Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 2/Note
NOTE.
Supplementary to paper, "Flotsam and Jetsam of the Pacific," printed in March Quarterly, Volume II, Number 1.
In my article, "Flotsam and Jetsam of the Pacific" (March, 1901), I gave Captain Lemont's statement to me personally. I should have added a note with the few following facts. Doctor McLoughlin, in the paper published in the Quarterly of June, 1900, says: "The first American vessel that entered the Columbia River to trade since 1814, was the Oahoo, Captain Dominus, in February, 1829. The Convoy, Captain Thompson, came awhile after. These two vessels belonged to the same party, a merchant in Boston. In summer they went up the coast. Returned in the fall. The Oahoo wintered in the Columbia River, but the Convoy proceeded to Oahoo. Returned spring of 1830, and in the summer both vessels left and never returned."
A note on page 503 of Bancroft's History of the Northwest Coast, says: "Mrs. Harvey (Doctor McLoughlin's daughter), 'Life of McLoughlin,' MS. 15, recollects the first American vessel entering the Columbia in her time as 'that of Captain Thomas, in 1829.'" This error may have been one of memory, and would justify my prejudice against remembered history; or, it may have been an error of hearing, for it is known to me that Mr. Bancroft's stenographer was "a little hard of hearing," and may have mistaken Dominus for Thomas, when the dictation was taken.
Again, on page 560 of the same volume, Mr. Bancroft mentions F. A. Lemont as "chief mate" of the Sultana, whereas Lemont himself tells us that George Sweetland was mate, and that he was only at that time an apprentice to the trade of a seaman. Mr. Bancroft also gives the date of the Owyhee's arrival as 1830, instead of 1829, as on page 341 of Volume I, "Northwest Coast," he had previously done.
Of Captain Dominus, we learn on page 636 of Volume II, "Northwest Coast," that in 1834 he was on the coast in the bark Bolivar Liberator, and that he made an agreement with the Russian-American Company, August 8, by which he was permitted to hunt sea otter on the California and Southern Oregon coasts. A few days later an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company effected a lease of a shore strip from the Russians which excluded the American trader. This did not prevent Dominus from returning in the summer of 1835, or from purchasing sea otter in defiance of Russians and English, using rum to overcome the fidelity of the Indians to their former masters. Russian, English, and American fur hunters were sadly at outs this year on the Northwest coast, but Dominus probably secured a valuable cargo, as he paid more for skins than his rivals. It was, however, his last adventure on the Coast of North America, and his end was as before related.