santly to interest Boston, New York and Philadelphia merchants to fit out a ship, of which Ledyard was to be supercargo, for the purpose of inaugurating that trade. He failed, and went to France, where he pursued the same idea, again without success.[1]
A Boston company organized for the N. W. and China trade. Whether the tradition of Ledyard's appeal was bearing fruit among the merchants of Boston, whether they became interested in reports of English ships outfitting for the Northwest trade, or whether they were moved by the reading of "Cook's Voyage," we do not know.[2] But in 1787 a company headed by Joseph Barrell was formed for carrying on a trade to the Northwest Coast, from there to Canton and thence back to Boston. The ships Columbia and Lady Washington, under John Kendrick and Robert Gray sailed from Boston harbour October 1 of that year, rounded Cape Horn and appeared the next autumn on the Northwest Coast. They wintered at Nootka, and in 1789, having completed a cargo, Gray in the Columbia sailed for China and on the 9th of August, 1790, arrived at Boston after circumnavigating the globe.
Captain Gray discovers the Columbia River. The successful opening of the trade excited great interest in the New England capital.[3] The Columbia
- ↑ For Ledyard's relations Jefferson at Paris, see page 35 below.
- ↑ Bulfinch's Oregon & El Dorado, published in 1866, in which we are told that Cook's voyage was "the topic of the day" in Boston in 1787 cannot be accepted as proof on the point.
- ↑ See newspaper notices as reprinted in the author's Acquisition of Oregon, p. 21–22.
