APPENDIX. 473 



claimed by the United States on the Pacific coast, extending 

 from latitude 42° to 54° 40' north. In 1846, by treaty with 

 Great Britain, the United States abandoned all claim to the 

 country north of latitude 49°, and the name of Oregon Avas 

 by so much restricted. In 1853 the name was furtlier re- 

 stricted to the land south of the Columbia River and latitude 

 4G°, by the act creating the Territory of Washington north of 

 that line. In 1859, Oregon suffered another reduction, nearly 

 one-third of its extent as a territory having beeji cut off from its 

 east end wlien it was admitted into the Union as a State, when 

 the district between the Owyhee river and the Rocky moun- 

 tains was added to Washington Territory. The coast of 

 Oregon was seen by various navigators in the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries ; but its history as known to civil- 

 ized man may be said to commence with the discovery of 

 the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray, who entered 

 its mouth in the American ship Columbia from Boston, 

 May 7, 1792, and gave the name of his vessel to the river. 

 On his return to the United States, he made so favorable 

 a report of the majestic river of the West that statesmen 

 became desirous to secure it and its valley for the Union. 

 This desire led the Administration of Jefferson to send an 

 exploring expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and 

 Clark across the continent in 1804 and 1805. The expedition 

 was successful, and while it collected much valuable informa- 

 tion about extensive districts previously almost unknown to 

 civilized man, it gave the Americans an additional title to the 

 country. In 1808 the Missouri Fur Company sent trappers and 

 traders to Oregon. In 1811 the American Fur Company, of 

 which John Jacob Astor was the leading member, establislied 

 a trading-post at the mouth of the Columbia River, and called 

 it Astoria; but it was. very soon sold to the Northwest Fur 

 Company to save it from being taken during the war. The 

 Northwest and the Hudson's Bay Company, both British asso- 

 ciations, for awhile separate and afterward united, engaged 

 in trapping and trading, kept many trappers and traders in 



