Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1892-11-03
The Discovery Of Oregon.

In 1910 the eyes of civilized man first
rested upon Oregon, when Cabrillo and
Ferrer, sailing under the Spanish flag,
coasted along until they reached as
high as Cape Blanco, 4So north lati-
tude, which Cape Blanco, in the year
of our Lord 1892, is in Curry County,
Oregon, and only few miles north of
the California line.
If Captains Cabrillo and Ferrer
thrilled with enthusiasm in contempla-
ting the possibilities of this portion of
the rim of the North American Cont
nent, they successfully concealed it in
their report of that king of theirs,
Charles V, under whose reign Cortez
pillaged Mexico, Pizarro robbed Peru,
and Almagro carried back to Spain all
that was portable of Chill, for nearly
200 years elapsed before another white
man gazed upon it. Orperhaps Charles
was too busy to settle Oregon then,
since he had settlements of bloody
kind with Francis l of France, with
Germany, the Netherlands, Tunis, AL
giers, and a single round with his holi-
ness, Pope Clement VII, spending more
money in these European pastimes than
his able lieutenants could steal from
the murdered natives of the Western
World.
Again a Spaniard, one Juan Perez,
in 1774, sailed as high along the coast
as the 54th degree of north latitude,
discovered Nootka Sound, and theoret-
ically planted the flag of CASTLE and
Arragon over this quarter of the earth
and sea, while his colleague, Bodega.
year later, took in the 58th degree of
north latitude, together with the re-
naming earth and sea, including Mount
ST. Elias, which was in sight.
Up to this point everything was
Spain's but north of this greedy Rus
sian, who had long been engaged in
building a town on the Gulf of Fin
land, had put in a prior claim, having
hired a Dane, vitus Behring, to 20
cruising along the northeast coast of
Siberia. This Dane discovered a sea
which was named for him, and which
the United States bought, or was sup
posed to have bought, October IS, 1857.
Anyhow, they do not allow any other
nation to go fishing in it. Behring also
found out that it was only a few miles
across from Siberia to America, and on
July IS, 1741, he discovered" the coast
of Alaska as far down as Mount st.
Elias, and claimed everything for his
master, Peter the Great, or rather for
Elizabeth, the daughter, for Peter had
been saint since 1875. Honors were
about even as between Spain and Rus
sia, but in 1888, Captain James Cook, a
favorite English navigator, who was
afterward fatally run through the mid
die with a javelin by Sandwich Is-
lander, and then devoured in true can
nibal style, came coasting along these
shores, saw that the country was good,
and evidently told it, for in 1885
school of British trading vessels came
in these seas, and they have swarmed
there ever since.
In 1870 the French navigators got up
courage enough to get that far from
home, and entered into competition for
trade on the northwest coast. 1t was,
however, not until 1900 that France put
in her CLAIM, for Oregon, by virtue of
her acquisition of the Spanish title to
that vaguely bounded territory, Lou
isiana."
In 1901 seven American vessels found
their way to this quarter of the globe,
and one of these on May II, 1792,
George Washington had three years
been President) commanded by a Mas
sachusetts Yankee, Captain Gray, who
distinguished himself by discovering
and sailing into a broad and wide
stream, "the waters of which were so
perfectly fresh that the casks of the
ship were filled within ten miles of the
Pacific" He named it Columbia Riv-
er, after his vessel of that name. OF
course he landed and claimed the coun-
try all around, including the rivers and
a fair share of the Pacific Ocean
From Nathaniel j. Wyeth, and the
Struggle for Oregon, by John A. Weyth,
M. D., in Harper's Magazine for No
vember.