hard voyage began to be a summer
holiday on warm, silver seas. The _Lady Washington_ headed inland, or
where land should be, where Francis Drake two centuries before had
reported that he had found New Albion. On August 2, somewhere near
what is now Cape Mendocino, daylight revealed a rim of green forested
hills above the silver sea. It was New Albion, north of New Spain, the
strip of coast they had come round the world to find. Birds in myriads
on myriads screamed the joy that the crew felt over their find; but a
frothy ripple told of reefs; and the _Lady Washington_ coasted parallel
with the shore-line northward. On August 4, while the surf still broke
with too great violence for a landing, a tiny speck was seen dancing
over the waves like a bird. As the distance lessened, the speck grew
and resolved itself to a dugout, or long canoe, carved with bizarre
design stem and stern, painted gayly on the keel, carrying ten Indians,
who blew birds' down of friendship in midair, threw open their arms
without weapons, and made every sign of friendship. Captain Gray
tossed them presents over the deck rail; but the whistle of a gale
through the riggings warned to keep off the rock shore; and the sloop's
prow cut waves for the offing. All night camp-fires and columns of
smoke could be seen on shore, showing that the coast was inhabited.
Under {219} clouds of sail, the sloop beat north for ten days, passing
many savages, some of whom held up sea-otter to trade, others running
along the shore brandishing their spears and shouting their war-cry.
Two or three at a time were admitted on board to trade; but they
evinced such treacherous distrust, holding knives ready to strike in
their right hand, that Gray was cautious.
During the adverse wind they had passed one opening on the coast that
resembled the entrance to a river. Was this the fabled river of the
West, that Indians said ran to the setting sun? Away up in the
Athabasca Country of Canadian wilds was another man, Alexander
Mackenzie, setting to himself that same task of finding the great river
of the West. Besides, in 1775, Heceta, the Spanish navigator from
Monterey, had drifted close to this coast with a crew so stricken with
scurvy not a man could hoist anchor or reef sails. Heceta thought he
saw the entrance to a river; but was unable to come within twenty miles
of the opening to verify his supposition. And now Gray's crew were on
the watch for that supposed river; but more mundane things than glory
had become pressing needs. Water was needed for drinking. The ship
was out of firewood. The live stock must have hay; and in the crew of
twelve, three-quarters were ill of the scurvy. These men must be taken
ashore. Somewhere near what is now Cape Lookout, or Tillamook Bay, the
rowboat was launched to sound, safe anchorage found, and the _Lady
Washington_ towed in harbor.
{220} The _Lady Washington_ had anchored about half a mile from shore,
but the curiously carved canoes came dancing over the waves in myriads.
Gray noticed the natives were all armed with spears and knives, but
they evinced great friendliness, bringing the crew baskets of berries
and boiled crabs and salmon, in exchange for brass buttons. They had
anchored at ten on the night of August 14, and by the afternoon of the
15th the Indians were about the sloop in great numbers, trading otter
skins for knives, axes, and other arms--which, in itself, ought to have
put the crew on guard. When the white men went ashore for wood and
water, the Indians stood silently by, weapons in hand, but offered no
hostility. On the third day in harbor an old chief came on board
followed by a great number of warriors, all armed. Gray kept careful
guard, and the old Indian departed in possession of the stimulating
fact that only a dozen hands manned the _Lady Washington_. Waiting for
the tide the next afternoon, Haswell and Coolidge, the two mates, were
digging clams on shore. Lopez, the black man, and seven of the crew
were gathering grass for the stock. Only three men remained on the
sloop with Captain Gray. Only two muskets and three or four cutlasses
had been brought ashore. Haswell and Coolidge had their belt pistols
and swords. The two mates approached the native village. The Indians
began tossing spears, as Haswell thought, to amuse their visitors.
That failing to inspire these white men, {221} rash as children, with
fear, the Indians formed a ring, clubbed down their weapons in
pantomime, and executed all the significant passes of the famous
war-dance. "It chilled my veins," says Haswell; and the two mates had
gone back to their clam digging, when there was a loud, angry shout.
Glancing just where the rowboat lay rocking abreast the hay cutters,
Haswell saw an Indian snatch at the cutlass of Lopez, the black, who
had carelessly stuck it in the sand. With a wild halloo, the thief
dashed for the woods, the black in pursuit, mad as a hornet.
Haswell went straight to the chief and offered a reward for the return
of the sword, or the black man. The old chief taciturnly signalled for
Haswell to do his own rescuing.
Theft and flight had both been part of a design to scatter the white
men. "They see we are ill armed," remarked Haswell to the other.
Bidding the boat row abreast with six of the hay cutters, the two mates
and a third man ran along the beach in the direction Lopez had
disappeared. A sudden turn into a grove of trees showed Lopez
squirming mid a group of Indians, holding the thief by the neck and
shouting for "help! help!" No sooner had the three whites come on the
scene, than the Indians plunged their knives in the boy's back. He
stumbled, rose, staggered forward, then fell pierced by a flight of
barbed arrows. Haswell had only time to see the hostiles fall on his
body like a pack of wolves on prey, when more Indians {222} emerged
from the rear, and the whites were between two war parties under a
shower of spears. A wild dash was made to head the fugitives off from
shore. Haswell and Coolidge turned, pistols in hand, while the rowboat
drew in. Another flight of arrows, when the mates let go a charge of
pistol shot that dropped the foremost three Indians. Shouting for the
rowers to fire, Haswell, Coolidge, and the sailor plunged into the
water. To make matters worse, the sailor fainted from loss of blood,
and the pursuers threw themselves into the water with a whoop. Hauling
the wounded man in the boat, the whites rowed for dear life. The
Indians then launched their canoes to pursue, but by this time Gray had
the cannon of the _Lady Washington_ trained ashore, and three shots
drove the hostiles scampering. For two days tide and wind and a
thundering surf imprisoned Gray in Murderers' Harbor, where he had
hoped to find the River of the West, but met only danger. All night
the savages kept up their howling; but on the third day the wind
veered. All sails set, the sloop scudded for the offing, glad to keep
some distance between herself and such a dangerous coast.
The advantage of a small boat now became apparent. In the same
quarter, Cook was compelled to keep out from the coast, and so reported
there were no Straits of Fuca. By August 21 the sloop was again close
enough to the rocky shore to sight the snowy, opal {223} ranges of the
Olympus Mountains. By August 26 they had passed the wave-lashed rocks
of Cape Flattery, and the mate records; "I am of opinion that the
Straits of Fuca exist; for in the very latitude they are said to lie,
the coast takes a bend, probably the entrance."
[Illustration: Building the first American Ship on the Pacific Coast.
Photographed by courtesy of Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly, a descendant
of Gray.]
By September, after frequent stops to trade with the Indians, they were
well abreast of Nootka, where Cook had been ten years before. A
terrible ground-swell of surf and back-wash raged over projecting
reefs. The Indians, here, knew English words enough to tell Gray that
Nootka lay farther east, and that a Captain Meares was there with two
vessels. A strange sail appeared inside the harbor. Gray thought it
was the belated _Columbia_ under Kendrick; but a rowboat came out
bearing Captain Meares himself, who breakfasted with the Americans on
September 17, and had his long-boats tow the _Lady Washington_ inside
Nootka, where Gray was surprised to see two English snows under
Portuguese colors, with a cannon-mounted garrison on shore, and a
schooner of thirty tons, the _Northwest-America_, all ready to be
launched. This was the first ship built on the northwest coast. Gray
himself later built the second. Amid salvos of cannon from the _Lady
Washington_, the new fur vessel was launched from her skids; and in her
honor September 19 was observed as a holiday, Meares and Douglas, the
two English captains, entertaining Gray and his officers. Meares had
come from China in {224} January, and during the summer had been up the
Straits of Fuca, where another English captain, Barclay, had preceded
him. Then Meares had gone south past Flattery, seeking in vain for the
River of the West. Gales and breakers had driven him off the coast,
and the very headland which hid the mouth of the Columbia, he had named
Cape Disappointment, because he was so sure--in his own words--"that
the river on the Spanish charts did not exist." He had also been down
the coast to that Tillamook, or Cape Meares, where Gray's valet had
been murdered. This was in July, a month before the assault on Gray;
and if Haswell's report of Meares's cruelty be accepted--taking furs by
force of arms--that may have explained the hostility to the Americans.
Meares was short of provisions to go to China, and Gray supplied them.
In return Meares set his workmen to help clean the keel of the _Lady
Washington_ from barnacles; but the Englishman was a true fur trader to
the core. In after-dinner talks, on the day of the launch, he tried to
frighten the Americans away from the coast. Not fifty skins in a year
were to be had, he said. Only the palisades and cannon protected him
from the Indians, of whom there were more than two thousand hostiles at
Nootka, he reported. They could have his fort for firewood after he
left. He had purchased the right to build it from the Indians.
(Whether he acknowledged that he paid the Indians only two old pistols
for this privilege, is not recorded.) At all events, it {225} would
not be worth while for the Americans to remain on the coast. The
Americans listened and smiled. Meares offered to carry any mail to
China, and on the 2d was towed out of port by Gray and the other
English captain, Douglas; but what was Gray's astonishment to receive
the packet of mail back from Douglas. Meares had only pretended to
carry it out in order that none of his crew might be bribed to take it,
and then had sent it back by his partner, Douglas--true fur trader in
checkmating the moves of rivals. Later on, when Meares's men were in
desperate straits in this same port, they wondered that the Americans
stood apart from the quarrel, if not actually siding with Spain.
On September 23 appeared a strange sail on the offing--the _Columbia_,
under Kendrick, sails down and draggled, spars storm-torn, two men dead
of scurvy, and the crew all ill.
October 1 celebrated a grand anniversary of the departure from Boston
the previous year. At precisely midday the _Columbia_ boomed out
thirteen guns. The sloop set the echoes rocketing with another
thirteen. Douglas's ship roared out a salute of seven cannon shots,
the fort on land six more, and the day was given up to hilarity, all
hands dining on board the _Columbia_ with such wild fowl as the best
game woods in the world afforded, and copious supply of Spanish wines.
Toasts were drunk to the first United States ship on the Pacific coast
of America. On October 26 {226} Douglas's ship and the fur trader,
_Northwest-America_, were towed out, bound for the Sandwich Islands,
and the Americans were left alone on the northwest coast, the fort
having been demolished, and the logs turned over to Kendrick for
firewood.
[Illustration: Feather Cloak worn by a son of an Hawaiian Chief, at the
celebration in honor of Gray's return. Photographed by courtesy of
Mrs. Joy, the present owner.]
The winter of 1788-1789 passed uneventfully except that the English
were no sooner out of the harbor, than the Indians, who had kept
askance of the Americans, came in flocks to trade. Inasmuch as Cook's
name is a household word, world over, for what he did on the Pacific
coast, and Gray's name barely known outside the city of Boston and the
state of {227} Oregon, it is well to follow Gray's movements on the
_Lady Washington_. March found him trading south of Nootka at
Clayoquot, named Hancock, after the governor of Massachusetts. April
saw him fifty miles up the Straits of Fuca, which Cook had said did not
exist. Then he headed north again, touching at Nootka, where he found
Douglas, the Englishman, had come back from the Sandwich Islands with
the two ships. Passing out of Nootka at four in the afternoon of May
1, he met a stately ship, all sails set, twenty guns pointed, under
Spanish colors, gliding into the harbor. It was the flag-ship of Don
Joseph Martinez, sent out to Bering Sea on a voyage of discovery, with
a consort, and now entering Nootka to take possession in the name of
Spain. Martinez examined Gray's passports, learned that the Americans
had no thought of laying claim to Nootka and, finding out about
Douglas's ship inside the harbor, seemed to conclude that it would be
wise to make friends of the Americans; and he presented Gray with
wines, brandy, hams, and spices.
"She will make a good prize," was his sententious remark to Gray about
the English ship.
Rounding northward, Gray met the companion ship of the Spanish
commander. It will be remembered Cook missed proving that the west
coast was a chain of islands. Since Cook's time, Barclay, an
Englishman, and Meares had been in the Straits of Fuca. Dixon had
discovered Queen Charlotte Island; but {228} the cruising of the little
sloop, _Lady Washington_, covered a greater area than Meares's,
Barclay's and Dixon's ships together. First it rounded the north end
of Vancouver, proving this was island, not continent. These northern
waters Gray called Derby Sound, after the outfitter. He then passed up
between Queen Charlotte Island and the continent for two hundred miles,
calling this island Washington. It was northward of Portland Canal,
somewhere near what is now Wrangel, that the brave little sloop was
caught in a terrific gale that raged over her for two hours, damaging
masts and timbers so that Gray was compelled to turn back from what he
called Distress Cove, for repairs at Nootka. At one point off Prince
of Wales Island, the Indians willingly traded two hundred otter skins,
worth eight thousand dollars, for an old iron chisel.
In the second week of June the sloop was back at Nootka, where Gray was
not a little surprised to find the Spanish had erected a fort on Hog
Island, seized Douglas's vessel, and only released her on condition
that the little fur trader _Northwest-America_ should become Spanish
property on entering Nootka.
Gray and Kendrick now exchanged ships, Gray, who had proved himself the
swifter navigator, going on the _Columbia_, taking Haswell with him as
mate. In return for one hundred otter skins, Gray was to carry the
captured crew of the _Northwest-America_ to China for the Spaniards.
On July 30, 1789, he left Vancouver Island. Stop was made at Hawaii
for {229} provisions, and Atto, the son of a chief, boarded the
_Columbia_ to visit America. On December 6 the _Columbia_ delivered
her cargo of furs to Shaw & Randall of Canton, receiving in exchange
tea for Samuel Parkman, of Boston. It was February, 1790, before the
Columbia was ready to sail for Boston, and dropping down the river she
passed the _Lady Washington_, under Kendrick, in a cove where the gale
hid her from Gray.
[Illustration: John Derby, from the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, by
courtesy of the owner, Dr. George B. Shattuck.]
On August 11, 1790, after rounding Good Hope and touching at St.
Helena, Gray entered Boston. It was the first time an American ship
had gone round the world, almost fifty thousand miles, her log-book
showed, and salvos of artillery thundered a welcome. General Lincoln,
the port collector, was first on board to shake Gray's hand. The whole
city of Boston was on the wharf to cheer him home, and the explorer
walked up the streets side by side with Atto, the Hawaiian boy,
gorgeous in helmet and cloak of yellow plumage. Governor Hancock gave
a public reception to Gray. The _Columbia_ went to the shipyards to be
overhauled, and the shareholders met.
Owing to the glutting of the market at Canton, the sea-otter had not
sold well. Practically the venture of these glory seekers had not
ended profitably. The voyage had been at a loss. Derby and Pintard
sold out to Barrell and Brown. But the lure of glory, or the wilds, or
the venture of the unknown, was on the others. They decided to send
the _Columbia_ back at {230} once on a second voyage. Perhaps, this
time, she would find that great River of the West, which was to be to
the Pacific coast what the Hudson was to the East.
[Illustration: Map of Gray's two voyages, resulting in the discovery of
the Columbia.]
Coolidge and Ingraham now left the _Columbia_ for ventures of their own
to the Pacific. Haswell, whose diary, with Gray's log-book, gives all
details of the voyage, went as first mate. George Davidson, an artist,
Samuel Yendell, a carpenter, Haskins, an accountant of Barrell's
Company, Joshua Caswell of Maiden, Abraham Waters, and John Boit were
the new men to enlist for the venturesome voyage. The _Columbia_ left
Boston for a second voyage September 28, 1790, and reached Clayoquot on
the west coast of Vancouver Island on June 5, 1791. True to his
nature, Gray lost not a day, but was off for the sea-otter harvest of
the north, up Portland Canal near what is now Alaska. The dangers of
the first voyage proved a holiday compared to this trip. Formerly,
Gray had treated the Indians with kindness. Now, he found kindness was
mistaken only for fear. Joshua Caswell, Barnes, and Folger had been
sent up Portland Canal to reconnoitre. Whether ambushed or openly
assaulted, they never returned. Only Caswell's body was found, and
buried on the beach. Later, when the grave was revisited, the body had
been stolen, in all likelihood for cannibal rites, as no more degraded
savages exist than those of this archipelago. Over on Queen Charlotte
Island, Kendrick, who had returned from China on the _Lady Washington_,
{232} was having his own time. One day, when all had gone below decks
to rest, a taunting laugh was heard from the hatchway. Kendrick rushed
above to find Indians scrambling over the decks of the _Lady
Washington_ like a nest of disgruntled hornets. A warrior flourished
the key of the ammunition chest, which stood by the hatchway, in
Kendrick's face with the words: "Key is mine! So is the ship!"
If Kendrick had hesitated for the fraction of a second, all would have
been lost, as on Astor's ship a few years later; but before the savages
had time for any concerted signal, he had seized the speaker by the
scruff of the neck, and tossed him into the sea. In a second every
savage had scuttled over decks; but the scalp of Kendrick's son Solomon
was found on the beach. Henceforth neither Kendrick nor Gray allowed
more than ten savages on board at a time, and Kendrick at once headed
south to take the harvest of furs to China. At Nootka things had gone
from bad to worse between the English and the Spaniards. Though
Kendrick bought great tracts of land from the Indian chiefs at Nootka
for the price of a copper kettle, he judged it prudent to keep away
from a Spanish commander, whose mission it was to capture the ships of
rival traders; so the American sloop moored in Clayoquot, south of
Nootka, where Gray found Kendrick ready to sail for China by September.
At Clayoquot was built the first American fort on the Pacific coast.
Here Gray erected winter quarters. {233} The _Columbia_ was unrigged
and beached. The dense forest rang with the sound of the choppers.
The enormous spruce, cedar, and fir trees were hewn into logs for
several cabins and a barracks, the bark slabs being used as a palisade.
Inside the main house were quarters for ten men. Loopholes punctured
all sides of the house. Two cannon were mounted outside the window
embrasures, one inside the gate or door. The post was named Fort
Defence. Sentinels kept guard night and day. Military discipline was
maintained, and divine service held each Sunday. On October 3 timbers
were laid for a new ship, to be called the _Adventure_, to collect furs
for the _Columbia_. All the winter of 1791-1792, Gray visited the
Indians, sent medicines to their sick, allowed his men to go shooting
with them, and even nursed one ill chief inside the barracks; but he
was most careful not to allow women or more than a few warriors inside
the fort.
What was his horror, then, on February 18, when Atto, the Hawaiian boy,
came to him with news that the Indians, gathered to the number of two
thousand, and armed with at least two hundred muskets got in trade, had
planned the entire extermination of the whites. They had offered to
make the Hawaiian boy a great chief among them if he would steal more
ammunition for the Indians, wet all the priming of the white men's
arms, and join the conspiracy to let the savages get possession of fort
and ship. In the history of American pathfinding, no explorer was ever
in greater {234} danger. Less than a score of whites against two
thousand armed warriors! Scarcely any ammunition had been brought in
from the _Columbia_. All the swivels of the dismantled ship were lying
on the bank. Gray instantly took advantage of high tide to get the
ship on her sea legs, and out from the bank. Swivels were trundled
with all speed back to the decks. For that night a guard watched the
fort; but the next night, when the assault was expected, all hands were
on board, provisions had been stowed in the hold, and small arms were
loaded. The men were still to mid-waist in water, scraping barnacles
from the keel, when a whoop sounded from the shore; but the change in
the ship's position evidently upset the plans of the savages, for they
withdrew. On the morning of the 20th the woods were seen to be alive
with ambushed men; and Haswell had the cannon loaded with canister
fired into the woods. At eleven that very morning, the chief, at the
head of the plot, came to sell otter skins, and ask if some of the crew
would not visit the village. Gray jerked the skins from his arms, and
the rascal was over decks in terror of his life. That was the end of
the plot. On the 23d the _Adventure_ was launched, the second vessel
built on the Pacific, the first American vessel built there at all; and
by April 2 Haswell was ready to go north on her. Gray on the
_Columbia_ was going south to have another try at that great River of
the West, which Spanish charts represented.
{235} Without a doubt, if the river existed at all, it was down behind
that Cape Disappointment where Meares had failed to go in, and Heceta
been driven back. Just what Gray did between April 2 and May 7 is a
matter of guessing. Anyway, Captain George Vancouver sent out from
England to settle the dispute about Nootka, at six o'clock on the
morning of April 29, just off the wave-lashed rocks of Cape Flattery,
and within sight of Olympus's snowy sky-line, noticed a ship on the
offing carrying American colors. He sent Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies to
inquire.
They brought back word that Gray "had been off the mouth of a river in
46 degrees 10 minutes where the outset and reflux was so strong as to
prevent entering for nine days," and that Gray had been fifty miles up
the Straits of Fuca.
Both facts were distasteful to Vancouver. He had wished to be the
first to explore the Straits of Fuca, and on only April 27, had passed
an opening which he pronounced inaccessible and not a river, certainly
not a river worthy of his attention. Yet the exact words of Captain
Bruno Heceta, the Spaniard, in 1775 were: "These currents . . . cause
me to believe that the place is the mouth of some great river. . . . I
did not enter and anchor there because . . . if we let go the anchor,
we had not enough men to get it up. (Thirty-five were down with
scurvy.) . . . At the distance of three or four leagues, I lay too. I
experienced heavy currents, which made it impossible to enter the {236}
bay, as I was far to leeward. . . . These currents, however, convince
me that a great quantity of water rushed from this bay on the ebb of
the tide."
So the Spaniard failed to enter, and now the great English navigator
went on his way, convinced there was no River of the West; but Robert
Gray headed back south determined to find what lay behind the
tremendous crash of breakers and sand bar. On the 7th of May, the
rowboat towed the _Columbia_ into what is now known as Gray's Harbor,
where he opened trade with the Indians, and was presently so boldly
overrun by them, that he was compelled to fire into their canoes,
killing seven. Putting out from this harbor on the 10th, he steered
south, keeping close ashore, and was rewarded at four o'clock on the
morning of the 11th by hearing a tide-rip like thunder and seeing an
ocean of waters crashing sheer over sand bar and reef with a cataract
of foam in midair from the drive of colliding waves. Milky waters
tinged the sea as of inland streams. Gray had found the river, but
could he enter? A gentle wind, straight as a die, was driving direct
ashore. Gray waited till the tide seemed to lift or deepen the waters
of the reef, then at eight in the morning, all sails set like a bird on
wing, drove straight for the narrow entrance between reefs and sand.
Once across the bar, he saw the mouth of a magnificent river of fresh
water. He had found the River of the West.
Gray describes the memorable event in these simple {237} words: "May
11th . . . at four A.M. saw the entrance of our desired port bearing
east-southeast, distance six leagues . . . at eight A.M. being a little
to windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran in
east-southeast between the breakers. . . . When we were over the bar,
we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered.
Many canoes came alongside. At one P.M. came to (anchor). . . ."
[Illustration: A View of the Columbia River.]
By the 14th, Gray had ascended the river twenty or thirty miles from
the sea, but was compelled to turn, as he had taken a shallow channel.
Dropping down with the tide, he anchored on the 19th and went ashore,
where he planted coins under a tree, took {238} possession in the name
of the United States, and named the river "Columbia." On the 20th, he
crossed the bar and was out again on the Pacific. The most of men
would have rested, satisfied with half he had done. Not so Gray. He
headed the _Columbia_ north again for the summer's trade in what is now
known as southern Alaska. Only damages to the _Columbia_ drove her
down to Nootka in July, where Don Quadra, the new Spanish commander,
and Captain Vancouver were in conference over those English ships
seized by Martinez. To Quadra, Gray sold the little _Adventure_,
pioneer of American shipbuilding on the Pacific, for seventy-five otter
skins. From Spanish sources it is learned Gray's cargo had over three
thousand otter skins, and fifteen thousand other peltries; so the
second voyage may have made up for the loss of the first.
[Illustration: At the Mouth of the Columbia River.]
On October 3 the _Columbia_ left America for China; and on July 29,
1793, came to the home harbor of Boston. Sometime between 1806 and
1809, Gray died in South Carolina, a poor man. It is doubtful if his
widow's petition to Congress ever materialized in a reward for any of
his descendants. Kendrick, eclipsed by his brilliant assistant, was
accidentally killed in Hawaii by the wad of a gun fired by a British
vessel to salute the _Lady Washington_. From the date 1793 or 1795 the
little sloop drops out of sea-faring annals.
What is Gray's place among pathfinders and naval {239} heroes? Where
does his life's record leave him? It was not spectacular work. It was
not work backed by a government, like Bering's or Cook's. It was the
work of an individual adventurer, like Radisson east of the Rockies.
Gray was a man who did much and said little. He was not accompanied by
a host of scientists to herald his fame to the world. Judged solely by
results, what did he accomplish? The same for the United States that
Cook did for England. He led the way for the American flag around the
world. Measuring purely by distance, his ship's log would compare well
with Cook's or Vancouver's. The same part of the Pacific coast which
they {240} explored, he explored, except that he did not go to northern
Alaska; and he compensated for that by discovering the great river,
which they both said had no existence. And yet, who that knows of Cook
and Vancouver, knows as much of Gray? Authentic histories are still
written that speak of Gray's discovery doubtfully. Gray did much, but
said little; and the world is prone to take a man at his own valuation.
Yet if the world places Cook and Vancouver in the niches of naval
heroes, Gray must be placed between them.
There is a curious human side to the story of these glory seekers, too.
Bulfinch was so delighted over the discovery of the Columbia, that he
had his daughter christened "Columbia," to which the young lady
objected in later years, so that the name was dropped. In
commemoration of Don Quadra's kindness in repairing the ship
_Columbia_, Gray named one of his children Quadra. The curios brought
back by Ingraham on the first voyage were donated to Harvard.
Descendants of Gray still have the pictures drawn by Davidson and
Haswell on the second voyage. The sea chest carried round the world by
Gray now rests in the keeping of an historical society in Portland; and
the feather cloak worn up the street by the boy Atto, when he marched
in the procession with Gray, is treasured in Boston.[1]
[1] Much concerning Gray's voyages can be found in the accounts of
contemporary navigators like Meares and Vancouver; but the essential
facts of the voyages are obtainable from the records of Gray's
log-book, and of diaries kept by his officers. {241} Gray's log-book
itself seems to have passed into the hands of the Bulfinch family.
From a copy of the original, Thomas Bulfinch reprinted the exact entry
of the discovery on May 11, 1792, in his _Oregon and Eldorado, a
Romance of the Rivers_, Boston, 1866. The log-book is now on file in
the Department of State, Washington; but that part from which Bulfinch
made his extract is missing; nor is it known where this section was
lost as it was in 1816 that Mr. Charles Bulfinch made a copy of this
section from the original. Greenhow's _Oregon and California_, Boston,
1844, issued under the auspices of Congress, gives the log-book in full
from May 7th to May 21st. Hubert Howe Bancroft in his _Northwest
Coast_, Volume I, 1890, reproduces the diary in full of Haswell for
both voyages. It is from Haswell that the fullest account of the
Indian plots are obtained; but at the time of the discovery of the
Columbia, Haswell was on the little sloop _Adventure_, and what he
reports is from hearsay. His words in the entry of June 14 are; "They
(the _Columbia_) had very disagreeable weather but . . . good success.
. . They discovered a harbor in latitude 46 degrees 53 minutes north.
. . . This is Gray's Harbor. Here they were attacked by the natives,
and the savages had a considerable slaughter made among them. They
next entered Columbia River, and went up it about thirty miles, and
doubted not it was navigable upwards of a hundred miles. . . . The
ship (_Columbia_) during the cruise had collected upwards of seven
hundred sea-otter skins and fifteen thousand skins of other species."
The pictures made by Davidson, the artist, on the second voyage, owned
by collectors in Boston, tell their own story. From all these sources,
and from the descendants of Gray, the Rev. Edward G. Porter collected
data for his lecture before the Massachusetts Historical Society,
afterward published in the _New England Magazine_ of June, 1892. The
_Massachusetts Historical Proceedings_ for 1892 have, by all odds, the
most complete collection of data bearing on Gray. The archives include
the medal and three of Davidson's drawings, also papers relating to the
_Columbia_ presented by Barrell. The Salem Institute has also some
data on the ships. The _Massachusetts Proceedings_ for 1869-1870 also
give, from the Archives of California, the letter of Governor Don Pedro
Fages of Santa Barbara to Don Josef Arguello of San Francisco, warning
the latter against the American navigators. Greenhow obtained from the
Hydrographical Office at Madrid the report of Captain Bruno Heceta's
voyage in 1775, when he sighted the mouth of a river supposed to be the
Columbia.
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