The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-10-31
THE DISCOVERY OF OREGON.
Ia 1870 Two Spanlards Coasted Along
Where Cape BAan0o IL.

Ia I54e Two spanlards Coasted Along 90
Where Cape BAanco Ii.
In 1910 the eyes Of o~ivilized man nrse
rested upon Oregon, whom Cabrillo ana
Ferrer, sailing under the Spanish nag,
coasted along until they reached as hiHn an
Cape Blanoo. 43 degrees north latitude.
which Cape Blanco, in the year of our LORD
1892, is in CURRY county. Oregon. and only
a few miles north Of the California line.
writes John A. Wyeth in Hampers Magazine.
If Captains Cabrillo and Ferrer thrilled
wish enthusiasm in contemplating the pos
sibflitiss Of this portion of the rim OF the
North American o%ontinant, they suffieiently
concealed il in their report to that king OF
theirs, Charles ", under whose reign Cor
tez piilaeed Mexico, Piaarro robbed Peru
and Almagro carried bsok to Spain all that
was portable Of Chilli. for nearly Two hun-
dred years elapsed before another white
man gazed upon ~ Or perhaps Oaari ss
had settlements of q bloody kind with
Francis l.. of France. with Germany, the
Netherlands, 1unis, Algiers, and a single
round with his holiness, Pope Clement VII,
pending more money In these European
pastimes than his able l~isutenants could
steal from tho murdered natives OF the
western world.
Again a Spaniard. one Juan Perez, in
1774, sailed as high along the coast as the
tifty-foulth degree of north latitude, dis
covered Nootka sound, and theoretically
planted the flag Of CASTLE and Aragon over
this quarter of the earth and sea, while his
colleague. Bodega, a year later, took in the
tfty-eighth degree of north latitude, to-
Rethsr with the remaining earth and sea,
including Mount st. Elias, which was In
sight.
Up to this point everything was spain's,
but north Of this a greedy Russian, who
had long been engaged in building q town
on the Gulf OF Finland. had put in a prior
claim, having hired a Dane. by nRne Vitus
Behring, to go cruising along the northeast
coast OF Siberia. This Dane discovered
and which the United States bought,
or was supposed TO have bought. Oct. 1s,
1867. Anyhow, they do not allow
any other nation to go tishing in it. Behr-
ing also found out that il was only a few
miles across from Siberia to America, and
on July Is, 1741, he "discoversd" 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 q saint
since 1925. Honors were about even be-
tween spain and Russia, but in l77o Capt.
James Cook. q famous English navigator.
who was afterwards fatally run through the
middle with a ~javelin by q Sandwiches
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 1875 a school of
British trading vessels swarmed in these
seas, and they have swarmed there ever
since.
In 1870 the French naviRators got up
courage enough to get that far from home,
and entered into competition for trade on
the northwest const. 1t was, however, not
until 1900 that France put in her claim to
Oregon. bv virtue Of her acquisition of the
Spanish title to that vaguely bounded ter
ritory, louisiana"
In I'll seven American vessels found their
way to this quarter of the globe. and one of
these on May II. 1892 George Washington
had been three years president), COM
manded by a Massachusetts Yankee. Capt.
Gray. who distinguished himself by discov-
ering and sailing into q broad and swift
stream, "the waters Of which were so per-
fectly fresh that the casks were filled with
in ten miles of the Pacific" He named it
Columbia river, after his vessel of that
NAME. OF course he landed and claimed
the country all around, including the rivers
and q fair share of the Pacific ocean.