every production of the earth, which is drained by the waters of the new-found river, shall have yielded up its illimitable wealth to distant generations."

And to this Yankee skipper from Boston, the American, Robert Gray, more honors came in the exploration of the northwest than to any other man. He was not only the first to sail a ship through the Straits of Fuca-the discoverer of the Columbia river-but he was the first American to circumnavigate the globe under the national flag, which he did in 1790, by the way of Good Hope, trading his furs to the Chinese at Canton for a cargo of tea.

Here our record of the explorations of the northwest from the seacoast comes to a close. We have given enough to enable the reader to follow the story and see how these explorations gradually concentrated to the point of discovering the river which drains the empire of old Oregon. The foundation of our title to the whole northwest, clear up to the Alaskan boundary, and the diplomacy in settling that title will be better understood when reading future chapters after having read this chapter through.

We may pause here for a moment and contemplate the mischances of great men-the greatest of men. While the world has accorded to Christopher Columbus the imperishable fame and honor of discovering the American continent, there can be no doubt but that other European mariners had touched on the continent of America before him. There is no doubt that the Scandinavians under the lead of Leif Ericson had crossed over to the western hemisphere more than a hundred years before Columbus was born. But they left no settlement, and made but little if any record or comment of the matter. It was a matter of no importance to them, and no one ever followed up their lead. It is conjectured that Columbus had heard of this discovery from the Icelanders whom he visited fifteen years before he sailed away from Palos into the unknown western ocean. But if so, Columbus never mentioned the fact, and there is no evidence that he had ever heard of the Scandinavian discovery.

Columbus was rightly entitled to name the land he had discovered, although he had never reached the main land, but had only set up his banner on a neighboring island. But sentiment, poetry and praise alike has for four hundred years striven to undo the great wrong to the greatest hero. The ship that first entered Oregon's great river bore his name; and the mighty river itself is a perpetual memorial to the honor of Christopher Columbus.

To Americus Vespucius, who was born at Florence, Italy, on the 9th of March, 1451. was given the honor of naming the New World. Vespucius moved from Italy to Spain in the year of 1490, and made the acquaintance of Columbus before he sailed from Palos. And on the return of Columbus to Spain with the great. discovery Vespucius was one of the first to greet the great discoverer. But he (Vespucius), then a merchant at Seville, made no effort to verify the report of Columbus until 1499, when he accompanied Ojeda on his expedition to America as an astronomer. Vespucius made four voyages to the New World, but he had not the chief command of these expeditions; and like Columbus died without knowing he had reached a separate continent. In a letter to the King of Portugal, in whose services he had sailed, July 18, 1500, he says: "We discovered a very large country of Asia." And, like Columbus, after giving to the world all the riches of America, he died a poor man, passing away at Seville in 1512. But how came Vespucius to receive the great honor of naming the New

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World? The answer is: Vespucius wrote a book—an account of his voyages. If Columbus ever wrote any report of his discovery voyage, it was buried under the envy and malice that finally destroyed him, and was not given to the world at that time.

The reader must now go with the historian to a little school at the little old town of St. Die at the foot of the Vosgian Alps mountains in France. In the year 1507 this school was in the hands of some pious monks, as were all schools in those days. The over-lord of this institution was Rene II., Duke of Lorraine; who on one of his Ducal visits to the little school carried with him, being a patron of arts and sciences, a Mss. book of French, which he had then recently received. from Italy, entitled "Quatre Navigations d'Amerique Vespuce." But whether Vespucius was the author of this book or not, there is no account. That incident took place thirty-nine years after the death of Gutenberg, the inventor of print-ing. At that date the monks and governors of the little school had just purchased and set up the first printing press in that part of France; and were at that time preparing to print a geography of the world, and which they entitled a "Cosmography." Here then was a grand chance for the new book-a piece of up-todate geography; and so the manuscript brought by the Duke must go into the new book. And it went in under the title

"THE LAND OF AMERICA"

and the introduction to it on page 30 of the book reads: "There is a fourth quarter of the world which America Vespuci has discovered, and which for this reason we call 'America, the land of Americ.' And further along the book says: "We do not see why the name of the man of genius, Americo, who has discovered them, should not be given to these lands-the more so as Asia and Europe bear the names of women." Alack! and alas! The mighty deeds of the great Columbus overlooked or forgotten within a year after his poor body was laid in the grave! And this was the New World, named by the French who had not then sent out a single voyage of discovery; and who by that book and printing press were successful in giving to a man whose work had not been conspicuous, the name which rightly belonged to the great Columbus. On another page is given the picture of the building, yet standing, where America got its name.

CHAPTER 11

1634-1834

THE LANDWARD MOVEMENT WEST-TWO DIFFERING MINDS OF CIVILIZATION AND INDEPENDENT MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION MOVE WESTWARD THE FRENCH CATHOLIC ON ONE SIDE, AND THE ENGLISH PROTESTANT ON THE OTHER—MARQUETTE, 1665-LA SALLE, 1679-HENNEPIN, 1680-JONATHAN CARVER, 1766-ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, 1793—LEWIS AND CLARK, 1804—MAJOR ZEBULOŃ PIKE, 1805 -SIMON FRASER, 1806-ANDREW HENRY, 1808-JONATHAN WINSHIP, 1809— DAVID THOMPSON, 1810-WILSON PRICE HUNT, 1811—JEDEDIAH SMITH, 1826NATHANIEL J. WYETH, 1832-LIEUT. B. L. E. BONNEVILLE, 1833-AND JOHN C. FREMONT, 1843.

The settlement of the west, northwest and southwest, from the earliest time. proceeded from the Atlantic to the Pacific on two separate and characteristically different lines.

First: The French from the Canadas, succeeded by the English Canadians. Second: The English from the colonies, succeeded by the American rebels of the colonies. These currents of differing populations, ideas and ideals impinge one against the other, first in the wilderness of old Fort Du Quesne, where the city of Pittsburg now stands, resulting in war between France and England, and finally on the Columbia, a half century later, between the United States and England, for possession of old Oregon.

In this chapter will be sketched the men and movements which seem to have been in their inception more devoted to fur trading or religious interests than to the political aspect of permanent settlements. Having, in tracing the development and conclusion of the seacoast exploration of the northwest, gone only so far as that exploration resulted in locating and pointing out, as its final result, the great interior water-way line across the continent, that was to locate and build this state, this chapter will present the personalities of the great work of civilization in the settlement of this vast region by the white race. From the timid and tentative adventurings out from the Atlantic seacoast into the unknown western wilderness, two distinct and diverse lines of thought and purpose characterize two separate and independent movements of population to take possession of the vast unknown West. And that these diverse lines of thought and separated independent movements of people did as surely and definitely converge upon, select and build up this Oregon, as did the many-sided sea-rovers' exploration of unknown seas finally converge upon and select the great Columbia river, will be the thought and conclusion of this chapter.

The French being in possession of Canada, were the first to make the plunge into the boundless wilderness. And this final and successful effort to get into the interior of the continent was made only after a long and bitter war with the