476 APPENDIX. 
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 was 
by so much restricted. In 1853 the name was further re- 
stricted to the land south of the Columbia River and latitude 
46°, 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 been cut off from its 
east end when it was admitted into the Union asa 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, established 
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 Hudgon’s Bay Company, both British asso- 
ciations, for awhile separate and afterward united, engazed 
in trapping and trading, kept many trappers and traders in 
