COLUMBIA RIVER. 157 



At the same time, I wrote a letter to our government, informing 

 them of the assistance we had received, stating the services these 

 gentlemen had rendered us, and asking that an expression of acknow- 

 ledgment might be made, through the British minister at Washington, 

 to the Directors of the Hudson Bay Company in England. 



On the night of the 15th, we parted company with the Oregon, 

 and did not see her again until she arrived at San Francisco. We 

 coasted along to the southward, in the Porpoise. The land is high 

 and mountainous, and may be seen at a great distance. Soundings 

 of dark sand are obtained, in from thirty to forty fathoms water, about 

 fifteen or twenty miles from the land. 



The coast south of the Columbia river I regretted we had not an 

 opportunity more particularly to examine : the attempt of the 

 Flying-Fish was unsuccessful ; the season had advanced so far as to 

 make it next to impossible to accomplish it in a manner I desired. I 

 have no reason to doubt the correctness of the examinations that 

 have been already made. No ports exist along any part of it, that are 

 accessible to any class of vessels, even those of but very small draught 

 of water; and the impediment that the constant and heavy surf 

 offers, along the whole coast, to a landing in boats, makes this part 

 of our territory comparatively valueless in a commercial point of 

 view. Along a great part of it is an iron-bound shore, rising pre- 

 cipitately from the water. Anchorage in a few places may be had, 

 but only in fair weather, and during the fine season. For a more 

 particular description of the coast, I beg to refer to the Hydrogra- 

 phical Memoir. 



On the 18th, we made Cape de los Reyes, and the Farallones. In 

 the afternoon we were boarded by a boat from the Company's bark, 

 Cowlitz, in which was her master, Mr. Brochier, and M. Duplot de 

 Mofras. The latter informed me that he had just made a tour 

 through Mexico and California, and was now going to the Columbia, 

 for a passage to Oahu. The same evening, finding that I could not 

 reach the port, I anchored in thirteen fathoms water. 



On the 19th, we were under way as soon as the tide made, and at 

 3 p. m. we anchored near the Vincennes, in Sausalito Bay, on the 

 north side of the entrance. I was gratified to find all well. Lieu- 

 tenant-Commandant Ringgold reported to me that he had fulfilled 

 the instructions relative to the Sacramento river. Nothing had yet 

 been heard of Lieutenant Emmons; and the next day I despatched 



vol. v. 40 



