at al : by Carve, the spellin. Was dated Carver Wirthe King Ourigan was based upon "journals and charts" claimed to have been made during his journey to the west in 1766-77, and while at Mackinac in the fall of 1767. Kenneth Roberts' historical novel Northwest Passage, 1937, has a good deal to say about Carver and his relations with Rogers. Rogerspetition containing the name Ouragon was dated August, 1765, and his second petition containing the spelling Ourigan was dated February, 1772. A petition by Carver to the King's Privy Council showing the original association of Carver with Rogers for the purpose of the western exploration was acted on in May, 1769, and another petition by Carver showing that the journals and charts previously mentioned had been and were still deposited with the Board of Trade in London is dated November, 1773. Not only did Major Rogers put into writing the name Quragon during the year before he engaged Carver, but also none of Carver's petitions, so far examined, contain the name Oregon as we spell it, although he mentions other localities.The subsequent history of the word Oregon, and some of the theories of its origin were favorite themes of the late Harvey W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian. The compiler cannot do better than to reprint some of Mr. Scott's editorial comments on the subject, but it must be borne in mind that these comments were not originally printed together as they are here reproduced. "But the name Oregon came very slowly into notice. It was long after the publication of Carver's book when it again made its appearance. The name seems not to have been known either to Vancouver or to Gray, since neither uses it. The latter, entering the river as a discoverer, called the river, not the Oregon, but the Columbia, for his ship – a fact which shows that the name Oregon was quite unknown. The name was not used by Lewis and Clark in the report of their travels; in Astor's petition to Congress, presented in 1812, setting forth his claim to national assistance for his undertaking, on the ground that his efforts to establish trade here, under the sovereignty of the United States, would redound to the public security and advantage, the name Oregon is not used to designate or describe the country; nor is it used in the act of Congress passed in response to his petition, by which the American Fur Company was permitted to introduce here goods for the Indian trade. At this time, indeed, the name appears to have been quite unknown, and perhaps would have perished but for the poet Bryant, who evidently had happened, in his reading, upon the volume of Carver's travels. The word suited the sonorous movement and solemn majesty of his verse, and he embalmed it in 'Thanatopsis' published in 1817. The journal of Lewis and Clark had been published in 1814-17, and the description therein of the distant solitudes and 'continuous woods' touched Bryant's poetic spirit and recalled the name he had seen in Carver's book. There are men whose susceptibility to literary excellence, whose skill and power in producing literary effects, give us results of this kind. "The textbooks in the hands of our children in the public schools continue to furnish them with erroneous information that the name of the state of Oregon was derived from the word oregano, the Spanish name for the plant we call 'marjoram.' This is a mere conjecture, absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved by all that is known of the history of the name. There is noth
