Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/82

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54
T. C. Elliott

made use of has been cumulative, and was in part not even known to the writer when the first one was written.

Captain Carver's "Travels" is divided into two parts, and the extensive plagiarisms which make up much of the second or descriptive part have already been conclusively pointed out by Professor Bourne. The purpose of this contribution is to briefly refer to some statements in the first or journal part of the book, and to indicate the circumstances under which this journal came to be written by Carver, and to disclose his entire dependence upon Major Robert Rogers for the plans and means for his journey to the West, and for the name Oregon.

Jonathan Carver earned his military title of captain through efficient, though not distinguished, service in the French and Indian War of 1755-1763. His enlistment and service were with various companies of infantry from the "Province of Massachusetts Bay", his home then being in the small town of Montague, near Greenfield and Deerfield, in the valley of the Connecticut river. Active fighting in that war was concluded, for the most part, at the time of the surrender of Montreal to General Jeffrey Amherst in the late summer of 1760. Both Major Rogers and Captain Carver were present at that occasion, and, immediately or soon after, the former was dispatched to the W T est to take over the French posts on the Great Lakes. Captain Carver was, as far as the record yet discloses, between that date and the disbandonment of the army in 1763, stationed in Canada and assigned to engineering work in the Province of Quebec. In proof of this Mr. Lee has brought to our attention the second (1776) edition of Thomas Jeffrey's AMERICAN ATLAS, in which there appears a finely executed map entitled "A New Map of the Province of Quebec, according to the Royal Proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, from the French Surveys connected with those made after the War, by Captain Carver, and other Officers in His Majesty's Service."

It should be stated here that the charge that Captain Carver was "an unlettered shoemaker" has been disproved by Mr. Lee and Dr. Browning (see page 344 of Vol. 21 of Oregon Historical Quarterly). Carver's education evidently was along