Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/241



Hall Jackson Kelley 213

the places, tribes, of rivers, and animals, on the western side of North America? ... I claim to have been him who has accounted for them. I have alc«ie done them."^*

We need not concern ourselves with the whcJe of this claim. _ Our interest is in the word Oregon, "whose origin has baffled modern investigation,"" and upon this point neither of Kel- le/s statements are convincing.

In the matter of the application of the name of the river to the territory, Kelley's claim rests upon somewhat better grounds. "The country, in those days [before 1830], was known as the 'North-West Territory,' 'Columbia River,' and as the 'River Oregon.' His first step was, therefore, to en- lighten the pubUc concerning a country marked on all maps as 'unknown,' without a distinctive a^^llation, till the one it now wears was made familiar to the public mind by his writings and correspondence."^^ Upon this point there is sufficient evidence upon which to deny Kelley's claim to priority, and also to determine beyond question the person to whom the honor belongs. Upon the evidence of Floyd's second Oregon bill, which was introduced on January 18, 1822, we must give to Floyd the distinction of having first pix>posed that "all that portion of the territory of the United States north of the forty-second degree of latitude, and west of the Rocky Moun-

14 SettUtnent of Oregon, 12. "Oregon, the Indian name of this river, was traced by roe to a large river called Orjon in Chinese Tartary, whose latitude corresponds with that of Oregon, in America. The word KUlamucks, the name of a tribe a little south of the mouth of the Oregon, was, also, traced to a people called Killmuchs, who anciently lived near the mouth of the Orjon in Asia. It is evident that the Oregon Killmucks were among the early settlers of North America, ^nd brought with them manv of the proper names used by our Indians. The word Mexico (Mecaco) is identified with the name of the smcient capital of Japan. Identifications of bothproper and common names are numerous.^ — Ibid.. 88n. Another guess was: '*The name of Oregon is derived from or-gano. the Spanish word for wild marjoram, the oreganum vulgar e of Linnaeus, which grows abundantiv in the western part of the disputed territory.*' — Kelley, Oregon. Palmer Sentinel. April 33, 1846. This subject, which lies within the neld of geography rather than history, is discussed m detail in Bancroft, Hist, of Oregon, I, i7-as.

15 Bonnie^ The travels of Jonathan Carver, American Historical Review, XI. 2I8.

16 Kelley, Petition, 1866; 2,

17 17 cong. I sessw H. bill 47, sec. 4-