having been diverted almost entirely to California by the exigencies of the larger population and business of that state with its phenomenal growth.
The postal agent appointed at San Francisco for the Pacific coast discharged his duty by appointing postmasters,[1] but further than sending the mails to Oregon on sailing vessels occasionally he did nothing for the relief of the territory.[2] Not a mail steamer appeared on the Columbia in 1849. Thurston wrote home in December that he had been hunting up the documents relating to the Pacific mail service, and the reason why the steamers did not come to Astoria. The result of his search was the discovery that the then late secretary of the navy had agreed with Aspinwall that if he should send the Oregon mail and take the same, once a month, by sailing vessel, "at or near the mouth of the Klamath River," and would touch at San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego free of cost to the government, he should not be required to run steamers to Oregon till after receiving six months' notice.[3]
Here were good faith and intelligence indeed! The
- ↑ John Adair at Astoria, F. Smith at Portland, George L. Curry at Oregon City, and J. B. McClane, at Salem. J. C. Avery was postmaster at Corvallis, Jesse Applegate at Yoncalla, S. F. Chadwick at Scottsburg.
- ↑ Or. Spectator, Nov. 29, 1849; Rept. of Gen. Smith, in 31st Cong., 1st Sess., S. Doc. 47, 107.
- ↑ Or. Spectator, April 18, 1850.
establishment of a line of steamers between Panamá and Oregon, by way of some port in California. At length Howland and Aspinwall agreed to carry the mails once a month, and to put on a line of three steamers of from 1,000 to 1,200 tons, giving cabin accommodations for about 25 passengers, as many it was thought as would probably go at one time, the remainder of the vessel being devoted to freight. Crosby's Statement, MS., 3. Three steamers were constructed under a contract with the secretary of the navy, viz.: the California, 1,400 tons, with a single engine of 250 horse-power, handsomely finished and carrying 46 cabin and a hundred steerage passengers; the Panamá of 1,100 tons, and the Oregon of 1,200 tons, similarly built and furnished. 32d Cong., 1st Sess., S. Doc. 50; Hon. Polynesian, April 7, 1849; Otis' Panamá R. R. The California left port in the autumn of 1848, arriving at Valparaiso on the 20th of December, seventy-four days from New York, proceeding thence to Callao and Panamá, where passengers from New York to Habana and Chagre were awaiting her, and reaching San. Francisco on the 28th of February 1849, where she was received with great enthusiasm. She brought on this first trip over 12,000 letters. S. F. Alta California in Polynesian, April 14, 1849. See also Hist. Cal. and Cal. Inter Pocula, this series.
