142 TRAVELS OF CARVER. [1766. 



Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, in its broadest part, between the 43d 

 and the 46th degrees of northern latitude. Had I been able," he 

 continues, " to accomplish this, I intended to have proposed to 

 government to establish a post in some of those parts, about the 

 Strait of Anian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis 

 Drake, of course belongs to the English. This, I am convinced, 

 would greatly facilitate the discovery of a north-west passage, or 

 communication between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific Ocean." 

 This extensive plan he was, however, unable to pursue, having 

 been disappointed in his intention to purchase goods, and then to 

 pursue his journey from the Upper Mississippi, " by way of the 

 Lakes Dubois, Dupluie, and Ouinipique, [the old French names of 

 Rainy Lalce, Lake of the Woods, and Lake Winnipeg,] to the head 

 waters of the Great River of the West, which falls into the Strait of 

 Anian." * 



This Great River of the West is several times mentioned by Carver, 

 under the name of Oregon, or Origan. In another part of his 

 introduction, he refers to his account, in the journal, " of the 

 situation of the four great rivers that take their rise within a few 

 leagues of each other, nearly about the centre of the great con- 

 tinent, viz., the River Bourbon, [Red River of the north,] which 

 empties itself into Hudson's Bay, the waters of the St. Lawrence, 

 the Mississippi, and the River Oregon, or River of the West, that 

 falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Anian." At the con- 

 clusion of his work, also, in speaking of a project which had been 

 formed, in 1774, by himself, Mr. Whitworth, a member of the 

 British parliament, and other persons in London, to cross the 

 American continent, he says that they would have " proceeded up 

 the River St. Pierre, [St. Peter's,] and from thence up a branch 

 of the River Messorie, till, having discovered the source of the 

 Oregon, or River of the West, on the other side of the summit of the 

 lands that divide the waters which fall into the Gulf of Mexico 

 from those that fall into the Pacific Ocean, they would have sailed 



* Travels throughout the interior Parts of North America, in 1766 — 8, by Jona- 

 than Carver, London, 1778. It consists of — an introduction, showing what the 

 author had done and wished to do — a journal of his travels, with descriptions of the 

 countries visited, and — an account of the origin, habits, religion, and languages, 

 of the Indians of the country about the Upper Mississippi, which account occupies 

 two thirds of the work, and is extracted almost entirely, and, in many parts, verbatim, 

 from the French journals and histories. The book was written, or rather made up, 

 at London, at the suggestion of Dr. Lettsom and other gentlemen, and printed for 

 the purpose of relieving the wants of the author, who, however, died there, in misery, 

 in 1780, at the age of 48. 



