Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/121

 ed Port Orford which he named Ewing Harbor for his Coast Survey schooner Ewing. He charted the vicinity of Cape Arago shortly after leaving Ewing Harbor. It seems obvious that the well-known friendship between Arago and Humboldt suggested the name for the cape. Family tradition says that McArthur was greatly interested in mathematics and physics and it seems certain that he was familiar with the association of Arago and Humboldt. The compiler is of the opinion that Cape Arago was named on account of this friendship. H. R. Wagner, in Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, volume II, page 373, says that Cape Arago is the same as Cabo Toledo of Bodega's and Heceta's larger map of 1775,

CAPE BLANCO, Curry County. Cape Blanco is in north latitude 42° 50' 14" and is the most westward point in Oregon, but not, as some suppose, of continental United States. Blanco is a Spanish word meaning white. In 1602 Sebastian Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco at the head of an exploring expedition, and after one of his ships had turned back at Monterey, Vizcaino in his ship and Martin de Aguilar in a fragata, quitted Monterey on January 3, 1603, sailing northward. During a storm the two ships separated and Vizcaino sailed up the coast alone, reaching a point which he named Cape San Sebastian on January 20. He returned to Acapulco without meeting the fragata. In the meantime de Aguilar also sailed northward, and he records that on January 19 he reached the 43rd parallel, and found a point which he named Cape Blanco. North of the cape he reported a large river. Here he turned back. Most of the crew of the fragata, including de Aguilar, died on the way to Acapulco. H. R. Wagner in Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, volume I, page 111, describes this voyage and calls attention to the fact that Cape Blanco was mentioned in the instructions, so that name was already in use before 1602. The recorded latitudes of this expedition are 100 great and there is nothing to show that the members ever reached the coast of Oregon or saw what is now Cape Blanco. The large HecetaBodega map prepared as a result of the 1775 expedition refers to this point as Cabo Diligensias. Bodega was off the cape September 27, 1775. See Wagner's Cartography, Volume II, page 376. On March 12, 1778, Captain James Cook writes of his discovery of Cape Arago, which he called Cape Gregory, and stated that he thought he observed the Cape Blanco of de Aguilar in proximity. He was too far away to see the mouth of Coos Bay. On April 24, 1792, Captain George Vancouver sighted what we now know as Cape Blanco, and named it Cape Orford in honor of George, earl of Orford, his "much respected friend." Vancouver determined its latitude as 42° 52", very nearly its true position. There was some speculation on Vancouver's ship as to whether or not it was the Cape Blanco of de Aguilar, but the position and its dark color "did not seem to intitle it to the appellation of cape Blanco." Vancouver brings up the matter again in his Voyage of Discovery in the latter part of the entry for April 25. He passed and identified Cape Gregory (now Cape Arago) of Captain Cook, and made a reasonably accurate determination of its latitude, though he noted the difference between his figures and Cook's. There was no other important point and he said: "This induced me to consider the above point as the cape Gregory of Captain Cook, with a probability of its being also the cape Blanco of D'Aguilar, if land hereabouts the latter ever saw." Vancouver finished his observa