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10 one and another power; and tales, wilder than any thing but pure fiction, were soberly listened to by crowned heads—all of which went to confirm the belief in the hoped-for straits, which one pretender to discovery even went so far as to name, and give latitude and longitude. The Straits of Anian he called them; and so, all the world was looking for Fretum Anian.

All this agitation could not go for nothing. By dint of sailing up and down the west coast of the continent, some actual discoveries of importance were made, and other hints of things not yet discovered were received. There even appeared upon the Spanish charts the name of a river somewhere between the 40th and 50th parallels—the San Roque—supposed to be a large river, possibly the long -sought channel of communication with the Atlantic; but no account of having entered it was ever given. Then, vague mention began to be made of the "River of the West," whose latitude and longitude nobody knew.

Just before the War of the Revolution, a Colonial Captain, one Jonathan Carver, being inspired with a desire to know more of the interior of the continent, traveled as far west as the headwaters of the Mississippi. While on this tour, he heard, from the Indians with whom he conversed, some mention of other Indians to the west, who told tales of a range of mountains called Stony Mountains, and of a great river rising in them, and flowing westward to the sea, which they called Oregon.

After the War of the Revolution, Great Britain resumed her voyages of discovery. A fleet was fitted out to survey the North-west coast of America, which it was thought might be claimed by her on account of