COLUMBIA RIVER. 117 



I now supplied the tender with water and other requisites, and gave 

 Mr. Knox orders to take a few more soundings on the outside of the 

 bar, and then proceed along the coast as far as latitude 42° N., and to 

 examine it, and the mouth of the Umpqua. 



Previous to leaving the Columbia river, I addressed the following 

 letter to Dr. M'Laughlin and Mr. Douglass. 



U. S. Brig- Porpoise, 

 Baker's Bay, 



October 5th, 1841. 

 Gentlemen, — 



My last duty, before leaving the Columbia, I feel to be that of 

 expressing to you my sincere thanks for the important aid and facili- 

 ties which you have afforded the Expedition on all occasions, for 

 carrying out the -object of our visit to this part of the world ; and be 

 assured it will prove a very pleasing part of my duty to make a due 

 representation of it to my government. 



Your personal kindness and friendly attentions to myself and 

 officers, from our first arrival, and also to Captain Hudson and his 

 officers after the wreck of the Peacock, have laid me under many 

 obligations, which I trust it may be at some future day in our power 

 to return. 



We all would request through you an expression of your feelings 

 for the many attentions and kindnesses received, and the pleasures 

 afforded us by the officers of the Hudson Bay Company's service, with 

 whom we have had any intercourse, which will be long remembered 

 with pleasure. 



With my sincere wishes for the health, happiness, and prosperity of 

 yourselves and families, I am, very truly, 



Your obedient servant, 



Charles Wilkes, 

 To John M'Laughlin and Commanding Exploring Expedition. 



James Douglass, Esquires, 



Chief Factors, H. B. C. Service, Vancouver. 



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 acknowledgment 

 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 moun- 

 tainous, and may be seen at a great distance. Soundings of dark sand 



