1889preface

History of the Pacific Northwest
Oregon and Washington 1889
Volume I
Preface

Prior to 1776 (if the piratical cruises of Drake and Cavendish in the Sixteenth century be disregarded), the exploration of the Pacific coast of North America had been confined to Spanish and Russian voyages. From Mexico to Prince William's Sound, sixty-one degrees north latitude, the coast was explored by Spanish navigators. Russians operating from Kamtchatkan ports discovered and made settlements between sixty-six degrees and fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude.

In 1776, Captain James Cook arrived upon the Northwest coast. The order to examine the coast of New Albion (the name conferred by Sir Francis Drake) was embraced in his instructions by the British Admiralty. After Cook's voyage, English explorations followed in the latitude of what is now Washington. Upon the United States of America entering upon its career as a nation, it became an important factor in North Pacific discovery, commerce and settlement. The territorial claims asserted by the United States and Great Britain were based upon voyages to, or examinations of, the coast north of latitude forty-two degrees north, and the south line of Russian claim, fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude. A vast extent of coast bounded south by the north line of the Spanish department of California, and north by the south line of Russian America, or to speak more accurately, by the south line of Russian discoveries and establishments, was hedged in between forty-two degrees and fifty-four degrees forty minutes by Spain on the south and Russian America on the northwest.

Early in the present century, the territory fronted by such coast, eastward to the Rocky Mountains, became known as OREGON.

The sovereignty of this region long continued in dispute between three of the great powers of the earth, - the claim of each nation respectively resting upon the value, in a political point of view, to be ascribed to those voyages, expeditions and acts of settlement.

The region was frequently called "the territory westward of the Stony Mountains." Within it were included the present States of Oregon, Washington and Montana, west of the Rocky Mountains, and the territory of Idaho, together with the province of British Columbia. The claim to the sovereignty of the territory so long and so notably waged occasioned what is historically and politically termed the OREGON CONTROVERSY.

It must be apparent that an intelligible history of this region must chronicle the various stages of transition from Indian territory, from a fur-bearing region, into states of the American Union.

In such recital, sufficient details are requisite to illustrate how the coast became dedicated to settlement, and how it became impressed with national characteristics. Thus will be traced the antecedents of OREGON, what that historic name comprehends, how

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the territory acquired the area and boundaries as indicated on the map of the world, and the steps towards recognition as a part of the United States. Naturally following is the recounting of those struggles incident to the attainment of present importance, - in short, the presentation of the OREGON of history, the exhibition of its process of molding, keeping pace with the region as it has advanced to Americanization and enlightenment.

Oregon, north and east of the Columbia river, for several years all embraced in WASHINGTON, that particular historic area which for a long period included the territory which was the real contention between the United States and Great britain, will receive its due share of notice.

Nor could washington, Idaho or Montana history be written, ignoring their Oregon antecedents and their true significance. Such a work would be analogous to tracing the biography of an illustrious personage without knowledge of his parentage, his youth, his manhood, of those circumstances which constituted his very being, his individuality, and gave to his life its characteristics.

To chronicle those agencies, to appreciate the factors which rendered this interesting region notable in the world's annals, - in fine, to secure a comprehensive historic view of that part of Northwest America included within what was formerly and first called OREGON, - actuate this work.

It is, however, just to the North Pacific History Company, under whose auspices this book is published, that further explanation should be made as to how they became the sponsors of its publication.

In the spring of 1888, Multnomah Camp, No. 2, Indian War Veterans of Oregon and Washington, pursuant to a resolution passed, appointed a committee for the purpose of collecting and publishing reliable articles upon the several Indian wars, as also the history of the early settlements of Oregon. The first plan was to secure, from parties resident in the several divisions of the territory, historic contributions as to their respective localities. Specially it was rather limited to chronicling the struggles of the white settlers with the aborigines, and the incidents of pioneer life. After thorough consideration, it became apparent that by such scheme, however full of interest, the result desired could not be obtained; that anything short of a sufficiently presented historic notice of the early explorations and settlement of the region, of the different and necessarily adverse elements of its pioneer population, would not carry out the intention of the proposed enterprise.

The intercourse of immigrants or American settlers with and influence over the native population would serve to illustrate the situation of Oregon's pioneers. A history of the region was regarded essential to exhibit the relation of the native population to the white races who migrated to Oregon to occupy and settle the territory.

The motive of the Indian War veterans was not only self-justification. They were also animated with the patriotic desire to vindicate the territorial authorities of Oregon and Washington, and the volunteers who gallantly took up arms and successfully defended that people who had been abandoned by the government, which had invited their presence here to Americanize and hold the region. It soon became manifest that the condition of affairs in Oregon, at the time it was organized as an United States territory, could not be appreciated without a preliminary history of its exploration and occupancy, showing the advent of the white races within its borders, and their respective modes of dealing or intercourse with the native population. That detail will demonstrate

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that the struggles with a perfidious race cannot justly be attributed to the Oregon pioneers. The conflict was but the logical sequence of those acts and of his presence here. The belief is fully warranted that it would have been avoided had the national government performed a duty it obligated itself to perform by encouraging American settlement in the territory.

History will also demonstrate that so much of Oregon as was not surrendered to Great Britain by the Treaty of June 15, 1846, was saved through the presence and instrumentality of the American settlers of Oregon. It will equally establish that the people who settled in Oregon, and who Americanized it, were patriotic, patient and eminently considerate and kind to the aborigines; and that the conflicts between the natives and settlers was not occasioned by any provocation given by the latter, beyond the isolated fact that their presence was an offense in the eye of the Indian, who, quick to observe, took advantage of the neglect of the government to protect the settler, and attempted to exterminate the American race in that region.

History was required to supply the picture of the surroundings of the Oregon pioneer. And now, after a full generation, in which these country-savers, these state-builders, have been under a cloud, denounced as barbarians and robbers of the national treasury, their single offense being that, in the hour of desolation and doubt, they prevented the American settlements of Oregon from being wiped out forever, the great fact still remains that that government, which ignored their presence in the territory, which profited by their services in the field, still repudiates the full payment of the debt so justly their due. These men, these veterans, now deem it a simple act of justice, to themselves and to their children, to publish a history which may serve also to illustrate the value and importance of the region they fought to save to the country, humanity and the American occupants. And they have also deemed it eminently proper to present a picture of the region now, which in the past was the scene of those historic details and their sacrifices.

A history of the territory embraced within the classic name of Oregon will constitute the first volume. It will aim to illustrate those struggles and vicissitudes by which American states and commonwealths are created. A second volume will afford the illustration of a progress which is the complete justification of every effort put forward by the Oregon pioneers: I. To wrest by American settlement the Oregon of history from its British occupancy; II. To subdue and dedicate it to American civilization.

How those resolves have been performed by the Oregon pioneer will, as we believe, truthfully appear in the following pages.

ELWOOD EVANS.

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