Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/67

64 he is clearly entitled to be called the 'Father of Oregon'."

Captain Bonneville. One of the early adventurers in Oregon was Captain Bonneville, whose experiences as related by Washington Irving are familiar to the average school boy. Bonneville was a native of France, a graduate of West Point, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains and far west, (1831-6). By driving wagons through the South Pass to Wind River, Wyoming, in 1833, he did much to establish the correctness of Senator Benton's prediction that Oregon would some day be connected by wagon road with the states. But, according to Washington Irving, Captain Bonneville's chief object in pursuing this exploration was "to make himself acquainted with the country and the Indian tribes; it being one part of the scheme to establish a trading post somewhere on the lower part of the Columbia river, so as to participate in the trade lost to the United States by the capture of Astoria." He reached the Hudson's Bay trading posts, Fort Walla Walla, (now Wallula), March 4, 1834. After remaining a few days at the Fort, "he returned to the general rendezvous for his various expeditions." In July of that year the Captain being well equipped with trappers and goods, started on a second expedition on the Columbia. "He still contemplated the restoration of American trade in this country. This time he passed through the Blue Mountains by way of the Grand Ronde Valley and the Umatilla River." But Captain Bonneville was not a match for the Hudson's Bay Company nor for the American fur traders, hence his venture completely failed. Although he was