Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/403

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Oregon Geographic Names
337

formation under Cape Meares. Meares passed the mouth of the Columbia on July 6, 1788, and while he recognized the fact that he was off a bay, he failed to identify the place as the mouth of a river. By nightfall of the same day he discovered and named Quicksand Bay, and while he says that the bay had a sand bar closing its mouth, yet his other observations indicate without much doubt that he had found Tillamook Bay.

During the same year Captain John Kendrick and Captain Robert Gray brought the first American fur trading enterprise to the north Pacific Coast on the Columbia Rediviva and the Lady Washington. Robert Haswell, second mate of the Lady Washington, kept a diary, but notwithstanding the latitudes and landmarks mentioned along the Oregon coast, it is impossible to trace the course of the vessel with any degree of accuracy. Bancroft, in his History of the Northwest Coast, volume I, page 188, indicates some of the difficulties in interpreting the writing. It is possible that Alsea Bay or Yaquina Bay was seen by the ship. On August 12, 1788, the Lady Washington anchored off Tillamook Bay. On August 14 the ship crossed the bar, and at first the Americans had no trouble with the natives but on August 16, the Indians made a murderous assault and killed a member of the crew. Two days later the ship got away, and in his diary Haswell makes the following observation: "Murderers Harbour, for so it was named, is I suppose the entrance of the river of the West it is by no meens a safe place for aney but a very small vessell to enter the shoal at its entrance being so aucwardly situated the passage so narrow and the tide so strong it is scarce posable to avoid the dangers." Data on other bays in Oregon will be found under the respective items.

Bay View, Lincoln County. Bay View is on the northeast part of Alsea Bay. The post office was established about 1901, and the name was chosen by Daniel M. Oakland, the first postmaster, because of the view