Copyright 2000 - 2003 - Janine M. Bork
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Union County, OR AGHP
Western Limits of the United States of America - Purchase of Louisiana - Abortive Projects for Northwestern Exploration - Expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Mouth of the Columbia River - The North West Company Establishes a Trading Post West of the Rocky Mountains - The Missouri Fur Company - Commercial Enterprises of Citizens of the United States in Northwest America - Captain Winship, in the Albatross, Attempts an Establishment at Oak Point, on the Columbia River.
BY THE recognition of independence, the United States of America had succeeded Great Britain as sovereign proprietor of the territory bounded west by the channel of the Mississippi river. The Canadas were upon the north. Florida, then a Spanish province on the southern border, separated it from the Gulf of Mexico, extended indefinitely along the river to the north, and reached westward without prescribed limits. In 1762, France had ceded Louisiana to Spain. While it continued a Spanish province, it mattered not what terms defined its western limits; for Spain asserted territorial claim on the Pacific coast by right of discovery, as also by the grant of Pope Alexander VI. As there was no intervening claimant while Louisiana belonged to Spain, it extended westward to the Pacific ocean. The northern boundary of Louisiana had been regulated by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), affixing the respective limits of the Hudson's Bay Territory and New France. In 1800, Spain retroceded the province of Louisiana. In 1803, the United States acquired Louisiana by purchase from France.
The "Louisiana Purchase" moved the boundary of the United States indefinitely westward. The territory thus designated extended from the Gulf of Mexico northward to the Hudson's Bay Territory.
A digression becomes necessary to learn the extent of the purchase and appreciate its influence upon, and its direct connection with, the history of the region west of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1539, Hernando Soto discovered the Mississippi river, near its mouth, and formally claimed the country watered by it for the King of Spain. Subjects of another nation settled upon its tributaries. As early as 1772, the French from Canada had thoroughly explored and occupied its northern affluents. La Salle (1680 to 1683) had examined the river to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. In the name of the King of France he took possession of the "Country of Louisiana from the mouth of the St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio, on the eastern side, and also the river Colbert or Mississippi, and the rivers which discharge themselves into it, from its sources in the country of the Kious, as far as its mouth at the sea." Being assured by the natives that his party were the first whites who had visited the country, he protested against its settlement or invasion
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by the subjects of any other nation. In communicating his exploits to the Governor of Canada (Count Frontenac), La Salle says: "From the information which I had been able to collect, I think I may affirm that the Mississippi draws its source somewhere in the vicinity of the Celestial Empire, and that France will be not only the mistress of all the territories between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, but will command the trade of China, flowing down the new and might channel which I shall open to the Gulf of Mexico." La Salle returned to France and secured letters patent from the King, to establish settlements at the mouth of the river. He sailed with a colony, but, missing the mouth of the Mississippi, went to the westward and settled on Matagorda Bay.
In 1689, d'Iberville, a Canadian, entered the Mississippi and founded a settlement three hundred miles from its mouth. Beinville about the same time made a settlement where New Orleans was built. Before 1710, a number of French settlements had been made up the river. In 1712, the King of France executed the famous grant to Antoine Crozat, which defines the province of Louisiana "as including all the territories by us possessed, and bounded by New Mexico, and by those of the English in Carolina, all the establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of Dauphin Island, formerly called Massacre island, the river St. Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the seashore to Illinois, together with the river St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries river, the St. Jerome, formerly called the Wabash (Ohio), with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land and rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. All the said territories, countries, rivers, streams and islands we will to be and remain comprised under the name of the government of Louisiana, which will be dependent on the general government of New France and remain subordinate to it; and we will, moreover, that all the territories we possess on this side of the Illinois be united as far as need be to the general government of New France, and form a part thereof, - reserving to ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of the government of the said country of Louisiana."
In five years, Crozat relinquished his grant. The Illinois country was annexed to and formed part of Louisiana; and the territories watered by the Mississippi and Mobile were in 171 granted to Laws' Mississippi Company, who held it until 1732, when it reverted to the Crown and was governed as a French province until 1762.
At this time, Spain claimed dominion of the country by grant of Pope Alexander VI. France asserted claim to the Hudson's Bay Territory as part of Canada. Great Britain, under the doctrines of continuity and contiguity, regarded the same as included within her colonial grants, most of which in express terms extended to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. Thus it will be seen that the whole breadth of the American continent, between the Atlantic and South Sea or Pacific Ocean, was adversely claimed by the three great European nations, Spain, France and Great Britain.
Shortly after the erection of
the province of Louisiana, France and Spain entered into a treaty of the
closest amity, which continued until 1793. Between Great Britain and Spain,
as also between France and Great Britain, a constant struggle for colonial
supremacy in North America had been waged. In the wars between the British
and the French, Spain supported France. Unsuccessful in the contest, France,
on the 23d of November, 1762, ceded to Spain the province of Louisiana,
together with New Orleans and the island upon which it is situated. On
the 10th of February, 1763, a treaty was entered into by Spain and France
of the one party, and Great Britain and Portugal of the other part, whereby
Great Britain acquired the Canadas, and Louisiana east of the
Mississippi, the mid-channel of that river being fixed as the boundary between the British and Spanish possessions on the North American continent. The Mississippi was definitely fixed as the western boundary of the British colonial possessions in North America. Great Britain renounced all claim to the territory westward of that river. Spain had become assignee of France by the cession of Louisiana, and besides, by reason of the papal grant, claimed territorial rights on the Pacific coast by right of discovery. Thus the Mississippi river divided the continent east and west between Great Britain and Spain. The United States succeeded to Great Britain on the recognition of independence. By the treaty of peace in 1783 those states which had previously existed as British colonies were limited in their western boundary by the Mississippi, by virtue of the treaty of 1763. In other words, the established western boundary of the new nation was the mid-channel of the Mississippi river.
In 1800, the Duke of Parma, a member of the royal family of Spain, received from Napoleon certain Italian territories. In consideration of which, Spain retroceded to France "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent it now has in the hands of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be according to the treaties subsequently made between Spain and other States." The Spanish King issued the order for delivery of the province to the French Republic on the 15th of October, 1802. The United States purchased Louisiana by the treaty of April 30, 1803.
The extent of the "Louisiana Purchase" at once became the immediate subject of negotiation between the United States, Spain and Great Britain. The measure of territorial claim accruing to the United States by that purchase entered largely into the negotiation between the United States and Great Britain upon their respective claims to the country upon the Pacific Ocean.
As soon as peace had been declared between Great Britain and the United States (1783), commercial enterprises of the new republic introduced its starry emblem into the harbors and seas of Northwest America. Most important and valuable discoveries had been made by citizens of the United States, conferring upon that nation territorial claim to the territory bordering upon the Pacific. As a consequence of the general internecine war in Europe, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the commerce between Northwest America and China and the East Indies was exclusively carried on by American vessels. With this increase of commerce, there was a correspondingly increased desire to acquire knowledge of the country, as also to foster and retain the control of the trade. The coast had been thoroughly examined. Its bays, harbors and islands were well known; but the interior had remained a vast terra incognita.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then
United States Minister at Paris, met John Ledyard of Connecticut, who had
accompanied Captain Cook in his last voyage. Mr. Jefferson suggested to
Ledyard that he should proceed overland via the Russias to Kamtchatka;
from thence across in a Russian vessel to Nootka Sound; thence fall down
on the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and through that region
to the United States. Ledyard enthusiastically embraced the plan. The consent
of the Russian Empress was obtained, and the requisite passports furnished.
He proceeded on his journey as far as Irkootsk, within two hundred miles
of the Kamtchatkan coast, where he arrived in January, 1787. There he was
compelled to winter. In the spring, when about to resume his journey, an
officer of the Empress arrested him as a spy, and forbid his return to
Russia. He was carried night and day in a closed conveyance to the Polish
frontier, broken in health by
the severity of his treatment and the hardships of his journey. This frustrated the first project for the exploration of the interior and western part of the continent.
In 1792, Mr. Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical Society the engagement of a competent scientist to explore Northwest America from the eastward, by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Rocky Mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific Ocean. Captain Meriwether Lewis, United States army, urgently solicited such employment; but André Michaux, the French botanist, offering hs services, they were accepted. Michaux received his instructions, left Philadelphia and reached kentucky where he was overtaken by a peremptory order from the French Minister to relinquish the expedition, and to pursue in other fields his botanical inquiries on which he had been employed by the French government. Thus and thereby European jealousy a second time defeated American inland exploration between the Mississippi river and the Pacific Ocean.
The act of Congress for the establishment of trading-houses with Indian tribes being about to expire, President Jefferson recommended its continuance, and that its provisions be made applicable to the Indians of the Missouri. Ever alive to the importance of acquiring knowledge of the interior and its communication with the Pacific coast, he embraced this opportunity (18th of January, 1803) to send a confidential message to Congress, recommending an exploration to trace the Missouri to its source, to cross the highlands (Rocky Mountains) and follow the best water communication to the Pacific Ocean. Congress made an appropriation to carry it into execution. Captain Meriwether Lewis, the President's private secretary, was selected for the command of the expedition; and at his request William Clark was associated with him, and commissioned as a captain in the United States army. In April, 1803, President Jefferson's instructions were submitted to Captain Lewis, and were signed June 20th. The governments of France, Spain and Great Britain were notified of the expedition and its purposes, and passports for the party were received from the French and English Ministers.
Among other things the instructions provide: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river and such principal streams of it as, by its course of communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce."
* * * * *
"The interesting points of the
portage between the heads of the Missouri, and of the waters offering the
best communication with the Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation
and the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of
the Missouri." * * * "Should you reach the Pacific Ocean, inform
yourself of the circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those
parts may be collected as circumstances which may decide whether the furs
of those parts may be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri
(convenient as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado and Oregon or
Columbia) as at Nootka Sound, or any other part of that coast; and that
trade be constantly conducted through the Missouri and United States more
beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practice." * * * "On
your arrival on that coast, endeavor to learn if there by any port within
your reach frequented by the sea-vessels of any nation, and to send two
of your trusty people back by sea, in such way as shall appear practicable,
with a copy of your notes; and should you be of the opinion that the return
of your party by the way that they went will be imminently dangerous, then
ship the whole, and return by sea, by the way either of Cape Horn, or the
Cape of Good Hope, as you shall be able."
Although the negotiations for the purchase of Louisiana had been successfully concluded April 30, 1803, the news did not reach Washington until the 1st of July. Captain Lewis left the seat of government on the 5th to prepare the expedition for the field. The Spanish Governor of Louisiana had not at that time been officially advised of the transfer of the province of France and was still acting. The season was late. Captain Lewis therefore wintered at the mouth of Wood river, on the eastern side of the Mississippi, making necessary preparations for setting out early in the spring. The party consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the United States army who volunteered, two French voyageurs as interpreter and hunter, and a negro servant of Captain Clark, all of whom, except the servant, were enlisted to serve as privates during the expedition. Three sergeants were appointed from the number by Captain Lewis and Clark. In addition a corporal, six soldiers and nine water-men accompanied the expedition as far as the Mandan nation, - forty-three in all, including Captains Lewis and Clark.
On the 14th of May, 1804, the party crossed the Mississippi river and commenced the ascent of the Missouri, in keel-boats cordelled by hand. The detailed account of this notable journey must be sought in one of the several interesting journals. On the 1st of November, 1804, having journeyed 1609 miles, it went into winter quarters in the Mandan villages. On the 8th of April, 1805, the party, consisting of thirty-three persons, resumed their westward march, and upon the 18th of August had reached the extreme head of navigation of the Missouri river, - upwards of three thousand miles from its mouth. They had ascended the main river to the three forks, to which they had given the names respectively of Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin. Regarding the first named to be the main stream, they had followed it to its source in the Rocky Mountains. Captain Clark crossed to the headwaters of the Salmon river (the east fork of Lewis or Snake river), but abandoned it. The party then ascended Fish creek, a branch of the Salmon, crossed a mountain ridge and entered the valley of the Bitter-root, and ascended to the mouth of a creek now called Lou-Lou fork, by them called Traveler's Rest. From thence they passed over the headwaters of the Kooskooskie, and, having reached a point navigable for canoes, constructed boats and followed the river to its mouth in the Lewis fork of the Columbia (Snake river), which they reached october 7th. Lewis river was followed to its junction with Clark's fork; and thence the party proceeded down the main Columbia to Cape Disappointment, on the Pacific ocean, at which they arrived November 14th. They stopped but a few days on the north side of the river, but established their winter quarters at Fort Clatsop, on the south side, near its mouth, where they remained until March 23, 1806.
Before setting out on their return
eastward, several written notices were left with the natives, and one posted
up in the fort, as follows: "The object of this last is, that, through
the medium of some civilized person who may see the same, it may be made
known to the world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names
are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the United
States to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate
the same by way of the Columbia and Missouri rivers, to the discharge of
the latter into the pacific Ocean, where they arrived on the 14th day of
November, 1805, and departed on their return to the United States by the
same route by which they had come out." This note fell into the possession
of Captain Hill of the brig Lydia, of Boston, which carried it to
Canton, and thence to the United States. On the back of it was sketched
the connection of the respective sources of the Columbia and Missouri,
with the routes pursued, and the track intended to be followed on the return.
The expedition returned by substantially the same route, until reaching Traveler's Rest creek, when the party divided. Captain Lewis, with nine men, pursued the most direct route to the falls of the Missouri, exploring the Marias river. Captain Clark, with the remainder of the party, proceeded to the head of Jefferson river, where he left a small party to descend to the Yellowstone, himself advancing directly to the Yellowstone and tracing it in boats to its mouth. The several parties reunited at the mouth of the Yellowstone on the 12th of August, and, having traveled nearly 9,000 miles, reached St. Louis in safety on the 23d of September, 1806, without having lost a member of the party.
A summary by Captain Lewis indicates the labors of this memorable expedition: "The road by which we went out by the way of the Missouri to its head is 3,096 miles; thence by land, by way of Lewis river over to Clark's river, and down that to the entrance of Traveler's Rest creek, where all the roads from different routes meet; then across the rugged part of the Rocky Mountains to the navigable waters of the Columbia, 398 miles, thence down the river 640 miles to the Pacific Ocean, - making a total distance of 4,134 miles. On our return in 1806, we came from Traveler's Rest directly to the falls of the Missouri river, which shortens the distance about 579 miles, and is a much better route, reducing the distance from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean to 3,555 miles. Of this distance, 2,575 miles is up the Missouri, to the falls of that river; thence passing through the plains, and across the Rocky Mountains to the navigable waters of the Kooskooskie river, a branch of the Columbia, 340 miles, 200 of which is good road, 140 miles over a tremendous mountain, steep and broken, sixty miles of which is covered several feet deep with snow, on which we passed on the last of June; from the navigable part of the Kooskooskie we ascended that rapid river seventy-three miles to its entrance into Lewis river, and down that river 154 miles to the Columbia, and thence 413 miles to its entrance into the Pacific Ocean. About 180 miles of this distance is tide water. We passed several bad rapids and narrows, and one considerable fall, 268 miles above the entrance of this river, thirty-seven feet, eight inches; the total distance descending the Columbia waters 640 miles, - making a total of 3,555 miles, on the most direct route from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean."
The successful return of Lewis and Clark created a sensation, not only in the United States, but in European nations. President Jefferson, in a tribute to Captain Lewis a few years later (1813), says: "Never did a similar event excite more joy through the United States. The humblest of its citizens have taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked with impatience for the information it would furnish. Nothing short of the official journals of this extraordinary and interesting journey will exhibit the importance of the service, - the courage, devotion, zeal and perseverance under circumstances calculated to discourage, which animated this little band of heroes, throughout the long, dangerous and tedious travel."
Captains Lewis and Clark did
not reach Washington until the middle of February, 1807. The services of
the party were duly recognized by an extensive land grant. Lewis was appointed
Governor of Louisiana. Captain Clark was made the General of its militia,
and soon after appointed agent of the United States for Indian affairs.
Before Captain Lewis ahd prepared for publication the journals and reports
of this expedition, in a fit of melancholy he put an end to his existence
(September, 1809). For a long time he had been subject to these chronic
attacks. During one of the paroxysms, business compelled him to start for
Washington. On his journey thither, his illustrious patron and friend Jefferson
most feelingly remarks, "he did the deed which plunged his friends into
affliction and deprived his country of one of her most valued citizens. It lost too, to the nation, the benefit of receiving from his own hand the narrative of hs sufferings and successes, in endeavoring to extend for them the boundaries of science, and to present to their knowledge that vast and fertile country, which their sons are destined to fill with arts, with science, with freedom and happiness."
In New Caledonia (now British Columbia), the employés of the North West Company, early in the nineteenth century, began to explore the region in the vicinity of, and immediately west of the Rocky Mountains.
Previous to 1805, James Finlay and James MacDougal, in the North West Company service, had traveled as far west as Trout Lake, afterwards called McLeod's Lake. In the spring of that year, MacDougal had pursued his examinations as far west as the river afterwards known as the great fork of the Fraser and beyond Carrier's Lake, In the autumn and winter of that year, Simon Fraser, a partner in the North West Company, with a party established a trading-post on McLeod's Lake, called Fort McLeod and subsequently named Fort Fraser. On May 20, 1806, Simon Fraser and John Stuart with a party left the Rocky Mountain House, the North West Company station at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, followed the Fraser river down to Stuart river, believing, as did Sir Alexander Mackenzie, that it was the Columbia. During that year, Fort James on Stuart Lake was established; and, in 1807, Fort George was erected at the junction of the Stuart and Fraser rivers. From this post, Fraser and Stuart took their departure in 1808, and descended the river Fraser to its mouth.
From an interesting letter, the following extract is copied:
"Among the first of the trappers (of the western frontier of the United States) who visited the Columbia river was William Weir, grandfather of Allen Weir, Esq., editor of the Port Townsend Argus.
When Captains Lewis and Clark returned from their exploration in 1806, they were accompanied by one of the head chiefs of the Mandans. The next spring, a detachment of soldiers were ordered to escort him back to his people. They started up the river in a barge; and about thirty Americans, among whom was Weir, prepared themselves with traps and a keel-boat, and started in company.
Before reaching the Mandan village, they were attacked by a band of hostile Indians. The soldiers took to their oars, and, with the current, swiftly went down the river. The hunters crossed to the other side of the river, and continued to give the Indians a fight. The savages gathered up their skinboats; one which could seat four men could be carried on the head of an Indian. The hostiles descended the river some distance, crossed over and came down in such numbers that the party were overpowered. IN a few minutes seven of the trappers were killed, and about as many more severely wounded. The party gathered up the dead, fled to their boat and followed after the soldiers. The whole party returned to St. Louis and waited until next spring. In the meantime the Missouri Fur Company had been formed. In the spring of 1808, that company employed about three hundred men, principally French, who lived about St. Louis, and sent them up the river. A party of about forty Americans, among whom was Weir, started up the river on their own account. In 1809, Weir with nine others crossed the Rocky Mountains and struck the headwaters of the Columbia river and trapped down the river, wintering just above the Cascade or Coast range.
Another small company of Missouri
trappers wintered at the mouth of the river. They all trapped on the river
and its tributaries during the spring of 1810, and returned
that summer to the Missouri. They found the Indians all friendly; they subsisted almost entirely on fish, which came up the river in great quantities.
Weir often spoke of the large fir timber, the mildness of the climate, the beautiful appearance of the land and soil, and gave it as his opinion that some day it would be one of the finest countries in the world. He quaintly added, "at that time it was a long ways from home."
Among the wintering partners of the North West Company was Daniel Williams Harmon, a native of Vermont. In the spring of 1800, then a clerk, he set out from Montreal for the northwest. In 1805, after he had become a partner, he organized a party to explore the headwaters of the Missouri, cross the Rocky Mountains and follow the Columbia to its mouth. Ill health compelled his abandonment of the trip. In 1807-8, he had charge of Fort Chipewyan. In the fall of 1810, Harmon crossed the Rocky Mountains, and wintered upon Fraser Lake. The next spring he assumed the superintendency of the district of New Caledonia. In this capacity he remained on duty west of the Rocky Mountains until his retirement from the service in 1819, upon which he returned to Vermont. Shortly thereafter was published at Andover, Massachusetts, his "Journal of voyages and travels in the Interior of North America."
In 1808, an association was formed at St. Louis called the Missouri Fur Company, headed by Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard. Under its auspices, in 1809-10, numerous trading-posts were established. One of these was at the headwaters of Lewis' Fork of the Columbia river, in charge of Alexander Henry. It was abandoned in 1810, in consequence of the hostility of the Indians, and the great difficulty attending the provisioning and supply of the post.
In 1809, Captain Jonathan Winship, of Brighton, Massachusetts, projected a trading establishment upon the Columbia river, and the taking of seals and other furs upon the Pacific coast. Two ships were secured, - the O'Cain, of which he was master, and the Albatross, Captain Nathan Winship. The Albatross sailed from Boston July 6, 1809, via Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, and arrived at the mouth of the Columbia river May 25, 1810. She was provided with a complete outfit; and her company originally numbered twenty-five, to which had been added twenty-five Kanakas. Through ignorance of the channel, inaccuracies of charts, strong currents and occasional shoal places, the passage up the Columbia was attended with delays and difficulties. After some ten days cruising on the river, Oak Point, on the south side of the river, was selected as the proposed site of the establishment. Land was cleared, a garden was prepared, seeds were sown, and the erection commenced of the trading-house and dwelling. The summer freshet of the Columbia river soon after occurred and effectually checked all further labors. The house, almost completed, was flooded to the depth of eighteen inches, and the adjacent land overflowed. Captain Nathan Winship having been advised of the arrival of the O'Cain at the bay of Sir Francis Drake (now San Francisco), determined to consult his brother, the projector of the expedition, before attempting another location. He sailed from the Columbia river July 18, 1810. The Winships, having learned of Mr. Astor's contemplated enterprise at the mouth of the Columbia river, deemed it unwise to compete with him, and gave up their project of making a settlement upon the Columbia. Both vessels continued upon the coast in quest of seal islands and in trading (1).
(1) Chapter
XIV, page 173, of Francher's charming narrative, details the visit of the
ship Albatross to Astoria on the 4th of August, 1813. She had been
chartered by Wilson P. Hunt to bring him from Canton.
Franchere says: "Captain Smith informed us that in 1810, a year before the founding of our establishment, he had entered the river in the same vessel, and ascended it in boats as far as Oak Point; and that he had attempted to form an establishment there; but the spot which he chose for building, and on which he had even commenced fencing for a garden, being overflowed in the summer freshet, he had been forced to abandon his project and re-embark. We had seen, in fact, at Oak Point, some traces of his projected establishment. The bold manner in which this captain had entered the river was now accounted for."
On the strength of this statement of Franchere, Greenhow accredits the making of the Oak Point settlement to Captain William Smith of Boston. But while it is true that Captain Smith was with the Albatross in May, 1810, there is no doubt that at the time she was commanded by Captain Nathan Winship. In an article entitled, "Americans at Sea," Niles Weekly Register, August 12, 1820, the able editor, in illustration of his text, quotes from the Boston Daily Advertiser notices of the exploits of Captain William Smith, of Boston, from which we extract: "A friend has furnished us with the following remarkable narrative of the very active and useful life of Mr. William Smith, who was born November 14, 1768, at Flowery Hundred, Prince George county, Va., and came to Boston in 1780. Since that date he has sailed out of this port. He has since that period performed eight voyages around the world, besides one voyage and back." Then follows a detail of the voyages, among which the following occurs:
"8th voyage. Sailed July 6, 1809, in the ship Albatross, Nathan Winship, master, and returned in the ship O'Cain, Robert McNiel, master, October 17, 1817. For about seven years of this voyage he commanded the Albatross, etc."
While these inland operations
were being enacted, American vessels were pursuing an active trade in these
latitudes. Nootka Sound continued the chief resort, but the Columbia river
was frequently visited. James G. Swan, in his very readable "Northwest
Coast," supplies a list of the northwest trading vessels form 1787 to 1809.
It is of great historical interest, and may be accepted as a true exhibit
of commercial enterprise in Northwest America.