The beautiful Name of the State 267 
“great river of the west,” and obtained from them by Jonathan 
Carver, a native of Connecticut, in 1766-68, who spent two years 
among the Indians on the waters of the upper Mississippi, now 
the state of Wisconsin. Carver’s accounts, however, in reference 
to many matters, are contradictory and unreliable, though in 
reference to this he was quite likely right. It is more than 
probable that an article published fifty-three years ago, in 1842, 
in “ Hunt’s Magazine” and reproduced by the historian Brown in 
his political history of Oregon, presents the correct solution of 
the question. Speaking of Oregon territory and the discovery 
of Columbia river by Captain Gray, this article says: ‘The 
territory watered by this river and its tributaries has since ”— 
that is, since the discovery of the river—“ been called the Oregon 
territory from a tradition said to have prevailed among the 
Indians near lake Superior of the existence of a mighty river 
rising in that vicinity and emptying its waters into the Pacific, 
and whith was supposed to be the Columbia.” Bryant in his 
celebrated “ Thanatopsis,” written in 1815, refers to the Columbia 
river as the Oregon: “ Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no 
sound save his own dashings.” 
Early News-carrying in and to Oregon. 
It is a singular historical fact that the pioneers of Oregon 
territory down as late as the settlement of our northern bound- 
ary, in 1846, received most of their news from Washington by 
way of the Sandwich islands. A semi-yearly vessel also brought 
letters and papers around cape Horn, the news in which was neces- 
sarily somewhat stale. Jieutenant Howison in his report says: 
‘October 16, 1846, the American bark Toulon arrived from the Sand- 
wich islands and brought news of the Oregon treaty, the Mexican war 
and the occupation of California. The right of ownership of the soil 
being vested by treaty, I no longer felt any reserve in hoisting our flag on 
shore, and it has been some time waving over our quarters on the very 
spot which was first settled by white men on the banks of the Columbia.” 
On the receipt of the news from the Sandwich islands, James 
Douglass, the chief factor of the Hudson Bay company and a 
pronounced Britisher, addressed the following letter to Governor 
Abernethy, of Oregon: 
‘‘Fort Vancouver, November 3, 1846. 
“*GroRGE ABERNETHY, Esq. 
“Dear Str: Very important news for all parties in Oregon has just 
been received by the bark Toulon from the Sandwich islands. It appears 
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