Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/59

Rh true that there are many accounts in early history of explorations to the far west which do not give any certain information, and which have a flavor of mystery if not fiction, but which it is not necessary to notice here. Carver's trip to the head-waters of the Mississippi is a veritable historical fact, and for many reasons, is of very great importance in any history of Oregon or the North Pacific. Carver was a captain in the British provincial army, and from necessity a man of education and ability to comprehend the facts coming under his observance. His exploration extended to a point about fifty miles west of where the city of St. Paul stands. Here he met the Dacotah Indians and lived with them for seven months, studying their language and learning all he could from them about the country to the westward. These Indians drew maps for him as best they could on birch bark, which though meagre and rude in drawing, Carver found to be correct when he had an opportunity to explore for himself. These Indians told Carver of the Rocky mountains; pointed to their location farther west, telling him they were the highest land in all the world they knew, and told him that four great rivers ran down from those mountains in every direction. This was true. From their description. Carver made a map which we insert in this book. On this map Car^^er shows our Columbia as the river of the west, although the natives gave him the name of Oregon in connection with the country or the river, and it is not certain which. But it was from these Dacotah Indians and through Carver, we get the word Oregon as the name of the Old Oregon Country, and the name of our state. Gallons of ink and reams of paper have been wasted in trying to solve the origin and mystery of this name; and still it goes back to those unlettered sons of the forest. Carver, undoubtedly tried his best to catch their meaning, and the true name of every thing, and it is very probable that he did, for he was with them for seven months, and certainly had their utmost trust and confidence. It must be accepted as a mere designation, name of a place or country without any known reason or signification for it, just as thousands of other places have names without rhyme or reason.

Carver's idea in this exploration, besides studying the Indians, was to cross the continent and ascertain its breadth from east to west between the fortythird and forty-sixth parallels of latitude, after which he intended to have the British government establish a post somewhere on the straits of Anian. In his first promised support, the supplies never reached him; and when afterwards he revived the scheme with a wealthy member of the British parliament, their plans were upset by the breaking out of the American rebellion and the war for Independence. The British government had sanctioned the Carver plan, which was to take fifty men and ascend the Missouri river to its headwaters, cross over the Rocky mountain divide and then descend the river of the west to the Pacific ocean, and build a fort at some strategic point. And it is perfectly clear from this chapter of Carver's that the British did not intend to respect the rights of Spain under the treaty of Paris to the country west of the Mississippi. England was even then within three years after signing the treaty of Paris making .plans and taking steps to drive Spain out of her possessions west of the Mississippi, just as they had driven France out of Canada. But now they were counting without their host. In driving France out of Canada, they had Washington and the colonists to help; but now they were to have Washington and the colonists to oppose them.

We cannot realize that at the opening nineteenth century the interior of the North American continent, now so familiar to every reader of public journals, was less known to the world than is the heart of Africa today. French fur traders had penetrated its wilderness depths to the base of the Rocky mountains; but what they found, or what they knew, they jealously kept to themselves, so that there could be no inducement to other venturesome spirits to go searching for peltries and poaching on their preserves. In addition to this trade reason, they had been able to make doubly sure the silence of the Indian,