The loss of the Peacock inside of the bar gave Wilkes a bad opinion of the entrance to the Columbia River, and his account from first to last, being anything but flattering to the commercial prospects of the country, was particularly displeasing to those who were endeavoring to encourage trade. Finally, if anything may be certainly known from Wilkes' report of the colony, or the colonist's opinion of Wilkes, it is that he considered his visit uncalled for, from a political point of view, and that they felt themselves badly treated because that was his opinion.[1]
Late in August a company was organized by Lieutenant Emmons of Wilkes' expedition for an overland exploring tour to California. The party consisted of eighteen officers and men, a number of the settlers, and certain immigrants.[2]
Wilkes remained in the country until October, supplying the place of the lost Peacock by chartering the Thomas H. Perkins, an American vessel which arrived in the river with a cargo of liquor. To prevent its being sold to the Indians, the cargo had been purchased by McLoughlin, who also bought the charter; the latter he now sold at a low figure to Wilkes, who changed the vessel's name to the Oregon.[3]
He sailed for California on the 5th, leaving of his command but one person, a negro cook named Saul, who deserted when the Peacock was wrecked,[4] and settled near the mouth of the Columbia.
- ↑ Gray's Hist. Or., 204; Swan's Northwest Coast, 377.
- ↑ The immigrants were Joel P. Walker, his wife, sister, three sons, and two daughters, who arrived in Oregon the previous autumn; and Burrows, wife and child; Warfields, wife and child; and one Nichols, who I think crossed the continent with Bidwell's California company in 1841 as far as Fort Hall. The settlers who went to California with Emmons were Henry Wood, Calvin Tibbetts, and Henry Black, who came to Oregon in 1840, and Molair and Junass. Tibbetts returned with cattle in 1842, probably joining Gale's party.
- ↑ Lee and Frost's Or., 302; McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 4; Farnham's Travels, 452–3; Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explor. Ex., v. 121. See also Hist. Northwest Coast, this series.
- ↑ Saul was long known in Oregon as the master of a craft, a cross between a Chinese junk and a fore-and-aft schooner, which plied between Astoria and Cathlamet, carrying passengers, live-stock, and other freight, and supplying a necessity in the early development of the country. Overland Monthly, xiv. 273.
