The Pacific Northwest [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Captain Cook landed on the western shore of Vancouver Island, at a place called Nootka Sound, in 1778. Crater Lake opposite, scooped into the crest of the Cascade Range, is a volcanic caldera formed when the ancient Mount Mazama collapsed over 8 6,000 years ago. / ixteenth-century European explorers L dreamed of an intercontinental water-^^ way that would allow direct passage from Europe to the Orient. Such a passage would cut years off the slow and dangerous route around Cape Horn, enabling merchants to save money and cutting down boredom for crews. A northern route from the Pacific to the Atlantic was reputed to exist somewhere across the unexplored reaches of the North American continent, and the very earliest explorers came searching for an access to that passage along the north Pacific coast. Although it is disputed by some historians, the Spanish explorer Juan de Fuca is believed to have been the first to sail into present-day Puget Sound sometime in the sixteenth century, searching for the waterway that would cross the continent. In 1579 the English navigator Sir Francis Drake (the Spanish knew him as a pirate), having searched as far north as Vancouver Island for a shortcut home to the Atlantic, landed in a cove just north of what is now San Francisco to make repairs. Drake named the region "New Albion" from the cove north and claimed it for the British crown. The substantial Indian and Eskimo populations living along the coast remained untouched by further European incursions until the eighteenth century, when Spanish explorer Bruno Heceta appeared out of the mist in 1775. Heceta failed in his search for the waterway but discovered instead the mouth of the Columbia River before sailing north to the Nootka country (now British Columbia), claiming the area for Spain. Less than three years later, the great English explorer Captain James Cook sailed north along the Oregon coast, missed the Columbia River and the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the fog, and landed at Nootka Sound (British Columbia). Just to complicate the territorial issue, he reasserted the British claim to the region as a kind of "consolation prize" to George 111 for not having found the Northwest passage. Thus the territorial battle lines were drawn for the later confrontation between the two great seafaring nations, Britain and Spain. Who cared what the indigenous population thought? Although Cook's voyage failed in its original quest, he did make a discovery of a different kind—one that was to have far-reaching and long-term implications for the Pacific North- west. Captain Cook's crew bartered with the Indians for a few beaver and sea-otter pelts. The pelts brought fabulous prices in Europe, and almost overnight the fur-trade frenzy replaced the long, arduous search for the Northwest passage that had until then motivated European explorations. English merchants immediately began to outfit vessels and send them to the region to trade viith the Indians. Then in 1788, a ship flying the flag of the new American republic appeared off Tillamook Bay. Captain Robert Gray was also searching for the Northwest passage, but he found instead a small army of English traders. Loading his ovra ship with furs, Gray hurried home to Boston via China, becoming the first American to circle the globe. More importantly, the furs alerted Americans to the huge wealth on the other side of "their" continent. Meanwhile, to strengthen Spam's claim to the territory, Don Esteven Martinez was dispatched to land a small band of colonists at Neah Bay (Washington) in 1791. The Spaniards hoped to head off any Russian claims to the area—Russians being well entrenched to the north in what is now Alaska. Finding instead upstart English traders in Spanish territorial waters, Martinez confiscated the British ships and brought England and Spain to the edge of war. The Spanish cause was not helped when this first white settlement in what was later to become Washington had to be abandoned after just five months. Shortly thereafter, the Nootka Sound Convention was hammered out in deliberations in Europe. Spain was forced to bow to the superior British naval strength, conceding its claim to exclusive trading rights along the northern coast. In 1792, the English captain George Vancouver arrived off the Northwest coast to enforce the terms of the convention. While the British and Spanish ironed out their differences, the American Captain Gray again