Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/206

188 then undiscovered mouth of the Klamath River for a distributing point for the Oregon mail! Thurston with characteristic energy soon procured the promise of the secretary that the notice should be immediately given, and that after June 1850 mail steamers should go "not only to Nisqually, but to Astoria." The postmaster-general also recommended the reduction of the postage to California and Oregon to take effect by the end of June 1851.

At length in June 1850 the steamship Carolina, Captain R. L. Whiting, made her first trip to Portland with mails and passengers. She was withdrawn in August and placed on the Panamá route in order to complete the semi-monthly communication called for between that port and San Francisco. On the 1st of September the California arrived at Astoria and departed the same day, having lost three days in a heavy fog off the bar. On the 27th the Panamá arrived at Astoria, and two days later the Seagull, a steam propeller. On the 24th of October the Oregon brought up the mail for the first time, and was an object of much interest on account of her name. There was no regularity in arrivals or departures until the coming from New York of the Columbia,