river, and in expectation of northwesterly winds; but we had calms and light westerly winds for the succeeding three days, which obliged me frequently to anchor on the coast, and await a change of tide, the direction of the flood being directly on shore, and the soundings shoal; in some places only ten fathoms seven or eight miles from the land.
About 10 o'clock a. m., of July 18, I anchored in ten fathoms, Cape Disappointment bearing NE. by N., distant five miles. Several guns were fired and signals made for a pilot; but seeing no one moving about the shore, on either side of the river, I took the master with me in the whale-boat, and pulled in the channel, between the breakers, sounding in no less than four fathoms, and passing sufficiently far in to recognise the landmarks on the north shore, described in Wilkes's sailing directions.
Here it is proper to mention, that while at the Sandwich islands I met with Captain Mott, master of the Hudson's Bay Company's barque Vancouver, and Captain Crosby, master of the American barque Toulon, both of whom had lately been in the Columbia river. I was informed by those persons that the sands about the mouth of the Columbia had undergone great changes within a short time past, and that a spit had formed out to the eastward from the spot upon which the Peacock was wrecked in 1841, which made it impossible to enter the river by the old marks, or those laid down on Wilkes's chart. The receipt of this information was most opportune and fortunate for me, as I had no other guide than a copy of a copy, upon tracing paper, of Wilkes's chart, which was even now, before its publication, out of date.
This new formation of Peacock spit, extending into the old channel, greatly obstructed this already embarrassing navigation, and those most experienced undertook to cross the bar with apprehension and dread. When, therefore, a seaman of my crew, who had been wrecked in the "Peacock," reminded me that this was the anniversary of her loss, I cannot deny that I felt sensibly the weight of my responsibilities.
