The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-12-23

boat f1oated away on the ebbing tide,
never to be seen again-perhaps to meet
some tragic death by drowning or starva-
tion.
II was eight bells of the midnight watch
when Garretson was awakened by ter
rife screams and battering at the door Of
his sultry room. In front of his own
cabin, dazed and stifed with smoke, he
stumbled over a soggy blanket. 4 mo-
ment later he was batterfng wildly at the
captains door. An Indian boy, GREATNESS
and shaking with terror. stood beside him,
his eyes wild with alarm
Six frantic men, with hands upheld to
heaven, stood transfixed upon the deck
My God" was all that any one OF them
could say
1.-THE cookl' exclaimed the captain at
length MY God, it is he-the boat is
gone from the port side.r
Lower and send out this boat: We may
get him yeti" shouted one of the bewil-
dered crew.
But there was nothing to be done; the
Robert Bruce was lost, In thirty minutes
there was scarce timber left. And six
men, ruined, speechless, with not one
thing that they might call their own
gazed fxedly into one another's eyes.
The dark sea walls shut our all view.
leaving only dull earth outlining glean-
ing sparks on the drying sand. Ship
shelter, food ana hope protection from
the accommodation with the peo-
pie Of their kind-all gone, Strangers in
strange land, away from friends, out OF
the reach OF aid-alone
At little spot on the beach near Bruce
port the sun pours full on stone slab
marked with chiseled cross. The earth
around is baked hard and gapes with rs
sures. On that spot at midnight, Decem-
Der 16, the year 1851 six men firmly re-
solved to run the terrifying fears of the
forests unarmed, to leave this country, to
which they had SO lately come filled with
hope and cNerful prospects and with a
new determination. come again, to perse-
we're and prosper, each in his turn repeat
ing the words, with Gods help"
Arriving safely back in San Francisco,
after many hardships. near the close of
winter, they set out again upon the task
Of providing some new craft with which
TO return TO the Clustering lands to rne
north of the Columbia. The late John s.
Morgan, founder of the Morgan oyster
Company. was a member of the crew Of
the Robert Bruce. Morgan had reputa-
ton among influential oystermen OF San
Francisco for sagacity, and the qualities
that the ''grub-stakers'' OF those days
looked for in the prospector In ell lines OF
speculative enterprise nature had sener-
ously bestowed upon him. With $500
capital advanced, Morgan and his fellows,
Garretson. Garrett Tyson. Alexander Han
sen, Mark winant and ]. X. Terry. all OF
San Francisco, succeeded by thrift, indi-
vtdual effort and many self-denials IN
building small schooner. and sailed
north again early in the following sum
mer. The story Of these men cannot all
be told here. They have written II thein-
selves in enduring substance In the re-
eion Of Pacific county. Only one survives,
Frank Garretson. now resident of Oys-
tervilie. a little village few miles from
the spot where, hair a century ago. he
and his fellows started the first white set
tleGlent in Pacific county.
Garretsou Is a native of Staten Island.
born IN 1926. Hts boyhood was spent in
BROOKLYN CHARLES =. NESMITH
81 Seventeenth avenue north. Seattle