Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/322



310 JOHN BOIT

We lay in this place till the 20th May, 132 during which time we put the Ship in good order and fill'd up all the water casks along side, it being very good. These Natives talk'd the same language as those farther South, but we cou'd not learn it. Observ'd that the canoes that came from down river, brought no otter skins, and I believe the otter constantly keeps in Salt water. They however always came well stocked with land furs, and capital Salmon. The tide set down the whole time and was rapid. Whole trees sometimes come down with the Stream. The Indians inform'd us there was 50 Villages on the banks of this river.

15. N. Latt. 46 7'; W. Long. 122 47'. On the 15th took up the anchor, and stood up River, but soon found the water to be shoal so that the Ship took the ground, after proceeding 7 or 8 miles from our first station. However soon got off again. Sent the Cutter and found the main Channel was on the South side, 133 and that there was a sand bank in the middle. As we did not expect to procure Otter furs at any distance from the Sea, we contented ourselves in our present situation, 134 which was a very pleasant one. I landed abreast the ship with Capt. Gray to view the Country and take pos- session, 135 ' 13554 leaving charge with the 2d Officer. Found

132 This amplification discloses that the writing of this journal was not diurnal, but this entry at some later date, presumably on May zoth, when the ship left the river. This probably explains the unimportant divergence of one day between the dates given by Capt. Gray and Boit.

133 Capt. Gray found that the deep water or ship's channel of the river then, as now, crossed the river from Harrington Point to Tongue Point and followed the south band to Point Adams, but then crossed again into Baker's Bay behind Cape Disappointment. Sand Island was then attached to Point Adams and lay directly in what is now the deep water channel off that point. For discussion of this consult vol. 18, pp. 242-3 of this quarterly. Lieut. Broughton's chart does not show this deep water channel.

134 The latitude cited is practically correct, but the longitude a full degree too far east. This anchorage was somewhere near Point Gray, which is the location of the speculative townsite of Frankfort, now shown on commercial maps of the north bank of the river. According to the table of distances by th government engineers, this point is seventeen and a half miles from the sea. Boit does not record all the movements of the ship on May I4th, isth and i6th, and for this compare with Log of the Columbia, printed herewith.

135 The words "and take possession" were inserted at a later time and are in quite a different ink. W. C. F.

i35# As indicated by Mr. Ford, this is an interpolation. It suggests a cere- mony which is not yet known to have actually taken place, and one which would have been of great value to the U. S. officials during the boundary disputes prior to the treaty of 1846. During the first session of the 32nd Congress of the U. S. a bill was introduced for the relief of Martha Gray, widow of Capt. Robert Gray, and of the heirs of Capt. John Kendrick (S. B. Bill No. 526), and in that connection on Aug. nth, 18*2, a report was filed which contained unsupported statements as to such an act of taking possession. In "Early Days in Old Oregon" (McClurg, 1916), there appears the positive statement of the author that such an act was performed, but no references are given to support it. If proven this will become a very interesting item of history.