Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/77

Rh and his mother was an Indian woman, the daughter of Chief Cob-a-way, of the Clatsop tribe. He received the rudiments of an education through John Ball, a graduate of Dartmouth College, who came to Oregon in 1832, and taught a school at Fort Vancouver beginning m November of that year. He received additional education m Manitoba, and soon after he was out of his teens went to New York, took passage on a whaling vessel named the Plymouth, Capt. L. B. Edwards. In shipping with this officer he made it distinctly understood that when he arrived at a point in the ocean where he wished to leave the ship he was to have that privilege. The place selected was in the sea of Japan, a few miles from the shore. Captain Edwards allowed him to take his best boat and supplied him with food and instruments to navigate with. He drifted at length to the beach, was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned. He soon made friends, however, and taught them the English language. Pupils of McDonald were among the interpreters on behalf of Japan when Commodore Perry first reached that country in 1852.

In Mr. Lyons' opinion a wagon road from Scottsburg to Winchester was very important to the Umpqua Valley, as it not only would open a market to the farmer for his produce, but would enable the merchant to send out his goods at trifling expense, compared with the hitherto heavy rates of packing. At that time between seven and eight thousand dollars had been subscribed.

A note is made of the arrival of a grampus between 50 and 60 feet long in the mouth of the Umpqua river. From his haggard appearance it is supposed that he ran out of provisions in doubling Cape Horn. An attempt was made to catch the monster, but without success. It was reported by some travelers from Coos County that a large whale had been cast ashore a few miles below the mouth of the Umpqua. This enabled the Indians there