Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/53

Rh unknown seas, and in every respect a very great man. His services to mankind were so highly esteemed that when Franklin was in Paris as representative of the United Colonies he was empowered to issue letters of marque against the English, but in doing so, inserted an instruction that if any of the holders of such letters should fall in with vessels commanded by Captain Cook, he was 1o be shown every respect and be permitted to pass unattacked on account of the benefits he had conferred on mankind, through his important discoveries.

Cook is described as over six feet high, thin and spare, small head, forehead broad, dark brown hair, rolled back and tied behind, nose long and straight, high cheek bones, small brown eyes, and quick and piercing, face long, chin round and full with mouth firmly set — a striking, austere face, showing his Scotch descent, and indicative of the man most remarkable for patience, resolution, perseverance and unfaltering courage.

The irony of fate which snuffed out the life of a great and good man, and deprived him of the honor and credit of opening to the world a great region filled with unexampled wealth, yet even in this last fateful voyage, gave to the commercial world a clue to vast wealth which was eagerly snapped up by citizens of four great nations. In Cook's brief stay at Nootka sound, he got in barter, a small bale of very fine furs from the Indians. These furs reached China after the death of Cook, and their extraordinary quality at once so caught the attention of all vessels trading to Canton, that the news of it spread rapidly to England, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. In consequence of this information there was a sort of gold mine stampede to the new-found El Dorado in the fur-bearing haunts of the north Pacific, which set in toward the northwest seven years after Cook had sailed away. This was the beginning of the great fur trade from which the Hudson's Bay Company made so many royal millionaires in England.

Following up this discovery of rich furs in the northwest we find Captain James Hanna, an Englishman, coming over from China in a little brig of sixty tons, with twenty men. He reached Nootka sound in August, 1785, and he had no sooner anchored his little ship than the Indians attacked him. He gave them a hot reception, drove them off, and they then obligingly turned around and offered to trade. The sea-rover accommodated them, and in exchange for a lot of cheap knives, shirts, beads and trinkets, the natives handed over five hundred and sixty sea otter skins, which would be worth at this day a quarter of a million dollars. This was the beginning of the great fur trade in old Oregon, Alaska and California.

The next navigator to visit this region after Hanna, was the famous French explorer. La Perouse, who was sent out by the French king to examine such parts of northwestern America as had not been explored by Captain Cook, to seek an inter-oceanic passage, to make observations on the country, its people and products, to obtain reliable information as to the fur trade, the extent of the Spanish settlements, the region in which furs might be taken without giving offense to Spain, and the inducements to French enterprise. But while the commander of the expedition, like Cook, lost his life on this voyage, it was in many respects one of the most valuable of all the exploring expeditions to this region. La Perou.se was accompanied by a corps of scientific observers able to report in full the value of the country, and their observations and the report of the voyage