more addicted to ear ornamentation than is common to all savage nations, or that they wore heavier ornaments. Neither is Oregon inhabited by lop-eared rabbits in a degree to distinguish it from some other countries.
Dates must not be disregarded as we look for proof or disproof of the current theories concerning the word. That it is not of early Spanish origin is established by the fact that it does not occur in the Spanish voyages, or on the Spanish maps. The Spaniards never had a name for the Columbia River, unless it be San Roque, which they applied in 1775 on one of their maps,
without being sure that any river flowed there. On their subsequent maps in 1791–2, after the river had been visited, it was put down as Rio de la Columbia. It is clear, then, that the name Oregon had not been applied to the country by any navigator up to that time, nor for a long time afterward. The word does not occur in Lewis and Clarke's journal, though it is found in Jefferson's instructions to Lewis, but not with reference to the river. It is not in any work published in the United States or England previous to the year 1811, the first year of American settlement, with one exception; that exception is the book of travels by Carver first mentioned, and which was published in London in 1778. It comes in thus: 'From the intelligence I gained from the Naudowessie Indians, among whom I arrived on the 7th of December,
