Manifest Destiny in the West [pp. 148-159]

0MANIFEST DESTINY IN THE WEST.
of a well furnished expedition, as Van couver was. But he said to himself:
There is the mouth of the much talked of, long-sought river; and he entered
his impressions on his log-book. Still
bent upon business, he pursued his
course up along the coast, so close in
shore that he discovered a bay of con siderable size and importance, which
now bears his name. After leaving this
bay, which he ventured to enter, he again
bethought himself of the river he had
discovered, and was heading in that direction when he fell in with the British
Exploring Squadron. Being hailed, he
held a conversation with the officers, to
whom he very frankly made known his
supposed discovery, with its latitude and
longitude. To this communication Vancouver replied that he too had seen the
opening, but thought it unimportant. It
might have been something in the tone
in which the English officers begged to
differ from him that fired Captain Gray's
heart with a determination to settle the
controversy without further delay. Pursuing his course southward he came once
more in sighrof the opening in the coast,
and the weather continuing favorable,
sailed without difficulty through the
northern channel, across its formidable
bar, and brought his vessel to anchor
more than twenty miles inside the line
of breakers.
We have always felt inclined to envy
Captain Gray the triumph of that memorable day. We hope he felt the grandeur of it, and enjoyed it. It is something to discover a large river anywhere.
But this one-so long desired, and when
beheld so broad, so blue, so beautifully
set in picturesque mountain shores!
The glory and contentment were
enough for that day. The next, Captain
Gray went ashore, and after exploring
as well as he could the neighboring
country, thickset with noble forests, returned to his ship, and recorded in his
log-book the river's name. "I have
called it," said he, "Columbia's River."
Having remained several days to trade
with the natives who crowded about the
ship in their canoes, and to explore a few
miles more of the river, he put to sea
again, and went about his business in
more northern waters.
What did Vancouver when the Yankee captain left him? He took counsel
of prudence, and sent a lieutenant back
with one of the vessels to take a second
and closer view of the disputed inlet-if
not outlet. When Lieutenant Meares
beheld the terrors of the bar he decided
not to take the vessel in, but to pursue
his investigations in a smaller craft belonging to the ship's outfit. In this gig,
or whatever it was, Meares entered the
river and proceeded to ascend it. Having reached a small bay on the northern
side fifteen or twenty miles inside The
bar, he found there a small vessel at anchor belonging to a trading captain of
his own nation-an Englishman, named
Baker, who gave to the bay his own
name, which it continues to bear at this
day. Captain Baker had fallen in with
Gray, and being told of his discovery,
had made haste to confirm the report by
actual observation.
When Lieutenant Meares had explored the river some eighty miles from its
mouth, which his smaller craft easily
permitted him to do, he returned to the
commander of the squadron with his report, and Vancouver claimed for the
British nation the credit of discovering
the great river of the West. The actual
river, he said, did not commence for
some distance above Gray's anchorage!
That was the quibble resorted to some
years later, when British claims and
boundary lines were being considered.
That quibble, however, did not hold, as
history assures us. That lucky persistence of Captain Gray's decided the question of right by discovery in favor of
Americans.
Decency requiring that England should
[AUGUST,
I50