APPENDIX 493 
Heceta, a Spanish navigator, examined the coast between 
latitude 47° and 48° for the strait reported by Fuca, but could 
not find it. Three years later, Cook made a similar vain 
search. In 1787, Berkeley, an Englishman, saw the strait, and 
reported it to his countryman Meares, who entered it the next 
year and called it after Fuca, whose story had then fallen into 
great discredit. Gray’s harbor was discovered by Captain 
Gray, an American, in 1791, and the next year he entered the 
Columbia River, and named it after his ship. In this year also 
Vancouver visited the coast of Washington, and gave the first 
clear and accurate account of the Straits of Fuca and Puget 
Sound. The first white men who saw the interior of the Territory 
were Lewis and Clark, sent out on an exploring expedition dur- 
ing the administration of President Jefferson. A few roving 
white hunters and trappers were found along the shores of the 
Columbia about 1820, but the first settlements were made about 
1828, by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which established posts 
at Vancouver, Okinagan, and Colville. In 1841 the Puget 
Sound Agricultural Company (composed of members of the 
Hudson’s Bay Company, which was restricted by its license to 
trading) took possession of two farms, one between the Nis- 
qually and Puyallup Rivers, and another at the bend of the 
Cowlitz River, and began to grow grain and breed cattle, 
mainly for the purpose of supplying the fur company. Before 
the establishment of these farms, some French Canadians set- 
tled on French Prairie, and engaged in farming. The first 
American settlers made their appearance in 1845, and since 
then there has been a slow but regular increase of population. 
Many of the remarks about the history of Oregon will also 
apply to this Territory, which was a part of Oregon until 
March, 1853, when it was organized as a separate Territory, 
its southern boundary being then the Columbia River and 
latitude 46°. When Oregon was admitted as a State, February 
14, 1859, one-third of its areca at the east was cut off and 
attached to Washington Territory. In 1854 a survey was 
made to find a route for a northern Pacific railroad, to termi- 
