1792.] BROUGHTON SURVEYS THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 247 



Chatham, on the 20th of October ; and he there, to his surprise, 

 found lying at anchor the brig Jenny, from Bristol, which had sailed 

 from Nootka Sound a few days previous. Scarcely had the Chat- 

 ham effected an entrance ere she ran aground ; and the channel 

 proved to be so intricate, that Broughton determined to leave her 

 about four miles from the mouth, and to proceed up the stream in 

 his cutter. A short account of his survey will be sufficient, as it 

 would be unnecessary to present an abridgment of the long and 

 minute description given in the journal of Vancouver. 



The portion of the Columbia near the sea was found by Brough- 

 ton to be about seven miles in width ; its depth varied from two 

 fathoms to eight, and it was crossed in every direction by shoals, 

 which must always render the navigation difficult, even by small 

 vessels. Higher up, the stream became narrower, and, at the 

 distance of twenty-five miles from its mouth, its breadth did not 

 exceed a thousand yards. These circumstances were considered by 

 Broughton and Vancouver as authorizing them to assume that the 

 true entrance of the river was at the last-mentioned point, and that 

 the waters between it and the ocean constituted an inlet or sound.* 

 From the extremity of this inlet, the party rowed eighty miles up 

 the river, in a south-west course, to a bend, where, the current 

 being so rapid as to prevent them from advancing without great 

 labor, they abandoned the survey, and returned to their vessel. 

 The angle of land around which the river flowed, and where their 

 progress was arrested, received the appellation of Point Vancouver ; 

 the part of the inlet where the ship Columbia lay at anchor during 

 her visit, was called Gray's Bay ; and that immediately within Cape 

 Disappointment was named Baker's Bay, in compliment to the 

 captain of the Jenny. On the 10th of November, the Chatham 



* " I shall conclude this account of the Columbia River by a few short remarks 

 that Mr. Broughton made in the course of its survey, in his own words. ' The 

 discovery of this river, we were given to understand, is claimed by the Spaniards, 

 who called it Entrada de Ceta, after the commander of the vessel who is said to be its 

 first discoverer, but who never entered it; he places it in 46 degrees north latitude. 

 It is the same opening that Mr. Gray stated to us, in the spring, he had been nine 

 days off, the former year, but could not get in, in consequence of the outsetting 

 current; that, in the course of the late summer, he had, however, entered the river, 

 or rather the sound, and had named it after the ship he then commanded. The ex- 

 tent Mr. Gray became acquainted with on that occasion is no farther than what I 

 have called Gray's Bay, not more than fifteen miles from Cape Disappointment, 

 though, according to Mr. Gray's sketch, it measures thirty-six miles. By his calcu- 

 lation, its entrance lies in latitude 46 degrees 10 minutes, longitude 237 degrees 18 

 minutes, differing materially, in these respects, from our observations.' " — Vancou- 

 ver, vol. ii. p. 74. 



