Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/89

 Diary of Rev. George Gary 73 such a man, seeing the entrance is very difficult and some- what dangerous, but we remember in whose hands we are and this gives not only hope but a tolerable degree of quietude of spirit. Wed. 22. We are progressing finely. We hope to see land tomorrow, we have cool weather, small and frequent showers of rain. Ther 53, Lat 45.25, Lon 127.14. Thurs. 23. Our wind through the night was light after a little while, appearances of land, at 10 A. M. land abundantly in sight. There has been some error in our calculations. We find we are one day nearer land than we had expected. Providence was kind and tender to- ward us in our moderate wind last night, otherwise we might have unexpectedly run upon land to our injury and peril. There are breakers near the entrance into the river. About 4: P. M. just within the breakers, we struck, but the wind was light and the waves very quiet. We cast anchor and sent out a boat to sound out our route, fired our cannon perhaps eight or ten times in hope of being heard at Fort George (formerly Astoria), and that Mr Birnie, 3 who has the charge at that place would hear and come to our aid, though the fort is per- haps ten miles off. After we had made the best exami- nation we could by our boat in various soundings and knowing our situation to pass the night would be peril- ous, especially if the wind should increase, we hoisted anchor and spread our sail with trembling solicitude and our barque moved most favorably, and before seven o'clock P. M. we cast anchor in Baker's Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon Territory. In a little while we saw an Indian canoe approaching us. They soon came up with some geese and a few other things which were purchased by our captain. Mr Roberts took the dispatches for Fort VanCouver and got into the canoe with the Indians and left us, his sick wife remaining on board the vessel. 3 James Birnie.