THE STRANGE CASE OF JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON[note 1]
By T. C. Elliott
The name of the mother state of all those west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California first came to public notice through the pages of literature. About the year 1812 William Cullen Bryant, then only eighteen years of age, fitted the name (hitherto obscure) into the philosophy and meter of his famous poem "Thanatopsis" which, as first published, contained these lines:[1]
"Take the wings
Of morning—and the Borean desert pierce—
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
That veil Oregan, where he hears no sound
Save his own dashings—yet—the dead are there;"
Earlier than this President Thomas Jefferson, in written instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis in 1803, included the following:
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado, or any other river" etc.
But both statesman and poet took the name from a book published in London in 1778 entitled: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by J. Carver, Esq., and that book and its author have inspired both the title and subject matter of this discussion.[2]
The winter season of 1920-21 marks the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the coast of Massachusetts, an event widely celebrated in both England and the United States. Under the leadership of Governor John Carver, that little band of colonists at Plymouth spent the early months
- ↑ A paper prepared to be read before The State Historical Society of Washington at the annual meeting in January, 1921, at Tacoma.
- ↑ In later years the lines of the poem were twice revised by its author, the more common rendering being:
"Take the wings
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound," etc. - ↑ Some familiarity with the contents of the book and the opinions, pro and con, as to its author will add to the interest of the reader.
