TRAVELS IN OREGON, No. 1. 
On the 7th of May, in the year 1792, Captain Robert 
Gray, in the ship Columbia of Boston, discovered and 
entered the Columbia River, to which he gave the name 
of his vessel. Captain Gray’s visit first established the 
existence of a river, and gave to the United States a 
claim to the territory from discovery. In 1804-5, Cap¬ 
tains Lewis and Clark, under the direction of the Ameri¬ 
can Government, explored the country from the mouth 
of the Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia, where they 
spent the winter of 1805-6. This expedition gave to 
the United States another claim to the country. The 
first trading house was established on the Columbia River 
in 1808, by the Missouri Fur Company. Two years af¬ 
terwards, under the auspices of the famous John Jacob 
Astor of New York, the Pacific Fur Company was 
formed, and in 1811 Astoria was founded at the mouth 
of the Columbia River. This post was sold to the Hud¬ 
son’s Bay Company during the war with Great Britain, 
but restored to its original proprietors by order of the 
British Government, under the terms of the Treaty of 
Ghent. 
The territory drained by the Columbia comprises about 
four hundred thousand square miles, the southernmost 
points being in the latitude ,of Boston, and the northern¬ 
most on the same parallel with the southern shores of 
