There is not a blight nor a blur upon the lives of the messengers of salvation who answered the Indian's call for "The White Man's Book of Heaven." They sacrificed ease and comfort and home and friends that they might brighten Indian life and point the way to the life to come. The strange thing about it all is, that the great multitude even of intelligent, Christian people have either never heard of or forgot to do them honor.
We must now turn for a brief retrospect of pioneer history relating to early Oregon. The author begs his young readers not to shun the chapter. It is important, for it is the key that unlocks the brave story to follow, of "Whitman's ride." It is good history to know, for it shows the stepping-stones of the nation's greatest progress.
CHAPTER VI
Brief Sketch of Discovery and History of Oregon Country. When Discovered! Who Owned It! By What Title! The Various Treaties, and Final Contest.
Upon the opening of the year 1792, the Oregon country was an unknown and unexplored land. It had been believed that a great river entered the Northern Pacific, and several nations had, from time to time, made investigations. It had been reported that ancient navigators had discovered it a century previous, but if so, it had no place upon any map. It was in that year that Captain Robert Gray, a merchant trader, whose ship was fitted out in Boston by a syndicate of merchants achieved the honor. Captain Gray was a native American, born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1755, and died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1800, eight years after his discovery. He was an observant sailor, as well as a Yankee trader, and as he was sailing leisurely in a gentle breeze, from forty to sixty miles from the shore, he observed a change in the color of the water, and upon testing it, found it comparatively fresh. He at once reached the conclusion that he had found the mysterious, long-sought river. Turning the bow of his vessel toward the shore, and keeping as near what appeared the middle of the fresh-water current, he, at first venture, entered the mouth of the river, and luckily one of its most easily navigated outlets (for it has several). He sailed up the river, anchored in its wide bay near where Astoria now stands, and raising the American flag, took possession in the name of the United States. He was impressed with the immense volume of water pouring into the ocean, and the grandeur of the great harbor, from six to ten miles wide, and the wild beauty of the new land. He sailed up and down the river, sounded its depths, traded his goods with savage tribes for furs and skins, got fresh supplies of pure water, fish, and venison. After a more than usual prolonged stay for a trading vessel, he again put out to sea, having named the great river after his staunch vessel, "The Columbia."[2]
It so happened that a week or more before making his great discovery he had spoken, at sea, to Captain Vancouver, of the English navy, who was upon a voyage of discovery on the Northern Pacific Coast. A few days after emerging from the river he again came in hailing distance of the English ship, and announced to Captain Vancouver his great discovery, giving him all the bearings which had been accurately taken. Captain Vancouver immediately changed his course, found the entrance, entered the river, sailed up the Willamette to its falls, up the Columbia to the rapids, and formally took possession in the name of England! It is a singular fact that both Spain and England that year each had a ship along the coast upon voyages of discovery. We are accustomed to call such events as "it so happened," but whether accidental or providential, America was ahead. It will be well to keep these facts in mind, for upon them hinges all claims England had upon Oregon! Yet, weak as they were, she held supreme possession of all Oregon for nearly half a century, and as we shall show, had it not been for the heroic work of the old pioneer missionaries, would probably have held the whole fair land for all time to come. England owned the territory northward from the United States, whose boundaries were not accurately defined. Even those along the borders of the New England states were not definitely fixed, and were a source of constant conflict until settled by the Ashburton treaty as late as 1846. The line between the United States and Canada ran westward to the Rocky Mountains, and there ended. Thirty-five years later, while England was in full possession of Oregon, by a treaty signed in 1818, to run for ten years (and was renewed in 1827 for ten years more), her commissioners claimed that they were "the owners of Oregon by discovery." They argued that "Captain Gray only discovered the mouth of the river, while Captain Vancouver made full and complete discovery"; that "Captain Gray's claim was limited to the mouth of the river, and that he was only a merchant, sailor, and trader, and not a legitimate discoverer, while Captain Vancouver was a commander in his Majesty's navy."
Mark, then, the discovery, in 1792, as the United States' first claim to Oregon. When the United States purchased the claims of France to all the great possession west of the Mississippi River, it was supposed at the time to reach the Pacific Ocean and include the Oregon country, and was so marked on the maps until the publication of the latest government map, which marks "The Louisiana Purchase," reaching only to the Rockies. So, by the after-light of history, we can make no claim to Oregon from that purchase. But President Jefferson, who had a more enthusiastic interest in the Oregon country than did any other of the statesmen of his day, evidently believed his purchase from France included the Oregon country, for he at once began to plan a voyage, for survey and discovery, of all the lands from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
Jefferson looked much farther into the future grandeur of the nation than his fellows. While minister to France he met the great traveler and ornithologist, Audubon, and became deeply interested in the mysteries of the Western wilderness. He attempted upon his return to America, by private subscription, to send out an exploring expedition under the guidance of Audubon. But the death of the great naturalist defeated the enterprise.