Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/73



informed, by ancient history, that the Chinese Empire has been in existence, that its people have been in many respects enlightened, and that records have been made and kept by them, for several thousand years past. They had vessels in which they went to sea, but not having an extensive knowledge of navigation, they never ventured far from land; it however sometimes happened, that they were blown off to a great distance, at sea, became lost and bewildered, and were let to the mercy of the wind and waves; in this condition, we believe that these lost vessels have been driven and cast upon the shores of our Continent, and upon the inhabited Islands of the Pacific, where the people who thus saved themselves, have increased, and made the aborigines of this Continent, and those Islands; and that being discouraged by the improbablity of their ever regaining their native country, and destitute of all their accustomed means of improvement, they have descended, in the course of ages, into their present state of barbarism. None can object to this theory, on account of the diversity of features, complexion, and languages, who hold that the human race have descended from one common parentage; since, time and circumstances may have wrought a change in this case, as well as in that. The circumstances which lead us to this opinion are these: about fifty years ago, as we were informed, by different gentlemen, connected with the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, and previous to their establishment in that country, a Japanese Junk was cast upon the North West coast of Oregon; the people who saved themselves from the wreck were taken, and enslaved by the Indians, and were found among them, by the Company's Traders, in that condition. They endeavored to purchase them from their masters, but were unable to obtain them at any reasonable price. The Company, after the expiration of several years, found it necessary to employ a steamer, to collect their furs, on this coast; and instructed the master, upon its arrival, to obtain, if possible, the Japanese slaves. The Indians, whose villages were near the Sea shore, were at the time of the Steamer's arrival on that coast, many of them, out in their canoes, some distance from land. As soon as they perceived her, they fled for the shore, and the steamer persuing, so terrified them, that they not only abandoned their canoes, but their villages also, and fled en masse to the mountains, leaving not only the Japanese, but every thing else behind them. The Japanese were taken on board the steamer, conveyed to Fort Vancouver, and sent from there to London, whence they were carried on board an East