Montana Oil And Mining Journal

In this famous cruise of Cook and his successors was a petty officer named John Ledyard, a New Englander of some education. He was in England when the expedition was being organized and went along wholly in the spirit of adventure. The potential fur trade wealth of the Pacific coast impressed him very much. During the cruise he kept an accurate diary, but this, being the best record of the memorable voyage, was taken from him by British naval officers on his discharge in England. Ledyard then returned to Boston. Still imbued with enthusiasm over the possibilities of the coast trade, he endeavored to raise money to equip a ship to engage in this Oregon fur traffic. He wrote a pamphlet from memory, and canvassed the financial men of his home city. While the financiers were interested in his story of easy wealth to be made, they declined to embark on his adventure. The narrative he told did, however, make an impression and it bore fruits some few years later. Development of the Chinese silk trade, in which many Boston merchants were interested, coupled with stories told by seamen coming to Boston port, eventually stimulated interest in these Oregon possibilities and in 1787 a company composed of Boston merchants, headed by J. Barrell, one of the men to whom Ledyard had told his story, resolved to enter the fur trade. They equipped two ships, the Columbia and the Lady Washington, captained respectively by Robert Gray and John Kendrick. Stocked with goods, the vessels started on their way to Oregon. It was ordered that they take cargoes of furs from Oregon to China and exchange them for silk and other oriental merchandise. These goods were in turn to be marketed in America, the plan involving a possibility for three profits.

Gray Carries Flag Around World

These two ships left Boston harbor Oct. 1, 1787, arriving on the Oregon coast in the following September. (The term Oregon in those days comprised all the territory lying north of California and west of the continental divide.) The crews wintered at Nootka, and trade was inaugurated the following spring, 1788. The choicest of furs were secured for the merest trifles. Late in the summer, Captain Gray sailed for China, sold his furs and took on his cargo of oriental goods, and returned to Boston, arriving at his home port in August 1790. In this voyage, Captain Gray was the first American sailor to carry the Stars and Stripes around the world. A month later saw Gray on his return trip to the North Pacific, where he arrived in the summer of 1791. Succeeding months of good weather were spent in trading with the Indians, with whom he is said to have had numerous skirmishes. He did some exploring, as time and convenience would permit, and wintered at Clayoquot, where he built the sloop Adventure. The spring months found him again in search of trade, but failing in a southerly direction. On May 7, he entered a harbor in latitude 46 degrees, 58 minutes, which was christened in his name. Four days later, he steered his ship across a bar where a mighty river met the sea. On each side of the stream were towering cliffs. Believing that he had found the "Great River of the West," of nautical legend, he took his observations and found that he was in latitude 46 degrees, 10 minutes. He sailed up the river for 10 miles, anchored and a great multitude of Indians visited the ship to trade. He remained at his anchorage for 19 days and then sailed a few miles farther up the river, went ashore and took possession of the land in the name of the United States of America, most appropriately christening the stream "Columbia."