The Story of American History Part 27

It was one long hard struggle for food, shelter, and life itself. This was only the beginning of that mighty stream of migration which flowed for the next half century or more beyond the Mississippi, beyond the Rocky Mountains, into the region of the extreme Northwest and to the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific.

The story of the marvelous growth of our country beyond the Alleghanies during the last hundred years reads more like a fairy tale than the plain truth.

=286. Discovery of the Columbia River.=--In 1792 Captain Robert Gray of Boston, in the s.h.i.+p Columbia, was coasting along the Pacific sh.o.r.es, trading with the Indians for furs, when he discovered a broad and deep stream, which he entered and sailed up for many miles, and named after his vessel. The discovery of this great river produced momentous and far-reaching results.

=287. The Purchase of Louisiana by President Jefferson.=--Now comes another important event. Our pioneers, who wanted to push on still farther, could not consistently cross the Mississippi River to stay there; for all that country belonged to France. This entire region of over a million square miles was then called Louisiana.

Our people were very anxious to obtain part of this land, because it included New Orleans. The possession of it seemed necessary for our growing commerce and for our future protection. Thomas Jefferson, then President (1803), was on the point of attempting to buy of France enough of this southern region to include the mouth of the river, when he learned to his surprise that the French would be glad to sell us the whole of that vast territory!

Napoleon was just then planning military operations on a great scale against England, and he was in sore need of "the sinews of war"; so he was glad to sell to this country this immense area for fifteen million dollars.

The addition of the Louisiana territory more than doubled the area of the United States.

=288. The Wonders revealed by the Lewis and Clarke Exploring Expedition.=--The next year President Jefferson thought it best to learn all about this wonderful addition to our territory, and so sent an expedition, under Captains Lewis and Clarke, to explore it. They started from St. Louis in May, 1804. What a remarkable journey it was!--more than two thousand miles up the Missouri River to its source, then across the Rocky Mountains, next down the Columbia River to the Pacific. They were the first white men who ever explored this vast domain, having traveled about six thousand miles.

On their return in September, 1806, they were welcomed with unbounded joy. The stories of their perilous adventures sounded like a fairy romance, and the book of their travels was read everywhere. The explorers brought back word that the Indians had immense quant.i.ties of valuable furs. Soon throngs of American hunters and trappers began to roam over the vast plains and through the forests.

All the way from the Missouri River to the Pacific a chain of trading posts, and stores for exchanging goods for furs were established. The wagons of the fur-traders and the winding caravans of emigrants that went under their protection soon made a pretty fair road. This was known as the Oregon trail, and in time it became the princ.i.p.al northern highway for Pacific travel.

=289. How Dr. Whitman saved Oregon to the Union.=--In 1836 a group of young missionaries, two of them with their brides, went from New England to Oregon, taking with them a wagon all the way from the Missouri to their new homes on the Columbia River. One of these was a doctor by the name of Marcus Whitman, whose labors and counsel became of great value to the company.

After they had been settled in Oregon some years Dr. Whitman discovered, one day in October, 1842, that the British were sending large bands of settlers down into Oregon, apparently to crowd American emigrants out of that rich country and to take complete possession.

"The country is ours! The United States is too late. England will have Oregon and you cannot help it," exclaimed an English subject to him.

"I will see," was the doctor's quiet reply.

The moment Dr. Whitman heard this he became alarmed at the danger. If the President at Was.h.i.+ngton could only be informed of the facts, the threatened loss might be averted. The National Capital was three thousand or more miles away; and yet to delay a year or two might mean the seizure of all this rich country by the British.

How to inform the government at Was.h.i.+ngton was the question. Could he himself do anything to save to his country this immense and valuable region?--one man, in midwinter, and across a continent? The problem haunted him--"Must I go?" He could not sleep. Difficult, almost impossible, as would be the journey, yet he heard the clear call of duty.

A firm and bold, resolve, quick as a flash, had taken hold of him. He rode home in haste.

"I am going to Was.h.i.+ngton to lay bare this scheme," said he to his wife.

"I will bring settlers to Oregon."

"You cannot ever get there," exclaimed the young wife; "you will perish on the way."

"I must go; Oregon must be saved," said Whitman.

=290. Whitman begins his Perilous Journey.=--Twenty-four hours later Dr.

Whitman, with one companion, and pack mules for the guide and their supplies, started on horseback on the perilous undertaking.

Over mountain ranges, through deep gorges and rugged forests, now drenched in storms, now buried in snow, and half famis.h.i.+ng for food--their sufferings cannot be described.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHITMAN'S FAMOUS "RIDE FOR OREGON."]

They fed their horses on cotton-wood bark, while the men themselves lived on mule and dog meat. Two or three times they were really lost in the blinding snowstorms, and wandered about bewildered for days. Once only, Whitman gave up in despair, and then, worn out and bewildered, he knelt in the deep snow, and in a final prayer surrendered to G.o.d all earthly hopes. Then the party sank down and awaited a snowy burial. They were not, however, to die in the wilderness, but were rescued from death almost as if by a miracle, and after untold hards.h.i.+ps for three months they reached St. Louis.

=291. Dr. Whitman succeeds in his Grand Mission.=--Dr. Whitman at last arrived in Was.h.i.+ngton and convinced President Tyler and Daniel Webster, his Secretary of State, of the great value of Oregon and its importance to the Union. It is claimed that he thus saved to our nation, by his famous "Ride for Oregon," that entire region of country now known as Oregon, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Idaho, an area thirty-two times as large as the state of Ma.s.sachusetts.

This heroic patriot afterwards went through the Eastern States and told the people of the wonders of the Pacific coast. He stirred up such an interest that when, in the following June, he started back for Oregon he had the satisfaction of leading a caravan of two hundred wagons, with nearly a thousand people. After that, emigrants thronged every year in larger and larger numbers, till the territory was soon beyond the danger of British invasion.

The dispute as to which nation had a right to Oregon was at last settled in 1846 by a treaty between the United States and England. By this treaty the boundary line was fixed, and our rightful claim to the vast Oregon country was confirmed for all time.

=292. California becomes One of the United States.=--During all these years, while so many eyes were turned towards Oregon, few thought much of California, for it then belonged to Mexico. The coast trade in hides and furs and the inland immigration from the United States had slowly changed the kind of population. Although it was still Mexican by name, yet by 1846, besides the Spanish, Mexicans, and Indians, there were about ten thousand other inhabitants, mostly American citizens. In that year war was declared between the United States and Mexico. Then the large body of Americans in California thought they had a right to declare their independence of Mexico.

At just this time John C. Fremont, an army officer and a famous western mountain explorer, was fortunately on the great plains, and was sent with an army expedition to explore a new route to Oregon. Being informed by special messenger of the war with Mexico, he changed his course and went to California. When he arrived there his small but courageous band, increased in number by patriotic residents and acting in harmony with our fleet, soon secured the independence of this great state.

=293. The Discovery of Gold in California.=--It appears fortunate and even providential that California came into our hands just when it did, for shortly afterwards a most remarkable event occurred. Captain Sutter, an early emigrant, had settled on the Sacramento River and built a sawmill.

In January, 1848, one of Sutter's laborers, by the name of Marshall, while digging a ditch for the mill, found s.h.i.+ny pieces of yellow metal which they suspected might be gold.

"I wonder what that yellow stuff is," said he. "I wonder if it is gold."

"I reckon it is bra.s.s," said one of his helpers.

"Let me try vinegar on it," said Marshall. It was tried and the vinegar did not affect the "yellow stuff."

The men about the sawmill threw down their tools and went to work searching for gold. Mr. Sutter laughed at the idea. But gold indeed it was, and there was plenty of it!

=294. The Effect of this Great Discovery.=--The news spread. Soon everybody about knew that pure gold was found and in wonderful quant.i.ties. What a rush there was to the "diggings"! How all sorts of people from all over the western coast crowded in! Doctors left their sick, ministers their pulpits, traders their shops, mechanics their tools, and farmers their fields, all half frantic with the desire to dig their fortunes out of the golden sands of California.

When the news of the discovery of gold reached the East, many people seemed to catch the contagion. Mult.i.tudes started at once for California. Thousands came by long wagon trains over the dreary plains.

Hundreds died of starvation or were killed by Indians. Thousands went by the Isthmus, other thousands by Cape Horn. Vast numbers came from foreign countries. Even the crews and often the officers abandoned the s.h.i.+ps that brought crowds to the Pacific coast and started for the gold "diggings."

=295. The Mad Rush to the Gold Regions.=--The rush to the gold fields began in 1848, but became enormous in 1849. Those who went that year are since called "Forty-niners." There were over eighty thousand of them!

The crowds that thronged the gold regions dug up the country for miles around Sutter's mill. They tore up his beautiful valley and ruined his farm. But they soon learned that gold was also to be found in larger quant.i.ties along the streams, among the mountains, and in valleys.

Month by month new-comers swarmed in, and the excitement grew more intense. Some found prizes, nuggets of solid gold as large as an acorn or a walnut, and at times ma.s.ses two or three pounds in weight. However much gold a man found, he was wildly eager to get more.

A great deal of suffering ensued from the scarcity of food and the enormous prices of everything needful. Potatoes sold for a dollar apiece, eggs at the same price, wood at fifty dollars a cord, and flour at a hundred dollars a barrel. Large butcher knives were found very useful for digging, and brought thirty dollars each. A dose of the cheapest medicine in an apothecary's shop cost five dollars, and a physician's visit a hundred dollars. Unskilled laborers were paid twenty-five dollars a day.

Money was not used at the mines, but in its place the ore itself, or "dust," at about sixteen dollars an ounce. Miners carried small scales, weighed their gold dust, and paid their bills with it.

At the rough log tavern: "What do you charge for dinner here?" "Half an ounce."

At the wayside store: "What's the price of these boots?" "Three ounces."

=296. The Pony Express and its Remarkable History.=--San Francisco, being the princ.i.p.al base of operations and the center of much of the immense travel to and from the mines, grew in a few years from a cl.u.s.ter of shanties to a large and wealthy city. The people of California now demanded more frequent and more expeditious transmission of mail matter than that by steamers and across the Isthmus.

It was finally decided to establish a horseback letter express between St. Joseph, on the Missouri River, and San Francisco, about two thousand miles. It was a daring and hazardous project. But the express began business in April, 1860, and made the through trip in ten days. Only letters were carried. The charge was five dollars each, afterwards reduced one-half. The company had sixty hardy riders and four hundred and twenty strong, fast horses, though it was nicknamed the "pony express."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "PONY EXPRESS" RIDER.]

A rider started from each end of the journey at the same hour. There were stations every twenty-five miles for keeping and changing horses.

On a postman's arrival at a station the bags were instantly slung on a fresh horse (for never more than two minutes must be spent at a station), and away went the new courier for the next station. The speed was by and by increased, until the long run was made in only eight days!

Ah! that was furious riding! What speed they made! In 1861 the pony riders took President Lincoln's message through in one hundred and eighty-five hours! It was dangerous riding too. Day and night, over sandy plains and lofty mountains, on, on dashed these bold riders.