Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/35

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IMPORTS AND PASSENGERS.
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all classes. Of these in the first six years not one was a trader; in the following six years seven were traders, but only four brought cargoes to sell to the settlers, and these of an ill-assorted kind. From March 1847 to August 1848 nine different American vessels visited the Columbia, of which one brought a

    cotton, woollen goods, and hardware; also a number of passengers, viz.: Mrs Whittaker and 3 children, and Shelly, Armstrong, Rogers, Overton, Norris, Brothers, Powell, and French and 2 sons. The Toulon continued to run to the Islands for several years. On the 26th of June 1846 the American bark Mariposa, Captain Parsons, arrived from New York with goods consigned to Benjamin Stark jun., with Mr and Miss Wadsworth as passengers. The Mariposa remained but a few weeks in the river. On the 18th of July the U. S. schooner Shark, Captain Neil M. Howison, entered the Columbia, narrowly escaping shipwreck on the Chinook Shoal. She remained till Sept., and was wrecked going out of the mouth of the river. During the summer the British frigate Fisgard, Captain Duntre, was stationedin Puget Sound. About the 1st of March 1847 the brig Henry, Captain William K. Kilborne, arrived from Newburyport for the purpose of establishing a new trading-house at Oregon City. The Henry brought as passengers Mrs Kilborne and children; G. W. Lawton, a partner in the venture; D. Good, wife, and 2 children; Mrs Wilson and 2 children; H. Swasey and wife; R. Douglas, D. Markwood, C. C. Shaw, B. R. Marcellus, and S. C. Reeves, who became the first pilot on the Columbia River bar. The goods brought by the Henry were of greater variety than any stock before it; but they were also in great part second-hand articles of furniture on which an enormous profit was made, but which sold readily owing to the great need of stoves, crockery, cabinet-ware, mirrors, and other like conveniences of life. The Henry was placed under the command of Captarn Bray, and was employed trading to California and the Islands. On the 24th of March the brig Commodore Stockton, Captain Young, from San Francisco, arrived, probably for lumber, as she returned in April. The Stockton was the old Pallas renamed. On the 14th of June the American ship Brutus, Captain Adams, from Boston and San Francisco, arrived, and remained in the river several weeks for a cargo. On the 22d of the same month the American bark Whiton, Captain Gelston, from Monterey, arrived, also for a cargo; and on the 27th the American ship Mount Vernon, Captain O. J. Given, from Oahu, also entered the river. By the Whiton there came as settlers Rev. William Roberts, wife and 2 children, Rev. J. H. Wilbur, wife, and daughter, Edward F. Folger, Richard Andrews, George Whitlock, and J. M. Stanley, the latter a painter seeking Indian studies for pictures. The Whiton returned to California and made another visit to the Columbia River in September. On the 13th of August there arrived from Brest, France, the bark L'Étoile du Matin, Captain Menes, with Archbishop Blanchet and a Catholic reënforcement of 21 persons, viz.: Three Jesuit priests, Gaetz, Gazzoli, Menestrey, and 3 lay brothers; 5 secular priests, Le Bas, McCormick, Deleveau, Pretot, and Veyret; 2 deacons, B. Delorme, and J. F. Jayol; and one cleric, T. Mesplie; and 7 sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Captain Menes afterwards engaged in merchandising in Oregon. L'Étoile du Matin was wrecked on the bar. On the 16th of March 1848 the U. S. transport Anita, Midshipman Woodworth in command, arrived in the Columbia to recuit for the army in Mexico, and remained until the 22d of April. About this time the American brig Eveline, Captain Goodwin, entered the Columbia for a cargo of lumber; she left the river May 7th. The Hawaiian schooner Mary Ann, Captain Belcham, was also in the river in April. The 8th of May the Hudson's Bay Company's bark Vancouver, Captain Duncan, was lost after crossing the bar, with a cargo from London valued at £30,000, and unin-