[1]CAPTAIN GRAY'S FLAG
was the original American flag adopted in 1777. Hence the original flag of our nation was the first American flag to circumnavigate the earth; and it is a curious fact that the ship which bore this flag was yet to add to her fame by entering the waters of the Oregon on a mission of discovery two years later and by giving her fair name to that majestic river.
Gray Discovers the Columbia River. The Columbia was thoroughly overhauled and refitted as expeditiously as possible. Sea letters were granted by President Washington, Governor Hancock, and the foreign consul in Boston. The ship left Boston harbor September 28, 1790, and arrived at Clayoquot, June 4, 1791. During the summer of 1791 Gray traded in the harbors along the Pacific coast. The following winter he built the "Adventure" in Clayoquot harbor. May 7, 1792, he discovered Gray's Harbor; and four days later he entered the Columbia River. The following account of the discovery is given by T. C. Elliott in the Society Quarterly; Vol. XVIII. No. 4:
"After three days spent in Gray's (Bulfinch) Harbor, Captain Robert Gray in the ship "Columbia" on the 11th of May, 1792, at 4:00 A. M. sighted the entrance of the river 'bearing east-south-east, distance six leagues.' The ship's log states: 'At eight A. M. being a little to the windward of the entrance of the Harbor, bore away and run in east-
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- ↑ A replica of this flag, also Captain Gray's sea chest with other property of the ship "Columbia" are in the Oregon Historical Society Museum at Portland.
