Benton County, Oregon - Chapter 8: Explorations by Land and Sea, 1885

Chapter 8: Explorations by Land and Sea

Struggle Between England and Spain for Dominion on the Pacific Coast -Juan Perez Discovers Port San Lorenzo or Nootka Sound - Martinez Claims to Have Seen the Straits of Fuca - Spanish Explorers Take Possession of the Country at the Bay of Trinidad - Fruitless Search for the Straits of Fuca - Heceta. Discovers the Mouth of the Columbia and Names it San Roque Inlet- Bodega takes Formal Possession on George III.'s Archipelago and Searches for the Rio de los Reyes - He also takes Possession on Prince of Wales Island - Vain Search for Aguilar's River on the Coast of Oregon - Discovery of Bodega Bay- - Practical Result of these Voyages and England's Solicitude - Voyage of Captain James Cook- -Discovery of Hawaiian Islands - Cook at Nootka Sound - He Passes Through Behring's Straits into the Arctic Ocean - Death of Cook - Return of the Expedition - Arteaga and Bodega Follow Cook's Route.

The proceedings of the Spanish nation which had aroused England to such unusual activity in exploring the northwest, were the colonization of California by the Franciscans which has already been spoken of, and several voyages and efforts to take possession of the coast still further to the north which were made soon afterwards. The struggle between England and Spain for dominion in the unexplored portion of the New World had begun in earnest, and was embittered by the chagrin of the latter at the manner in which Louisiana had slipped from her clutch when France sold it to Spain just as it was about to be snatched from her grasp.

The first of these voyages, and it must be remembered the first voyage of exploration undertaken by Spain along the northern coast for one hundred and seventy-one years, was that of Juan Perez, who was instructed to sail as far north as the 60th parallel, and to then explore the coast southward, landing at all convenient places to take possession of the country in the name of the king of Spain. On the twenty-fifth of January, 1774, Perez sailed from San Bias in the corvette Santiago, piloted by Estivan Martinez, and stopped both at San Diego and Monterey, sailing from the latter port on the sixteenth of June. Thirty-two days later he espied the first land seen since leaving Monterey, in latitude 54 degrees, probably the west coast of Queen Charlotte's island. Simptoms of scurvy beginning to be observed among the crew, and being but poorly supplied with the requisites for a long voyage, Perez decided not to attempt further progress north in his little vessel, and so coasted along to the southward. He proceeded about a hundred miles, encountering a number of natives in their canoes, with whom he drove a profitable trade in furs, and was then driven to sea by a storm. He again discovered land on the ninth of August, casting anchor at the entrance of a deep bay in latitude 49 degrees and 30 minutes upon which, following the custom which has plastered the map of the Pacific coast with " Sans" and " Santas," he bestowed, the name Port San Lorenzo, because it was discovered upon the day specially devoted to that saint in the Roman calendar. It was beyond doubt the harbor on the west coast of Vancouver island now known as King George's or Nootka sound. Hav- ing enjoyed a profitable trade with the natives, who are represented as being of a much lighter complexion than other native Americans, Perez weighed anchor and sailed again to the southward. In latitude 47 degrees and 47 minutes a lofty, snow-crowned peak was observed, which was christened Sierra de Santa Rosalia, being, probably, the one subsequently named Mount Olympus by English explorers. On the twentyfirst of August Perez arrived off Cape Mendocino, whose exact latitude he then determined, and a week later dropped anchor in the harbor of Monterey. This voyage added but little to. the geographical knowledge of the coast, since no thorough explorations were made and land was observed only in a few places. In the journal of the voyage nothing is said of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and yet, many years later and long after the strait had been entered by the English and Puget sound explored, the pilot of the Santiago, Martinez, asserted that he had observed a wide opening in the land between latitudes 48 and 49 degrees, and that he had honored the point of land on the south side of the entrance with his own name. Upon the strength of this long-delayed assertion, Spanish geographers entered upon their charts as Cape Martinez the point of land now universally known as Cape Flattery.

The return of Perez w r ith the information that America extended at least as far north as the latitude 54 degrees, determined the Mexican viceroy to dispatch another expedition in quest of still further discoveries as far as the 65th parallel. The Santiago, commanded by Bruno Heceta and piloted by Perez, and the Sonora, a small schooner under the command of Juan de Ayala and having Antonio Manrelle for a pilot, sailed from San Bias March 15, 1775, being supplied with the latest chart of the Pacific, in which the reports of the various voyages were woven together by the fertile imagination of Bellin, a French geographer. They were accompanied as far as Monterey by the San Carlos, to which vessel Ayala was transferred before reaching that port, and the command of the Sonora devolved upon Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra.

Sailing from Monterey to the northward, the two vessels doubled Cape Mendocino and anchored on the tenth of June in a roadstead, which was named Port Trinidad, for the usual reason that the day was the one devoted to the Trinity on the calendar, that fertile source of Spanish nomenclature. Nine days later the voyage up the coast was resumed, though not until the Spaniards had landed and with proper solemnity and religious ceremonies taken possession of the country in the name of their sovereign, including the planting of a cross with appropriate inscriptions as a testimonial monument of their visit. They described the harbor as being safe, spacious and a valuable one to commerce, and the contiguous country agreeable in climate and having a fruitful soil ; and this discovery was considered by Spanish authorities to be an exceedingly valuable one.

Having kept out to sea for three weeks, they again sighted land in latitude 48 degrees and 27 minutes, just south of the Straits of Fuca. Since the Greek pilot had located his passage between latitudes 47 and 48 degrees, as will be remembered, in which locality it was indicated on their chart, the explorers naturally coasted to the southward in searching for it, thus sailing directly away from its entrance. A careful examination of the coast revealed no such passage, and, satisfied that it had no existence, they cast anchor near a small island off the coast in latitude 47 degrees and 20 minutes. Here seven of the Sonora's crew, who were sent to the mainland to procure water in the only boat the vessel carried, were killed by the natives ; and the island was christened Isla de Dolores, or Island of Sorrows, being the same one afterwards called Destruction Island by an English captain, because of a similar fate which befel a portion of his crew.

Disheartened by this disaster and observing alarming symptoms of scurvy among his crews, Heceta desired to return, but at the urgent solicitation of the other officers reluctantly consented to continue the voyage northward. A few days later a severe storm parted the vessels, and Heceta then abandoned the enterprise and started to return with the Santiago to Monterey. He soon observed land on the ocean side of Vancouver island, in latitude 50 degrees, and passing by Port San Lorenzo and the entrance to Juan de Fuca straits without observing them, he again saw the coast in the 48th parallel, south of which he once more searched for the passage he had so carelessly overlooked. On the fifteenth of August, 1775, he came opposite an opening in the land in latitude 46 degrees and 17 minutes, through which poured a stream of water so forcibly as to prevent him from entering. Satisfied that he was at the outlet to a great river, or, possibly, the Straits of Fuca, though too far south for this according to his chart, Heceta waited a day with the hope of effecting an entrance ; but in this he was doomed to disappointment, and abandoning the effort he continued his voyage to Monterey, carefully observing the intervening coast, of which his journal contains extremely accurate descriptions. The Catholic calendar was again brought into requisition to supply a name for this new discovery, and since the fifteenth of August was the day of the Assumption, Heceta called it Ensefiada de Asuncion (Assumption inlet); the sixteenth being set apart to Saint Roc, he called the northern promontory Cape San Roque, while to the low land on the south side of the entrance he gave the name Cape Frondoso (Leafy cape). Beyond question this was the first discovery of the mouth of the mighty Columbia, and Mexican charts, published soon after the return of Heceta, had indicated upon them an entrance to the land at that point, variously denominated Ensefiada de Heceta, and Rio de San Roque.

In the meantime Bodega and Maurelle were persevering in their attempt to carry out the original plan of the expedition, and were still endeavoring to reach the 65th parallel in the little Sonora. On the sixteenth of August they suddenly came in sight of land both to the north and east of them, being then, according to their observations, north of latitude 56 degrees, and at a point which their chart told them was 135 leagues distant from the American shore. This proved to be the large island known as King George Hi's Archipelago, though supposed by the Spaniards to be a portion of the main land. A large mountain rising from a jutting headland and draped in snow, was called by them San Jacinto, though it was a few years later named Mount Edgecumb by Captain Cook. The Spaniards landed to take formal possession of the country for the Spanish crown and to procure a supply of fish and water, to both of which proceedings the natives fiercely objected, compelling the intruders to pay liberally for the fish, and the water as well, and derisively tearing up and destroying the cross and other symbolic monuments the would-be possessors of their land had erected. The voyage northward was resumed, but upon reaching lati- tude 58 degrees Bodega deemed it imprudent to advance farther and turned again to the southward. From that point to the 54th parallel the coast was closely scrutinized for the Rio de los Reyes of Admiral Fonte, but as the romancing admiral had located his mythical river a degree farther south their search would have proven in vain even had the stream an existence beyond its creator's fancy, and therefore their assertion that no such river existed north of latitude 54 degrees was valueless to prove Fonte's great water route from the Pacific to the Atlantic to be a myth. On the twenty-fourth of August they again landed to take possession of the country, this time at Port Bucareli, named in honor of the viceroy under whose authority the expedition was dispatched, on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. From this place they casually observed the coast at various points until they reached the Oregon coast in latitude 45 degrees and 27 minutes, when they began a careful search for the great river Martin de Aguilar claimed to have discovered in 1603. Though they noticed currents of water setting out from the land in various places, nothing was observed indicating a stream of the magnitude described by Aguilar, and they became satisfied that none such existed in that locality ; yet they observed a headland which was recognized as answering the description of Cape Blanco, being, no doubt, the one called later Cape Orford by Captain Vancouver. On the third of October the Sonora entered a bay supposed to be that of San Francisco, but which proved to be a much smaller one a short distance north of that great harbor, and was therefore named Bodega bay by the discoverer in his own honor.

By the voyages of Perez, Heceta and Bodega, and especially the latter, which was conducted under the most disadvantageous conditions, through stormy and unknown seas, in a small vessel which had lost its only boat, and with a crew afflicted with that terrible scourge of the early mariners, the scurvy, Spain justly laid claim to the first exploration of the Pacific coast from which even an approximately correct chart could be made; especially was this true of our immediate coast, for prior to these explorations the coast between Cape Mendocino and Mount San Jacinto, or Edgecumb, was so practically unknown that in regard to it the most utterly erroneons ideas prevailed.

Condensed reports of these voyages, containing the leading features, soon reached England, together with the acconnts of the progress Spain was making in her scheme of colonizing California, and caused much anxiety to the government. With her Florida and Louisiana possessions extending indefinitely westward, with her California colonies already established and the possibility of her making additional settlements at some or all of the favorable localities on the northern coast where her representatives had already performed the ceremony of taking formal possession in the name of the king, the prospect of Spain soon obtaining control of the whole Pacific of America south of the 56th parallel, the limit to which Russian explorations formed a foundation for a claim by the czar, was imminent. With the zeal which England would exercise under the same circumstances, the claim of Spain would be perfected in ten years, and England be confined in North America to Canada and the possessions of her fur monopoly around Hudson's bay. The prospect was far from pleasing, and nothing but the indolence of Spain saved England from entire exclusion from Pacific North America. Yet for England to establish colonies in opposition to those of Spain was practically impossible. She had no Mexico to form a base of operation and supplies, but could hold communication with them only by means of a long and hazardous voyage of eight or ten months around Cape Horn or by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Under this condition of affairs England looked upon the discovery of a northern passage from ocean to ocean as absolutely necessary to further her interests on the Pacific coast. It was this idea of the situation which led Parliament to renew the offered reward spoken of at the close of the last chapter, and which stimulated English explorers into that great activity which resulted in revealing so much of our geography during the next fifteen years, laid the foundation for the claim to Oregon which Great Britain so strenuously asserted, and gave her title to the immense territory she now possesses on the Pacific coast.

About this time Captain James Cook returned from his great voyage of exploration in the South sea and Indian ocean, having established the fact that no habitable land existed in the vicinity of the Antarctic circle and made a voyage so extensive and important that he was universally recognized as the leading explorer of the century. To him England turned in her hour of anxiety. Here was the man above all others to whom could be entrusted the search for that passage so vitally important to British interests in the Pacific, with the assurance that whatever skill, diligence and the most thorough acquaintance with the geographical knowledge and theories of the day could accomplish would certainly be achieved. This task Cook at once undertook, and sailed upon his new quest with high hopes of winning laurels greater than those which already encircled his brow.

The instructions given to Cook by the Admiralty were very minute and particular. He was directed to proceed by way of the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand and Otaheite and endeavor to reach the coast of New Albion in the latitude 45 degrees. To the name New Albion the English government had tenaciously clung since the time Sir Francis Drake so christened the California coast and ceremoniously took possession in the name of the queen. To England there was much in a simple name, since her adherence to it showed her resolution to claim to the last all the benefit which could possibly be derived from the voyage of that adventurous marauder ; and this name was only changed for another when the basis upon which the English claim to Oregon rested was also altered. Though resolved to abate not one whit of her discovery rights, England was careful not to commit the least overt act of hostility against any rival claimants whatever. Serious trouble had commenced with her Atlantic colonies ; the battle of Bunker Hill had been fought and the evacuation of Boston compelled ; the whole coast from Massachusetts to Georgia was in a state of armed rebellion, encouraged by both France and Spain, who appeared upon the verge of offering substantial aid. The times were not propitious for England to assert her rights in the Pacific in a manner bordering in the least upon arrogance. Under the circumstances an extremely modest demeanor was considered exceedingly becoming, and Cook was " strictly enjoined, on his way thither, not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions on [the western continent of America, unless driven to it by some unavoidable accident ; in which case he was to stay no longer than should be absolutely necessary, and to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offence to any of the inhabitants or subjects' of his Catholic majesty. And if, in his farther progress northward, he should find any subjects of any European prince or state, upon any part of the coast which he might think proper to visit, he was not to disturb them or give them any just cause of offence, but, on the contrary, to treat them with civility and friendship." The last charge referred especially to the Russian settlements in the extreme north.

But little positive knowledge was possessed in England of the geography of the coast north of Cape Mendocino. To be sure it was the reports of Spanish settlements in California and of several important voyages of exploration recently made by representatives of that nation, which had created such anxiety and infused such zeal into the English Admiralty ; but the particulars of those voyages were not yet received. All that was really known of the northwest coast was what could be learned from the records of Viscaino's voyage nearly two centuries before, from the indefinite and contradictory accounts of Russian discoveries in Alaskan waters, and the recent report by Samuel Hearne that the continent extended many miles westward from the Coppermine river. Between Viscaino's most northern limit, latitude 45 degrees, and the extreme southern point reached by Tchirikof in the 56th parallel, there was a vast stretch of coast line absolutely unknown. Cook was consequently instructed to proceed along the coast and, "with the consent of the natives, to take possession in the name of the King of Great Britain of convenient stations in such countries as he might discover that had not been already discovered or visited by any other European power, and to distribute among the inhabitants such things as will remain as traces of his having been there ; but, if he should find the countries so discovered to be uninhabited he was to take possession of them for his sovereign, by setting up proper marks and descriptions, as first discoverers and possessors." This was. exactly what .Heceta and Bodega had done for Spain the year before, though of this fact England was ignorant. Cook was directed to coast along to the 65th parallel, before reaching which he was expected to find it trending sharply towards then ortheast in the direction of the Coppermine river, the Admiralty being of the opinion that the great North sea visited by Hearne was identical with the Pacific. From that point he was to explore carefully " such rivers or inlets as might appear to be of considerable extent and pointing towards Hudson's or Baffin's bays," and endeavor to sail through all such passages, either in his vessels or in smaller ones to be constructed on the spot from materials taken with him for that especial purpose. In case he became satisfied from the configuration of the coast that no such passage existed and that the Pacific ocean and North sea were not identical, he was then to repair to the Russian settlements at Kamtchatka, and from that point explore the seas to the northward " in further search of a northeast or northwest passage from the Pacific ocean into the Atlantic or the North sea."

To carry out these minute and exhaustive instructions, Cook sailed from Plymouth July 12, 1776, in the Resolution, the vessel he had just taken around the world, accompanied by Capt. Charles Clerke in the Discovery. The crews and officers were men selected careftilly for this expedition, and the vessels were supplied with every nautical and scientific instrument which could in any possibility be needed, as well as the most accurate charts at the command of the government. After passing the Cape of Good Hope, Cook spent nearly a year making examinations about Van Dieman's Land, New Zealand, and the Friendly and Society islands. On the eighteenth of January, 1778, he discovered the Hawaiian islands, that most important station in the

Pacific Coast

Pacific, which he called Sandwich islands in honor of the first lord of the Admiralty under whose orders he was sailing. On the seventh of the following March he was delighted with a glimpse of the Oregon coast, or New Albion, near the 44th parallel, in the vicinity of the Umpqua. Contrary winds forced him as far south as the mouth of Rogue river, when, the wind becoming fair, he took a course almost due north and did not again see land until just above the 48th degree of latitude, when he descried a bold headland which he christened Cape Flattery to show his appreciation of the flattering condition of his prospects.

It was now that Cook fell into the same error which had so sorely baffled and defeated Heceta and Bodega two years before. Like them, having reached the very southern edge of the Straits of Fuca, he turned away and searched for them to the southward, because in Lock's narrative they had been located between latitudes 47 and 48 degrees. Finding the coast line unbroken, Cook pronounced the passage a myth, and abandoning the search sailed northward, passing heedlessly by the straits for which he had been so diligently looking. He soon dropped anchor in a safe and spacious harbor in latitude 49i degrees, which he called King George's sound, but later substituted Nootka when he learned that such was its Indian title. This was, beyond doubt, the Port Lorenzo entered by Ferez in 1774, and like the Spaniard, Cook reports the natives to be of a very light complexion and to possess ornaments of copper and weapons of iron and brass. This, united with the fact that one of them had suspended about his greasy neck two silver sjxxms of Spanish manufacture, and because they manifested no surprise and but little curiosity about the ships, and seemed not to be frightened at the report of guns, and were eager to barter furs for a valuable consideration, especially metals of all kinds, led Cook to the opinion that they had held intercourse with civilized nations in former times. Their supposed familiarity with firearms was soon found to be erroneous, for " one day, upon endeavoring to prove to us that arrows and spears would not penetrate their war-dresses, a gentleman of our company shot a musket-ball through one of them folded six times. At this they were so much staggered, that their ignorance of fire-arms was plainly seen. This was afterwards confirmed when we used them to shoot birds, the manner of which confounded them. ,, This discovery and other facts elicited by a closer observation caused Cook to change his opinion about their previous intercourse with white people. In speculating on this subject he says that though "some account of a Spanish voyage to this coast in 1774 or 1775 had reached England before I sailed, it was evident that iron was too common here, was in too many hands, and the use of it too well known, for them to have had the first knowledge of it so very lately, or, indeed, at any earlier period, by an accidental supply from a ship. Doubtless, from the general use they make of this metal, it might be supposed to come from some constant source, by way of traffic, and that not of a very late date ; for they are as dexterous in using their tools as the longest practice can make them. The most probable way, therefore, by which w T e can suppose that they get their iron, is by trading for it with other Indian tribes, who either have immediate communication with European settlements upon the continent, or receive it, perhaps, through several intermediate nations; the same might be said of the brass and copper found amongst them." The indifference of the natives to the ships, in regard to which their lack of curiosity was noticeable and had been one of the causes which at first led him to suppose they were familiar with such objects, he attributed "to their natural indolence of temper and want of curiosity." Cook's ignorance of the vast extent of the American continent and the degree of civilization attained by the various aboriginal nations occupying it, must be his excuse for supposing that such a commodity as iron could have been transported from the Atlantic'coast to the Pacific, passing from hand to hand through numerous tribes of Indians, many of them engaged in unceasing and unrelenting warfare. That such could not have been the case, even aside from these objections, we are well assured by the fact that the inland tribes through whose hands the metal must have passed knew nothing of iron or its uses, and employed flint and bones for knives, spear-heads and arrow-tips. In the region then visited by the English for the first time exist vast quantities of iron ore, and in the mountains of the mainland copper ledges abound, and though no traces have as yet been observed of the ancient working of these mines, it is more than probable that the iron and copper possessed by the natives of Vancouver island, who were the most civilized and intelligent found on the Pacific coast, were produced from the crude ore by their possessors themselves. This supposition is supported by the fact that the natives forged iron in an ingenious manner, making harpoons, weapons and ornaments, thus showing how well they understood the nature of the substance and demonstrating their ability to produce it from the native ore. The comparatively limited amount in their possession indicated that they only utilized surface croppings, and this fully explains the absence of any signs of former mining operations on the ledges. When Captain Meares visited the same locality a few years later, he was equally astonished at their familiarity with these metals. He tells us that the Indians manufactured tools of the iron obtained from him in trading ; and that it was seldom they could be prevailed upon to use European tools or utensils in preference to their own, with the exception of the saw, the utility and labor-saving value of which they at once recognized. They made a tool for the purpose of hollowing out large trees, which answered the purpose better than any instrument possessed by the ship's carpenter. For an anvil they employed a flat stone and a round one did duty as a sledge ; and with these implements they fashioned the red hot iron at w r ill, attaching to the tools or w r eapons when desired a wooden handle, fastened securely with cords of sinew. What little brass they possessed may have been procured from the Spanish vessels which had visited them a few years before. In this connection the legend related to Meares, explaining the origin of their knowledge of copper, will be interesting. The fact that there existed a legend on the subject is sufficient evidence of the length of time the use of copper had been familiar to them. Meares says : " On expressing our wish to be informed by what means they became acquainted with copper, and why it was such a peculiar object of their admiration, a son of Hannapa, one of the Nootkan chiefs, a youth of uncommon sagacity, informed us of all he knew on the subject, and we found, to our surprise, that his story involved a little sketch of their religion. He first placed a certain number of sticks upon the ground, at small distances from each other, to which he gave separate names. Thus, he called the first his father, the next his grandfather ; he then took what remained and threw them all into confusion together, as much as to say that they were the general heap of his ancestors, whom he could not individually reckon. He then, pointing to this bundle, said, when they lived an old mean entered the sound in a copper canoe, with copper paddles, and everything else in his possession of the same metal ; that he paddled along the shore, on which all the people were assembled to contemplate so strange a sight, and that, having thrown one of his copper paddles on shore, he himself landed. The extraordinary stranger then told the natives that he came from the sky, to which the boy pointed with his hand ; that their country would one day be destroyed, when they would all be killed, and rise again to live in the place from whence he came. Our young interpreter explained this circumstance of his narrative by lying down as if he were dead, and then, rising up suddenly, he imitated the action as if he were soaring through the air. He continued to inform us that the people killed the old man and took his canoe, from which event they derived their fondness for copper, and he added that the images in their houses were intended to represent the form, and perpetuate the mission, of this supernatural person who came from the sky."

Cook's vessels lay in Noolka sound nearly a month, repairing the casualties of the long voyage, laying in a supply of wood and water, and permitting the seamen to recruit their impaired health. They were constantly surrounded by a fleet of canoes, whose occupants came from many miles along the coast for the purpose of trading with the strangers. They had for barter " skins of various animals, such as wolves, foxes, bears, deer, raccoons, polecats, martins, and, in particular, of the sea-otters, which are found at the islands east of Kamtchatka ;" and, he might have added, in great num- * bers about the Straits of Fuca. " Besides the skins in their native shape, they also brought garments made of the bark of a tree or some plant like hemp ; weapons, such as bows and arrows, and spears ; fish-hooks and instruments of various kinds ; wooden visors of many monstrous figures ; a sort of woolen stuff or blanketing ; bags filled with red ochre ; pieces of carved rock ; beads and several other little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a horseshoe, which they hung at their noses ; and several chisels, or pieces of iron fixed to handles. * * Their eagerness to possess iron and brass, and, indeed, any kind of metal, was so great that few of them could resist the temptation to steal it whenever an opportunity offered."

About the last of April Cook sailed out of Nootka sound and resumed his explorations northward. His next object was to look for the Rio de los Reyes of Admiral Fonte, but a violent wind drove him to sea and prevented him from viewing the coast about the 53d parallel. " For my own part," he says, " I gave no credit to such vague and improbable stories, that convey their own confutation along with them ; nevertheless, I was very desirous of keeping the American coast aboard, in order to clear up this point beyond dispute." He next saw land near the 55th parallel on the first of May, and soon after passed the beautiful mountain called San Jacinto by Bodega, but upon which he bestowed the title Mount Edgecumb ; and a little later he observed and named Mount Fairweather, on the mainland. Cook had now entered the region explored by the Russians, with whose voyages he was somewhat familiar, and consequently it was no surprise to him, but an expected gratification, when his eyes rested upon a giant, snow-mantled peak which he at once recognized as the Mount St. Elias described by Behring. This icy monarch is upwards of 17,000 feet in altitude, the highest and grandest peak of the North American continent

Mount St. Elias was seen on the fourth of May, 1778 ; and from its base the shore line was seen to trend sharply to the w r est ; which fact induced Cook to begin. at that point his search for the Straits of Anian, hoping soon to find a passage which would lead him eastward into Hudson's bay or Baffin's bay, or northward into the great North sea spoken of by Maldonado and seen by Hearne. Russian maps of this region, copies of which he possessed, showed the whole space between Kamtchatka and Mount St. Elias to be an ocean thickly strewn with islands, the largest of which was called Aliaska, so that he had good authority for his belief in a passage into the North sea. He sailed westward, and then southwestward to the latitude 54i degrees, minutely examining all the bays, inlets and islands encountered, especially Prince William's sound and Cook's inlet, the latter of which he probably conceived to be the entrance to a river since he named it Cook's river. Nowhere could he observe an opening through the white chain of mountains, and he became satisfied that the American continent " extended much further to the west than, from the modern most reputable charts, he had reason to expect," and that the Russians were erroneous in their idea that the region west and northwest of Mount St. Elias was but a sea of islands. The result was that he abandoned the hope of finding a passage into either Hudson's or Baffin's bay, and resolved to see how far west the continent extended and to sail into the North sea through the passage discovered by Behring just fifty years before. He therefore sailed southwesterly, and on the nineteenth of June fell in with a number of islands which he recognized as the Schumagim group, and where he saw the first evidences of the presence of Russians at any time in those waters, in the form of a piece of paper in the possession of the natives, upon which was written something in a foreign language w T hich he supposed to be Russian. He soon after passed the extremity of the Alaskan peninsula and the islands which seemed an extension of it, and doubling this turned again eastward, soon reaching the large island of Ounalaska, which Russian accounts had frequently mentioned as an important station in their fur trade.

At Ounalaska Cook remained five days, and on the second of July sailed northward along the coast, searching faithfully for a passage eastward. On the ninth of August he reached a point which he correctly believed to be the utmost extremity of the continent, and upon it he bestowed the name of Cape Prince of Wales. The various names and titles of that worthy prince appear to have been as liberally scattered about by the loyal English explorers as were the saints of the Roman calendar by the devout subjects of Spain. Cook crossed Behring's strait from this point, finding it but fifty miles in width, and landed upon the coast of Asia. He explored the Asiatic coast of the Arctic ocean northwestward to Cape North in latitude 68 degrees and 56 minutes, and the American coast northeastward as far as Icy Cape, in latitude 70 degrees and 29 minutes, and being prevented by ice from progressing further returned to Ounalaska, w r here he fell in with some Russian traders, who soon convinced him that they knew far less of the geography of the North Pacific than he did. He then proceeded to the Sandwich islands to spend the w inter, and was slain in an unfortunate affray with the natives on the island of Hawaii on the sixteenth of February, 1779.

The death of this renowned explorer, though a sad blow to the enterprise, did not terminate it altogether; yet the results accomplished thereafter were by no means as great as they would have been had operations been directed by the great executive ability and geographical knowledge possessed by Cook. Captain Charles Clerke succeeded to the command, and in March, 1779, sailed from the Sandwich islands, with the purpose of passing into the Arctic sea and thence, if possible, into the Atlantic. He headed northward and on the twenty-ninth of April entered the harbor of Petropaulovski in the Bay of Avatscha, the chief military station of Russia in Kamtchatka, where he was received with great courtesy by the officials of the czar. Clerke then sailed into Behring's strait, but was prevented from advancing even as far as the year before by the vast quantities of ice, having arrived too early in the season. Being in ill health and discouraged by his want of success, Captain Clerke returned to Petropaulovski, and died near that port on the twenty-second of August. Lieutenant John Gore succeeded to the command, but deeming the vessels in too battered a condition to endure another season in that rigorous climate, he sailed at once for his native land by the way of Canton, where he had learned, through the Russians, would be found a good market for the furs he had on board.

The vessels arrived in Canton early in December, bearing the first cargo of furs taken from America proper to China, and with the exception of the cargo taken there by Benyowsky and the Polish refugees in 1770, the first to be conveyed into the Celestial Kingdom by sea. This was a very important circumstance, since it was one of the greatest factors that led to the development of the American coast north of California, The furs had been purchased from the natives at Nootka sound, Prince William's sound and other points visited, the seamen exchanging for them the merest trifles in their possession. No care was taken to buy only valuable kinds since they were not purchased upon speculation ; nor was any thought taken of their preservation, many of them being ruined as an article of merchandise by being used for beds and clothing. It was only when they reached Petropaulovski and saw how eager the Russians were to purchase them and ship them overland to China that the officers realized how valuable a cargo they possessed. They pursuaded the seamen to cling to their furs until they arrived in Canton, where they assured them much better prices would be realized. The outcome was that what was aboard the two vessels was sold for more than $10,000, and the result so excited the cupidity of the crew, that, though their voyage had already been extended over a space of three years and a half, they became H possessed with a rage to return to the northern coasts, and, by another cargo of skins, to make their fortunes, which was, at one time, not far short of mutiny. ,, The insubordinate tendencies of the crew were repressed, and the Resolution and Discovery sailed homeward from Canton, passed around the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in England early in October, 1880, having been absent four years and three months, during which time no tidings of them had been received at home, and having lost their gallant commander in battle and his able associate by the hand of disease.

England was at that time engaged in war with both Spain and France, while the patriotic struggle of her American colonies for independence was causing her to put forth her utmost energy to uphold her authority in regions already under her dominion ; she had neither time nor means to attempt anything more in foreign countries until her present troubles were overcome, consequently the lords of admiralty withheld from publication the official record of the voyage until after the conclusion of peace, and it was not made public until during the winter of 1884-5. By comparison of voyages it will be seen that Cook saw no portion of America not previously visited by the Spaniards, who had formally taken possession, or by Russian explorers ; but his explorations had been so careful, his observations so thorough and his records so accurately kept, that he revolutionized the ideas of Pacific geography.

There remains yet to be recorded at voyage made by the Spaniards contemporaneously with that of Cook, though each was conducted in ignorance of the other. The discoveries of Heceta and Bodega were considered highly important by the authorities of Spain, and they ordered another expedition to be fitted out to make a more thorough examination of the coast, which was not ready for sea for three years. The Princesa and Favorita, the former under the command of Captain Ignacio Arteaga, leader of the expedition, and the latter commanded by Bodega and Maurelle, sailed from San Bias February 7, 1779, only nine days prior to the death of Cook on the island of Hawaii. They visited only such places as had been seen before by Heceta and Bodega, following closely the course pursued the previous year by Captain Cook. Mount St. Elias having been reached and the coast line being observed to run steadily to the west, they were lead, as had been Cook, to look carefully for the Straits of Anian, but, like him, were disappointed. Arteaga was not gifted with the qualities that make a successful pioneer, and becoming discouraged at his want of success and by the symptoms of scurvy observed among the crew, he ordered both vessels to return to San Bias, where they arrived late in November. The observations, records and charts made during this voyage were very inaccurate and of but little value, and the expedition was productive of no benefit to Spain, nor did it reflect any glory upon the nation ; yet the officers were rewarded by promotion for their good conduct. Spain had, in the meantime, become involved in war with England and was neither in the condition nor mood to pursue further investigations north of her settlements in California until peace was restored.