Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 21/Number 4

THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

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Copyright, 1919, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

OREGON ITS MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION^[1]

By JOHN E. REES.

It may appear presumptuous for me to imagine that I can elucidate the above caption. Ever since the word "Oregon" came into use people have endeavored to ascertain its meaning and origin and notwithstanding that considerable study and research have been devoted to this subject, the history of the word is still a mystery and bids fair, perhaps, to remain so. For years the solution of this question has baffled many investigators and especially those who had a splendid opportunity to know the facts by reason of their having lived nearer the time when this event occurred. Therefore, the seeming audacity of myself, without such opportunities, to now attempt to explain the derivation of this word. I would not make such endeavor were it not for the fact that so many remarkable efforts, written by previous authors, to interpret the genesis of this word, have invariably ended with the expression or its equivalent, "I don't know."^[2]

My presentation of this subject is suggestive and not to be considered exact history. It is the result of almost a half a century's acquaintance with the history, manners and customs of Western Indian Tribes, especially the Shoshonis. While suggestive and not entirely correct, perhaps, yet the theory pre- sented herein appears quite plausible, at least, more so than any previous contribution to this intricate investigation and is possessed with sufficient reasonableness to take the inquiry out of the realm of conjecture and place it in the field of probable historical data.

This word is of Indian origin and therefore its history is regarded as miraculous by many investigators. The meaning of many Indian names now current in American history and geography is grossly perverted because of the shallowness of sentimental inquirers. The inability of many writers to solve the meaning and fully understand the application of Indian words is due to their ignorance of the language and especially the nature of the American Indian. If so disposed we could take the poetical thunder out of many American names, the visionary meanings of which are so ancient that "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary". But "truth is always stranger than fiction". For example, the word "Mississippi" is of Indian origin and is said to mean Father of Waters, an eloquent thought that conveys a certain knowledge which the red man did not possess. The Indian had no fixed names for natural objects; when speaking of them he used descriptive terms, only. Eight-tenths of Indian geographical names were coined on the spot from some particular attribute which was most striking to his mind at the time he bestowed it. There- fore, when asked by the white man, the red man's name of a certain stream or mountain, he designated it by some peculiar characteristic which came to his mind when asked. When the early trapper inquired his name for the Boise river he called it "Wihinast", meaning boiling rapidly, from the chief peculiarity in view at that moment which was an eddy or whirlpool in the river; or while near a mountain peak during a storm as the thunder was making itself manifest, he called it "Tome-up Yaggi", meaning the clouds are crying; in other words "Thunder," giving us the geographical "Thunder Mountain". OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 319

The Canadian Indians knew that Fathers Allouez, Hennepin, La Salle and Marquette had made tremendous efforts to find and did find and traveled with boats upon the Mississippi river, so when the Chippewas were asked by the French their name for this river replied, as corrupted into French, "Mee- shee See-pee", meaning "Mee-shee", Father, and "See-pee", water, or Father's Water, referring to the Jesuit Fathers and not to the then unknown fact of its being the largest river in the world. 2

The word "Oregon" is derived from a Shoshoni Indian ex- pression meaning, The River of the West, originating from the two Shoshoni words "Ogwa," River and "Pe-on," West, or "Ogwa Pe-on." The Sioux pronounced this word in the more euphonious manner in which we now hear it, a characteristic in which their tongue excels and the Shoshoni "Gwa" under- went, etymologically, a variation in the new language and became changed to "r," thus giving the sonorous word which Jonathan Carver, who first published the name to the English world, heard spoken by them during his visit with the Sioux nation. 3

In the word "Ogwa" the syllable "Og" means undulations and is the basis of such words as "river," "snake," "salmon," or anything having a wavy motion. The sound "Pah" means water. Therefore, a river is undulating water. "Pe-on" is contracted from the two syllables, "Pe-ah," big and "Pah," water or Big Water meaning the Pacific Ocean. Some strik- ing natural phenomenon determined the cardinal points for the Shoshonis. Thus, "Coona-nah," derived from "Coona," fire and "Nah," in the direction of, means North, referring to the Northern Lights; or "To-yah-nah" from "To-yah," mountain the East as the sun, in rising, comes from over the mountains ; or "You-aw-nah" from "You-ant" meaning warm, the South the direction of warmth especially of warm winds ; and "Pe-on-nah," West, the direction of the big water or ocean. Captain Clark stated that the Shoshonis of the Salmon River country when asked about their river said it flowed into

2 Upham's Minnesota Geographic Names, 4.

3 Boaz, Handbook of American Indian Languages, 875.

320 JOHN E. REES

a great lake of water and pointed toward the setting sun. 4 That direction was their West, and if any of the tribe are asked to-day about "Oregon" they point to the west and say, "Pe-on-nah." This is undoubtedly the etymology of the word "Oregon" and its Shoshoni origin and meaning, The River of the West.

The Snake River valley, in Idaho, was the principal habitat of the Shoshonis at the time the white man came in contact with them. However, they ranged from the Colorado to the Columbia rivers and their language was understood by all the tribes from the Rocky Mountains to California and by a few in other tribes outside of these limits. While at no time, is it known, that any of this tribe inhabited the Columbia River section, yet they dwelt upon the Snake and Salmon rivers, streams which are tributary to that river. They were well acquainted with the physiography of that stream, yet if either they or any other tribe had a name for the Columbia River, I have been unable, so far, to ascertain what it was. However, it is said that the Chinooks, who inhabited the coast near the mouth of the river, had a descriptive term which they applied to it. 5

The oldest tradition among the Shoshonis is to the effect that their original home was just east of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and that the Plains Tribes drove them into the mountains. They were great weavers of grass and twigs, making their lodges of such products, and called themselves "Shawnt", meaning plenty, and "Shaw-nip", grass, or the more euphonious name "Shoshoni", which, broadly speaking, means Weavers of Grass Lodges, and they always aimed to live near plenty of grass. Occasionally, they re-crossed the mountains and hunted buffalo on the Yellowstone and Platte rivers and often drifted down the Missouri River, where they came in contact with other tribes, sometimes in a friendly and at other times in a hostile manner. That they came in contact with the Plains Tribes is evident from the fact that the Arapahos, Blackfeet, Cheyennes, Crows,

4 Thwaites, Lewis and Clark, II, 380.

5 Bancroft's History of Oregon, I, 18.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 321

Hidatsa and Sioux possessed, in their vocabularies, names for the Shoshonis which mean Grass Lodge People. 6

When visiting- with the Plains Tribes the Shoshonis talked about their own country. This is a natural supposition. No tribe could explain better, or as well as they, the great Rocky Mountain system, extending from Mexico northward for hun- dreds of miles, dividing the waters flowing east from those flowing west. They and their kinsmen occupied this region and lived all their lives in those mountains and could describe their rocky and crystalline natures better than any one. They knew better than others that the highest land west of the Mis- sissippi River was in those mountains and that there was a place within them that was the source of three very large streams, the Missouri, Columbia and Colorado, all taking their rise within a few miles of each other, and within the Yellow- stone National Park region where no Indian tribe ever dwelt, except the Tukurikas, a family of the Shoshonis. 7 That one of these rivers was a Ogwa pe-on", or the River of the West, undoubtedly meaning the "Columbia", the one flowing into the ocean, toward the setting sun. The other rivers were men- tioned, perhaps, but the "Columbia" appealed to the Shoshonis as it furnished him "Og-gi", or salmon, his principal food. They talked of the stream as the river out west or toward the west, at no time intending to give it a distinctive appellation. Had they wished to give it a name, the descriptive part of the word would have been placed first, as in the case of Snake River which, after immigration had formed the Oregon Trail, the Indian called "Po-ogwa" or Road River. As their rela- tives, the Moquis, lived adjacent to the Spaniards, the Sho- shonis had greater opportunities to know the Mexicans and became the first western tribe to possess horses which they procured from the Spaniard. They knew that the Mexican tribes possessed ornaments and utensils of gold, but such did not appeal to the Shoshoni as did bear claws and elk teeth. He knew where in these mountains this gold could be obtained, proven by the fact that he guided the white man to some of

6 Hodge's Handbook of American Indians, II, 556.

7 Ibid., 835.

322 JOHN E. REES

the greatest finds in the mountains. No tribe had the oppor- tunity to know these things as did the Shoshonis, which knowl- edge they imparted to other tribes with which they came in contact.

Bancroft, the historian, wrote, "Although living lives of easy poverty, the wild tribes of America everywhere possessed dor- mant wealth enough to tempt the cupidity alike of the fierce Spaniard, the blithe Frenchman and the sombre Englishman. Under a burning tropical sun, where neither animal food nor clothing was essential to comfort, the land yielded gold, while in hyperborean forests where no precious metals were discov- ered, the richest peltries abounded ; so that no savage in all this northern continent was found so poor that grasping civilization could find nothing of which to rob him." 8

In the settlement of North America the French occupied the northern, the Spanish the southern and the English the central parts. In 1754, the contest between England and France for supremacy on this continent began, the bone of contention being the Indian fur trade along the Ohio River, which struggle was designated the "French and Indian War". This war ended by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which divested France of all her possessions in America, the English thenceforth assuming con- trol. 9 Jonathan Carver, a captain in the conquering English army, made an exploring expedition toward the interior of this newly acquired territory during the years 1766-7-8, for the purpose of securing some information and knowledge for the English people. He traveled by the way of the Great Lakes toward the head waters of the Mississippi and ascended the Minnesota River two hundred miles above its mouth, his object being to study the character of the country, the customs of the inhabitants and to endeavor to ascertain the size of the continent by traversing it. The information which he gained was published in a book entitled, "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America"

Some extracts from Carver's writings say, "That range of mountains, of which the Shining Mountains are a part, begins

8 Bancroft's History of Central America, I, 63,

9 Ridpath's History of the World, VI, 669.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 323

at Mexico, and continuing northward, on the back or to the east of California, separate the waters of those numerous rivers that fall either into the Gulf of Mexico, or the Gulf of

California Some of the nations who inhabit those

parts that lie to the west of the Shining Mountains have gold so plenty among them that they make their most common

utensils of it Among these mountains, those that

lie to the west .... are called the Shining Mountains, from an infinite number of chrystal stones, of an amazing size, with which they are covered, and which, when the sun shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great dis- tance. This extraordinary range of mountains is calculated to be more than three thousand miles in length, without any very considerable intervals, which I believe surpasses anything of the kind in the other quarters of the globe. Probably in future ages they may be found to contain more riches in their bowels, than those of Indostan and Malabar, or that are pro- duced on the golden coast of Guinea ; nor will I except even the Peruvian mines. To the west of these mountains, when ex- plored .... may be found other lakes, rivers, and countries, full fraught with all the necessaries or luxuries of life; and where future generations may find an asylum . . . . there is little doubt but their expectations will be fully gratified in these rich and unexhausted climes". 10

Extracting further he says, "From the intelligence I gained from the Naudowessie 11 Indians, among whom I arrived on the 7th of December, and whose language I perfectly acquired during a residence of five months ; and also from the accounts I afterwards obtained from the Assinipoils, 12 who speak the same tongue, being a revolted band of the Naudowessie ; and from the Killistinoes, 13 neighbors of the Assinipoils, who speak the Chipeway language, and inhabit the head of the River Bourbon; 14 I say from these nations, together with my own observations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River of Bourbon, and the Oregon or the

10 Carver's Travels, 76-7-8. Walpole, N. H. 1813 edition.

11 Sioux.

12 Assiniboines.

14 Named in honor of the Royal Bourbon family of France. Now known as the Saskatchewan-Nelson River System.

324 JOHN E. REES

River of the West (as I hinted in my introduction) have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other; the latter, how- ever, is rather further west." Bancroft says, "Substitute for the St. Lawrence the Colorado, which makes the observation all the more striking, and the statement is essentially correct." 15 "This shews that these parts are the highest lands in North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled on the other three quarters of the globe, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together, and each, after run- ning separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans at the distance of two thousand miles from their sources". 16

Such was some of the information which Captain Carver obtained concerning the West which we find is so manifest as to be substantially correct. It was given to him by the Sioux who, no doubt, acquired it from the Shoshonis. Some authors have endeavored to discredit the captain's writings while others have designated them a paraphrase upon the efforts of others 17 but the information which he imparts concerning this western country indicates that it came from some one who knew from experience of which he spoke. It may be that others helped to put his manuscript into readable book form as his papers were prepared for the press by a bookseller, 18 but the captain un- questionably furnished the historical data which the Indians had imparted to him. After returning from his travels he proceeded to London where he proposed to the parliament of the British government the plan of ascending the Missouri and descending the Columbia and building posts along the route to facilitate the Indian fur trade and colonial settlements, 19 but England, in neglecting support of Captain Carver's scheme, overlooked her supreme opportunity to entirely dominate the North American continent as did France, a century before, lose her undoubted future prestige by her shameful treatment of Pierre Radisson.

Captain Carver was the first white person known to use the

• -*:,!,: jny*

15 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 608.

16 Carver's Travels, 54-5.

17 Eleventh Edition, Encyclopaedia Britannica, V. 437.

18 Carver's Travels, 22.

19 Ibid., 18 and 280.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 325

word "Oregon", which he did in his book published in 1778, using it four different times and each time he said, "Oregon or the river of West," showing that he understood the word to mean, The River of the West. While Captain Carver was the first white person to use the word "Oregon", others before him spoke of a western river. In 1673, when Father Mar- quette and Joliet passed down the Mississippi, which they called the "Conception River", 20 they supposed that they would float into the South Sea, later known as the Pacific Ocean; but when they reached the Missouri it was evident to themi from so vast a stream, that it must have come a long distance and drained a large section of country. The Indians informed them that such was the case and that beyond the source of the Missouri was another "large river that flowed westward". 21 In 1683, when Baron Lahontan was exploring the Des Moines River he was told, by the Indians, "of a great western river running to the ocean", 22 and Charlevoix, in 1721, while along the upper Mississippi, "learned of the Indians of a western river leading to the ocean", 23 all of which indicated that the Indians of the Mississippi Valley knew of a western river which flowed into the Pacific ocean; in fact, one of their number, Moncacht-Ape, of the Yazoo tribe, told the French that he had, in 1700, traveled up the Missouri, crossed the mountains and descended a stream, which he called the "Beau- tiful River", to the ocean, making the first known transcon- tinental expedition. 24 Such reports of a western river became a tradition among the Spanish navigators who first explored the Northwest Coast so that in 1543, Ferrelo and his crew, "imagined they saw signs of the inevitable great river" 25 and in 1603, Aguilar sailing along the coast north of Cape Blanco "and near it found a very copious and soundable river, on the banks of which were very large ashes, willows, brambles and other trees of Castile; and wishing to enter it the current would not permit", 26 from which incident the stream was called Rio de Aguilar, which was supposed to be and denoted on some maps as the Columbia River.

20 American Historical Review, XXV No. 4, 676.

21 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 587.

22 U S Geol. Sur. Memoirs of Explorations, Surveys, Voyages and Dtscovertes, 491.

23 Ibid., 492.

24 Davis, Journey of Mon'cacht-A^e.

25 Bancroft's History of California, I, 79.

26 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 146.

326 JOHN E. REES

In fact the reports by the Indians of a large river flowing from the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Ocean caused some cartographers to represent on their maps, by dotted lines, a River of the West, after which it became the primary object and the goal of navigators of all nations to seek for and find this Indian stream to whose tra- ditional account were added many by the white man until 1792, when Captain Robert Gray solved the aboriginal legend and entered, for the first time, the channel of this river of many names, notwithstanding which he gave it another, "Columbia", after his vessel, and by which name the river has usually been known since. 27

The next notable use of the word "Oregon", in literature, after its first application by Captain Carver in 1778, was by William Cullen Bryant in his poem, Thanatopsis, in 1812. "Thanatopsis" is a Greek word meaning a contemplation of death. It was said of the poet Bryant that if he was ever a child and thought as a child no one knew when it was. The widespread beauty of nature, her silent movements, her cease- less changes, the endless mass of humanity drifting ever toward the chasm of death, these were familiar themes over which he contemplated in his boyhood days and it was as a boy of eighteen years he wrote Thanatopsis. The splendid thought expressed in this poem comes as "a voice out of the wilder- ness" lifting one above the weary avocations of life to a purer faith in a life beyond. The warm human sympathy of the master poet is here overpowering. As proofs of his stately thoughts on the gravity and universality of death he appeals to the solemnity of the forest and the wilderness, for the dark forests of the western coast of America were quite as familiar to the average reader then, as was the wilderness in the Libyan Desert on the African Coast and it was that idea rather than for "meter" that the word "Oregon" was used by him. He said, "Take the wings of the morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound save his own dashings, yet

27 Lyman's Columbia River, Chap. 3.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 327

the dead are there! And millions in those solitudes, since first the flight of years began, have laid them down in their last sleep the dead reign there alone!" This poem was published first, in 1817, and at once the boyhood effort, portraying the boundless majesty of nature, was stamped upon the minds and emotions of others and the word "Oregon" thereby became fixed and perpetual in the English language. 28

President Jefferson, in his efforts to develop the resources of the nation west of the Missisippi, adopted the plan outlined by Captain Carver of carrying on a trade up the Missouri across the Rockies and down the Columbia to the Pacific, and in 1803, sent Captains Lewis and Clark on an exploring expe- dition across the continent with instructions, among which were, "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce". And "Should you reach the Pacific Ocean, inform yourself of the circum- stances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient as is supposed to be the waters of the Colorado and Oregon or Columbia) as at Nootka sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade may be consequently con- ducted through the Missouri and the United States more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practiced." 29

Lewis and Clark completed their mission in 1806 and when nearing home on their return journey met many parties ascend- ing the Missouri on their way to the wilderness to participate in the fur trade with the aborigines,3 for as above quoted, no native tribe was so poor, even if it inhabited hyperborean forests, that it did not excite the cupidity of the white man. John Jacob Astor, a practical person, conceived the idea of putting into operation Captain Carver's plan and after form- ing the Pacific Fur Company, in 1810, laid a scheme to erect trading posts across the continent, the first one established

28 Bryant's Poetical Works.

29 Thwaites, Lewis and Clark, VII, 248, 251.

30 Chittenden's American Fur Trade.

328 JOHN E. REES

being Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia in 1811, which proved to be the first permanent settlement on the Northwest Coast, after which subordinate posts were estab- lished on the Okanogan, Spokane and Willamette rivers. During the war with England, the British, in 1813, took Fort Astoria and the subordinate posts. 31 But the United States was vic- torious in this war and was able to stipulate in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended this war in 1814, that "All territory, places; and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war .... shall be restored without delay", 32 but England was loath to surrender back this fur trading post just as she refused, for years after the Revolu- tionary War, to give possession, to the United States, of the frontier fur posts to which America was entitled by treaty rights. From England's refusal to restore Fort Astoria to the United States arose the Northwest Boundary dispute which agitated both nations henceforth until 1846, when it was ad- justed by placing the boundary at the 49th parallel. 33

Lewis and Clark's Journal was published in 1814, giving a glowing description of the country over which they had tra- versed, including the "Great Columbia Valley", which report made a deep and lasting impression upon all who read it. But this country, while legally belonging to the United States, under the Treaty of Ghent, was still in the hands of the British. As the British had failed to give up Astoria, Secretary Monroe, in 1815, six months after the treaty had been signed, made a demand on the English Minister to restore, to the United States, this post, to which request the English gave no heed. From this date began the agitation for the American posses- sion and occupation of the Northwest Coast, Hall J. Kelley, of Boston, being the first party to call popular attention to this subject. Until this time, this region was called the "Columbia River Country"; the "Shores of the Pacific"; the "Country Across the Rocky Mountains" ; the Northwest Coast" ; the "Western Coast of America"; or the "Country Westward of the Stony Mountains", but Kelley, being a school teacher and

31 Irving's Astoria.

32 Malloy's Treaties, Conventions, Etc., I. 613.

33 Von Hoist's Constitutional History, III, Chap 2.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 329

familiar with Carver's Travels and Bryant's Thanatopsis, des- ignated the district the "Oregon Country", it being the first instance in which is found the name "Oregon" applied to the Columbia River Valley. Kelley became an enthusiast over the subject, making it the principal topic of his private con- versations as well as in public lectures, writing many newspaper articles and later, pamphlets on the obsessed theme and, in 1817, began to memorialize Congress on the American claim and occupation of the Oregon Country, calling the nation's attention to this desired object. 34

In 1817, Secretary Adams made a second request for the surrender of Fort Astoria, which the British had re-named Fort George, and in doing so displayed sufficient force, by dispatch- ing the U. S. sloop of war, Ontario, to the Columbia, to re-take the place if necessary. England gave up this post in 1818; however, she still maintained a string to the prize in the way of the "Joint Occupancy Treaty", whereby all lands west of the Rocky Mountains were to be "free and open" for ten years to the subjects of both nations' 35 which practically left the country still in the hands of the British subjects.

In the Sixteenth Congress, which met in December, 1820, was a member from Virginia, Dr. John Floyd, whose ancestors had been pioneer settlers, he having been born on the frontier of Kentucky. He knew well both Lewis and Clark, his cousin, Charles Floyd, having been a member of their expedition. At the same hotel in which he took quarters for the winter were Crooks and Farnham, men who had worked for Astor in estab- lishing Astoria. All being western men naturally became well acquainted and often exchanged ideas on the upbuilding of the West and with Senator Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, often proposed and discussed the virtues of the Columbia River Country. As the result of such knowledge, Dr. Floyd was able to get a bill before Congress, "To authorize the occupa- tion of the Columbia river, and to regulate trade and inter- course with the Indian Tribes thereon", which bill, however, failed to become a law. In 1822, he introduced another bill

34 Oregon Historical Quarterly, XVIII.

35 Malloy's Treaties, Conventions, etc., I, 632.

330 JOHN E. REES

to the effect "That all that portion of the territory of the United States north of the forty-second degree of latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains, shall constitute the Terri- tory of Oregon", which was the first time in history in which the words "Territory of Oregon" were used. 36 By reason of these various agitations public attention was, at least, directed to our western coast, and in his Annual Message to Congress, in 1824, President Monroe submitted to the consideration of Congress "the propriety of establishing a military post at the mouth of the Columbia River." 37

The occupation of the Oregon Country, by the English, was by the Hudson's Bay Company, a single "trading association whose sole aim was the pursuit of material interests of a hand- ful of capitalists. England had not founded a colony in Oregon, but a few Englishmen had constructed there a machine for producing wealth, which was kept going by its employees and in which Indians and Sandwich Islanders were the main wheels. The Company did not aim at the development of the country, but its exploitation. In promoting civilization, it labored only so far as the preservation of its pecuniary inter- ests made this unavoidable. If the interests of civilization actually or apparently came in conflict with these interests, they were trodden under foot." 38

In 1834, an American settlement sprang up in the Willamette valley which built homes for their families, cleared lands, cul- tivated crops and hewed out a place for civilization to exist. This settlement changed conditions of affairs, for American citizens as well as the interests of the country, demanded pro- tection of the government. In 1838, Senator Linn of Mis- souri, introduced a bill in the U. S. Senate to organize Oregon as a territory and establish on the Columbia a fort and custom house. However, from and after 1840, the people began to solve this question by immigration to this new country and "Not only had they brought with them the republican spirit of independence, sucked in with their mother's milk, the habits of self-reliance and self-rule-habits which from infancy were

36Benton's Thirty Years View, I, 13.

37 Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

38 Von Hoist's Constitutional History, III, 44.

OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 331

part of their very being and their American patriotism, but they were convinced without much inquiry about Drake's voyages of discovery and England's old treaties with Spain that their feet stood, not on the soil of a stranger, but on that of home." 39

So, in 1843, at Champoeg, Oregon, was organized the first American civil government west of the Rocky Mountains which provisional government soon sought to extend its juris- diction north of the Columbia River, which attempt resulted in the democratic campaign slogan of 1844, of "fifty-four forty or fight". However, pending difficulties with England over this matter, the organization of the territory was deferred until the boundary line was settled.

In 1848, during the Thirteenth Congress, Oregon was finally organized into a territory from the anomalous "Territory of Oregon", with boundaries defined as, "All that part of the territory of the United States which lies west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, north of the forty-second degree of north latitude, known as the Territory of Oregon, shall be or- ganized into and constitute a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Oregon", 40 which territory was reduced, in 1853, by the formation of Washington Territory.

The political destiny of Oregon became entangled, for awhile, with the slavery question and its original fundamental law prohibited slavery by putting into force the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787. When a convention met, in 1857, to draft a constitution for statehood, three parties existed in the State ; one in favor of slavery, a second opposed to it and a third opposed to negro immigration, which division of opinion re- sulted in an "anti-negro clause" in the constitution and pre- vented, for some time, its adoption and the admission of the State which, however, was accomplished in 1859, with her present boundaries and making the thirty-third State of the American Union. 41

39~Ibid., 45.

40 Gannett's Boundaries, 137.

41 Lalor's Ency. Political Science, III, 34.

THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY

BY WILLIAM H. GALVANI

I. THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS

It is certain that long before the voyages of Captains Gray and Vancouver they (the Spaniards) knew at least a part of the course of that (the Columbia) River which was designated in their maps under the name of Oregon. Gabriel Franchere's Narrative of the Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811-14, Page II 3, note.*

It is an undisputed historic fact that our earliest explorers and settlers, long before the keen contest for supremacy began between England and Spain, were Spaniards. It is likewise a fact that for some strange and unaccountable reasons the Spanish government, until the middle of the Eighteenth cen- tury, carefully avoided the use of the name America in their histories and official documents in not one of which can the word be found. It is furthermore as certain and historically fully accepted that the declining power of Spain directed its active colonizing efforts towards the West Coast of North America; and, whether anyone is inclined to ques- tion the early voyages of the Portuguese navigator, Ca- brillo, in the Spanish service, who discovered Cape Men- docino in 1542, 1 or those of the Greek pilot Apostolos Valerianus of Cephalonia, commonly known as Juan de Fuca, who, in 1592, is supposed to have approached the straits now bearing his name 2 , the voyages of Sebastian Vizcaino up to the 43rd parallel as early as 1603 are certainly unquestionable ; that based largely on the result of his explorations and actual surveys, as recorded in his journals, he recommended certain places for settlement and naval stations; that for some rea- sons the Spanish Government deliberately concealed the

• French Edition published in Montreal in 1819, English translation in 1854.

1 Professor Geo. Davidson in his "An Examination of Some of the Early Voyages on the Northwest Coast of America from 1539 to 1603," identified with practical certainty some seventy points mentioned by the diary of Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo along the Coast, and placing the limit of the voyage at Rogue River, Oregon, though Ferrelo, Chief pilot to Cabrillo, gives the latitude 44 degrees. See his Introduction to Spanish Explorations in the Southwest 1542-1706, Edited by H. E. Bolton, New York, Charles Scribners' Sons, 1916.

2 Though no record of Juan de Fuca's voyage has been found in the Mexican archives, the unsupported testimony of Michael Lock (an English Merchant who published the story in 1619, "the narrative was accepted by Raleigh and Purchas, and the latitude of the supposed channel and de Fuca's description of it corre- spond with surprising accuracy to the Strait that now bears his romantic name." K. Coman in Economic Beginnings of the Far West. Vol. I p. 8. New York, The MacMillan Co., 1912.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 333

accounts of that expedition; that the first party of Spanish

i^f ^ u ndCr RiV6ra reached San Die S on May 14th, 1769; and that before 1775 the Spanish colonies in upper Cali- fornia enjoyed an abundance of means of subsistence, such

MA' < ? ttle ' and a S ricultural Products; and that between 1774 and 1779 three exploring voyages of the west coast were made by order of the Spanish Government and under the direction of the Marine Department of San Bias, at the entrance of the California Gulf, established for the purpose of promoting active exploration of the Northwest Coast. 3

The Russians, having in 1711 subjugated the whole of North Asia, were looking for more something beyond their recently fixed ocean boundaries further east in the direction of the Spanish, French and British settlement in America. To this end were directed the efforts of Bering and Tchirikoff during the years 1728-1729, and of Lieutenant Synd, Captains Kremnitz and Levascheff between 1766-1774. But, like the Spanish Government, the wise men who governed Holy Russia for some reasons systematically suppressed all accounts of these voyages until 1774, when J. L. Staehlin, Councillor of State to Empress Catherine, prepared a circumstantial account of the principal voyages between 1741 and 1770 from the orig- inal records in possession of the Russian government. 4

While Spain and Russia were thus actively engaged in secur- ing by right of discovery and possession the extension of their sovereign claims on the Northwesterly coast of America, Great Britain, it seems, directed every possible effort towards consolidating her interests on the Eastern or Atlantic coast. In 1771 Samuel Hearne, an agent of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, acting under its instructions to investigate the North- west Country, made three journeys between 1769 and 1772;

3 The First Voyage, under Ensign Juan Perez, reached the 54th parallel on July 18, 1774; the Second voyage under Captain Bruno Heceta sailed March IS, 1775, discovered the entrance of the Columbia on August 15th, reached the 58th parallel, found it very difficult to proceed further and turned southward on November 20th (Heceta's Discoveries are unquestionable) ; and the Third voyage, under Captain Ignacio Artega and Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, sailed on February 7th, 1779, returning on November 2ist without, how- ever, adding to what was accomplished by Perez and Heceta.

4 The records are curious and interesting, but they throw very little light on the great geographical questions relative to the part of the world which then remained unsolved, and the accompanying chart only serves, at present, to show more conspicuously the value of the discoveries effected by other nations- Robert Greenhow, The History of Oregon and California and the Other Terri- tories on the Northwest Coast of America, Chap. V, p. 138, D. Appleton, N. Y.,

334

WILLIAM H. GALVANI

he discovered in 1771 a river in the northwest section of America not emptying in the Atlantic or Hudson Bay, but somewhere to the west. This changed considerably the pre- vailing notions regarding the Northwest country. Likewise the publication in 1778 of Captain Jonathan Carver's "Travels Throughout the Interior Parts of North America in 1766," 5 in which the Great River of the. West was for the first time mentioned under the name of Oregon, contributed somewhat to the general awakening of Britain in Northwestern projects for settlement, etc. Accordingly Captain James Cook, on his return to England from his second voyage of circumnaviga- tion, in obedience to instructions from the British Government, sailed from Plymouth on July 12th, 1776, on the Ship Reso- lution, accompanied by Captain Charles Clarke, on the Ship Discovery, and a number of other officers and crews. He was not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions, and, if he should do so by some unavoidable accident, to give no offence to any of the inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty. He was "with the consent of the natives to take possession in the name of the King of Great Britain of con- venient situations .... but, if he should find countries so discovered to be uninhabited, he was to take possession for his sovereign by setting up proper marks and inscriptions as first discoverers and possessors." In obedience to these instructions he proceeded by way of the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand and Otaheite to the Coast of New Albion which he was to reach in the latitude of 45 degrees. He discovered the Sandwich Islands, was near the 44th degree of latitude on March 7, 1778, and a little beyond the 48th parallel on March 22, he was opposite the projecting point of the Continent which he named Cape Flattery.

Captain Cook's voyage proved an epoch-making achievement, both from a geographical viewpoint and also from his discovery among the natives at Friendly Cove of a number of articles of

5 Carver's account, in a general way, was made up from existing journals and histories his descriptions of the habits, customs, religion and language of the Indians of the Upper Mississippi are vague and contradictory, and for the most part repetitions from existing accounts. If it were not for his using the name Oregon for the Great River of the West his book of travels might have been for- gotten long ago. As it is, it gave rise to the debatable question as to origin of the name first used by him.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 335

Spanish manufacture.* By determining accurately the princi- pal points on the Coasts of Asia and America he made it pos- sible for the first time to ascertain the actual extent of these continents and the degree of their proximity to each other All subsequent voyages, as far at least as the subject that is before us, need not concern us ; and, whether we recognize or reject the validity of the Papal concession of May 4th, 1493, as a legitimate basis for Spanish claims to sovereignty 7 , we can not deny that the Spaniards were the first discoverers' and settlers of the West Coasts of America, at least as far North as the 56th parallel of latitude. It nevertheless led to the first controversy and to subsequent contests between Great Britain and Spain respecting the Northwest Coasts of America in 1790, and in which contests British perseverance finally won over Spanish clericalized rule.

In addition to the above documentary evidence of the voy- ages of discovery and settlement, the following recorded inci- dents of later travelers are of unusual interest and impor- tance and show the unmistakable presence of Spaniards in the Oregon Country. Under date of January 1st, 1806, there is recorded in the journal of Lewis and Clark's Expedition 8 a visit from the Clatsops; and that "Among this nation (the Clatsops) we have observed a man about twenty-five years old, of much lighter complexion than the Indians generally; his face was even freckled, and his hair long and of a color inclined to red. He was in habits and manners perfectly Indian; but, though he did not speak a word of English, he seemed to understand more than the others of his party; and, as we could obtain no account of his origin, we concluded that

6 Captain Cook's Explorations extended as far as Icy Cape in latitude 70 degrees 29 minutes; thence, repassing Bering Strait, he left on October 27, for the Sandwich Islands, where this gallant English voyager was murdered by the natives on February 14, 1779. Captain Charles Clarke succeeded him, but he died near Petropaylovsk on August 22; John Gore next assumed command of the expedition, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, returning to England in Octo- ber, 1780.

7 "From the time of the emperor Constantine various grants, endowments, and donations of extensive territories were conferred by different princes on the bishops of Rome . . . That many of these are supposititious is generally ac- knowledged, whilst the validity of others, which are admitted to have existed, frequently rests merely on the temporary right of some intruder whose title was his sword, and who in many instances, gave the pontiff what he could no longer retain himself." Wm. Roscoe, the Life and Pontificate of Lea the Tenth (in 2 Vols.) Vol. I, p. 5, London, Henry G. Bohn, 1846.

& History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6. Re- printed from the Edition of 1814, with an Introduction and Index by James K. Hosmer, LLD., in two volumes, (Vol. II, p. 110, A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1903.

336 WILLIAM H. GALVANI

one of his parents at least must have been completely white." 9 A similar incident is recorded by Franchere under date of May 8th, 1812, when in the vicinity of Point Vancouver the party met a kindly old blind man and they were told by their guide that "he was a white man and that his name was Soto . . . . he was the son of a Spaniard who had been wrecked at the mouth of the river ; that a part of the crew on this occa- sion got safe ashore, but were all massacred by the Clatsops, with the exception of four who were spared and who married native women ; these four Spaniards, disgusted with the savage life, attempted to reach a settlement of their own nation toward the South, but had never been heard of since; and that when his father and his companions had left the country he himself was yet quite young." 10

Such in brief is the interesting story of the early efforts of the Spaniards to explore the Western slope of the New World, to establish permanent settlements on the 'Pacific Coast, and to insure the sovereignty of His Catholic Majesty the King of Spain all of which, like her whole world empire, vanished from the face of the earth and apparently forever. Sic transit gloria mundi.

II. ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF OREGON

The beginning of things or the rise of symbols for things has always been an item of great interest to the mind of man. Hence, it is that history, dealing in matters pertaining to this world, and also theology, dealing with speculations relating to all other worlds, are so prolific. And, indeed, it is but quite natural that it should be so for it is only in the light of the past of the race that the mind of man can suggest an explana- tion for the present state of things ; and, again, from the union of the two, the past and the present, we may have a glimpse into "the never ending flight of future days."

That is why history and theology are so prolific; it is our deep concern in the future for in life, as Byron so well

9 This is corroborated by the late John Minto (b. Oct 10, 1822, d. Feb. 25, 1915, a pioneer of 1844, who in. 1846 met at Morrison's (now Columbia beach about 8 miles South of Astoria), the Indian Cullaby whom he found to be a son of the red haired and freckled faced Indian mentioned in the Journal of Lewis and Clark under date of Jan. 1, 1806.

10 Franchere, Gabriel, Narrative of the Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811-1814, page 113.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 337

observed, "there is no present" that makes it so. That is why every subject had been handled, time and again, by everyone who thought of having a thought, or a capacity of transcribing and interpreting facts or fancies, into words and phrases. Hence, it is that history, or the romance of history, includes not only persons, events and places that had an actual exist- ence, but also detailed accounts of events that never happened, wonderful biographies of persons that never existed, and graphic descriptions of places that no geographer ever located, nor mortal eye had ever seen. We thus seem to know more of what we suppose had happened thousands of years ago than we do of what actually transpired but a few years ago, or, indeed, of what is going on right now, before our very eyes, so to speak.

It is my purpose to deal here with the derivation of a symbol or word a matter, it is true, not so important as that of an actual or tangible thing. That word is O R E G O N, and the fact that the subject, every now and then, receives some atten- tion from editors, statesmen, historians and even poets must be my apology for submitting the following observations :

Without going much into detail, I beg to remark here that the various explanations for the derivation of the name of Oregon have absolutely no foundation. Chief among these explanations are the "wild thyme" myth, an herb of unusual abundance found here by early explorers, but which herb has, with the advent of civilization, so mysteriously disappeared. Then comes the story of Jonathan Carver, 11 who, while among the Indians on the waters of the Upper Mississippi, in 1766-68, was informed by them that they heard of far-away tribes to the Westward, in a territory by the name of Oregon, which according to them meant the "great River of the West," 12 as if that, even assuming this to be absolutely correct, is sufficient of an explanation for the actual origin of that name.

Another solution is that offered by Junius Henri Brown,

11 Winsor, in his "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. 7, p. 555, gives credit to Carver for first using the name of Oregon.

12 "As to the name of Oregon, or the authority for its use, the traveller (Carver) is silent; and nothing has been learned from any other source, though

p. 145, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1845.

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WILLIAM H. GALVANI

who, in 1842, in Hunt's Magazine, solves the great mystery by attributing the whole matter to a supposed tradition, said to have prevailed among the Indians near Lake Superior, of a mighty river of the name of Oregon, emptying its waters into the Pacific. Then, too, Bryant's celebrated "Thanatopsis," written in 1812, refers to the Columbia River as the Oregon "where rolls the O'regon, and hears no sound save his own dashings," Nor should we overlook Professor Josiah D. Whitney's theory of the derivation of the name of Oregon from Ore-jon, or Big-ear, a name supposed to have been applied to the Indians of the Northwest Coast by the early Spanish explorers. 13

Finally, we have more recently been treated to the latest effort of a most fertile imagination, and by not less a person than Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras ; who, after thirty long years of contemplation and inquiry, made the startling discovery that the name of Oregon is derived from the Spanish Oye-el-agua ; hear the waters. 14 Wonderful, most wonderful!

Herein is practically a complete list of the explanations for the derivation of the name of Oregon, explanations which to anyone of a historical or linguistic turn of mind explain noth- ing of its meaning, nor of its actual derivation.

In the absence of documentary evidence, there is but one way to get at the heart of this mystery. We must turn to the early settlers and to the homes they left behind them. Just as the Dutch, the English and the French on the Atlantic, or east coast of the New Continent, applied to their new homes the names of their former cities and districts, so, indeed, the settlers on the shores of the Pacific must have done likewise. Hence, since we have shown and indeed it is admitted on all sides that the first settlers on the Pacific were Spaniards, they, and they only, must have named the new territory, and after some spot most dear to their hearts. Undoubtedly among those Spaniards, who first settled in what has become known as the Oregon country, there were many who fled from Spain because of the political tyranny and ecclesiastical persecution of those

13 Whitney, Josiah D., Names and Places, pag 28. Cambridge, 1888.

14 See, Morning Oregonian, October 21st, 1907.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 339

days, so famous in Spanish history. It was a period when the number of those who fled from religious persecutions must have been enormous. The Kingdom of Aragon suffered and resisted those horrors possibly more than any other territory under Spanish rule. Religious refugees usually are more loyal to the old homeland and its traditions than any wandering adventurers, and when those refugees or even if some of them were but ordinary adventurers in search of fame or for- tunelanded in the Oregon country, they could not help find- ing here a picture so strongly resembling old Aragon. For be it remembered that the Kingdom of Aragon, which included Catalonia and Valencia, was noted for its long coast line, aus- picious climate, beautiful valleys, rivers dashing with exulting song into the glittering sunshine, forest covered hillsides, and the majestic mountains of the Pyrenees with their snow-clad sentinels all of which familiar scenes of beauty and grandeur they found here in their new abode. Under such circumstances it is but natural that they should have transferred the old name to the new home. Likewise, it is quite possible, as it had been suggested by my good friend, John Gill, who is one of the few well informed men on the subject of early Oregon history, that some bold hidalgos might have named the Oregon country after some Spanish ship by that name. In either case, if the Indians used this name in later years, it is not because of having invented it, but because they got this pure Spanish name from the Spanish settlers, and they retained it even though those Spaniards and Spanish names were doomed in the course of human events to disappear from the New World, because of the marvelous rise of New Albion at a time when rapidly decaying Spain was altogether too busy with burning heretics according to the policies of Torquemada and the Holy Inquisition. That is all there is to it.

Should anyone insist upon an explanation for the transform- ation of Aragon into Oregon, here it is, and it is simple enough. The chief, or primitive, vowels in the different Aryan languages are represented by "a," "i," and "u" (pronounced as

340 WILLIAM H. GALVANI

in the Italian). To these primitive vowels all other vowels are traced as to a common source. This is recognized by the physiologist no less than by the linguist. The modifications, or gradations, of each were brought about under the influence of other vowels or consonants. In tracing these gradations we find that "e" and "o" philologically owe their derivation to "a" just as "ei" and "ai" to "i" and "iu" and "au" are traced to "u".

Hence, the first and the second "a" in Aragon, by the nat- ural process and according to phonetic laws, have imperceptibly become transformed into "o" and "e". Examples of this are as numerous in modern languages as they are in Sanskrit, the mother tongue of all.

In the light of these few observations even the plea of "the poet of the Sierras/' based upon "an orchestra of angels away up in yonder clouds, crying : Oye-el-agua Hear the water" must give way to an explanation based upon human sentiment and reason which somehow ever persists in perpetuating old familiar names, and to the fact that the name O r e g o n is certainly of most Spanish formation and sound, and espe- cially so when it is supported by the principles upon which

rests all linguistic development ancient and modern.

THE STRANGE CASE OF JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON^{[note 1]}

By T. C. Elliott

The name of the mother state of all those west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California first came to public notice through the pages of literature. About the year 1812 William Cullen Bryant, then only eighteen years of age, fitted the name (hitherto obscure) into the philosophy and meter of his famous poem "Thanatopsis" which, as first published, contained these lines:^[3]

"Take the wings
Of morning—and the Borean desert pierce—
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
That veil Oregan, where he hears no sound
Save his own dashings—yet—the dead are there;"

Earlier than this President Thomas Jefferson, in written instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis in 1803, included the following:

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado, or any other river" etc.

But both statesman and poet took the name from a book published in London in 1778 entitled: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by J. Carver, Esq., and that book and its author have inspired both the title and subject matter of this discussion.^[4]

The winter season of 1920-21 marks the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the coast of Massachusetts, an event widely celebrated in both England and the United States. Under the leadership of Governor John Carver, that little band of colonists at Plymouth spent the early months of 1621 in such log huts as could be hurriedly erected for their protection. About one hundred and fifty years after that event, one, Jonathan Carver, a collateral descendant of Governor Carver, wintered in a log hut not far distant from where the cities Saint Paul and Minneapolis now stand, with only an Iroquois Indian and French-Canadian voyageur as companions. He established friendly relations with the Sioux Indians then residing in that vicinity, and, eleven years later, in London in 1778, published a book in which are recorded his observations and experiences that winter and during the months immediately preceding and following, when he was traveling on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and on Lake Superior. In that book appears the first known record of the word Oregon,^[5] as a name then applied to the river already called "River of the West" but afterwards officially designated Columbia. Thus, before the maritime discoveries of Perez, Heceta or Cuadra, of Cook or Vancouver and of Kendrick or Gray, and before the overland explorations of Mackenzie, David Thompson or Lewis and Clark, the name Oregon was spoken.

One important but undetermined item in the history of the Pacific Northwest relates to the origin of this name Oregon, as communicated by Jonathan Carver in his book, and presumably as set down by him in a journal in that winter of 1766-67. Did he hear this word while among the Indians of Minnesota? Did he see the name or something like it on some map or in the writings of some other person? Did he invent or coin it in his own mind when writing the book? These questions may never be positively answered, but a knowledge of the career of Jonathan Carver and of the conditions existing when he made his journey and was writing his book will assist in the forming of an individual opinion and a final answer may be in sight.

The history of the "Oregon Country" connects itself with that of the state of Missouri by the meanderings of the Oregon Trail, over which so many of the pioneer families of Oregon traveled with patience, fortitude and endurance. But in searching for the name Oregon, the path leads to the states of

Minnesota and Wisconsin and the scenes of Carver's travels There an answer to the first question must be sought- for if the name Oregon or something similar to it, was a spoken word among the Indians or the traders with whom Carver mingled, there is where he heard and made note of it, this whether its ultimate source may have been in the Spanish, the French, the English or the Native-American tongue. And the path then continues on to the famous trading post of Mackinac in Michigan and to London in England, where the other answers will more naturally be looked for. '

This discussion is not intended to include the last word upon the subject, but rather to bring within the reach of Oregon readers some of the results of modern research regarding Jonathan Carver and his book, and to place some interpreta- tions thereon; also to suggest some possible sources for his name Oregon. Source words other than through Carver do not concern us.

Strangely enough, until very recently, the date, place of birth and family line of Jonathan Carver have been quite as much a mystery as is his source for the name Oregon. Among other statements about him appear those of his biographer in London, Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, as follows: "Our author died on the 31st of January, 1780, at the age of forty-eight years, and lies interred in the Holy well- Mount burying ground," (Lon- don) ; and the place of birth is given as at Still water, Con- neticut. However, in March, 1920, in volume three and num- ber three of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Dr. William Browning, of Brooklyn, New York, has quite conclusively shown from the "Vital Records of Weymouth" that Jonathan Carver was born at Weymouth, Massachusetts, on the 13th of April, 1710, and, at the age of about eight years, removed with his parents to Canterbury, Connecticut. Thus it appears that, while in the wilds of Minnesota in 1767, our traveler could have celebrated his fifty-eighth birthday, and at the time of death had nearly reached the allotted limit of three score years and ten. Later in this discussion some explanation will

344 T. C. ELLIOTT

be offered for this apparent ignorance by his friends in Eng- land.

The scholarly research by Dr. Browning has brought to light other genealogical facts of interest. The great grandfather of Jonathan Carver was Robert Carver, a brother of Governor John Carver, of Plymouth, and a settler at Marsh field, Massa- chusetts, about 1638. And it may be remarked by way of digression that at Marshfield in later years lived Daniel Webster, who had so much influence in the diplomatic settle- ment of sovereignty over the Oregon Country. The father of our traveler was Ensign David Carver, who was a man of prominence and of property both at Weymouth and at Canter- bury. Ensign Carver held various offices in the town govern- ments, and, at the time of his death in Canterbury in 1727, left no small amount of personal and real property to his widow and children. An uncle of the traveler, on his mother's side, was Colonel John Dyer, "prominent in the affairs of Connecticut." A cousin was "Hon. Eliphalet Dyer, LL. D., a member of the continental congress, and later chief justice of the state of Connecticut." Another maternal uncle was Solomon Pain, "widely known as a leader and organizer of the Separatist Church movement in Connecticut, perhaps the greatest religious schism that has ever stirred the old state." Dr. Browning sums up his findings as follows : "Carver came of able stock on both sides. His family had means. He enjoyed the best advantages the time and place afforded. His nearest older relatives were men of influence and standing, large factors in the life and activities of a wide region."

In this same connection Dr. Browning- mentions some of the opportunities open to Jonathan Carver to acquire skill as an artisan in the making of shoes or some knowledge of the prac- tice of medicine, but offers no evidence that he ever hammered a last or prescribed a powder. This remark is injected because the late Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University, char- acterized Carver as "an unlettered shoemaker," incapable of producing such a book as his Travels, etc. ; and Dr. Lettsom

ession. was

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 345

alluded to Carver having studied for the medical prof As to the charge of illiteracy Profession Bourne evidently . partly mistaken. If anything is to be said against the ability of Carver to write, it is that he could and did write "not wisely but too well." There is a bit of evidence as to his having been a shoemaker, but nothing as to his having practiced medicine, and his education seems to have been more along the line of surveying and draughting; for Mr. John Thomas Lee 4 of Madison, Wisconsin, has found instances of actual work of that kind by Carver. As a matter of fact, nothing is positively known of Carver's education, employment, occupation, trade or profession up to the time of his enlistment as a soldier. Ap- parently he was not a man of sufficient prominence to have acquired property or been noticed in any public manner. There appears the record of his marriage at Canterbury in the year 1746, and of the birth of children there and also at Montague, in Northern Massachusetts, from which place he enlisted for military duty at about the age of forty-four years.

While Professor Bourne 5 was a trifle hasty in his estimate of the literary inability of Jonathan Carver, he was unanswer- able in proving the main contention of his argument, namely, that the second and greater part of Carver's book was copied from the writings of earlier explorers, Hennepin, LaHontan and Charlevoir, and other books. This extensive plagiarism had been known to scholars many years, but had never been so authoritatively emphasized. There has been a disposition to condone this as being more or less a reflection of the stand- ards of writing at the time, but the fact is admitted. Professor Bourne also denied that the first part of the book is a source of original information.

The marital relations of Jonathan Carver were not honorable. He appears to have deserted his first wife and family when, if not before, he started upon his journey to the West, as is indicated by a petition for relief by Mrs. Carver to the general

Mr. Lee may be called the apologist for Jonathan Carver. s (See Proceedings of State Historical Society of Wisconsin,

His two contri-

are exceedingly accurate, fair and complete. But he has failed to take Major Rogers' influence sufficiently into account, and evidently was not aware of the limited acquaintance of Dr. Lettsom with Carver. Much data herein referred to will be found in his two papers.

5 Professor Bourne was regarded as the leader of modern criticisms of Carver a Travels- see vol. XI., pp. 287-302 of American Historical Review. But the late Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites of the Wisconsin Historical Society took the same view; see vol. 1 8, of the Collections of said society, pp. 280-81.

346 T. C. ELLIOTT

court in 1768. In February, 1769, Carver sailed for England, never to return, and, while there, married (whether legally or not is uncertain) another woman by whom children were born. Both wives survived him and were left in need and distress.

Jonathan Carver's military career covered the entire period of what is known as the French and Indian War and in that he was more successful, being early advanced to the rank of lieutenant, and later to a captaincy. General Jeffrey Amherst (from whom Amherst College in Massachusetts is named) after the capture of Montreal and the close of hostilities, mad honorable mention of his conduct. While at home recovering from camp fever in 1756 he petitioned the general court foi relief, and, again in December, 1763, presented a similar peti- tion, both of which were favorably received and acted upon. During this period the name "Lieutenant Carver" appears as one of the selectmen of Montague, and probably this refers to him. Upon his return from the West in August, 1768, Gen- eral Gage, then in command of the British forces in America, furnished him a letter of commendation, but to this reference will be made later.

The title page of Captain Carver's book (first three edi- tions) 6 reads, as follows: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the years 1766, 1767 and 1768. Of these years, about six months were consumed in the going and coming between Boston and Mackinac, in Michigan, twelve months in the journey to the westward and northward of Mackinac, and about nine months in residence at Mackinac; in all, two years and two months absence from Boston. His own narrative states that, starting from Mackinac on Septem- ber 3rd, 1766, he traveled in the boats and company of some traders who were going to the Mississippi River by way of the Green Bay and the Fox- Wisconsin river route; that late in October, when in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, he purchased a canoe, and, with two servants, ascended that river to a point about forty miles above the

6 The title page in many of the later editions reads Three Years' Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, and some thirty editions are said to have been issued. The writer of this discussion has used what is known as "the best American edition", that of Harper and Brother, 1838, which is a reprint from the third London edition with additional data in the addenda.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 347

falls of St. Anthony before returning to ascend the Saint Peter River two hundred miles to winter with the Sioux Indians there. Saint Peter River has been called the Minnesota River since 1852, and at its mouth the United States military post, known as Fort Snelling, is now located, between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The narrative goes on to state that, in the spring of 1767, after returning to Prairie du Chien for awhile he again ascended the Mississippi River to the Chippe- way, and followed one of the regular routes of Indian travel north to Lake Superior, then skirted the western, northern and eastern shores of that lake, around to the Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac, where he arrived the first of November, 1767. 7 It states that he rested for some time at a Chippeway town; also, at the Grand Portage on the northwest shore of the Lake, where the traders going to Lake Winnipeg and the regions beyond foregathered, and Indians from those distant districts visited. Thus it appears that not more than eight months were spent in the regions of the Mississippi River and of Lake Superior where he could have obtained information from the Indians or traders as to the River Oregon, and the geog- raphy of the continent and habitats and customs of the various tribes of Indians, and learned to speak the language of the Sioux. One is tempted to inquire whether the title of his book was not disingenuously worded.

It is hardly necessary to enlarge upon the facts of the ex- ploration and trade and missionary effort, during the French regime in the Mississippi Valley and around the Great Lakes for more than one hundred years prior to the time of Captain Carver's journey through those regions. Suffice it to say that a French officer, Nicholas Perrot, in 1689 at the Post Saint Anthony in the presence of witnesses publicly proclaimed the sovereignty of the King of France over all lands and waters and peoples of that entire region. One of the witnesses to that ceremonial was Pierre Charles Le Sueur, who was already quite well acquainted with the country, and who later, in 1700-1702, ascended the Mississippi River from New

7 The dates given by Carver in his Travels cannot be relied up; manifestly wilful alterations appear.

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Orleans with a large party and wintered on the Saint Peter River, about where Captain Carver claims to have wintered in 1766-7. Each year intervening, when Indian hostilities did not prevent, Frenchmen were in this field gathering peltries. From Lake Superior also the traders to the West had been going from the Grand Portage to Lake Winnipeg and beyond for many years. Captain Carver then did not travel through any unknown country or mingle with Indians who had not met with white people.

We interpolate here a few items of contemporaneous his- tory. In 1762-3, France parted title to her possessions in America, ceding to Britain, as a result of the war just closed, all those parts lying east and southeast of the Mississippi River, and to Spain, by gift, all lying to the westward then known as Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Saint Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede, a French merchant from New Orleans. Both cities were French in their people, customs and speech, and remained so in spite of the Spanish governmental control. Laclede's licenses gave him at least partial rights to the Indian trade on the Mississippi, the Saint Peter and the Missouri rivers. The western military and trading post of the British was at Mackinac, but from there the trade in the Mississippi Valley was almost entirely carried on by French licensees. In the time of Captain Carver, then, the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, in their relations with traders and priests, still heard only the French language spoken by white people. All commerce then was carried on by use of the water routes and portages, and the place of rendez- vous was at Prairie du Chien, which was about equally dis- tant between Mackinac and Saint Louis by the trade route.

The language used by Captain Carver in his Travels, in referring to the name Oregon, has been quoted too often to require repetition. He speaks of having learned "from the Indians" and by his "own observations" of the close proximity of the sources of the four principal rivers of the continent of North America among some high lands just south of the Lake

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 349

of the Woods, one of which rivers was the Oregon; and it is apparent that he did not personally visit those sources. Such a statement seems on the face of it ridiculous, but at the period of the Revolutionary War, very few people in England knew about that part of our continent, and such a proposition ap- peared as a great discovery and helped the sale of his book wonderfully. A map in the book shows this river as emptying into the Pacific Ocean at an opening in the coast marked "discovered by Aguilar" and along the lower course of the stream appears the name "River of the West." It may be re- marked that he does not say in direct words that the Indians told him the name for this river.

In arguing that the name Oregon was an Indian place name, several fundamental facts are to be taken into account.

First, to the Columbia River proper it is not known that the Indians applied any particular name. Probably no ex- plorer more intelligent as to Indian life was ever on the Co- lumber River than David Thompson, who discovered its source in 1807, and traversed its entire length in 1811 ; and nowhere does he mention any Indian place name as applied to it.

Second, it was not the custom among the Indians to use the same name with reference to the entire length of any river; often on a short stream one name was used near its mouth and another nearer its source. The Walla Walla River is a case in point : where it emerges from the foothills it bore the name Tum-a-lum. Captain Carver, on the plains of Minne- sota, would have heard only a name of one of the tributaries to the Columbia; the Snake, Salmon, Missouletka (Clark Fork) or the Saleesh (Flathead). And Green River may be added to the list as then being considered a possible tributary to the Columbia.

Third, the English letter "R" is not common to Indian dialects of the tribes of the Rocky Mountains or the plains. Captain Carver set down in his book a vocabulary of Sioux and Chippeway words directly obtained from those tribes, and in but one of his words does the letter "R" appear.

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Fourth, it was the custom of the Indians to use place names descriptive of some physical feature of a stream or of the region through which it flowed.

As coming from the Indians a Shoshone word Ogwa, mean- ing "water," has been most often mentioned as being relevant. This word appears in the notes of the early explorer La Verendrye (1742-44), in the form Karoskiou, which the late Granville Stuart 8 of Montana interpreted as a rendering of Kanarogwa, the Shoshone name for Green River. John E. Rees, 9 of Idaho, has recently urged the combination of Ogwa with Peon, meaning "West" as an exact Shoshone designa- tion meaning "River of the West," which name had been written in French upon maps for thirty years before Carver's time. Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, in Bancroft's History of Oregon, also mentioned some ramifications of this word Ogwa.

Reasoning from analogy, it does not seem probable that Captain Carver heard any such name when among the Sioux that winter near the Saint Peter River. Charlevoix, nearly fifty years earlier, had closely questioned these Sioux as to any river flowing into the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean), but noted no name for the same, 10 and not one of the many other records left by the French makes any mention of it, as far as now known. Nearly thirty-five years later, Lewis and Clark spent the winter with the Mandan Sioux on the Missouri River four hundred and fifty miles further west, and were keen for any information of this sort, but their journals record nothing as to such a name being current, or even mentioned by Sacajawea, who had been born west of the Rocky Mountains. It is more likely that the name would have been communicated by Assiniboine and Cree Indians at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, but the same reasoning applies there. When, prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition, so little had become really known about the streams and mountains and valleys, between the Mandan Villages and the sources of the Missouri, does it seem probable that the Indian name of a river, beyond the Rocky Mountains, seeped through to the ears of Jonathan

8 See Vol. I, Contributions of Historical Society of Montana.

Q Printed in this issue of Quarterly of Oregon Historical Society.

10 See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16, pp. 417-18.

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Carver alone among all who explored, traveled, traded or baptised along the Mississippi River prior to and later than his time?

Very little attempt has been made to trace the name Oregon to a French source, but it is possible that, through continuous contact with French traders, the Indians could have said some- thing about the river which was passed along or interpreted in the tongue of a Frenchman or French-Canadian.

This theory is not new on the Pacific Coast, but was men- tioned by one of the editorial writings of the late Harvey Scott of Portland, Oregon, thus : "We believe it probable that the name Oregon arose out of some circumstances connected with the Western explorations of the French. Earlier than the English the French had pressed on westward from the Great Lakes to the Red River, to the Saskatchewan and to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They were ranging the country of the Upper Mississippi in search of furs and for trade with the natives ; they were full of curiosity and active in inquiry about the great distant West and the unknown Western sea. Of this sea they possessed Spanish charts, and probably used among the natives the word Aragon as a homonym (synonym) for Spain." 11 This would really apply to either French or Spanish origin for the name.

One of the picturesque features of the fur trade, in Old Oregon, was the annual rendezvous of the trappers and traders and Indians in the valley of Green River in western Wyoming. During the period under discussion, similar scenes were an- nually enacted at Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, where Captain Carver visited in May, 1767. He thus describes the place: "This town is the great mart, where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble, about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here; this is determined by a general council of the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more conducive to their interest to sell

ii The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 19, 1892.

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their goods at this place, or carry them on to Louisiana, or Michillimackinac. According to the decision of this council, they either proceed further or return to their different homes." But a more literal and less elegant account is given by Peter Pond, another Yankee, who wrote when there in May, 1774, seven years later: "We imbarkt and drifted down with the Currant till we Came to the Plane Whare we Saw a Large Colection from Eavery Part of the Misseppey who had arived Before us Even from Orleans Eight Hundred Leages Belowe us. The Indans Camp Exeaded a Mile & a half in Length. Hear was Sport of All Sorts. We went to Collecting furs and Skins - - By the Different tribes with Sucksess. The french ware Verey Numeres. Thare was Not Les than One Hundred and Thirty Canoes, which Came from Mackinaw Caring from Sixtey to Eightey Hundred Wate Apease all made of Birch Bark and white Seder for the Ribs. Those Boates from Orleans and Illenoa and other Parts ware Numeres. - - After all the Bisness was Dun and People Began to Groe tirde of Sport thay Began to Draw of for thare Differant Departments and Prepare for the Insewing winter." 12

Commenting upon the above we may say that Peter Pond (whose extensive travels into the Athabasca country are so well known in the history of the Canadian fur trade) was nearly cotemporaneous with Captain Carver on the Mississippi River, and he has left a summarized journal or narrative (quoted above) which is intensely human both in its orthog- raphy and story. W T hen going to his winter trading place on the Saint Peter River in the fall of 1773, he wrote thus: "As we past up Saint Peters River about fourteen miles, We stopt to Sea Carvers Hut whare he Past his Winter when in that Countrey. It was a Log House about Sixteen feet long Covered with Bark With a fireplace But one Room and no flore. This was the Extent of his travels. His Hole Toure I with One Canoe Well maned Could make in Six weeks."

Peter Pond just before this had been engaged in the Indian trade for six years in districts tributary to Detroit, and had

12 See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 341

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 353

been at Mackinac during Carver's residence there, if we in- terpret his dates correctly; at any rate he had heard about Carver's journey five years before the publication of the manuscript, and he reflects an opinion which probably was current around Mackinac in those days. It may be remarked that the same opinion about Captain Carver's not having ascended the Saint Peter River at all was given independently by William H. Keating, the trained naturalist and historian of Long's expedition in 1823 to the sources of that river. 13

Returning now to the theory that the Indians used a corrup- tion of some Spanish name in speaking of the River of the West, it may be said that Captain Carver's statement, about the Indians at Rendezvous declining to trade there and unitedly carrying their furs on to Mackinac or to distant Louisiana, is not confirmed by other accounts of the fur trade at that time, and is an example of the inaccuracies to be found in the first or journal portion of his book. But all accounts agree as to this opportunity for contact between the Indians and the French from the lower-river trading points, where Spanish influences prevailed, where the licenses to traders were issued by Spanish officials, and where the trading goods may have been given some Spanish markings, The name of Spain was at the time very generally associated with a mythical river flowing into the Pacific Ocean for several reasons, particularly these: Spanish explorations northward from Mexico into California and the acquisition of horses by the Indians by way of the great interior basin between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada ranges of mountains ; rumors of Spanish knowledge of the sources of Colorado River; the discoveries by the Spanish navigator Martin d'Aguilar on the Northwest Coast. In fact a corruption from the Spanish, through French and Indian tongues, of the name of that navigator is not an entire im- possibility. A case in point appears in the narrative of Alex- ander Mackenzie, who reached the Pacific Ocean at Bentict Arm in the summer of 1792. The natives there told him of the recent visit of boats containing white men, one com-

iTsee vol. i, pp. 323-4 of Narrative of Expedition to Source of St. Peter's River, (Philadelphia, if- ^

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manded by Macubah, meaning Captain Vancouver, and the other by Bensins, meaning Lieutenant Broughton. We are presuming that Captain Carver heard the name spoken by the Indians, improbable though that presumption seems to be.

A French word that does not vary much from Oregon in either spelling or sound is Ouragan, meaning "wind storm," "blizzard" or "tornado" and very literally descriptive of climatic conditions in the region where Captain Carver heard from the Indians that the River of the West tooks its rise. There is nothing in Carver's Travels to indicate that he himself could speak French ; some things in fact indicate the contrary. His getting the word from the Indians could have been in- directly through his own French-Canadian voyageur or in- terpreter, or some of the traders who expressed in their own tongue Ouragan (a descriptive name) given by the Indians to the upper reaches of the mythical River of the West. A Spanish word of similar sound and meaning, Huracan, offers room for further speculation along the same line. These suggestions carry Mr. Scott's theory further than he intended perhaps, but meet the conditions of Indian nomenclature ex- pressed in the French instead of the Indian tongue; and also offer a word quite within philological requirements.

The Spanish name Aragon fills the same requirements along with the prevailing association of Spanish discoveries with the mythical river. But the glory of Aragon as a kingdom had long since departed, and as a province of Spain was not then in special prominence, and if that is our source name it was more likely an instance of Carver's ingenuity in writing than of any spoken word he listened to when in the West.

The four principal rivers of the continent of North America were, according to Jonathan Carver, the Mississippi, the Saint Lawrence, the Bourbon and the Oregon or "River of the West ;" all rising very near together in the highlands west of Lake Superior. All the names above mentioned appeared upon maps then known and available except the name Oregon. The river Bourbon was the Nelson River of a few years later and

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 355

today, flowing from Lake Winnipeg into Hudson's Bay; and was given the name by La Verendrye about 1741. The upper end of Lake Winnipeg, above the narrows, was Verendrye's and Carver's "Lake Bourbon." The Red River of the North, flowing into Lake Winnipeg from the south was never named "Bourbon," not even on Carver's maps. There was only an appearance of truth about this scheme of four such rivers and that had been made known by map makers nearly forty years before Carver claims to have heard about it, as is evi- denced in the following letter written by the French governor of Canada to the ministere des colonies at Paris : 14

Monseigneur I have the honor to send you a copy of a map of the course of the river of the west, made by the savage Ochagac and others.

If the account of these savages is accurate, that river must discharge above California. The Sieur Chaussegros has traced, from the Sieur de ITsle's map on a flying sheet, the course of the river reduced according to the map. He finds that the river discharges toward the entrance discovered by Martin Daguilar. He has also reduced the savages' map, on which there are three scales, while his is drawn to only one and shows the whole course of the river, from the height of land beyond Lake Superior to above California. The savages have traced on the map the upper portion of the Mississippi River, which takes its rise to the south of Lake Ouinipigou, and, according to the Sieur de ITsle's map, the river Rio Colorado would take its rise about the same spot.

I observed with the Sieur Chaussegros that this country is traversed by two great rivers, which take their rise about the middle ; one flows toward the east which is the Saint Lawrence, the other to the south and is the Mississipy. There remain to the west an extent of territory from seven to eight hundred leagues in width, without any large river in it. This would be contrary to all the knowledge we have of countries that are known in the world ; where in so vast an area there is always some great river that traverses it ; which leads me to think that

14 From manuscript in archives in Pans; see pp. 103-4 of Wisconsin His- torical Society Collections, vol. 17. In this connection read L. P. Burpee's chapter on Carver in his book entitled The Search for the Western Sea.

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the savages may tell the truth, for it is not natural that, in sc vast an extent, there should not be a great river ; and it seems that the river, of which the savages speak, discharges into the Southern sea. We know the rivers indicated on the Sieur d Tlsle's map and according to the course that the savages give to the river of the West, it flows to the entrance recently discovered by Martin Daguilar, where we know of no other river above or to the north.

I have the honor to be with very profound respect, Monseig j neur, Your very humble and very obedient Servant,

Beauharnois. Quebec, October 15th, 1730.

The map makers, prior to and during Captain Carver's time, had not progressed farther than mere speculation as to streams in the region westward, from the Red River of the North to the Rocky mountains. The name Riviere or Fleuve d'Ouest appears marked against any stream that was traced through or in that region, even upon some we now at once recognize as parts of the Missouri River. Their guesses were based upon Indian tales and the brief and difficult notes of Verendrye's (1742-44) and the reports of priests who mingled with the Indians on the Assiniboine and tributaries of the Mississippi rivers. There was no regular habit of land travel across the plains between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers then, and the courses of the Saskatchewan to the north were known much earlier than those of the Missouri. There were half a dozen maps available before 1766, showing tracings of a River of the West, and others showing the Bourbon River, and it is within reason to suppose that Captain Carver saw some of those maps even before starting for the West, particularly so if going upon any such enterprise as he outlined in the introduc- tion to his book of Travels. The two maps appearing in that book were not prepared until 1776-77 in London, and on only one of them does the name Oregon appear, written "Heads of

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 357

Origan". On no other map published before that time, has the name Origan or Oregon yet been found. 15

The preface or introduction to a book is presumed to reveal the true motives and intent of its author. Captain Carver's introduction tells of his bitter disappointment because of hav- ing been compelled to return to Mackinac from the West, with- out carrying out a plan he had independently conceived soon after the close of the war to make his way across the con- tinent to the Pacific Ocean and locate there a port for the use of British commerce. And for this far look into the future, he has been lauded by some writers as a forerunner of President Jefferson in plans for transcontinental exploration. Captain Carver attributed the failure of his plan to the in- ability of Commandant Rogers to supply him on the Mississippi River with goods to use as presents to the Indians and also his own inability to purchase such goods from the traders at Grand Portage. To anyone familiar with the progress of the organized fur traders to the Rocky Mountains, such an in- dependent enterprise is at once recognized as absurd. Had Captain Carver set out in the manner he describes he would simply have disappeared, and with him perhaps any chance for the evolution of the name Oregon. Such an enterprise not only required higher official sanction than the mere per- mit and assistance of the commandant at Mackinac, but also called for personal experience in the Western field, outfitting and financial backing, little or none of which Captain Carver

had.

The following excerpt from an official letter written at Quebec on March 2, 1768, while Carver was still at Mackinac, shows conditions at the time as well as what was already in the minds of British officials. The letter was sent by Sir Guy Carleton, then governor general of Canada, in reply to inquiry from Lord Shelbourne, of the British ministry in London, 16 and we quote as follows:

"I shall easily find in the troops here many officers and men very ready to undertake to explore any part of this continent,

^"These maps have been cited t ? the writer by librarians in the Library of

- " "

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who require no other encouragement than to be told such service will be acceptable to the king, and if properly executed will commend them to his favour; but, as they are unac- quainted with the country, the Indian language and manners, 'tis necessary to join with them some Canadians, to serve as guides and interpreters.

Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go

"Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go winter in one of those posts, set out early in the spring for the Pacific Ocean, find out a good port, take its latitude, longitude, and describe it so accurately as to enable our ships from the East Indies to find it out with ease, and then return the year following; Your Lordship will readily perceive the advantage of such discoveries, and how difficult attempts to explore unknown Parts must prove to the English, unless we avail ourselves of the knowledge of the Canadians, who are well acquainted with the country, the language and manners of the natives."

As far as Jonathan Carver is concerned, there is strong reason to believe that he had no such original design, and that this journey to West or Northwest was merely preliminary to more extensive plans of the Commandant, as will appear in the continuation of this discussion.

The discussion thus far has served to indicate Captain Carver's journey to the Mississippi Valley and the opportuni- ties afforded to hear the name Oregon mentioned there or at the Grand Portage. We will now consider his environment at Mackinac during nine months' residence.

He returned there the last of August, 1767, and in the fol- lowing month wrote a letter to his wife at Montague, Massa- chusetts, which was promptly published in a Boston paper the following February. This letter, 17 together with a prospectus published in the same paper in August, 1768, clearly discloses that his journal and observations were being prepared at Mackinac for publication, and that the manuscript must have been partly completed there. The statements in the letter

17 Both letter and prospectus are printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings for 1909, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

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and also in the book itself indicate that he had access at Mackinac to the writings of Hennepin and others, from which he plagiarized. Major Rogers, the commandant, had books relating to that region, and Carver mentions having carried books with which he mystified the Sioux Indians. But The History of the American Indians, by James Adair, from which he plagiarized, was not published until 1775 in London, and therefore the text of his Travels must have been added to and revised at later dates.

The Mackinac we are speaking of was located on the sandy shore of the south side of the strait, between Lakes Huron and Michigan, near what is now Mackinaw City, in the state of Michigan. There had been an original Mackinac on the north side of the strait, and later there was another and more permanent Mackinac on the island four or five miles away. Mackinac was the final starting point in the traffic from Canada and New York for peltries from the Northwest, years before and after the time of Jonathan Carver. Here all licensed traders registered and hired many of their voyageurs. Here were the homes of both active and retired French-Cana- dians and half-breeds, who were employed by the traders, some of whom quite possibly had been with La Verendrye during his years of exploration and trade to the westward. In the office of the commandant, records must have been kept and maps showing the trade routes and Indian tribes. Macki- nac just then afforded abundant opportunities to anyone seek- ing information about the regions toward the Rocky Mountains or preparing to write a book such as Carver's Travels.

Mackinac was also the place where adventurers gathered; men with or without resources seeking exploits or riches in the field of exploration or the fur trade. There was a mythical Northwest Passage to be located and Mackinac was on the way toward it. There were visions of the extension of British trade on the Pacific Ocean, and of an overland route to con- nect with it. Not as a real explorer but rather as one among such adventurers seeking to live at government expense we

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find our Captain Carver at Mackinac, his plans well known if not inspired by the resident commandant. In the letter already referred to, he said: "I have two hundred pounds due me from the crown, which I shall have in the spring; also, the governor commandant * * has promised he will take spe- cial care to acquaint the government at home of my services." The claims he filed for the expense of travel to the Westward bore the "O. K." of the commandant, but were not paid at Headquarters because no authority had been given for such employment and these claims became the basis for much im- portunity in London later. The inquiry arises as to who furnished money for this Western adventure by a retired army officer who had been obliged to petition for relief in 1764. The prompt publication in Boston of Carver's letter and his announcement of a forthcoming book leads to the presumption that some one in Massachusetts had advanced funds for this enterprise.

Although he had written to Massachusetts from Mackinac in September, 1767, and his letter had been published there, Captain Carver did not hesitate to write in his Travels that he did not return from the West until November, just as nav- igation had closed on Lake Erie, and too late to return to Boston before the following June. But of his own life at Mackinac during those nine months he says little or nothing. He passes without mention events which might have added to the interest of his narrative, for about the 6th of December the officer in command of the military forces, under orders from Headquarters, placed Commandant Rogers under arrest, later put him in irons because of attempted escape, and, in the spring, sent him under guard to Montreal for trial by court martial. The charge against him was conspiracy ; an attempt to organize the French and the Indians of the Mississippi Val- ley in revolt, in conjunction with another officer named Hop- kins at New Orleans. The charge was changed to one of mutiny and at the trial Rogers was, for lack of evidence it is said, acquitted, but was not returned to Mackinac.

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During the French and Indian War, Captain Carver must of necessity have had acquaintance if not comradeship with Major Robert Rogers," from New Hampshire, who was the daring leader of a partisan command known as the "Rogers Rangers", as well known then as the Roosevelt Rough Riders in our own times. Both officers were present at the massacre at Fort William Henry and again at the capture of Montreal. After the latter event, Major Rogers was sent by General Jeffrey Amherst to capture the French outpost at Detroit, and thus had opportunity personally to view the Western country and observe its chances for personal adventure and exploit. He afterwards retired from active service and spent a few months in London, where his previous record gave him pres- tige, and his boisterous conduct some notoriety. In October, 1765, he was appointed to the position of governor-command- ant at Mackinac and returned to America, and evidently had in mind activities outside of the usual official duties and which were attractive to his former army acquaintance, Captain Carver. At any rate both are recorded as arriving at Mackinac in August, 1766, and probably had traveled together from Niagara, and very soon Captain Carver set out for the Mis- sissippi Valley under arrangements made by Commandant Rogers. It is quite clear then why Carver said nothing about the unusual events at Mackinac during the winter of 1767-8, and makes the least possible mention of Major Rogers any- where in his book.

A belief that Captain Carver was one of the emissaries of Rogers to the Indians is based upon more than mere sus- picion. Not only does his name appear with other names in the papers in the case but his own narrative indirectly reveals the fact. Mention of particular instances is deferred. Then there is the curious incident of the deed which Carver obtained from two Sioux chiefs in May, 1767, conveying to him a tract of land more than one hundred miles square lying east and southeast from the Falls of Saint Anthony and afterwards prominently known in Wisconsin as the "Carver Grant." This

1 8 For sketches of Major Rogers, see Parkman's Conspiracy of Ponteac, vol. 2; also Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 22*; also Pon- teach; or the Savages of America, by Robert Rogers (Allan Nevins, editor, Caxlon Club edition, Chicago, 1914). This contains the best biography of Major Rogers. Through the courtesy of Mr. Nevins, the present writer has received valuable references just as this manuscript is going to the printer.

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deed was found among Captain Carver's papers after his death. It had not been exhibited by him for the very evident reason of fear to prejudice his standing in London, for by proclamation in October, 1763, the king had especially forbid- den any British subjects to acquire land from the Indians in America.

But another of Major Rogers' accomplishments interests us more directly because it casts suspicions upon the originality of other parts of Carver's Travels. It appears that Rogers was himself possessed of literary ability. One of the objects of his going to London was to publish three books, one the Journals he kept during the French and Indian War, another a brief descriptive narrative entitled A Concise Account of North America, and the third a drama or tragedy called Ponteach, or the Savages of America. These were brought out in 1765-6, and the first two in particular attracted very favor- able attention, and it is easy to see where Captain Carver took his cue for book writing. There appear in his Travels instances of very positive plagiarism from "A Concise Account", and from Major Rogers it is reasonably certain that Captain Carver drew his idea of transcontinental exploration. 19

From Mackinac in the summer of 1768, Captain Carver traveled to Boston by way of Fort Pitt, Philadelphia and New York. At British headquarters in the latter city, he endeavored to secure payment of his expense bill, but General Gage re- fused and gave him a letter of character in the service instead. Arriving in Massachusetts, he visited his family, secured other letters of recommendation from willing citizens and also under- took to get subscriptions for the publication of his book in America. Failing in that he sailed for London in February, 1769.

Of his eleven years in London, few details are really known. During the first five at least, he was not unlike many an indi- vidual who inhabits our own capital city of Washington, nurs- ing a claim against the government. His first memorial was promptly filed and was promptly examined by "the lords of the

19 See Ponteach, Caxton Club edition, at footnote on page 120.

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committee of his majesty's most honorable privy council for plantation affairs", who, in July, 1769, found that his discov- eries were of no value and that he was entitled to nothing except by way of compassion or relief. Later this relief, to the extent of the expenditures of his journey, was granted on the condition that he deposit with the government all his charts and journals, and still later he was given permission to publish these privately, which after more long waiting he was able to do. Meantime there appears another petition by Carver to the Crown for appointment as agent among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, upon which no action seems to have been taken. 20 This no doubt gave rise to the story that in 1775 the king had decided to equip an expedition to the Mississippi River under the command of Captain Carver, but was pre- vented by the outbreak of the War of the Revolution. That tale came from the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., during his many years (1804-1824) of remarkable activity and colossal lying as chief promoter of the claimants for the "Carver Grant". 21 The said Peters, during an exceedingly long life, injected spice into the annals of Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin. But the vicissitudes of a poor author in London, also with a new family connection which could not have been inspiring, brought Carver to a pitiful death by starvation. It must be remembered that he was nearly sixty years of age when arriving in London.

When nearing the end of his life, Captain Carver fell into the hands of kindly men whose names were well known in London, Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the latter of whom bought the rights of a publisher in the third edition of the Travels, which Carver had himself arranged for, and placed the books on the market for the benefit of the London widow and child of Captain Carver. To that edition Dr. Lettsom contributed a brief biographical sketch of the author and added the deed from the Sioux chiefs as an appen- dix. Dr. Lettsom was a gentleman and a scholar and a gener- ous man, but all he knew of the career of Captain Carver was

20 This memorial is printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings of the Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1012.

21 See Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 6, p. 238; also see the Review of Mississippi Valley Historical Society, vol. 7, No. i.

364 T. C. ELLIOTT

obtained indirectly from the widow and the personal papers of the deceased and possibly from such an acquaintance as the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., and, therefore, his sketch was both incomplete and incorrect. Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom knew Captain Carver only as the recognized author of a book of travel which had been only recently published but had gone through two editions and which was written in good style and language and described a part of the empire that was just then very much in the eye and mind of the British people. Carver's Travels contains the names Ponteac, Mackinac, Niagara, Detroit, Grand Portage and Mississippi, of the Sioux and Assinniboiles, and many others just then of almost magic interest in London. That the author of such a book should have died from want and starvation seemed very sad to Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom. 22 And so it was, for Captain Carver was not really a bad man, and neither was he a good man ; and that is all the epitaph we can write under his name.

The fact that Carver's Travels was dedicated to Joseph Banks, Esq., the president of the Royal Society and a man of scientific knowledge, added to the dignity of the book, but meant little as to its real accuracy or reliability, for a great many other books were, according to custom, dedicated to the president of that society, whoever he might be. But such dedication did cause the manuscript and other papers of this author to be deposited in the British Museum and did make it obligatory that the author have assistance in the final prep- aration for publication. Speaking of the Carver papers in the British Museum, Mr. John Thomas Lee says : "The jour- nals and the Indian vocabulary are in the handwriting of the author, and have numerous alterations and additions. They do not appear to have been written from day to day, 23 but rather to be copies of original notes, with additions from memory. * * * * Evidently Carver's manuscript was not considered suitable for publication in its original form, for a reviser seems to have been employed to prepare it for the

22 See documents printed in this number of Oregon Historical Quarterly.

23 Henry R. Schoolcraft was of the opinion that Carver did not "keep diurnal notes". See page 168 of his Personal Memoirs (Philadelphia, i8sO

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 365

press. Among the papers bequeathed -by Sir Joseph Banks, there is a note "to the Reviser", in which Carver asks that nameless gentleman, in case he finds any accounts which are unconnected, to be so good as to let him "know by Mr. Pain ancUvery information shall be given that the author is capable of ". In London, of course, Carver had access to all known material in the way of books (including the recently pub- lished History, by James Adair) and maps and no doubt gave his writings a final revision. If he then added the name Oregon we now know of no other source for it than his own mind or that of Major Robert Rogers, who had been in London and had received assistance from Carver in pre- senting claims against the government. But it is not at all likely that the name was written into the final revision there in London. 24

There are those who prefer to condone the moral lapses of Carver as a writer, and, for their consideration, another name of Indian origin will be mentioned, as we conclude this dis- cussion. It will be noted that, in the original rendering of the lines of "Thanatopsis", the construction of the verse placed the accent upon the second syllable of the name Oregon. There can be no connection between William Cullen Bryant and Jonathan Carver, except by mere coincidence, but this serves to introduce a word taken from the dialect of the Pequot Indians of New England spelled w-a-u-r-e-g-a-n and uttered with the accent on the second vowel. Had Carver been a man of real vision in writing and capable of evolving a etiphoneous name for the fourth river of his scheme, he might have reverted in thought to the days of his youth when hunting or fishing among the wooded hills of Connecticut or listening to Indian tales by the fireside, and recalled this beautiful Wauregan, which means " good" , and altered that to Oregon, for surely the Columbia is a goodly river. But that was beyond the literary or mental ability of Jonathan Carver. Instead he appears to have merely pilfered the name Onragon 25 from Major Robert Rogers, with slight variation.

24 It is impossible to say how much the style of Carver's published book owes to the reviser of the manuscript; possibly enough to justify Professor Bourne's criticism. The name Oregon as printed may have taken final form by the hand of the reviser.

25 See page 122 of Ponteach, Caxton Club edition. (It is purposed to con- tinue this discussion and show the relationship between Robert Rogers and the name Oregon as indicated by documentary material now being transcribed. T. C. E.)

366 T. C. ELLIOTT

Of course there is still the realm of conjecture open to those who will prefer to believe in the authenticity of this book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, which has had such a remarkable vogue in literature; and Jonathan Carver, like Marley in the famous and familiar Christmas classic of Dickens', is "dead as a door nail" and cannot be called to testify.

DOCUMENTS

Editor's Note The two documents which follow throw some light on the pitiful conditions surrounding the death of Jonathan Carver in London in the year 1780. Both are from the pen of Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the benefactor of Carver on his death bed and of his family afterwards.

The first speaks for itself. The transcript has been made from the copy of the Memoirs in The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

The second is a letter written fifteen years after Carver's death in response to inquiry connected with the search for the original of a deed from two Indian chiefs, conveying a large tract of land in the present states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The inquiry came to Dr. Lettsom from persons interested in obtaining, from the Congress of the United States, the confirmation of this reputed conveyance. The tract is known in Wisconsin history as the "Carver Grant", and committees from both the Senate and House of Representatives, after much investigation, refused to confirm the Indian deed. The transcript of the original letter is on file with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and this copy is certified to by the superintendent of that Society.

T. C. ELLIOTT. Extract from :

MEMOIRS

of John Fothergill, M. D. c.

by

John Coakley Lettsom The Fourth Edition

London Printed for C. Dilly

1786

(Read before the Medical Society of London, July 17 & Oct. 23, 1782)

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 367 Page 82:

"One instance, among numbers, I am urged to communicate here, as death now equally precludes the power of bestowing, and the gratitude of acknowledging, future bounties : Captain Carver is a name known in the annals of misery, to which he was reduced by long-continued want ; disease, its natural con- sequence, gave him access to Dr. Fothergill ; and I am informed by his widow, that as often as he applied for medical relief, the doctor as often accompanied his prescription with a liberal donation. But Captain Carver was not an importunate solic- itor; the mind not hardened by familiarity of refusal, or that hath not acquired, by frequent struggles, the art of suppressing its emotions, possesses that diffidence which is the inseparable associate of worth. Between diffidence and want, many were the struggles of Captain Carver, but, overcome at length by repeated acts of the doctor's generosity, a jealous suspicion of becoming troublesome, to his benefactor, determined him to prefer that want, from the deprivation of the necessaries of life, which put it out of the power of his choice ; for death soon triumphs over famine. What a conflict of sullen greatness does this tragedy exhibit! When his fate was communicated to the doctor, how tender was his expression ! "If I had known his distress, he should not thus have died" !*

• The king has since graciously condescended to allow the widow Carver an

annuity. The unfortunate husband was only known to me on his deathbed. In the early stages of his disease he was able to wait upon Dr. Fothergill; but in the progress of it, being confined to his bed, the doctor requested me to visit the captain at his lodgings; and my first interview was within three days of his decease. It was after his funeral that I felt myself more immediately interested in the succorr of the widow and orphans. As the captain died pennyless, he was buried, to avoid expense, in the poor's ground, a part of the churchyard usually appropriated to the abject poor. When I reflected upon the utility of his Travels, I confided him as a public loss, and his offspring as the children of the public; and I presented the widow with a few pounds, to clothe and feed herself and children; but the money, thus designed to satisfy her hunger, she employed otherwise; she had the corpse of her husband taken out of the poor's ground, and buried in ground containing the ashes of higher company, arid over it she raised a decent monument to his memory. His Travels, however, will prove a more durable monument than stone; and, though the dust with which we are mixed avails not to the living or to the dead, yet I was sensibly touched with this instance of posthumous affection, and have since endeavored to mitigate the miseries of a mind endowed with such tender sensibilities.

368 T. C. ELLIOTT

A LETTER BY DR. LETTSOM. Mr. Gravener:

During Mrs. Carver's life, I saw a paper of half a sheet, with two marks said to be those of Indian chiefs at the foot, of a grant of land, and, after Mrs. Carver's death, I searched every lodging where she had been and the place where she died, without being able to find the least vestige of paper or cloaths, not even any certificate of her having been married to Captain Carver. Unfortunately I rarely saw her out of a state of intoxication. All these facts Mrs. Pope knows very well. Mr. Knox, the late American secretary, wrote me a letter with one from Dr. Belknap, the late historian of America, that no such grant of land existed by tradition or otherwise among the Indians. Captain Carver, by his first wife, left several sons and daughters who have made the same application to me for any documents. So that, if any property could be dis- covered, these children who are legitimate would precede any title that could be claimed by Mrs. Pope. I once advertised to find out whether Captain Carver was married to Mrs. Pope's mother, but without success. I presume that Mrs. Pope pos- sesses certificate of marriage. I never saw Captain Carver but on his deathbed, nor did I know of any real or supposed conveyance until after his death, when the widow showed me the paper I mentioned above. Mr. Fisher, the secretary of the American board here, told me that no such document ever could be traced in his office. Mrs. Pope has given me a good deal of trouble and knows how anxious I always was to serve her could I have done it. But I am of opinion that no legal instrument, intimated in your letter, exists, and that if it did Captain Carver's issue, by his first wife, would alone be entitled to possession, but your professional knowledge must enable you to determine upon these matters superior to that of

J. C. Lettsom. London Jany 15 1805 [Copy of transcript of letter in State Historical Society of

Wisconsin.]

Joseph Schafer, Sttpt.

INDEX

[369]

INDEX TO VOLUME XXI

Atkinson, Dr. George H., sent to Ore- gon by the American Home Mission- ary Society, 4; becomes authority on matters of education in the territory, 4-5; with Harvey Clark founds Tual- atin Academy, 5; for forty years is secretary of the board of trustees of Tualatin Academy and Pacific Uni- versity, 6; secures an endowment for Pacific University and persuades Sidney Harper Marsh to come from Vermont to be its president, 6-7.

B

Brown, Mrs. Tabitha, career of, in Con- necticut, arduous trip to Oregon when nearly seventy, 3; her school at West Tualatin, now Forest Grove, 1846-8, 4; her school of orphans taken over by Tualatin Academy, 5; when 72 years old has 40 in her family of pupils and mixes with her own hands 3423 pounds of flour in five months, 6; her home is bequeathed to the Uni- versity, 8.

CARVER, JONATHAN, THE STRANGE CASE

OF, AND THE NAME OREGON, 341-68;

William Cullen Bryant and Thomas Jefferson give vogue to the word Oregon, originated by Carver, 341; genealogy of Carver, 341-2; the dif- ferent possible sources of the name Oregon, 342; the region to which in- quiry into the origin of the name leads, 342-3; early life, accomplish- ments and marital relations, 343-6; military career, 346; route of travels traced, 346-7; the regions described had long been visited by white men and his suggestions as to locality of sources of four principal rivers of continent ridiculous, 348-9; Indians could hardly have given him word used as name of the Columbia, 349-50; white men among the Sioux earlier and later than Carver did not report such name as current among them, 350-1 ; facilities for a French or Spanish origin of Oregon, 350-4; a river of the west proiected and mapped long before Carver's time, 355-7; Carver's projected enterprise to cross the continent absurd for his resources, 357-8; his environment at Mackinac, 358-60; his connection with Major Robert Rogers, 361-2; life in London befriended by Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, 363: the Carver MS., 364-5; the Pequot Wau-

regon and Major Robert Rogers' Ouragon as possible sources of Ore- gon, 365.

Clark, Reverend Harvey, espouses pur- pose to found Pacific University, 3; with Dr. George H. Atkinson organ- izes Tualatin Academy, 5 ; teaches in Mission School at Champoeg, 6; most generous in endowing Pacific University, 6.

EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY METHODISTS IN OREGON TO 1860, 63-94-

F

Fothergill, Dr. John, as benefactor of Jonathan Carver, 366-7

G

H

IDAHO, DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGIN- NINGS IN, 49-61 ; first trader located in, 54-55; first shipment of furs from,

K

Lettsom, Dr. John Coakley, publisher of 3rd edition of Carver's Travels and writer of biographical sketch of au- thor, 363-4; letter by, bearing on search for certificate of Carver grant, 368.

M

McLoughlin, Dr. John, statement of. relative to policy of refusal to sell cattle to settlers, 177.

Marsh, Sidney Harper, comes to Ore- gon to become head of school at Tualatin Plains, 6-7; develops it into Tualatin Academy and Pacific Uni- versity, 7; secures endowment and library, 7-8.

Martinez, Estevan Joseph, account by, of seizures of British vessels at Noot- ka Sound in 1789, 21-30.

METHODISTS, EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY IN OREGON TO 1860, 63-94; essential educational program of every religious denomination, 63-4; educa- tional before 1860 under religious auspices, 64-5; the work of the mis- sion schools, 65-71; elementary term

[370]

INDEX.

schools, 72-7; Oregon Institute and Willamette University, 77-83; Clacka- mas County Female Seminary, 83-4; Portland Academy and Female Semi- nary, 84-5; Santiam Academy, 85-6; Corvallis Academy, 86; Rainier Semi- nary, 87; Oregon City Seminary, 87; Umpqua Academy, 87-91; bibliogra- phy, 92-4.

N

OREGON ITS MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION, 317-331; Indian origin and meaning of the word, 318-20; conveyed east to the Sioux by the Shoshonis, 321-2; Jonathan Carver gets it from the Sioux and uses it in his book of "Travels," 322-5; the tradition of a western river, 325-6; William Cullen Bryant, Thomas Jef- ferson use the name Oregon, 326-7; Lewis and Clark and John Jacob Astor through exploration and occupa- tion and Dr. John Floyd through agi- tation bring the region into public no- tice so that settlement and jurisdic- tion are extended to include it, 327-31.

OREGON COUNTRY, THE EARLY EX- PLORATIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE, 332-346; progress of Spanish, Russian and English dis- covery and exploration in the Pacific Northwest, 332-5; evidence of the presence of Spaniards in the Oregon Country, 335-6; divers modes for ac- counting for the word Oregon, 336-8; early settlers as Spaniards would nat- urally transfer name of ancestral home to region, 338-9; transforma- tion of Aragon into Oregon, 339-40.

P

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, 1-12; had its origin in a missionary enterprise, 3; schools of Reverend Harvey Clark and wife and of Mrs. Tabitha Brown its nu- cleus, 3; Harvey Clark and George H. Atkinson organize it as an academy, 5; through labors of President Sid- ney Harper Marsh developed into university, 6-8; its successive presi- dents, 8-9; teachers that served the Academy and University, 9-10; its alumni, 10; standards, 10; its aspira- tions and outlook, 11-12.

PRINCESA, THE LOG OF THE, by ESTEVAN MARTINEZ, 21-31; corrects Bancroft's account of this voyage, 22; fails to refer to Meares' house, 22; gives rea- son for releasing the Iphigenia, 23; the reception accorded to the North- west America, 24; comparison of Log account with letter to Florez, 24; seizures of English vessels, 25-9; rea- sons for favoring Gray and Kendrick, 30; adequacy of the diary for deter- mining what really did happen at Nootka Sound in 1789, 31.

R

ROBERTS, WILLIAM M., LETTERS OF, AS THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OP OREGON MISSION, 33-48; description of per- sonality and characterization of work m Oregon, 34-5; account of Whit- man massacre and of the conditions before and after, 34-8; the immigra- tion of 1847, 38; the salary and sun- dry needs ot the mission, 39-43; glory of Oregon in temperance departed, 45; the war and the legislature of the winter of 1847-8, 47; wants of the church, 48.

s

Schools, Pioneer elementary term, 72-7; organized institutions, 1854-60, 77-91. SCHOOLS, HISTORY OF OREGON NORMAL, 95-169; Oregon Normal School sys- tem less developed than those of neighboring states, 95-7; preparation of Oregoh teachers, 97-8; the early school conditions and the demand for Normals, 98-103; first state normals evolved from denominational institu- tions, 105-13; beginning of financial aid from state, 113-7; their troubles begin and criticism becomes fierce, 117-19; vicissitudes suffered at hands of governors, legislatures, the press and at the polls, 120-32; the normal schools cut off, 132-4; the work of the normal schools evaluated, 134-55; summary of causes of failure, 155-6; their appeals to the people and result, 156-68; bibliography, 168-9. Slacum, William A., mission of, in Ore- gon, 1836-7, and what he accom- plished, 171-9.

SPAIN AND ENGLAND'S QUARREL OVER THE OREGON COUNTRY, 13-20; the Nootka Sound affair, the first of three dramatic crises in the clash of international interests in the Oregon Country, 13-4; the progress of Span- ish and English discovery and trade expansion toward a point of collision in the Pacific Northwest, 14-6; the preparation from 1785 to 1789 in Nootka Sound for the explosion, 16-20.

THOMPSON, DAVID, AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO, 49-61; fur traders of Canada early plan to cross the Rocky Moun- tains, 49-50; David Thompson and Fin an McDonald first penetrate to tributaries of the Upper Columbia in present Idaho, 50-1; accuracy of ob- servations taken by Thompson, 52-3; site of first trading post selected, Kullyspell House, 54-6;, David Thompson's birth, education and career, 56-61.

u

[371]

INDEX.

V W X

YOUNG, EWING, AND His ESTATE, 171- 315; the formation of the Willamette Cattle Company at the suggestion of William A. Slacum, 171-2; the Ore- gon settlement in the winter, 1836-7, 172-5; Slacum's mediation removes the two impediments to progress, 176- 9; diplomacy, daring and sagacity in getting first cattle from California, 179-80; play of economic forces in the making of early Oregon revealed in the Ewing documents, 180-4; unity in economic interests and activities im- pel to political organization, i84 : 6; the western world of adventure in the twenties that lured Ewing Young, 186- 8; his movements in the Southwest,

189-90; in California, 190-3; the ac- cusation made against him by the governor of California threatens ruin to Young and to the American settle- ment on the Willamette, 193-5; the domesday book of record of early Oregon, 195-7; documentary records relating to Young at Taos, New Mexico, and the claimants to his es- tate, 197-205; records of the Willam- ette Cattle Company, 205-9; "day- book" record of saw mill operations and employees' supply account, 209-43 ; record of live stock interests and farm accounts during summer following his decease, 243-70; account with Fort Vancouver sale shop, 270-6; inventory and auction accounts, 276-92; separate personal accounts, 292-308; adminis- trator's accounts, 308-11; jail built with part of proceeds of estate, 312- 3; petition praying that proceeds of estate should not be used as the peo- ple of the territory would thereby be- come too deeply involved in debt, 3I3-S.

---

1. Delivered before the annual meeting of the Oregon Historical Society, Oct. 23, 1920.
2. Bancroft's History of Oregon, I, 17.
3. In later years the lines of the poem were twice revised by its author, the more common rendering being:

   "Take the wings
   Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
   Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
   Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound," etc.

4. Some familiarity with the contents of the book and the opinions, pro and con, as to its author will add to the interest of the reader.
5. This statement applies only to the word as now spelled.

---

1. A paper prepared to be read before The State Historical Society of Washington at the annual meeting in January, 1921, at Tacoma.