# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 21/The Strange Case of Jonathan Carver and the Name Oregon

THE STRANGE CASE OF JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON
By T. C. Elliott
The name of the mother state of all those west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California first came to public notice through the pages of literature. About the year 1812 William Cullen Bryant, then only eighteen years of age, fitted the name (hitherto obscure) into the philosophy and meter of his famous poem "Thanatopsis" which, as first published, contained these lines:
"Take the wings
Of morning—and the Borean desert pierce— Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
That veil Oregan, where he hears no sound
Save his own dashings—yet—the dead are there;"
Earlier than this President Thomas Jefferson, in written instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis in 1803, included the following:
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado, or any other river" etc.
But both statesman and poet took the name from a book published in London in 1778 entitled: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by J. Carver, Esq., and that book and its author have inspired both the title and subject matter of this discussion.
The winter season of 1920-21 marks the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the coast of Massachusetts, an event widely celebrated in both England and the United States. Under the leadership of Governor John Carver, that little band of colonists at Plymouth spent the early months ​ ​of 1621 in such log huts as could be hurriedly erected for their protection. About one hundred and fifty years after that event, one, Jonathan Carver, a collateral descendant of Governor Carver, wintered in a log hut not far distant from where the cities Saint Paul and Minneapolis now stand, with only an Iroquois Indian and French-Canadian voyageur as companions. He established friendly relations with the Sioux Indians then residing in that vicinity, and, eleven years later, in London in 1778, published a book in which are recorded his observations and experiences that winter and during the months immediately preceding and following, when he was traveling on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and on Lake Superior. In that book appears the first known record of the word Oregon, as a name then applied to the river already called "River of the West" but afterwards officially designated Columbia. Thus, before the maritime discoveries of Perez, Heceta or Cuadra, of Cook or Vancouver and of Kendrick or Gray, and before the overland explorations of Mackenzie, David Thompson or Lewis and Clark, the name Oregon was spoken.
One important but undetermined item in the history of the Pacific Northwest relates to the origin of this name Oregon, as communicated by Jonathan Carver in his book, and presumably as set down by him in a journal in that winter of 1766-67. Did he hear this word while among the Indians of Minnesota? Did he see the name or something like it on some map or in the writings of some other person? Did he invent or coin it in his own mind when writing the book? These questions may never be positively answered, but a knowledge of the career of Jonathan Carver and of the conditions existing when he made his journey and was writing his book will assist in the forming of an individual opinion and a final answer may be in sight.
The history of the "Oregon Country" connects itself with that of the state of Missouri by the meanderings of the Oregon Trail, over which so many of the pioneer families of Oregon traveled with patience, fortitude and endurance. But in searching for the name Oregon, the path leads to the states of
Minnesota and Wisconsin and the scenes of Carver's travels There an answer to the first question must be sought- for if the name Oregon or something similar to it, was a spoken word among the Indians or the traders with whom Carver mingled, there is where he heard and made note of it, this whether its ultimate source may have been in the Spanish, the French, the English or the Native-American tongue. And the path then continues on to the famous trading post of Mackinac in Michigan and to London in England, where the other answers will more naturally be looked for. '
This discussion is not intended to include the last word upon the subject, but rather to bring within the reach of Oregon readers some of the results of modern research regarding Jonathan Carver and his book, and to place some interpreta- tions thereon; also to suggest some possible sources for his name Oregon. Source words other than through Carver do not concern us.
Strangely enough, until very recently, the date, place of birth and family line of Jonathan Carver have been quite as much a mystery as is his source for the name Oregon. Among other statements about him appear those of his biographer in London, Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, as follows: "Our author died on the 31st of January, 1780, at the age of forty-eight years, and lies interred in the Holy well- Mount burying ground," (Lon- don) ; and the place of birth is given as at Still water, Con- neticut. However, in March, 1920, in volume three and num- ber three of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Dr. William Browning, of Brooklyn, New York, has quite conclusively shown from the "Vital Records of Weymouth" that Jonathan Carver was born at Weymouth, Massachusetts, on the 13th of April, 1710, and, at the age of about eight years, removed with his parents to Canterbury, Connecticut. Thus it appears that, while in the wilds of Minnesota in 1767, our traveler could have celebrated his fifty-eighth birthday, and at the time of death had nearly reached the allotted limit of three score years and ten. Later in this discussion some explanation will ​be offered for this apparent ignorance by his friends in England.
The scholarly research by Dr. Browning has brought to light other genealogical facts of interest. The great grandfather of Jonathan Carver was Robert Carver, a brother of Governor John Carver, of Plymouth, and a settler at Marsh field, Massachusetts, about 1638. And it may be remarked by way of digression that at Marshfield in later years lived Daniel Webster, who had so much influence in the diplomatic settlement of sovereignty over the Oregon Country. The father of our traveler was Ensign David Carver, who was a man of prominence and of property both at Weymouth and at Canterbury. Ensign Carver held various offices in the town governments, and, at the time of his death in Canterbury in 1727, left no small amount of personal and real property to his widow and children. An uncle of the traveler, on his mother's side, was Colonel John Dyer, "prominent in the affairs of Connecticut." A cousin was "Hon. Eliphalet Dyer, LL. D., a member of the continental congress, and later chief justice of the state of Connecticut." Another maternal uncle was Solomon Pain, "widely known as a leader and organizer of the Separatist Church movement in Connecticut, perhaps the greatest religious schism that has ever stirred the old state." Dr. Browning sums up his findings as follows: "Carver came of able stock on both sides. His family had means. He enjoyed the best advantages the time and place afforded. His nearest older relatives were men of influence and standing, large factors in the life and activities of a wide region."
In this same connection Dr. Browning mentions some of the opportunities open to Jonathan Carver to acquire skill as an artisan in the making of shoes or some knowledge of the practice of medicine, but offers no evidence that he ever hammered a last or prescribed a powder. This remark is injected because the late Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University, characterized Carver as "an unlettered shoemaker," incapable of producing such a book as his Travels, etc.; and Dr. Lettsom ​
ession. was
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alluded to Carver having studied for the medical prof As to the charge of illiteracy Profession Bourne evidently . partly mistaken. If anything is to be said against the ability of Carver to write, it is that he could and did write "not wisely but too well." There is a bit of evidence as to his having been a shoemaker, but nothing as to his having practiced medicine, and his education seems to have been more along the line of surveying and draughting; for Mr. John Thomas Lee 4 of Madison, Wisconsin, has found instances of actual work of that kind by Carver. As a matter of fact, nothing is positively known of Carver's education, employment, occupation, trade or profession up to the time of his enlistment as a soldier. Ap- parently he was not a man of sufficient prominence to have acquired property or been noticed in any public manner. There appears the record of his marriage at Canterbury in the year 1746, and of the birth of children there and also at Montague, in Northern Massachusetts, from which place he enlisted for military duty at about the age of forty-four years.
While Professor Bourne 5 was a trifle hasty in his estimate of the literary inability of Jonathan Carver, he was unanswer- able in proving the main contention of his argument, namely, that the second and greater part of Carver's book was copied from the writings of earlier explorers, Hennepin, LaHontan and Charlevoir, and other books. This extensive plagiarism had been known to scholars many years, but had never been so authoritatively emphasized. There has been a disposition to condone this as being more or less a reflection of the stand- ards of writing at the time, but the fact is admitted. Professor Bourne also denied that the first part of the book is a source of original information.
The marital relations of Jonathan Carver were not honorable. He appears to have deserted his first wife and family when, if not before, he started upon his journey to the West, as is indicated by a petition for relief by Mrs. Carver to the general
Mr. Lee may be called the apologist for Jonathan Carver. s (See Proceedings of State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
His two contri-
are exceedingly accurate, fair and complete. But he has failed to take Major Rogers' influence sufficiently into account, and evidently was not aware of the limited acquaintance of Dr. Lettsom with Carver. Much data herein referred to will be found in his two papers.
5 Professor Bourne was regarded as the leader of modern criticisms of Carver a Travels- see vol. XI., pp. 287-302 of American Historical Review. But the late Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites of the Wisconsin Historical Society took the same view; see vol. 1 8, of the Collections of said society, pp. 280-81. ​
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court in 1768. In February, 1769, Carver sailed for England, never to return, and, while there, married (whether legally or not is uncertain) another woman by whom children were born. Both wives survived him and were left in need and distress.
Jonathan Carver's military career covered the entire period of what is known as the French and Indian War and in that he was more successful, being early advanced to the rank of lieutenant, and later to a captaincy. General Jeffrey Amherst (from whom Amherst College in Massachusetts is named) after the capture of Montreal and the close of hostilities, mad honorable mention of his conduct. While at home recovering from camp fever in 1756 he petitioned the general court foi relief, and, again in December, 1763, presented a similar peti- tion, both of which were favorably received and acted upon. During this period the name "Lieutenant Carver" appears as one of the selectmen of Montague, and probably this refers to him. Upon his return from the West in August, 1768, Gen- eral Gage, then in command of the British forces in America, furnished him a letter of commendation, but to this reference will be made later.
The title page of Captain Carver's book (first three edi- tions) 6 reads, as follows: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the years 1766, 1767 and 1768. Of these years, about six months were consumed in the going and coming between Boston and Mackinac, in Michigan, twelve months in the journey to the westward and northward of Mackinac, and about nine months in residence at Mackinac; in all, two years and two months absence from Boston. His own narrative states that, starting from Mackinac on Septem- ber 3rd, 1766, he traveled in the boats and company of some traders who were going to the Mississippi River by way of the Green Bay and the Fox- Wisconsin river route; that late in October, when in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, he purchased a canoe, and, with two servants, ascended that river to a point about forty miles above the
6 The title page in many of the later editions reads Three Years' Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, and some thirty editions are said to have been issued. The writer of this discussion has used what is known as "the best American edition", that of Harper and Brother, 1838, which is a reprint from the third London edition with additional data in the addenda. ​
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falls of St. Anthony before returning to ascend the Saint Peter River two hundred miles to winter with the Sioux Indians there. Saint Peter River has been called the Minnesota River since 1852, and at its mouth the United States military post, known as Fort Snelling, is now located, between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The narrative goes on to state that, in the spring of 1767, after returning to Prairie du Chien for awhile he again ascended the Mississippi River to the Chippe- way, and followed one of the regular routes of Indian travel north to Lake Superior, then skirted the western, northern and eastern shores of that lake, around to the Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac, where he arrived the first of November, 1767. 7 It states that he rested for some time at a Chippeway town; also, at the Grand Portage on the northwest shore of the Lake, where the traders going to Lake Winnipeg and the regions beyond foregathered, and Indians from those distant districts visited. Thus it appears that not more than eight months were spent in the regions of the Mississippi River and of Lake Superior where he could have obtained information from the Indians or traders as to the River Oregon, and the geog- raphy of the continent and habitats and customs of the various tribes of Indians, and learned to speak the language of the Sioux. One is tempted to inquire whether the title of his book was not disingenuously worded.
It is hardly necessary to enlarge upon the facts of the ex- ploration and trade and missionary effort, during the French regime in the Mississippi Valley and around the Great Lakes for more than one hundred years prior to the time of Captain Carver's journey through those regions. Suffice it to say that a French officer, Nicholas Perrot, in 1689 at the Post Saint Anthony in the presence of witnesses publicly proclaimed the sovereignty of the King of France over all lands and waters and peoples of that entire region. One of the witnesses to that ceremonial was Pierre Charles Le Sueur, who was already quite well acquainted with the country, and who later, in 1700-1702, ascended the Mississippi River from New
7 The dates given by Carver in his Travels cannot be relied up; manifestly wilful alterations appear. ​
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Orleans with a large party and wintered on the Saint Peter River, about where Captain Carver claims to have wintered in 1766-7. Each year intervening, when Indian hostilities did not prevent, Frenchmen were in this field gathering peltries. From Lake Superior also the traders to the West had been going from the Grand Portage to Lake Winnipeg and beyond for many years. Captain Carver then did not travel through any unknown country or mingle with Indians who had not met with white people.
We interpolate here a few items of contemporaneous his- tory. In 1762-3, France parted title to her possessions in America, ceding to Britain, as a result of the war just closed, all those parts lying east and southeast of the Mississippi River, and to Spain, by gift, all lying to the westward then known as Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Saint Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede, a French merchant from New Orleans. Both cities were French in their people, customs and speech, and remained so in spite of the Spanish governmental control. Laclede's licenses gave him at least partial rights to the Indian trade on the Mississippi, the Saint Peter and the Missouri rivers. The western military and trading post of the British was at Mackinac, but from there the trade in the Mississippi Valley was almost entirely carried on by French licensees. In the time of Captain Carver, then, the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, in their relations with traders and priests, still heard only the French language spoken by white people. All commerce then was carried on by use of the water routes and portages, and the place of rendez- vous was at Prairie du Chien, which was about equally dis- tant between Mackinac and Saint Louis by the trade route.
The language used by Captain Carver in his Travels, in referring to the name Oregon, has been quoted too often to require repetition. He speaks of having learned "from the Indians" and by his "own observations" of the close proximity of the sources of the four principal rivers of the continent of North America among some high lands just south of the Lake ​
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of the Woods, one of which rivers was the Oregon; and it is apparent that he did not personally visit those sources. Such a statement seems on the face of it ridiculous, but at the period of the Revolutionary War, very few people in England knew about that part of our continent, and such a proposition ap- peared as a great discovery and helped the sale of his book wonderfully. A map in the book shows this river as emptying into the Pacific Ocean at an opening in the coast marked "discovered by Aguilar" and along the lower course of the stream appears the name "River of the West." It may be re- marked that he does not say in direct words that the Indians told him the name for this river.
In arguing that the name Oregon was an Indian place name, several fundamental facts are to be taken into account.
First, to the Columbia River proper it is not known that the Indians applied any particular name. Probably no ex- plorer more intelligent as to Indian life was ever on the Co- lumber River than David Thompson, who discovered its source in 1807, and traversed its entire length in 1811 ; and nowhere does he mention any Indian place name as applied to it.
Second, it was not the custom among the Indians to use the same name with reference to the entire length of any river; often on a short stream one name was used near its mouth and another nearer its source. The Walla Walla River is a case in point : where it emerges from the foothills it bore the name Tum-a-lum. Captain Carver, on the plains of Minne- sota, would have heard only a name of one of the tributaries to the Columbia; the Snake, Salmon, Missouletka (Clark Fork) or the Saleesh (Flathead). And Green River may be added to the list as then being considered a possible tributary to the Columbia.
Third, the English letter "R" is not common to Indian dialects of the tribes of the Rocky Mountains or the plains. Captain Carver set down in his book a vocabulary of Sioux and Chippeway words directly obtained from those tribes, and in but one of his words does the letter "R" appear.
​Fourth, it was the custom of the Indians to use place names descriptive of some physical feature of a stream or of the region through which it flowed.
As coming from the Indians a Shoshone word Ogwa, meaning "water," has been most often mentioned as being relevant. This word appears in the notes of the early explorer La Verendrye (1742–44), in the form Karoskiou, which the late Granville Stuart of Montana interpreted as a rendering of Kanarogwa, the Shoshone name for Green River. John E. Rees, of Idaho, has recently urged the combination of Ogwa with Peon, meaning "West" as an exact Shoshone designation meaning "River of the West," which name had been written in French upon maps for thirty years before Carver's time. Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, in Bancroft's History of Oregon, also mentioned some ramifications of this word Ogwa.
Reasoning from analogy, it does not seem probable that Captain Carver heard any such name when among the Sioux that winter near the Saint Peter River. Charlevoix, nearly fifty years earlier, had closely questioned these Sioux as to any river flowing into the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean), but noted no name for the same, and not one of the many other records left by the French makes any mention of it, as far as now known. Nearly thirty-five years later, Lewis and Clark spent the winter with the Mandan Sioux on the Missouri River four hundred and fifty miles further west, and were keen for any information of this sort, but their journals record nothing as to such a name being current, or even mentioned by Sacajawea, who had been born west of the Rocky Mountains. It is more likely that the name would have been communicated by Assiniboine and Cree Indians at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, but the same reasoning applies there. When, prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition, so little had become really known about the streams and mountains and valleys, between the Mandan Villages and the sources of the Missouri, does it seem probable that the Indian name of a river, beyond the Rocky Mountains, seeped through to the ears of Jonathan ​
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Carver alone among all who explored, traveled, traded or baptised along the Mississippi River prior to and later than his time?
Very little attempt has been made to trace the name Oregon to a French source, but it is possible that, through continuous contact with French traders, the Indians could have said some- thing about the river which was passed along or interpreted in the tongue of a Frenchman or French-Canadian.
This theory is not new on the Pacific Coast, but was men- tioned by one of the editorial writings of the late Harvey Scott of Portland, Oregon, thus : "We believe it probable that the name Oregon arose out of some circumstances connected with the Western explorations of the French. Earlier than the English the French had pressed on westward from the Great Lakes to the Red River, to the Saskatchewan and to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They were ranging the country of the Upper Mississippi in search of furs and for trade with the natives ; they were full of curiosity and active in inquiry about the great distant West and the unknown Western sea. Of this sea they possessed Spanish charts, and probably used among the natives the word Aragon as a homonym (synonym) for Spain." 11 This would really apply to either French or Spanish origin for the name.
One of the picturesque features of the fur trade, in Old Oregon, was the annual rendezvous of the trappers and traders and Indians in the valley of Green River in western Wyoming. During the period under discussion, similar scenes were an- nually enacted at Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, where Captain Carver visited in May, 1767. He thus describes the place: "This town is the great mart, where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble, about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here; this is determined by a general council of the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more conducive to their interest to sell
ii The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 19, 1892. ​
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their goods at this place, or carry them on to Louisiana, or Michillimackinac. According to the decision of this council, they either proceed further or return to their different homes." But a more literal and less elegant account is given by Peter Pond, another Yankee, who wrote when there in May, 1774, seven years later: "We imbarkt and drifted down with the Currant till we Came to the Plane Whare we Saw a Large Colection from Eavery Part of the Misseppey who had arived Before us Even from Orleans Eight Hundred Leages Belowe us. The Indans Camp Exeaded a Mile & a half in Length. Hear was Sport of All Sorts. We went to Collecting furs and Skins - - By the Different tribes with Sucksess. The french ware Verey Numeres. Thare was Not Les than One Hundred and Thirty Canoes, which Came from Mackinaw Caring from Sixtey to Eightey Hundred Wate Apease all made of Birch Bark and white Seder for the Ribs. Those Boates from Orleans and Illenoa and other Parts ware Numeres. - - After all the Bisness was Dun and People Began to Groe tirde of Sport thay Began to Draw of for thare Differant Departments and Prepare for the Insewing winter." 12
Commenting upon the above we may say that Peter Pond (whose extensive travels into the Athabasca country are so well known in the history of the Canadian fur trade) was nearly cotemporaneous with Captain Carver on the Mississippi River, and he has left a summarized journal or narrative (quoted above) which is intensely human both in its orthog- raphy and story. W T hen going to his winter trading place on the Saint Peter River in the fall of 1773, he wrote thus: "As we past up Saint Peters River about fourteen miles, We stopt to Sea Carvers Hut whare he Past his Winter when in that Countrey. It was a Log House about Sixteen feet long Covered with Bark With a fireplace But one Room and no flore. This was the Extent of his travels. His Hole Toure I with One Canoe Well maned Could make in Six weeks."
Peter Pond just before this had been engaged in the Indian trade for six years in districts tributary to Detroit, and had
12 See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 341​
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been at Mackinac during Carver's residence there, if we in- terpret his dates correctly; at any rate he had heard about Carver's journey five years before the publication of the manuscript, and he reflects an opinion which probably was current around Mackinac in those days. It may be remarked that the same opinion about Captain Carver's not having ascended the Saint Peter River at all was given independently by William H. Keating, the trained naturalist and historian of Long's expedition in 1823 to the sources of that river. 13
Returning now to the theory that the Indians used a corrup- tion of some Spanish name in speaking of the River of the West, it may be said that Captain Carver's statement, about the Indians at Rendezvous declining to trade there and unitedly carrying their furs on to Mackinac or to distant Louisiana, is not confirmed by other accounts of the fur trade at that time, and is an example of the inaccuracies to be found in the first or journal portion of his book. But all accounts agree as to this opportunity for contact between the Indians and the French from the lower-river trading points, where Spanish influences prevailed, where the licenses to traders were issued by Spanish officials, and where the trading goods may have been given some Spanish markings, The name of Spain was at the time very generally associated with a mythical river flowing into the Pacific Ocean for several reasons, particularly these: Spanish explorations northward from Mexico into California and the acquisition of horses by the Indians by way of the great interior basin between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada ranges of mountains ; rumors of Spanish knowledge of the sources of Colorado River; the discoveries by the Spanish navigator Martin d'Aguilar on the Northwest Coast. In fact a corruption from the Spanish, through French and Indian tongues, of the name of that navigator is not an entire im- possibility. A case in point appears in the narrative of Alex- ander Mackenzie, who reached the Pacific Ocean at Bentict Arm in the summer of 1792. The natives there told him of the recent visit of boats containing white men, one com-
iTsee vol. i, pp. 323-4 of Narrative of Expedition to Source of St. Peter's River, (Philadelphia, if- ^ ​
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manded by Macubah, meaning Captain Vancouver, and the other by Bensins, meaning Lieutenant Broughton. We are presuming that Captain Carver heard the name spoken by the Indians, improbable though that presumption seems to be.
A French word that does not vary much from Oregon in either spelling or sound is Ouragan, meaning "wind storm," "blizzard" or "tornado" and very literally descriptive of climatic conditions in the region where Captain Carver heard from the Indians that the River of the West tooks its rise. There is nothing in Carver's Travels to indicate that he himself could speak French ; some things in fact indicate the contrary. His getting the word from the Indians could have been in- directly through his own French-Canadian voyageur or in- terpreter, or some of the traders who expressed in their own tongue Ouragan (a descriptive name) given by the Indians to the upper reaches of the mythical River of the West. A Spanish word of similar sound and meaning, Huracan, offers room for further speculation along the same line. These suggestions carry Mr. Scott's theory further than he intended perhaps, but meet the conditions of Indian nomenclature ex- pressed in the French instead of the Indian tongue; and also offer a word quite within philological requirements.
The Spanish name Aragon fills the same requirements along with the prevailing association of Spanish discoveries with the mythical river. But the glory of Aragon as a kingdom had long since departed, and as a province of Spain was not then in special prominence, and if that is our source name it was more likely an instance of Carver's ingenuity in writing than of any spoken word he listened to when in the West.
The four principal rivers of the continent of North America were, according to Jonathan Carver, the Mississippi, the Saint Lawrence, the Bourbon and the Oregon or "River of the West ;" all rising very near together in the highlands west of Lake Superior. All the names above mentioned appeared upon maps then known and available except the name Oregon. The river Bourbon was the Nelson River of a few years later and ​
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today, flowing from Lake Winnipeg into Hudson's Bay; and was given the name by La Verendrye about 1741. The upper end of Lake Winnipeg, above the narrows, was Verendrye's and Carver's "Lake Bourbon." The Red River of the North, flowing into Lake Winnipeg from the south was never named "Bourbon," not even on Carver's maps. There was only an appearance of truth about this scheme of four such rivers and that had been made known by map makers nearly forty years before Carver claims to have heard about it, as is evi- denced in the following letter written by the French governor of Canada to the ministere des colonies at Paris : 14
Monseigneur I have the honor to send you a copy of a map of the course of the river of the west, made by the savage Ochagac and others.
If the account of these savages is accurate, that river must discharge above California. The Sieur Chaussegros has traced, from the Sieur de ITsle's map on a flying sheet, the course of the river reduced according to the map. He finds that the river discharges toward the entrance discovered by Martin Daguilar. He has also reduced the savages' map, on which there are three scales, while his is drawn to only one and shows the whole course of the river, from the height of land beyond Lake Superior to above California. The savages have traced on the map the upper portion of the Mississippi River, which takes its rise to the south of Lake Ouinipigou, and, according to the Sieur de ITsle's map, the river Rio Colorado would take its rise about the same spot.
I observed with the Sieur Chaussegros that this country is traversed by two great rivers, which take their rise about the middle ; one flows toward the east which is the Saint Lawrence, the other to the south and is the Mississipy. There remain to the west an extent of territory from seven to eight hundred leagues in width, without any large river in it. This would be contrary to all the knowledge we have of countries that are known in the world ; where in so vast an area there is always some great river that traverses it ; which leads me to think that
14 From manuscript in archives in Pans; see pp. 103-4 of Wisconsin His- torical Society Collections, vol. 17. In this connection read L. P. Burpee's chapter on Carver in his book entitled The Search for the Western Sea. ​
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the savages may tell the truth, for it is not natural that, in sc vast an extent, there should not be a great river ; and it seems that the river, of which the savages speak, discharges into the Southern sea. We know the rivers indicated on the Sieur d Tlsle's map and according to the course that the savages give to the river of the West, it flows to the entrance recently discovered by Martin Daguilar, where we know of no other river above or to the north.
I have the honor to be with very profound respect, Monseig j neur, Your very humble and very obedient Servant,
Beauharnois. Quebec, October 15th, 1730.
The map makers, prior to and during Captain Carver's time, had not progressed farther than mere speculation as to streams in the region westward, from the Red River of the North to the Rocky mountains. The name Riviere or Fleuve d'Ouest appears marked against any stream that was traced through or in that region, even upon some we now at once recognize as parts of the Missouri River. Their guesses were based upon Indian tales and the brief and difficult notes of Verendrye's (1742-44) and the reports of priests who mingled with the Indians on the Assiniboine and tributaries of the Mississippi rivers. There was no regular habit of land travel across the plains between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers then, and the courses of the Saskatchewan to the north were known much earlier than those of the Missouri. There were half a dozen maps available before 1766, showing tracings of a River of the West, and others showing the Bourbon River, and it is within reason to suppose that Captain Carver saw some of those maps even before starting for the West, particularly so if going upon any such enterprise as he outlined in the introduc- tion to his book of Travels. The two maps appearing in that book were not prepared until 1776-77 in London, and on only one of them does the name Oregon appear, written "Heads of ​
JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 357
Origan". On no other map published before that time, has the name Origan or Oregon yet been found. 15
The preface or introduction to a book is presumed to reveal the true motives and intent of its author. Captain Carver's introduction tells of his bitter disappointment because of hav- ing been compelled to return to Mackinac from the West, with- out carrying out a plan he had independently conceived soon after the close of the war to make his way across the con- tinent to the Pacific Ocean and locate there a port for the use of British commerce. And for this far look into the future, he has been lauded by some writers as a forerunner of President Jefferson in plans for transcontinental exploration. Captain Carver attributed the failure of his plan to the in- ability of Commandant Rogers to supply him on the Mississippi River with goods to use as presents to the Indians and also his own inability to purchase such goods from the traders at Grand Portage. To anyone familiar with the progress of the organized fur traders to the Rocky Mountains, such an in- dependent enterprise is at once recognized as absurd. Had Captain Carver set out in the manner he describes he would simply have disappeared, and with him perhaps any chance for the evolution of the name Oregon. Such an enterprise not only required higher official sanction than the mere per- mit and assistance of the commandant at Mackinac, but also called for personal experience in the Western field, outfitting and financial backing, little or none of which Captain Carver
had.
The following excerpt from an official letter written at Quebec on March 2, 1768, while Carver was still at Mackinac, shows conditions at the time as well as what was already in the minds of British officials. The letter was sent by Sir Guy Carleton, then governor general of Canada, in reply to inquiry from Lord Shelbourne, of the British ministry in London, 16 and we quote as follows:
"I shall easily find in the troops here many officers and men very ready to undertake to explore any part of this continent,
^"These maps have been cited t ? the writer by librarians in the Library of
358 T. C. ELLIOTT
who require no other encouragement than to be told such service will be acceptable to the king, and if properly executed will commend them to his favour; but, as they are unac- quainted with the country, the Indian language and manners, 'tis necessary to join with them some Canadians, to serve as guides and interpreters.
Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go
"Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go winter in one of those posts, set out early in the spring for the Pacific Ocean, find out a good port, take its latitude, longitude, and describe it so accurately as to enable our ships from the East Indies to find it out with ease, and then return the year following; Your Lordship will readily perceive the advantage of such discoveries, and how difficult attempts to explore unknown Parts must prove to the English, unless we avail ourselves of the knowledge of the Canadians, who are well acquainted with the country, the language and manners of the natives."
As far as Jonathan Carver is concerned, there is strong reason to believe that he had no such original design, and that this journey to West or Northwest was merely preliminary to more extensive plans of the Commandant, as will appear in the continuation of this discussion.
The discussion thus far has served to indicate Captain Carver's journey to the Mississippi Valley and the opportuni- ties afforded to hear the name Oregon mentioned there or at the Grand Portage. We will now consider his environment at Mackinac during nine months' residence.
He returned there the last of August, 1767, and in the fol- lowing month wrote a letter to his wife at Montague, Massa- chusetts, which was promptly published in a Boston paper the following February. This letter, 17 together with a prospectus published in the same paper in August, 1768, clearly discloses that his journal and observations were being prepared at Mackinac for publication, and that the manuscript must have been partly completed there. The statements in the letter
17 Both letter and prospectus are printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings for 1909, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. ​
JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 359
and also in the book itself indicate that he had access at Mackinac to the writings of Hennepin and others, from which he plagiarized. Major Rogers, the commandant, had books relating to that region, and Carver mentions having carried books with which he mystified the Sioux Indians. But The History of the American Indians, by James Adair, from which he plagiarized, was not published until 1775 in London, and therefore the text of his Travels must have been added to and revised at later dates.
The Mackinac we are speaking of was located on the sandy shore of the south side of the strait, between Lakes Huron and Michigan, near what is now Mackinaw City, in the state of Michigan. There had been an original Mackinac on the north side of the strait, and later there was another and more permanent Mackinac on the island four or five miles away. Mackinac was the final starting point in the traffic from Canada and New York for peltries from the Northwest, years before and after the time of Jonathan Carver. Here all licensed traders registered and hired many of their voyageurs. Here were the homes of both active and retired French-Cana- dians and half-breeds, who were employed by the traders, some of whom quite possibly had been with La Verendrye during his years of exploration and trade to the westward. In the office of the commandant, records must have been kept and maps showing the trade routes and Indian tribes. Macki- nac just then afforded abundant opportunities to anyone seek- ing information about the regions toward the Rocky Mountains or preparing to write a book such as Carver's Travels.
Mackinac was also the place where adventurers gathered; men with or without resources seeking exploits or riches in the field of exploration or the fur trade. There was a mythical Northwest Passage to be located and Mackinac was on the way toward it. There were visions of the extension of British trade on the Pacific Ocean, and of an overland route to con- nect with it. Not as a real explorer but rather as one among such adventurers seeking to live at government expense we ​
360 T. C. ELLIOTT
find our Captain Carver at Mackinac, his plans well known if not inspired by the resident commandant. In the letter already referred to, he said: "I have two hundred pounds due me from the crown, which I shall have in the spring; also, the governor commandant * * has promised he will take spe- cial care to acquaint the government at home of my services." The claims he filed for the expense of travel to the Westward bore the "O. K." of the commandant, but were not paid at Headquarters because no authority had been given for such employment and these claims became the basis for much im- portunity in London later. The inquiry arises as to who furnished money for this Western adventure by a retired army officer who had been obliged to petition for relief in 1764. The prompt publication in Boston of Carver's letter and his announcement of a forthcoming book leads to the presumption that some one in Massachusetts had advanced funds for this enterprise.
Although he had written to Massachusetts from Mackinac in September, 1767, and his letter had been published there, Captain Carver did not hesitate to write in his Travels that he did not return from the West until November, just as nav- igation had closed on Lake Erie, and too late to return to Boston before the following June. But of his own life at Mackinac during those nine months he says little or nothing. He passes without mention events which might have added to the interest of his narrative, for about the 6th of December the officer in command of the military forces, under orders from Headquarters, placed Commandant Rogers under arrest, later put him in irons because of attempted escape, and, in the spring, sent him under guard to Montreal for trial by court martial. The charge against him was conspiracy ; an attempt to organize the French and the Indians of the Mississippi Val- ley in revolt, in conjunction with another officer named Hop- kins at New Orleans. The charge was changed to one of mutiny and at the trial Rogers was, for lack of evidence it is said, acquitted, but was not returned to Mackinac. ​
JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 361
During the French and Indian War, Captain Carver must of necessity have had acquaintance if not comradeship with Major Robert Rogers," from New Hampshire, who was the daring leader of a partisan command known as the "Rogers Rangers", as well known then as the Roosevelt Rough Riders in our own times. Both officers were present at the massacre at Fort William Henry and again at the capture of Montreal. After the latter event, Major Rogers was sent by General Jeffrey Amherst to capture the French outpost at Detroit, and thus had opportunity personally to view the Western country and observe its chances for personal adventure and exploit. He afterwards retired from active service and spent a few months in London, where his previous record gave him pres- tige, and his boisterous conduct some notoriety. In October, 1765, he was appointed to the position of governor-command- ant at Mackinac and returned to America, and evidently had in mind activities outside of the usual official duties and which were attractive to his former army acquaintance, Captain Carver. At any rate both are recorded as arriving at Mackinac in August, 1766, and probably had traveled together from Niagara, and very soon Captain Carver set out for the Mis- sissippi Valley under arrangements made by Commandant Rogers. It is quite clear then why Carver said nothing about the unusual events at Mackinac during the winter of 1767-8, and makes the least possible mention of Major Rogers any- where in his book.
A belief that Captain Carver was one of the emissaries of Rogers to the Indians is based upon more than mere sus- picion. Not only does his name appear with other names in the papers in the case but his own narrative indirectly reveals the fact. Mention of particular instances is deferred. Then there is the curious incident of the deed which Carver obtained from two Sioux chiefs in May, 1767, conveying to him a tract of land more than one hundred miles square lying east and southeast from the Falls of Saint Anthony and afterwards prominently known in Wisconsin as the "Carver Grant." This
1 8 For sketches of Major Rogers, see Parkman's Conspiracy of Ponteac, vol. 2; also Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 22*; also Pon- teach; or the Savages of America, by Robert Rogers (Allan Nevins, editor, Caxlon Club edition, Chicago, 1914). This contains the best biography of Major Rogers. Through the courtesy of Mr. Nevins, the present writer has received valuable references just as this manuscript is going to the printer. ​
362 T. C. ELLIOTT
deed was found among Captain Carver's papers after his death. It had not been exhibited by him for the very evident reason of fear to prejudice his standing in London, for by proclamation in October, 1763, the king had especially forbid- den any British subjects to acquire land from the Indians in America.
But another of Major Rogers' accomplishments interests us more directly because it casts suspicions upon the originality of other parts of Carver's Travels. It appears that Rogers was himself possessed of literary ability. One of the objects of his going to London was to publish three books, one the Journals he kept during the French and Indian War, another a brief descriptive narrative entitled A Concise Account of North America, and the third a drama or tragedy called Ponteach, or the Savages of America. These were brought out in 1765-6, and the first two in particular attracted very favor- able attention, and it is easy to see where Captain Carver took his cue for book writing. There appear in his Travels instances of very positive plagiarism from "A Concise Account", and from Major Rogers it is reasonably certain that Captain Carver drew his idea of transcontinental exploration. 19
From Mackinac in the summer of 1768, Captain Carver traveled to Boston by way of Fort Pitt, Philadelphia and New York. At British headquarters in the latter city, he endeavored to secure payment of his expense bill, but General Gage re- fused and gave him a letter of character in the service instead. Arriving in Massachusetts, he visited his family, secured other letters of recommendation from willing citizens and also under- took to get subscriptions for the publication of his book in America. Failing in that he sailed for London in February, 1769.
Of his eleven years in London, few details are really known. During the first five at least, he was not unlike many an indi- vidual who inhabits our own capital city of Washington, nurs- ing a claim against the government. His first memorial was promptly filed and was promptly examined by "the lords of the
19 See Ponteach, Caxton Club edition, at footnote on page 120. ​
JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 363
committee of his majesty's most honorable privy council for plantation affairs", who, in July, 1769, found that his discov- eries were of no value and that he was entitled to nothing except by way of compassion or relief. Later this relief, to the extent of the expenditures of his journey, was granted on the condition that he deposit with the government all his charts and journals, and still later he was given permission to publish these privately, which after more long waiting he was able to do. Meantime there appears another petition by Carver to the Crown for appointment as agent among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, upon which no action seems to have been taken. 20 This no doubt gave rise to the story that in 1775 the king had decided to equip an expedition to the Mississippi River under the command of Captain Carver, but was pre- vented by the outbreak of the War of the Revolution. That tale came from the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., during his many years (1804-1824) of remarkable activity and colossal lying as chief promoter of the claimants for the "Carver Grant". 21 The said Peters, during an exceedingly long life, injected spice into the annals of Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin. But the vicissitudes of a poor author in London, also with a new family connection which could not have been inspiring, brought Carver to a pitiful death by starvation. It must be remembered that he was nearly sixty years of age when arriving in London.
When nearing the end of his life, Captain Carver fell into the hands of kindly men whose names were well known in London, Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the latter of whom bought the rights of a publisher in the third edition of the Travels, which Carver had himself arranged for, and placed the books on the market for the benefit of the London widow and child of Captain Carver. To that edition Dr. Lettsom contributed a brief biographical sketch of the author and added the deed from the Sioux chiefs as an appen- dix. Dr. Lettsom was a gentleman and a scholar and a gener- ous man, but all he knew of the career of Captain Carver was
20 This memorial is printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings of the Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1012.
21 See Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 6, p. 238; also see the Review of Mississippi Valley Historical Society, vol. 7, No. i. ​
364 T. C. ELLIOTT
obtained indirectly from the widow and the personal papers of the deceased and possibly from such an acquaintance as the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., and, therefore, his sketch was both incomplete and incorrect. Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom knew Captain Carver only as the recognized author of a book of travel which had been only recently published but had gone through two editions and which was written in good style and language and described a part of the empire that was just then very much in the eye and mind of the British people. Carver's Travels contains the names Ponteac, Mackinac, Niagara, Detroit, Grand Portage and Mississippi, of the Sioux and Assinniboiles, and many others just then of almost magic interest in London. That the author of such a book should have died from want and starvation seemed very sad to Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom. 22 And so it was, for Captain Carver was not really a bad man, and neither was he a good man ; and that is all the epitaph we can write under his name.
The fact that Carver's Travels was dedicated to Joseph Banks, Esq., the president of the Royal Society and a man of scientific knowledge, added to the dignity of the book, but meant little as to its real accuracy or reliability, for a great many other books were, according to custom, dedicated to the president of that society, whoever he might be. But such dedication did cause the manuscript and other papers of this author to be deposited in the British Museum and did make it obligatory that the author have assistance in the final prep- aration for publication. Speaking of the Carver papers in the British Museum, Mr. John Thomas Lee says : "The jour- nals and the Indian vocabulary are in the handwriting of the author, and have numerous alterations and additions. They do not appear to have been written from day to day, 23 but rather to be copies of original notes, with additions from memory. * * * * Evidently Carver's manuscript was not considered suitable for publication in its original form, for a reviser seems to have been employed to prepare it for the
22 See documents printed in this number of Oregon Historical Quarterly.
23 Henry R. Schoolcraft was of the opinion that Carver did not "keep diurnal notes". See page 168 of his Personal Memoirs (Philadelphia, i8sO​
JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 365
press. Among the papers bequeathed -by Sir Joseph Banks, there is a note "to the Reviser", in which Carver asks that nameless gentleman, in case he finds any accounts which are unconnected, to be so good as to let him "know by Mr. Pain ancUvery information shall be given that the author is capable of ". In London, of course, Carver had access to all known material in the way of books (including the recently pub- lished History, by James Adair) and maps and no doubt gave his writings a final revision. If he then added the name Oregon we now know of no other source for it than his own mind or that of Major Robert Rogers, who had been in London and had received assistance from Carver in pre- senting claims against the government. But it is not at all likely that the name was written into the final revision there in London. 24
There are those who prefer to condone the moral lapses of Carver as a writer, and, for their consideration, another name of Indian origin will be mentioned, as we conclude this dis- cussion. It will be noted that, in the original rendering of the lines of "Thanatopsis", the construction of the verse placed the accent upon the second syllable of the name Oregon. There can be no connection between William Cullen Bryant and Jonathan Carver, except by mere coincidence, but this serves to introduce a word taken from the dialect of the Pequot Indians of New England spelled w-a-u-r-e-g-a-n and uttered with the accent on the second vowel. Had Carver been a man of real vision in writing and capable of evolving a etiphoneous name for the fourth river of his scheme, he might have reverted in thought to the days of his youth when hunting or fishing among the wooded hills of Connecticut or listening to Indian tales by the fireside, and recalled this beautiful Wauregan, which means " good" , and altered that to Oregon, for surely the Columbia is a goodly river. But that was beyond the literary or mental ability of Jonathan Carver. Instead he appears to have merely pilfered the name Onragon 25 from Major Robert Rogers, with slight variation.
24 It is impossible to say how much the style of Carver's published book owes to the reviser of the manuscript; possibly enough to justify Professor Bourne's criticism. The name Oregon as printed may have taken final form by the hand of the reviser.
25 See page 122 of Ponteach, Caxton Club edition. (It is purposed to con- tinue this discussion and show the relationship between Robert Rogers and the name Oregon as indicated by documentary material now being transcribed. T. C. E.)
​Of course there is still the realm of conjecture open to those who will prefer to believe in the authenticity of this book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, which has had such a remarkable vogue in literature; and Jonathan Carver, like Marley in the famous and familiar Christmas classic of Dickens', is "dead as a door nail" and cannot be called to testify.
DOCUMENTS
Editor's Note—The two documents which follow throw some light on the pitiful conditions surrounding the death of Jonathan Carver in London in the year 1780. Both are from the pen of Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the benefactor of Carver on his death bed and of his family afterwards.
The first speaks for itself. The transcript has been made from the copy of the Memoirs in The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
The second is a letter written fifteen years after Carver's death in response to inquiry connected with the search for the original of a deed from two Indian chiefs, conveying a large tract of land in the present states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The inquiry came to Dr. Lettsom from persons interested in obtaining, from the Congress of the United States, the confirmation of this reputed conveyance. The tract is known in Wisconsin history as the "Carver Grant", and committees from both the Senate and House of Representatives, after much investigation, refused to confirm the Indian deed. The transcript of the original letter is on file with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and this copy is certified to by the superintendent of that Society.
T. C. ELLIOTT.
​Page 82:—
"One instance, among numbers, I am urged to communicate here, as death now equally precludes the power of bestowing, and the gratitude of acknowledging, future bounties: Captain Carver is a name known in the annals of misery, to which he was reduced by long-continued want; disease, its natural consequence, gave him access to Dr. Fothergill; and I am informed by his widow, that as often as he applied for medical relief, the doctor as often accompanied his prescription with a liberal donation. But Captain Carver was not an importunate solicitor; the mind not hardened by familiarity of refusal, or that hath not acquired, by frequent struggles, the art of suppressing its emotions, possesses that diffidence which is the inseparable associate of worth. Between diffidence and want, many were the struggles of Captain Carver, but, overcome at length by repeated acts of the doctor's generosity, a jealous suspicion of becoming troublesome, to his benefactor, determined him to prefer that want, from the deprivation of the necessaries of life, which put it out of the power of his choice; for death soon triumphs over famine. What a conflict of sullen greatness does this tragedy exhibit! When his fate was communicated to the doctor, how tender was his expression ! "If I had known
A LETTER BY DR. LETTSOM.
Mr. Gravener:
During Mrs. Carver's life, I saw a paper of half a sheet, with two marks said to be those of Indian chiefs at the foot, of a grant of land, and, after Mrs. Carver's death, I searched every lodging where she had been and the place where she died, without being able to find the least vestige of paper or cloaths, not even any certificate of her having been married to Captain Carver. Unfortunately I rarely saw her out of a state of intoxication. All these facts Mrs. Pope knows very well. Mr. Knox, the late American secretary, wrote me a letter with one from Dr. Belknap, the late historian of America, that no such grant of land existed by tradition or otherwise among the Indians. Captain Carver, by his first wife, left several sons and daughters who have made the same application to me for any documents. So that, if any property could be discovered, these children who are legitimate would precede any title that could be claimed by Mrs. Pope. I once advertised to find out whether Captain Carver was married to Mrs. Pope's mother, but without success. I presume that Mrs. Pope pos- sesses certificate of marriage. I never saw Captain Carver but on his deathbed, nor did I know of any real or supposed conveyance until after his death, when the widow showed me the paper I mentioned above. Mr. Fisher, the secretary of the American board here, told me that no such document ever could be traced in his office. Mrs. Pope has given me a good deal of trouble and knows how anxious I always was to serve her could I have done it. But I am of opinion that no legal instrument, intimated in your letter, exists, and that if it did Captain Carver's issue, by his first wife, would alone be entitled to possession, but your professional knowledge must enable you to determine upon these matters superior to that of
J. C. Lettsom.
London Jany 15 1805
[Copy of transcript of letter in State Historical Society of Wisconsin.]
Joseph Schafer, Supt.
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* ↑ In later years the lines of the poem were twice revised by its author, the more common rendering being: "Take the wings Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound," etc.
* ↑ Some familiarity with the contents of the book and the opinions, pro and con, as to its author will add to the interest of the reader.
* ↑ This statement applies only to the word as now spelled.
* ↑ See Vol. I, Contributions of Historical Society of Montana.
* ↑ Printed in this issue of Quarterly of Oregon Historical Society.
* ↑ See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16, pp. 417–18.
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