Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/49

Rh supplies for a year. They left Monterey on May 21, 1775, coasted northerly and made their first landing July 14, 1775, on the coast of what is now Jefferson county in the state of Washington, about seventy-five miles south of the entrance to the Straits of Fuca. Here Heceta erected a cross and took possession of the country in the name of the king of Spain. And this was the first time European people had set foot on the coast of old Oregon, and made proclamation and record of intent to hold the land. From this point Heceta coasted southward and on August 17th, discovered a bay with strong currents and eddies indicating the mouth of a great river or strait. The place was subsequently named by the Spaniards. Ensenada de Heeeta, and which has been identified as the mouth of the Columbia river.

We have now given all of the Spanish exploration of the northwest coast as is necessary to show the title by right of discovery. It must be admitted that it was a right founded wholly on the consent of other nations, who were in the same business of claiming everything in the real-estate line they could find that had not already been appropriated by others. When we consider the character of the ships those old mariners went to sea in, and braved all the dangers of the deep, it would seem that they were entitled to something better than wild land that had no appreciable value. One of the ships, not, however, entitled to be dignified as a ship (with which Heceta made that voyage along the northwest coast in 1775), was only thirty-six feet long, twelve feet wide and eight feet deep. What would the sailors of today say if asked to go upon a voyage along an uncharted coast for a year, where there was no help except from savage Indians in case of misfortune. It was just about the time Heceta and his men were beating around among the rocks of Destruction Island and fighting the Indians of Mount Olympus on the Washington coast, when General Warren and the continental militia were pouring hot shot into the British at Bunker Hill. There were fighting men and heroes in those days on both sides of America.

And now we come down to a period one hundred and ninety-nine years after Drake discovered the coast of Oregon and named it New Albion, and find George III. of England taking decisive steps to claim this country, or as much of it as was left unclaimed by the Spaniards. In 1776, the famous navigator. Captain James Cook, was dispatched to the Pacific coast with instructions to search for a passage eastwardly through North America to Europe, either by Hudson's Bay, or by the Northern sea, then recently discovered by Captain Hearne, or by the sea north of Asia; and in such search he was instructed to explore all the northwestern regions of America. His instructions were to strike the Coast of New Albion at 45 degrees north, which was supposed to be north of any discoveries then made by the Spanish. This was Cook's third and last voyage around the world, and he had left England without knowing what the Spanish navigators had accomplished before that time. And he was specially instructed "to take possession, with the consent of the natives, in the name of the king of Great Britain, of convenient situations, as you may discover, that have not already been discovered, or visited by any other European power, and to distribute among the inhabitants such things as will remain as traces and testimonials. You are also on your way thither strictly enjoined not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions on the western continent of America, unless driven thither by unavoidable accident, in which case you are to stay no