upon the organization of the territory, Professor A. D. Bache, superintendent of the United States coast survey, was notified that he would be expected to commence the survey of the coast of the United States on the Pacific. A corps of officers was selected and divided into two branches, one party to conduct the duties of the service on shore, and the other to make a hydrographical survey.
The former duty devolved upon assistant-superintendent, James S. Williams, Brevet-Captain D. P. Hammond, and Joseph S. Ruth, sub-assistant. The naval survey was conducted by Lieutenant W. P. McArthur, in the schooner Ewing, which was commanded by Lieutenant Washington Bartlett of the United States navy. The time of their advent on the coast was an unfortunate one, the spring of 1849, when the gold excitement was at its height, prices of labor and living extortionate, and the difficulty of restraining men on board ship, or in any service, excessive, the officers having to stand guard over the men,[1] or to put to sea to prevent desertions.
So many delays were experienced from these and other causes that nothing was accomplished in 1849, and the Ewing wintered at the Hawaiian Islands, returning to San Francisco for her stores in the spring, and again losing some of her men. On the 3d of April, Bartlett succeeded in getting to sea with men enough to work the vessel, though some of these were placed in irons on reaching the Columbia River. The first Oregon newspaper which fell under Bartlett's eye contained a letter of Thurston's, in which he reflected severely on the surveying expedition for neglect to proceed with their duties, which was supplemented by censorious remarks by the editor. To
- ↑ A mutiny occurred in which Passed Midshipman Gibson was nearly drowned in San Francisco Bay by five of the seamen. They escaped, were pursued, captured, and sentenced to death by a general court-martial. Two were hanged on board the Ewing and the others on the St Mary's, a ship of the U. S. squadron. Letter of Lieut. Bartlett, in Or. Spectator, June 27, 1850; Lawson's Autobio., MS., 2; Davidson's Biography.
