Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/272



240 T. C Elliott

October 22nd^* — Light breezes and cloudy with a great swell from the Southward. At 6 (a. m,) saw the Discovery get under way. Fresh breezes and squally with rain. At 9 (a. m.) lost sight of the Discovery. Washed and smoked below. Carpenters repairing cutter. Latitude observed 46' 18" N. (Noon) Not seeing the Discovery supposed she had stood off to sea. ^ past 1 weighed and made sail with the flood tide and stood up the river with very irregular sound- ings. At 3 p. m. got on a bank at ^ths miles from the shore. Hoist out cutter and carried stream anchor into 5 fathoms ^ a cable's length in shore of us and hove her off. Weighed the stream and stood within % mile from the shore and came to^

we were enabled to judge, gain admittance. The Daedalus, however, being directed to search for us here, iwaa induced to persevere; particularly as, towards noon, a thick haze which before had in a great degree obscured the land, cleared away, and the heavy swell having much subsided, gave us a more perfect view of our situation, and showed this opening in the coast to be much more extensive than I had formerly imagined. Mount Oljrmpus, the northernmost land in sight, bore by compas N. 7 W.; Oipe Disappointment N. 61 E., 2 miles, the breakers extending from its shore S. 87 E. about half a league distant; those on the southern or oopo- site side of the entrance into the river S. 76 £.: between these is the channel into the river, where at this time the sea did not break. The coast was seen to the southward as far as S. 31 E. The observed latitude 46 20', whkh placed Oipe Disappointment one mile further north than did our former observations. Toe flood at one o'clock making in our favor we weighed, with a signal as before for the Chatham to lead. With boats sounding ahead we made all sail to windward, in 4 to 6 fathoms water. The Chatham being further advanced in the channel, and having more wind and tide, made a greater progress than the Discovery. About three o'clock a gun was fired from behind a point that projected from the inner part of Cape Disappointment, forming to all appearance, a ver^ snug cove; this was answered by the hoisting of the Chatham's colours, an J firing a gun to leaward, by which we concluded some vessel was there at anchor, boon after- wards soundings were denoted by the Chatham to be 6 and 7 fathoms, and at four she anchored apparently in a tolerably snug berth. Towards sunset, the ebb making strongly against u^ with scarcely sufficient wind to command the ship, we were driven out of the channel into 13 fathoms water, where we anchored for the night; the serenity of which flattered us with the hope of getting in the next day.

The clearness of the atmosphere enabled us to see the high round snowy mountain, noticed when in the southern parts of Admiralty inlet, to the south- ward of Mount Rainier; from this station it bore by compas N. 77 E., and, 10ce Mount Rainier^ seemed covered with perpetual snow, as low down •& the intervening country permitted it to be seen. This I have distinguished by the name of MOUNT ST. HELENS, in honor of his Brittanic Majesty's ambassador at the court of Madrid. It is situated in latitude 46* 9', and in longitude ^38^ 4', ac- cording to our obaenrations.

19 Vancouver's **Voyag$,*' vol i, p. 42a, recites:

Sunday, ai. All hopes of getting into Columbia river vanished on Sunday morning, which brought with it a fresh gale from the S. E., and every appearance oiF approaching bad weather, which the falling of the mercury in the barometer •lao indicated. We therefore weighed and stood to sea.

ao Relatively the same anchorage as that of the Columbia on May nth of this same year; a little west of Point Ellice. Astoria lies across the nver about 3 miles disunt, east of south.

a I This long, wide bar of shifting sand occupying the middle of the river from Harrington Point to Desdemona Li^t, near Pt Adams, is practically the same now as in 1793. The channel on the north side is still used for boats of moderate draft ai far as the Qoarantiiie Station and Knappton, but abore that only river- boats of 1i|^t draft can navigate,