198 DOCUMENT be secured them when our Government should take possession of the country. I also cheered them with the hope that ere long some steps might be taken to open a trade and com- merce with the country. They now only find a market for their wheat, after being compelled to transport it themselves in canoes, (the portage of the Willhamett in their way,) at Fort Vancouver, at the low price of 50 cts. per bushel, pay- able in goods at 50 per cent, advance, whilst the Russians are paying $1 50 this year in California for their supplies for "Sitka." The quantity annually required is about 25,000 bushels. The entrance of the Columbia river is formed by Cape Dis- appointment on the north, in latitude 46 19' north, and 123 59' west longitude, and Point Adams, on the south, in 46 14' north and 123 54' west longitude, physical and geographical. It was between the years 1780 and 1782, 1 I believe, that Captain Meir [Meares] in an English merchant ship of Lon- don, saw "Cape Disappointment," and entered the bay be- tween the two capes; but, as "Chenook" and "Tongue point" interlock, Captain Meir [Meares] left the bay under the im- pression that it extended no further inland. He published an account of his voyage in London, in 1785 1786, on his re- turn, and called the bay Deception bay. The next year, 1783 to 1784, Captain Gray, of Boston, in the American ship "Co- lumbia" entered the bay and stood up the river as far as the point designated on the map as Gray's bay, where he overhauled and refitted his ship. Captain Gray called the river the "Columbia," after his ship. In 1787, Van- couver entered the river, and Lt. Brougton, in the cutter Chatham, stood up the river as far as the bluff, (the old site of Fort Vancouver,) about one mile distant from the site of the present fort. But the Spaniards had doubtless a knowl- edge of this country long before this period. The expedition from San Bias, in 1776, saw the river, and called it the "Ore- gon." (Manuscripts in the marine archives at Madrid.) The i Lieut. Slacum was writing without his authorities at hand so should not have allowed himself to venture with any dates. Ed. Quarterly.
