Log of the "Chatham^' 235
and about three miles from the rocky headland forming the cape on the north and where the mouth of the river and the high lands back of the cape could be plainly seen. He con- tinues: "As we steered in the water shoaled to nine, eight, and seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck right ahead, and from the mast head they were observed to extend across the bay ; we, therefore, hauled out and directed our course to the opposite shore to see if there was any channel or if we could discover any port. * * * We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts." Captain Meares appears to have approached the outer end of Peacock Spit and then crossed over to the outer end of Clatsop Spit, and then departed, without going in even as far as did the Santiago. With a clear view up the river to Tongue Point and Chinook Point and beyond, it seems incredible that he could have recorded such a conclusion as he did. By reason of other reports he made concerning events of that period along the coast, he has by some been called "the mendacious Meares.'*
Four years later Capt. Robert Gray, of Boston, in the ship Columbia, also engaged in the fur trade, after three days spent in Gray's (Bulfinch) Harbor, on the 11th of May, 1792, at 4:00 A. M. sighted the entrance of the river "bearing east- south-east, distance six leagues." The ship's log states : "At eight A. M. being a little to the windward of the entrance of the Harbor, bore away and run in east-north-east between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered," etc. At one o'clock that afternoon he anchored one-half mile from the north bank just west of Point Ellice, northwest of Astoria, and close to a large village of Chinook Indians. There he proceeded to fill his casks with fresh water from the river, this being possible because the spring freshets were then on. A day or so later he sailed twelve or fifteen miles further up the river, follow- ing a narrow channel along the north side, until the ship
