Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/34



18 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.

Columbia and Missouri the wonders of Tyre and Palmyra, of Memphis and Ormus. Without that aid, and the same revolu- tion will be eventually accomplished."*^

While Benton was writing of the necessity of a transconti- nental route to the Columbia river country, another man was developing the same idea. This man (perhaps the editor, John S. Skinner) in an anonymous article, which appeared in the July 9, 1819 number of the American Farmer of Baltimore, proposed "The Bactrian camel as a beast of burthen for culti- vators, and for transportation across the continent, to the Pacific ocean." Under this head he presented a glowing pic- ture of the possibilities of the Northwest, its fertile soil, its great quantities of excellent timber, its productive fisheries, and its salubrious climate as indicated by its numerous and robust population of Indians. He continued :

"Settlements, will, no doubt, very soon grow up, and spread along the shores of the Columbia river with astonishing rapid- ity; — and the young athletic powers of our government will, ere long, launch into its waters a fleet to move along the coasts of the Pacific, and take imder its protection the commerce, which the enterprise of our citizens will soon create and extend over those seas, to an incalculable amount. ... To enable the government to wield its potent energies with eflFect, and to give to the American people the means of exerting their enterprising commercial spirit to the greatest advantage, and to enable them to make due profit frtnn the great resources of their coimtry, it has become necessary, that a short, direct, and certain means of communication should be established into every quarter, to the most remote point, and particularly over the continent to the Pacific Ocean.

facilities of intercourse, in that way, have justly attracted the admiration of the civilized world ; but there are physical diffi- culties and obstacles which that masterly invention can neither surmount nor remove, with all its skill and power. . ..
 * Steam Boats have effected much; our improvements and

zo pp. i^, z8, 22-3, 27- See also Brackenridge, 96- 7> aft to the practicability of aa overland route as a meant of developing the trade with the East Indies.