The history of Oregon, geographical and political

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF OREGON, GEOGBAPHICAL AND POLITICAL. •WITH AN EXAMINATION OF THE fSOJECT OT A NATIONAL RAIL ROAD, FROM THE, ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. BY GEORGE WILKES. ALSO AN ACCOUNT OF THE CHARACTERISTICS AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE OREGON TERRITORY, BY A MEMBER OF THE RECENTLY ORGANIZED OREGON LEGISLATURE. ACCOMPANIED BY A MAP. N E W - Y OR K . WILLIAM H. COLYER, No. 5 HAGUE-STREET. .URGESS, STRINGER, & Co., No. 222 Broadway, corner os Ann-street. WILLIAM H GRAHAM, Tribune Office. WILLIAM TAYLOR, Astor House, Broadway. G. B. ZEIBER & Co., J. R. COLON, Philadelphia. V. H. BRAINARD & Co., JORDAN & Co., REDDING & Co., and HOTCHKISS & Co., Boston. N. HICI_MAN,.and SHURTZ & TAY- LOR, Baltimore. 1845. THB HISTORY OF OREGON. GEOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL. BY GEORGE WILKES. EMBRACING AN ANALYSIS OF THE OLD SPANISH CLAIMS, THF.

BRITISH PRETEN- SIONS, THE UNITED STATES TITLE ; AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT CON- DITION AND CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY, AND A THOROUGH EXAMIN- ATION OF THE PROJECT OF A NATIONAL RAIL ROAD, FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. TO WHICH IS ADDED A JOURNAL OF THE EVENTS OF THE CELEBRATED EMIGR.V TING EXPEDITION OF 184J ; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ROUTE FROM MISSOURI TO ASTORIA, A TABLE OF DISTANCES, AND THE PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TERRITORY, AND ITS SETTLE- MENTS, BY A MEMBER OF THE RECENTLY ORGANISED OREGON LEGISLATURE. THE WHOLE CONCLUDING WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE TREATIES DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE, AND NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN SPAIN, RUSSIA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE UNITED STATES, IN RE- LATION TO THE NORTH WEST COAST. NEW YORK: WILLIAM H. COLYER, No. 5 Hague-street. 1845. Entered according to an Act of Congress, BY WILLIAM H. COLYEE, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York, in the year 1S1..

Preface

. The deep interest taken in the Oregon question at the present moment ; its paramount importance as a feature of our national policy, and the prevailing inacquaintance with its particular merits, have, together, induced the author to prepare the following pages, in the absence of the requisite work for the reference of the public. There appears to be a peculiar necessity for a publication of this kind at present, for recent events have shown it is no extravagance to suppose that a period may arrive when it will be necessary for us to be assured, whether we are to buckle on our armor, and to draw our swords in a righteous cause or no. In a monarchy, where the sovereign has a direct and absorbing personal interest in every war, he pays pamphleteers to make it popular with The People. In a Government like ours, this duty, when just, devolves upon its citizens, and such of them as perform it, are re warded with consciousness of having acquitted themselves of a natural obligation, and in the additional gratification of lending another impulse to a righteous cause.

To accomplish Viis object in the best manner, the following pages have been arranged in two distinct parts ; the first embracing the features of title, geography, and natural advantages ; and the second, the descriptions of a traveller of the characteristics and capabilities of the country in dispute. In the preparation of the first, care has been taken to furnish a clear, concise and straightforward relation of events, and to avoid the technicalities and pedantries which usually confuse the mind in the attempted consideration of such subjects. For the data of this portion of the work, the author has availed himself freely of the best authori ties on the subject, and he takes this opportunity of acknowledging his indebtedness to the work of Robert Greenhow, published for the use of Congress in 1840, and also to the more recent journal of Lieu tenant Wilkes.

It will be observed by those already conversant with the Oregon Question, that the author has left what is called " the French Title" from the category of our claims. He did this because he esteemed it of but little weight ; but those who are curious on the subject, will PREFACE- 4 find a careful deduction of it in the Appendix, as prepared by a Com mittee of Congress, in 1S43. The project of a National Rail Road across the continent, though generally denounced as visionary and impracticable, has long been the author's favorite idea, and he claims for it that attention which every scheme deserves from its opposers. It was not his intention to advance it as early as the present time, but the rapid progress of events has precipitated his design, and a similar proposal from another source, has induced him to bring it forward now, principally from an appre hension that the grandest scheme the world ever entertained, may be prostituted to the selfish interests of a private corporation.

The second part of the work, consists of a journal, prepared from a series of letters, written by a gentleman now in Oregon, who him self accompanied the celebrated emigrating expedition of 1843.. They make no pretensions in their style, but are merely simple, conversational epistles, which, in their familiar, off-hand way, furnish a large amount of useful practical information to the emigrant, and much interesting matter to the general reader. The author has done scarcely more to this portion than to throw it into chapters, and to strike from it such historical and geographical statistics as had been drawn from other sources, and arranged in the preceding portions of the work. These letters fell into his hands after the adoption and commencement of his original design ; and adapting them to his pur pose , by linking them with his own MSS . , a deal of research was saved him by the valuable and peculiar information they contributed.

In conclusion, though much of his labor has been performed in haste, the author thinks it hardly necessary to offer an apology for the manner in which it has been accomplished. Instead of fishing for credit, he has desired only to be useful, and he would much prefer confirming the just determination of a single man, than to pleasing the fancies of a thousand critics. He has therefore been content to be correct, and he will feel over-paid if he have opposed a single obstacle to the manifold deceptions and misstatements of the calculating monarchists who unhappily form a portion of the Citizens of this Republic, or have con tributed a mite to the great movement that will advance the destiny of his country more rapidly than all otTier influences combined. Note.— The map facing the title-page is taken from an English publication on the Oregon Question, and from the extreme haste with which the publisher has been obliged to proceed, is the best he is enabled to furnish, for the present.

Though shorn of two degrees of the southern portion of Oregon, it is accurate in the profile of the coast, in the course of the rivers, and in all the principal features of the territory. It will be noticed that along the line ot Frazer 3 River runs the words—" Route of Makenzie, in 1793 ;" and as no mention is made J? p 'ollowmg pages of Mr. Makenzie, it may be proper to state that he was a Scotch Fur I racier who had been engaged in the years 1789-90 and -91, in exploring the Great Slave River, to the North Sea, and in 1793, descended Frazer's River, to its mouth. This exploit, however, has no bearing on the question of title, as Galiano, and Valdes, and Vancouver had visited it some ■weeKs neiore. As a further explanation, it may be necessary to say that Queen Charlotte's sound, and the Gulf of Georgia, are northern portions of the Strait of Fuca ; and an easterly line C-^LSM™tvPOm ,°/ the ,tma11 island immediately. under mark of longitude 132-*, to the Rocky Mountains, is the northern boundary we claim.

Part I

. Historical Account of the Discovery and Settlement of Oregon Territory, Comprising an examination of the old Spanish Claims, the British Pretensions, and a deduction of the United States Title. Oregon is a vast stretch of territory, lying on the north west coast of North America. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean ; on the north by latitude 54° 40' ; on the east by the Rocky mountains, and on the south by the forty-second parallel. This geographical arrangement separates the coast into three grand divisions ; first, that below the forty-second parallel belonging to Mexico ; second, the section lying between 42°, and 54° 40' to the United States ; and third, all above the last named limit, to the Russian crown*— thus shutting Great Britain out from any inch of seaboard territory.

The whole of this immense region (Oregon) is nine hundred and sixty miles in length ; its breadth along its northern boundary is about five hundred miles, and widening gradually with the south-easterly course of the Rocky mountains, it stretches to about seven hundred miles along its southern line. Its whole surface may, therefore, be estimated at four hundred thousand square miles. Previous to entering into a description of its general characteristics, it is necessary first to analyze with accuracy the nature of our claims, for the purpose of ascertaining the degree of interest we are warranted in bestowing on it. This course will be found the more important, as we shall see that Great Britain, with characteristic modesty, lays claim to it for herself. There are four modes by which nations may obtain possession and sovereignty over countries ; and these are by discovery ; by settle ment ; by conquest, and by purchase — the latter, including all subordinate modes of cession arising out of political arrangement.

These rules, or principles, are laid down and governed by a general system called international law, the nature and qualities of which it will be necessary for us to exactly understand, before we can proceed satisfactorily with our inquiry. International Law is simply no law at all, for the first idea of law implies a superior power prescribing and dictating to an inferior one — a notion that is perfectly incompatible with the equality of nations. International law is, therefore, merely a collection of moral maxims put forth by certain ethical writers named Grotius, Puffendorf, Baron Wolfius and Vattel, which, being founded in the main on accurate bases, have been generally used by diplomatists as ready elucidations of the principles that should govern the general course and policy of nations.

The adoption of this course saves them the special trouble of elaborating an argument on a natural right, by producing one ready See Appendix, No. 1. made to their hand. The custom of resorting to these writers by diplomatists in the arrangement of their disputes, has given them a sort of authority, which has been confounded with the notion of an imperative rule. As, however, all nations are equal, there can be no international law but the great principle of right. Wherever the maxims of these writers square with this, they are doubtless as obligatory as any law can be ; for all powers are subject alike to the rules of everlasting justice, which are the type and essence of the only supremacy to which the nations of the earth must bow. But, whenever on the contrary, they do not agree with this divine principle, it is equally obligatory on all to reject them. _ There is another view in which a government like ours has a special and peculiar right to deny the obligatory nature of this collection of essays, and that is embraced in the fact of their being drawn from monarchial theories.

We, therefore, who are working upon a new and antagonistic principle, are not bound by any scheme which conflicts with our own grand design ; for it would be absurd in the extreme for a State which achieved its existence through the denouncement of an arbitrary and unjust system, to admit the binding force of its inconsistent parts. We want no such system of international law ! The prevailing sentiment of national honour, common to every free people, is the best conservator of the rights of nations ; for while it imperatively exacts immediate redress for every wrong, it rejects every unworthy policy with unqualified disdain. The principles of justice, eternal and invariable, are understood by all without the elaborate filterings of an artificial code, and they have the advantao*e moreover of applying equally to Monarchies and to Republics. °The just do' right without a written rule; the bad outrage it in opposition to a thousand— the first find their reward in the approbation of the world ■ the last their punishment in the alternative of war.

No written code can alter these tendencies, nor affect their results. No nation will obey a rule which runs in derogation of its rights. What need then of a system which offers no additional inducements and enforces no additional penalties ? We do not introduce these views of international law here, because any of its principles makes against our claims to Oregon, but for the opposite reason that they substantiate them ; for we wish to be understood, that while we have a right to accept a proposition wa-^ed against us, and turn its premises to our own account, we do not thereby bind ourselves irrevocably to the whole system of which it is a part. Great Britain in support of her pretensions to the sovereignty of Oregon produces two principles from this code which relate to the rights drawn from discovery and occupation.

We accept the challenge, because it happens to be sounded on correct principles, and because it enables us to beat her on her own ground. The following are the rules alluded to. They are extracted from VatteL who"l considered the standard authority on international law "All mankind have an equal riaht to things that have not fallen into (he hind, of V'yhe°netLre! ore fn' rngSrb!,,0nS '° ,he wh° first '^S „ lawfull'v ,,k! ' naUonrfinds a <*°™try uninhabited and without an owner it ™v or w, Mn ,h P°SSeSMOn 0f " ! a"d *>s*erit has sufficiently made known it" hrftaSX or will in th„ respect, ,t cannot be deprived of it by anofher nation. Thu na ta tors going on voyages of discovery, furnished with a commission from their sovereign, and meeting with islands or other lands in a desert state, have taken possession of them in the name of their nation ; and this title has been usually respected, provided it wd»soon after followed by a real possession." — Book 1, Chap. 18, Sec. 207.

" When a nation takes possession of a country that never yet belonged to another, it is considered as possessing thfrre the empire or sovereignty at the same time with the domain."— Book 1, Chap. 18, Sec. 205. The correctness of these propositions cannot be denied ; they are consistent with reason and natural rights, and though they derive no additional force from .being written down by Monsieur Vattel, they are properly admitted by nations as principles which cannot be assailed to the injury of the party enjoying the rights of the affirmative, without aggression. Indeed, they would have been much better and more correctly understood if Vattel had never said a word about them. It is obvious enough that no claim can exist to a country which has never been discovered, and it is equally obvious that it must naturally fall into the possession of the first nation who redeems it to the world ; but it is not so apparent why a navigator should be armed with a commission before his nation can derive a title to his discoveries.

Here we see at once the pedantry of the lawyer : the main proposition is founded upon reasonable principles, but the latter condition is the offspring of a quirk. It will be hereafter seen that England discards this feature from the rule, in her assertion of the discoveries of Meares ; and it was against such absurdities as this, that our protest against international law was intended to guard. There is one other principle of international law which has been introduced into this controversy, that is of equal natural force and validity with the foregoing ones. This is the well known and established rule, that " he who first discovers the mouth of a river draining a country in a state of nature, and makes known his discovery ; and the nation whom he represents, takes possession in a reasonable time, becomes the owner of all the territory drained by such river."

This proposition, like the former ones, recommends itself at once to our reason and common sense. It is clear that such river should belong of right to the nation first discovering it, and it is equally clear, that to be of any use or benefit to them, they should have possession of the whole country drained by it, so that its sources and its current may not be at the mercy of inimical hands, who could render it use less at pleasure, by cutting off the first, or perverting the second in a different channel. THE OLD SPANISH CLAIMS.* In 1491, the western hemisphere slept unknown in the abyss. 1491. In 1492 Spain redeemed it to the world. Between 1512 and j^jj; 1541, she settled Mexico, occupied Florida, traversed the whole 1541. northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and explored the interior of the continent as far as the fortieth degree of north latitude.

In 1543 U43 she explored the coast under Cabrillo and Bartoleme Ferrelo, as * Though it is hardly necessary to mention to the reader in this stage of our examination, that the United States purchased from Spain in 1819, all the right devolving to her on the North West coast above 42° north latitude by virtue of her discoveries and settlements, it will do no harm to direct him to bear in mind that in mailing out her title, we of consequence establish our own. hi<rh as the forty-fourth parallel, and from that year till 1580 we 1M0' hear of no other adventure in a northern latitude. In the last mentioned year, however, Sir Francis Drake appeared in the North Pacific, and as the British government have seen fit to lay great stress upon his discoveries, it is necessary that we should give them particular attention.

Drake was one of the most distinguished of the buccaneers who cursed the face of the ocean during the latter part of the sixteenth century. He had heard of the enormous profits derived from the pillage of the South American Spanish settlements, and appealing to Queen Elizabeth, (who secretly encouraged this system of warfare, -while she dared not openly deny to Spain the rights of her Pacific discoveries,) received her aid to his nefarious schemes. With, therefore, no object beyond piracy and plunder, he entered the Pacfic in 1578, and during the course of that and the following year, ravaged every town of note on the coast of South America ; committing the most barbarous outrages on their unoffending inhabitants. Being at last gorged with spoil and satiated with ravage, his next object was to secure a safe retreat ; but fearing to take the risk of a return through the straits of Magellan, lest the exasperated Spaniards should con centrate their forces there to cut him off, he resolved to return home by the way of the Indies and the Cape of Good Hope.

He accordingly ranged along the coast as high as the 42d or 43d degrees of north latitude, when being pinched by the cold, he turned back and ran into the bay of San Francisco, in lat. 38. Here he stopped five weeks to refit, and for the purpose of awing the natives into submission, made a pompous display of colors and music, which he afterwards very modestly called taking possession for the British Crown. Though Drake knew from the accounts of the natives, and the articles of European manufacture he found among them, that the country had been discovered and visited long before, he could not overlook so favorable an opportunity of covering the dishonest nature of his enter prize ; so he assumed the character of a discoverer, and performed the double service of saving both himself and his mistress from impertinent inquiry by the evasion.

He was rewarded on his return home for the murders he had committed and the plunder which he shared, by a baronetcy instead of the rope, and descended to posterity as Sir Francis Drake, the celebrated navigator, instead of Drake, the bold pirate. On this infamous basis do the British Government found their claims to Oregon, and it may be regarded as significant of the ramifications of the design. They insist that Drake explored the coast as high as 48°, and rely upon the statements of a work called the " World Encom passed," published by an unknown compiler, from " notes of the Rev. Francis Fletcher, Preacher in this (Drake's) employment." But as this journal was not made until sixty-three years after the voyage was made, and as its incongruous statements are directly contradicted by a work published immediately after the return of the expedition, when this Mr. Fletcher and all the parties were alive, and able to refute it, we are not bound to bestow a grave consideration on its statements.

The following extract will serve to show the consistency and veracity of the Preacher's statement : ■" On the 3d June, (1580) v* e came in latitude 42" N., but in the night we found such an alteration of heat to extreme cold, as caused our men to grievously complain. The land bearing farther out in to the west than we had imagined, we were nearer on it than we were aware. The 5th of June we were forced, by contrary winds to run in with the shore and ca«t an anchor in a bad bay, where we were not without some danger by the extreme gusts and flaws that beat upon us. In this place there was no abiding, on account of the extreme cold, and the wind, still directly bent upon us, commanded us south whether we would or no. From the height of 48°, in which we now were, to 38°, we found ihe land low and reasonably plain, and in 38*-* 20' fell in with a fit and convenient harbor, where we anchored.

During all this time, we were visited with like nipping colds, neither was the air during the whole fourteen days so clear as to enable us to take the height of sun or star. Though we searched the coast diligently, even unto the 48ih degree, yet found we not the land to trend so much as one point in any place toward the east, but rather running in continually north-west, as if it were directly lo meet wilh Asia." Really this preacher expects a great deal from our symplicity, for he coolly tells us that he accomplished a sailing distance of nearly, if not quite, four hundred miles under the most adverse circumstances, in two days. Moreover, we find upon an examination of the maps, that the coast between these latitudes, so far from running continually " north-west, as if it went directly to meet with Asia,'1'' does not in any part trend oue point toward the west.

By comparing the two accounts, we find that the first historian, (Mr. Francis Pretty,) whose relation being published immediately upon its conclusion, may be regarded as the official journal of the voyage, sets the latitude of 5th June at 43c, while the other, whose work was not ventured before all the actors had departed from the stage, marks it 48°. It may be that Fletcher's manuscript has its degrees of latitude indicated by figures, and that a peculiarity of formation has confounded 43 with 4S ; but if the inconsistency is not explained in this way, we must of necessity conclude, that the Preacher, whose hard task it was, to make robbery and ravage square with the ordinances of religion, has been gradually brought to consider romance as his peculiar province, and to estimate a serviceable fiction over a common-place fact.

The character of this production of Mr. Fletcher's appears to have been pretty well under stood by the historians of the last century, for while but three writers previous to 1750, (and those of but little reputation,*) adopt his state ments, they are rejected by the great mass of authorities, comprising Ogilby, in his History of America, De Laet, in his History of the New World, Heylin, in his Cosmography, Locke, in his History of Navigation, Dr. Samuel Johnson, in his biography of Drake, and Dr. Robertson, in his Standard History of America, none of them allowing Drake the credit of an advance above 43°, while the latter positively states that he turned back at the 42d parallel. When in addition to the indisputable veracity of these writers, we take into consideration that they are all, with one exception, Britons, who cannot be accused of an indifference to the glory of their country, we must reject the claim ■which is based upon the counter-statement, as without foundation.

Even admitting the latitude they ask, the very principles of inter national law they have advanced, plunges them into an inextricable difficulty. By the rule which we have extracted from Vattel, a discovery, to confer a title, is clogged with a proviso in the concluding clause, that a real possession must follow soon after. Now we shall see * John Davis, Admiral Monson, and Captain Burnej. i in the progress of our inquiry, that one hundred and ninety-eight years elapsed, before another English navigator entered the northern latitudes of the North-west coast. As the most romantic imagination can hardly construe this into being soon enough after, we shall not hesitate to strike the pretensions, on the score of Drake, from off the record. From the date of the expedition of Cabrillo and Ferrelo (1543,) UU' we hear of no further discovery to the north, except what is contained in the account of a voyage made by Francisco Gali or Guelli, a merchantman, who in his course from China to Mexico is said to have reached the vicinity of the American continent, in 574 degrees, and to have sailed along in sight of its coast, till he arrived at 'the bay of San Francisco, in latitude 37J. But little reliance is to be placed upon this account, however, as by Guelli's own statement, the land first seen by him " was very high and fair, and wholly without snow," which could not have been the case with the land in that latitude.

It makes but little difference whether he is entitled to all he claimed or not, for subsequent discoveries cover all the ground which this could have occupied, if it were ever so substantial. The next discovery by the Spaniards on the North-west coast, ' took place in 1587, by Jean de Fuca, a Greek pilot, who received the direction of a squadron fitted out by the Viceroy of Mexico for the discovery of a strait which was supposed to lead into the Atlantic ocean. Arriving between latitudes 4S and 49, he fell upon the great arm of the sea which separates " Quadra and Vancouver's Island" from the continent, and which now bears his name. This he thorougly explored along its eastern course, and having remained in it for twenty days, returned to Mexico. From the policy pursued by the Spanish Government of concealing everything that related to their American possessions, the existence of this strait was unknown to the rest of the world for a long time, and when its discoverer disclosed it to an English merchant some years afterward, it was derided as a fable.

In 1787 an Austrian vessel fell upon it and entered it to the distance of sixty miles, and as it corresponded in all its remarkable peculiarities with the one described by De Fuca nearly two hundred years before, justice was at once rendered to his memory by the bestowal on it of his name. From 1592 up to 1774, the Span iards occupied themselves principally in forming settlements upon the coast and in the interior of their northern possessions ; but in the latter year, another expedition was despatched under the charge of Juan Perez, which traversed the coast up to the 54th degree, down to forty minutes of which point the Russians had already ex tended their trading settlements. Proceeding south, Perez anchored in a spacious bay under 49°, which he named Port San Lorenzo, but which, on a subsequent visit by Captain Cook, received from that navigator, its present name of Nootka- Sound.

After. leaving Port San Lorenzo, Perez saw the Strait of Fuca in his southern course, 177_ but did not stop to examine it. In the following year another expedition under Heceta, Bodega and Maurelle examined the whole shore fiom 40° up to 5S°, and the former, on his return voyage, while between 46° and 47°, noticed an opening in the land at 40° 16', which appeared to be a harbor or the mouth of some river. He reported the fact, giving his opinion to that effect, and subsequent Span ish maps accordingly laid down a river there, which they called the San Roque- We have now brought the Spanish discoveries down to 1775, to which time no other European nation had set foot upon the coasts between 38° and 54° 40', neither had any ever reached a higher lati tude than 43°. 1778. *n 177S> three years after this latter expedition, Captain Cook arrived in the North Pacific, and under 49£° fell in with the port San Lorenzo of the Spaniards.

This, he named Nootka Sound, and ascribed the merit of its discovery to himself in the face of numerous evidences that Europeans had been there before him, for he tells us in his own account, that not only did the natives appear familiar with his ships, but he found among them articles of Spanish manufacture. Thus vanishes Cook from the shadowy list of English discoverers of the coast of Oregon ; for until the word discovery is born again and receives a new definition, it will hardly possess sufficient elasticity of application to stretch its qualities to two distinct visitations of the same spot, separated by a distance of three years ; and unless its mean ing is considerably enlarged, it will scarcely extend from the. outside of an island twenty miles at sea, to the body of the continent behind it.