benefit since—this same spirit still animates me, and will continue to do so while I live—which I hope will be long enough to see an emporium of Asiatic commerce at the mouth of your river, and a stream of Asiatic trade pouring into the Valley of the Mississippi through the channel of Oregon."—Letter of Benton to the People of Oregon, in 1847.
But Benton did not understand the geography of the coast; neither did he know much of the practical working of railroads in recognizing or ignoring any points but their own. He did not foresee the Central Pacific going to San Francisco, and the Northern Pacific to Puget Sound, and an emporium of Asiatic commerce at either of these termini, while a third great city distributed their commerce along the Columbia and its tributaries, from its mouth to its sources; and that third city ought to be somewhere within a dozen miles of the present initial point of the North Pacific.
Turning this thought over in our mind, we are struck by the coincidence as some one points out to us, within the dozen miles, a place on the Oregon side which aspires to be that future city. It is a pretty town-site enough, certainly, sloping gently back from the river, which here, for two or three miles, has a smooth, gravelly beach, instead of the more usual abrupt and rocky shore. As we turn to the view of Mount St. Helen, just here seen through the canyon of the Cathlapootle, or Lewis River, which rises in the snows of that mountain, we agree that the aspiring town-site must command a beautiful prospect, including in its range Mount Adams and Mount Hood, as well as Mount St. Helen.
An admiring word calls out some volunteer remarks
