essels to navigate."

Shortly after this time, Vancouver met Captain Gray with his ship
_Columbia_. The disheartened explorer placed no confidence in Captain
Gray's report that, upon his former voyage, he had discovered a
large river to the south. Vancouver in his narrative says, "I was
thoroughly convinced that we could not possibly have passed any
safe navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shipping
on this coast from Cape Mendocino to the promontory of Closset"
(Cape Flattery).

Captain Gray, however, determined to make further investigations.
He sailed southward and entered a port now known as Gray's Harbor,
where he spent several days trading with the Indians. From this
harbor he ran on south for a few miles past Cape Disappointment,
and then sailed through an opening in the breakers into a bay which
he supposed formed the mouth of the river of which he was in search.
He finally anchored, as he says, "in a large river of fresh water."

[Illustration: FIG. 39.--A SCENE ON GRAY'S HARBOR, WASHINGTON

Showing sawmills and log booms]

Later Captain Gray took the vessel twelve or fifteen miles up the
river, and would have gone farther if he had not wandered into the
wrong channel. When he left the river he named it the Columbia
in honor of his vessel. Thus by the right of actual discovery the
United States was at last able to make good its claim to the river.

The English claimed that Gray did not enter the river itself, as
the tide sets up many miles farther than the point which his ship
reached. They insisted that what he saw was simply a bay. But the
truth is that Gray was actually in the mouth of the river. The mere
fact that the tide enters the lower portion of the river makes
no difference. The actual mouth of the Columbia is marked by the
north and south coast line. The entrance of the tide water, and
the backing of the current for many miles up stream, is the result
of a recent sinking of the land. The same features are presented
by the Hudson River.

If the English had discovered and entered the river first it is
probable that this stream would have become the boundary line between
the United States and British Columbia, in which case the whole
northern portion of the Oregon territory would have been lost to
us. As it was, the English laid insistent claim to the northern
bank of the river and established trading posts at various points.
The lowest of these posts stood upon the site of Fort