Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/202



182 HENRY L. TALKINGTON

THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION.

It was a law among nations that that nation which discovered the mouth of a river thereby came into possession of all the country drained by it and its tributaries. But little was done to maintain this claim by the United States for many years after its discovery.

In 1804-5 the Lewis and Clark expedition was organized. It has been characterized as "the most hazardous and most significant journey ever made on the Western continent a journey that rivalled in daring and excels in importance the expedition of Stanley and Livingstone in the wilds of Africa a journey that is related to the greatest real estate transaction ever recorded in history and gave to the world riches beyond comprehension and was piloted by a woman Sacajawea.

"It was an epoch-making journey; a journey that moved the world along; that pushed the boundaries of the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific; that gave us the breadth of the hemisphere from ocean to ocean ; the wealth of its mountains and plains and valleys a domain vast and rich enough for the ambition of kings."

THE FUR TRADING ERA.

This nation has been noted for its citizens of vision in every walk of life, science, philanthropy, religion, invention, educa- tion, and commerce can all point to names of American citizens renowned for their great work wherever civilization has gone.

Few of these exceeded in their far-sightedness John Jacob Astor. He conceived a plan for fur-trading far more reaching in its scope than any thought of up to that time. His scheme embraced a line of forts and posts reaching from Saint Louis to the mouth of the Columbia, embracing all the tributaries of that river as well as those of the Missouri, but his conception meant more than a transcontinental fur-trading route; it was to include a sea route to the Orient as well.