Review Reviewed Work(s): Columbia's River: The Voyages of Robert Gray, 1787-1793 by J. Richard Nokes Review by: Gordon DeMarco Source: Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 3, The in History (Fall, 1992), pp. 319-322 Published by: Oregon Historical Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20614475 Accessed: 25-06-2020 04:10 UTC

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This content downloaded from 47.25.247.108 on Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:10:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 319 Oregon Historical Quarterly /FALL1992

events and general points of interest. Snyder, a Portland native, has brought together a curious combination of his own interactions with and observations of Portland's people and events. Snyder's work is, above all, a blend of nostalgia carefully woven in with an appreciation for the con temporary. Thoughtfully including exact addresses and locations, Snyder has cre ated not only a historically relevant work but also a tour guide designed to beguile any traveler. As a collection of "tales" told by a knowledgeable writer, Portland Potpourri conveys the diversity of Portland in a simple, t?te-?-t?te manner, with the author himself becoming an "old friend" by the book's end. Indeed, Snyder's liberal use of exclamation points gives both a liveliness and a congeniality to his historical writing. The content of the book spans events from the 1800s to the present, with each chapter supplying brief biographical information about im portant individuals. Accompanying each succinct biography is a descrip tive account of an event or an individual's involvement, illustrated usually with ink drawings and/or black-and-white photographs. Within this for mat Snyder casually discusses subjects such as the explosion of the steamship Gazelle, the design of the Portland zoo, the conception of St. Mary's Academy, and the proprietor of the Shoreline Trader (a bizarre secondhand store of yesteryear). Portland Potpourri is truly a "stroll" through Snyder's Portland?a journey to the author's most beloved sites, narrated with his commentary and interpretation. With a section on sources consulted rather than foot notes, Snyder's work stands as a collection of his memories based loosely on historical references. Indeed, Snyder is not one to skimp on his own experiences, for he gives rather lengthy renditions of several of his interviews and visits. Al though this narrative aspect gives the work a more personal and intrigu ing flair, it unfortunately becomes excessive in places. Several fine essays are blemished with a regrettable sycophantic taint when Snyder overem phasizes his own involvement and frequently relates his encounters with more than a little self-pride. However, Portland Potpourri serves well as an entertaining account that playfully interweaves anecdotes of Portland's history with those of contemporary sites and monuments. Sabina M. Poole Eugene

Columbia's River: The Voyages of Robert Gray, 1787-1793, byj. Richard Nokes. Washington State Historical Soci ety, Tacoma, 1991 (315 No. Stadium Way, Tacoma, 98403). Foreword

This content downloaded from 47.25.247.108 on Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:10:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 320 Oregon Historical Quarterly /fall 1992 by Louis Leonard Tucker. Maps. Illustrations. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index, xviii + 352 pp. $24.95 (softcover); $39.95 (hard cover) . Robert Gray was thirty-two years old when he set sail from in 1787. He was at the helm of the sloop Lady Washington, and, as part of the same expedition, the older John Kendrick captained the larger . Their mission, financed by New England entrepreneurs, was to obtain as many sea-otter skins as possible in the coastal waters of the Pa cific Northwest and to sell them at the highest possible price in . Gray took his mission to heart, and from the date he first set foot on the Oregon coast his career was characterized by efforts to maximize profits in his business, using violence, when he deemed necessary, as his tool. Some historians mix folklore with fact, especially when writing about figures they have elected as national heroes (e.g., Columbus). J. Richard Nokes, editor emeritus of the Oregonian and author of Columbia's River, is one such mixer. For example, folklore shakes hands with hyperbole when he writes, "Americans must be ever grateful to Robert Gray and John Kendrick and the other Boston men who risked health and even death two centuries ago as they sailed their ships along dangerous coast into the unknown or Htde-known waters of the Pacific Ocean" (p. 280). In August 1788 Robert Gray put ashore at Tillamook Bay, where cor dial contact was made with the Salishan Indians. However, when the cut lass of Gray's cabin boy (Marcus Lopez) was left in the sand and taken by a native, a fatal confrontation followed as members of the crew tried to re trieve the weapon by force. Lopez was killed and several members of the crew were wounded. The native societies along the Northwest Coast were not, of course, idyllic, pacifist, and helpless before the onslaught of the white Europeans and Americans. Although generally peaceful, several groups of North west Indians occasionally went to war with neighboring tribes, often for the purpose of capturing slaves. In 1775, during the expedition of the Spaniard Bruno de Hezeta, Quinault Indians attacked a ship's party that had put ashore along the Washington coast. Each side lost seven men in the skirmish. Gray captained the Columbia during his second voyage to the region (1790-1793). He was also a full partner in the enterprise that fronted the money for the voyage. This fact likely made Gray's dealings with the na tive peoples that much more contentious, since he was driven to maximize profits for himself as well as the enterprise. The mission this time was the same as the earlier one: Get sea-otter skins. Dorothy O. Johansen and Charles M. Gates, in their classic work Empire of the Columbia, describe

This content downloaded from 47.25.247.108 on Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:10:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 321 Oregon Historical Quarterly /f all 1992

the "discoverer" of the Columbia as "ruthless in his practices and strictly attentive to the ctwo-penny objects' of his business" (pp. 65-66). The Columbia arrived on the Northwest Coast in June 1789. The crew spent the winter at Clayoquot Sound, located on near , the scene of a major diplomatic incident between Spain and Britain the year before. Relations between Gray's party and the Indi ans, led by Chief Wickananish, appeared friendly, according to John Boit, the young fifth mate of the Columbia, who kept the most complete jour nal of the second voyage. The Indians brought fish, venison, and berries, and invited the crew to participate in ceremonies, dinners, and entertain ments. Despite the apparent amity, though, Boit wrote that "we find them to be still a savage tribe, and only waiting an opportunity to mas sacre the whole lot of us in cold blood." Although there had been earlier hostilities between white sailing crews and Indians, there is little in Boit's journal, or in the journals of other members of Gray's crew, to substantiate his fears of "massacre." But in January 1792 Boit reported that Gray and the crew foiled an Indian plot to seize the ship and kill the crew. The evidence for this was a tale told by the cabin boy, as well as a number of Indian canoes approaching the Co lumbia at night, with the occupants keeping up a "hideous hooping." In March the Columbia left Clayoquot Sound, but before doing so Gray ordered crew members to destroy the nearby village of Opsitah, in cluding some 200 dwellings. Boit opposed this cruelty and wrote in his journal on March 27, "am grieved to think Captain Gray should let his passions go so far." On May 8, three days before the historic entrance into the Columbia, Boit wrote about the "hooting of Indians" once again when many canoes approached the ship at night off the Washington coast. Cannon and mus ket were opened up on them and a large canoe was sunk, killing "every soul in her." On May 29, again near Clayoquot, Gray ordered cannon fire on an approaching canoe, killing everyone in it. Days before, the In dians had gone to the Spanish for help, fearing the Americans would rob and loot their village. Two more incidents followed, on June 7 and 9, in the Queen Charlotte Islands. During the latter skirmish Gray shot and killed the chief, who would not withdraw his canoes from alongside the ship. Even if Gray had some justification for his violence against native peo ples of the Northwest Coast in his pursuit of profit, surely this picture of him as a ruthless, profit-driven, sailor-entrepreneur, who, at the least,^r? voked hostility leading to Indian deaths, is not that of a hero, an explorer,

This content downloaded from 47.25.247.108 on Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:10:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 322 Oregon Historical Quarterly /F all 1992

a man with a vision who changed the course of American history. Nokes's book is well-written, thoroughly documented, and a valuable resource as far as it goes. For example, he does touch on the sensitive issue of "discovery." However, such concerns are incidental to his story. The author is at his worst when he steps out of his informative narrative and begins offering up tired old myths, such as the vital importance of Gray's "discovery" in establishing the U.S. claim to the Oregon Country. Since Robert Gray and his shipmates were the first u.s. citizens to enter the mouth of the Columbia River, their achievement gave a small political ad vantage to the United States in its struggle with Britain for control of the Northwest. In subsequent years American diplomats used Gray's "dis covery" to press u.s. claims to the Oregon Country, and jurisdiction in the region was finally resolved by treaty in 1846. More than by Gray and the Columbia, though, the issue was decided by American pioneer set ders pouring into Oregon in the 1840s. Nokes, in a 1992 article in the Oregonian on Gray's "discovery" of the Columbia, wrote, with apparent seriousness, that had the British entered the Columbia ahead of the Americans, "the Jack of England might well have flown over the Oregon Territory instead of the Stars and Stripes. We might be singing cO Canada' instead of The Star Spangled Banner5 on patriotic occasions." The "mantle of Columbus" that Nokes and others have draped on Gray's shoulders is pure folklore. Robert Gray was a man of his time. He rose above his contemporaries neither morally nor politically. He was a businessman who sometimes killed Indians in the course of his commerce (as was done by other Americans, the British, and the Spanish). He sailed into the mouth of the Columbia River in search of sea-otter skins and profit, and got them. He deserves a place in history?a place where he roes, gods, and legendary molders of the American national character do not dwell. Gordon DeMarco Portland

Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7, Northwest Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles. Smithsonian Insti tution, Washington, DC, 1990 (Smithsonian Institution Press, Dept. 900, Blue Ridge Summit, pa 17294-0900). General editor, William C. Sturtevant. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Bibliography. Index, xv + 777 pp. $38 (hardcover). Northwest Coast is the latest addition (volume 7) to the Smithsonian In stitution's authoritative Handbook of North American Indians. As applied in this volume, ccNorthwest Coast" includes the coast from Alaska's Cop

This content downloaded from 47.25.247.108 on Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:10:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms