1842.] EXPLORING VOYAGE OF WILKES. 375 



had been specially directed to survey and examine those countries, 

 as carefully as circumstances would permit. Lieutenant Wilkes, in 

 the sloop of war Vincennes, arrived off the mouth of the Columbia, 

 on the 27th of April ; but, finding it hazardous to attempt the 

 entrance, he sailed to the Strait of Fuca, and anchored in Puget's 

 Sound, near Nasqually, a post belonging to the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, from which he despatched several surveying parties into 

 the interior. One of these parties crossed the great westernmost 

 range of mountains to the Columbia ; and, having visited the British 

 trading posts of Okinagan, Colville, and Walla- Walla, returned to 

 Nasqually. Another party proceeded southward to the Cowelitz, 

 and down that river to the main trunk of the Columbia, which was 

 examined upwards as far as Walla- Walla, and downwards to the 

 ocean. In the mean time, other parties were engaged in surveying 

 the coasts and harbors on the Pacific, the Strait of Fuca, and 

 Admiralty Inlet, and particularly in exploring the valleys of the 

 Willamet River, emptying into the Columbia, and of the Sacra- 

 mento, falling into the Bay of San Francisco, which are perhaps the 

 most valuable portions of Oregon and California. The perform- 

 ance of these important duties was accompanied by an unfortunate 

 occurrence. The sloop of war Peacock, one of the exploring 

 vessels, commanded by Lieut. William L. Hudson, struck on the 

 bar at the mouth of the Columbia, while attempting to enter that 

 river, on the 18th of July, and was lost ; her crew, however, in 

 consequence of the perfect discipline maintained on board, were 

 all landed in safety, with her instruments and papers, on Cape Dis- 

 appointment, where they were received, and treated with the 

 utmost hospitality, by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 residing in the vicinity.* 



* The exploring squadron, consisting of the sloops of war Vincennes and Pea- 

 cock, store-ship Relief, brig Porpoise, and schooners Sea-Gull and Flying-Fish, 

 sailed from the Chesapeake on the 19th of August, 1838, and passed around Cape 

 Horn, where several months were employed in exploring, and, unfortunately, the 

 Sea- Gull was lost, with all on board. Lieutenant Wilkes then crossed the Pacific to 

 Australia, south of which, he, in January, 1840, discovered a line of rocky, ice-bound 

 coast, extending nearly under the Antarctic circle, from the 92d to the 165th degrees 

 of longitude east from London; that is, about 1800 miles. Thence he proceeded 

 northward, surveying many groups of islands and intricate channels hitherto im- 

 perfectly known, to the coast of Oregon, where he spent the summer of 1841, as 

 above stated; and, having completed his work, he returned, with his vessels, through 

 the India seas, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to the United States, where he 

 arrived in June, 1842. The southernmost point attained was in the Pacific, south- 

 south-west of Cape Horn, in latitude of 70 degrees 14 minutes, that is, farther south 

 than any navigator, except Cook and Weddell had previously penetrated; it was 

 reached on the 24th of March, 1839, by Lieut. W. M. Walker, commanding the 

 Flying-Fish. 



