Uncharted Territory (Look to the West Book 2)

by Tom Anderson

  Chapter #86: How the West Was Wrangled Over

  “In retrospect, the extraordinary thing is not that the Pacific lands proved to be the key to the future – it is that this fact was evidently so self-evident to the great powers that each was determined to seize that future for themselves.”

  - Californian politician Piotr Marquez, 1970 speech

  *

  From: “Opening the Pacific” by Ranulph Hiscocks (1978)—

  The voyage of the Enterprize possesses an importance to the American national myth which cannot be overstated, yet – despite the attempts of some revisionist scholars to suggest otherwise – was nonetheless a vital part of the overall scheme to open up the Pacific coast to claims and settlement. This is not, however, to ignore or underestimate the equally important efforts of the Morton and Lewis Expedition or, indeed, the parallel efforts by other explorers whose exploits have, sadly, remained far more obscure.

  The need for America to stake a claim to the West stemmed from a variety of reasons. Some were almost three hundred years old: England’s stated aim in colonising the Atlantic seaboard had been based on an inaccurate estimation that the Pacific coast of the continent lay only ten days’ march to the west, and therefore it would be realistic to have a transcontinental road stretching to new Pacific ports as early as the 1600s. This would then enable England to trade directly with the East Indies and China without having to round the Cape of Good Hope and make the long arduous route necessitated by the Ottoman stranglehold on Eastern trade. Ironically, if this had been the case, it seems likely that India would have been largely ignored by England and the other trading powers of the West; English interest in that land was originally sparked by the fact that Indian ports were natural stopover points on the way home the long way around from the East Indies, before the Dutch largely ejected the English from that region.

  Other reasons were more recent in origin. Interest in the Pacific coast had been reawakened after the Empire of North America had acquired the northern hinterland of French Louisiana after the Second Platinean War in the 1780s. While national awakening delayed anything more than idle speculation in that direction for some years, nonetheless the idea of establishing American ports on the Pacific had ceased to be a mere pipe-dream. Furthermore, there was the issue of Russian and Spanish interest in the same region. Formally the Spaniards claimed the entire Pacific coast of North America, which already brought them into conflict with the Russians slowly working their way down from Alyeska into more temperate climes. Clashes between the two sides were as yet low-level, due to the enormous spaces of unsettled territory in between Vladizaladsk and Cometa.[141] A more serious issue was that of independent British and American adventurers attempting to establish trade with the region. They often came into conflict with Britain’s own East India Company in the process, due to their ultimate aim of providing an alternative trade route to the East. The dispute with the Spaniards heated up until exploding into the Noochaland Crisis of 1799. The Viceroy of New Spain, Martín de Gálvez, intervened when British adventurer John Goodman set up a trading colony on the island of Noochaland [Vancouver Island], sending a force under Admiral Juan Esteban Rodriguez to arrest Goodman and occupy the island. This was the final straw for occidentalist interests in Fredericksburg, who were disappointed by the failure of London to offer anything more than a token protest, being fearful of jeopardising the alliance with Spain against Robespierre’s Republic. These American occidentalist politicians and businessmen organised, funded and launched the mission of the Enterprize, as well as securing Goodman’s release.

  When Captain North of the Enterprize met Goodman in Hawaii in 1802, the adventurer was disappointed by North’s failure to guarantee that Britain and the Empire would intervene to regain his colony by force. Goodman therefore disowned his home country and he and his remaining lieutenants initially struck out on their own. In cooperation with European mercenaries and other adventurers and explorers, they helped the native king Kamehameha unify the islands of Gavaji[142] as a single state for the first time in 1804. After the end of the war, Goodman’s company had acquired several new recruits from the other foreign forces depleted in the fighting, as well as a few curious Gavajskis. This newly-expanded organisation then offered their services to the newly-formed Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company. The RLPC was at this point very busy as new funds and men from Tsar Paul flowed in and the complex Matsumae ruse began to cement control over Edzo, but Moritz Benyovsky was always eager to gain new allies. Given that Goodman and his men had helped unify Gavaji, Benyovsky initially tasked them with gaining influence for the Russian court in the new kingdom.

  This proved easier than expected, as Kamehameha died of an illness in late 1805 and the country was initially plunged into a period of chaos and uncertainty, never having had a royal succession of this type before. In particular Kamehameha’s formidable Queen Kaahumanu attempted to seize power, or at least hold real power while their ten-year-old son served as her puppet. Also, Kaumualii, former King of the western islands of Kauai and Niikhau [Niihau] prior to his defeat in the wars of unification, yet lived. He immediately rose in rebellion, seeking primarily to regain his independence, and secondarily – if the opportunity arose – to achieve the ultimate revenge by grabbing the unified throne that his old enemy had achieved. Along with Kaumualii, several other powerful nobles also sought to place themselves on the throne in the power vacuum.

  Into this chaos, John Goodman and his men returned and brought order. They were well known and trusted in Gavaji, especially since they now included several Gavajski volunteers, and Goodman came with three small Lithuanian ships given to him by Benyovsky along with his own letter of marque. This allowed him to shift loyalist troops around the islands, along with his own elite fighters, and to defeat Kaumualii in mid-1806. Most of the other claimants went back into the woodwork with this swift victory, and the young heir was crowned as King Kamehameha II at the end of the year. His mother the Queen appointed herself as Kuhina Nui or chief minister, a new position. Six months later, after a period of difficult relations with Goodman’s group, Queen Kaahumanu was killed in what was officially described as a tragic accident involving the bite of a poisonous spider. Kamehameha II then appointed a new Kuhina Nui, Paoa Kuhaulua – one of Goodman’s Gavajski recruits from a few years before, who sometimes went by the European name Paul (or Pavel). The appointment of such a young man and not one from one of the great ruling families provoked some unrest, but Goodman’s men swiftly put this down. By 1808, the Gavajski kingdom was at peace, and nothing more or less than the most distant vassal of the Tsar of All the Russias. Of course, at the time none could have dreamt of the power that would eventually threaten this state of affairs…

  Meanwhile, the Enterprize explored the Pacific Northwest throughout 1803, being rebuffed from landing in Noochaland by Admiral Rodriguez. Smarting at this treatment by the Spaniards, and somewhat embarrassed by Goodman’s contempt for his lack of commitments at their earlier meeting, Captain North decided to send a statement to the Spaniards by establishing both a claim and a permanent presence. The operation, masterminded by his second-in-command Joseph Markham, saw the Enterprize map the coastline and find a suitable landing site which North named Golden Hind Bay [OTL Eliott Bay]. Part of the original justification for the mission – and the Anglo-American repudiation of the Spanish claims – was the argument that Francis Drake had visited this region as early as the sixteenth century, and had named it New Albion. The exact location of the area Drake had written of remained a mystery, but this was unimportant. Furthermore, the fact that the current dispute was with Spain lent additional fuel to the idea of pushing this old claim, given that Drake was still something of a bogeyman in the Spanish lands. Therefore, rather than using the New Albion name itself, North dubbed the region Drakesland.

  The Enterprize landed and the men constructed a rudimentary fort from the plentiful local timber, Markham being left in command. He named it Fort Washington, thus establ
ishing a link between the old Drake claims and the modern Empire of North America. With him was John Vann, son of the Cherokee chief minister, whose role was to establish contact with the local Indians – one which served both the government’s purpose, and his own. It transpired that while there were many tribes in the region, there was a single trade language spoken by all, originating from the Chinook Confederacy to the south. Vann established an alliance with the Confederacy’s politically savvy chief, Comcomly, and at least correct relations with another important tribe, the Chopunnish.[143] This served the 31 colonists in good stead when they were attacked by the more belligerent Modoc tribe, with Vann managing to secure protection from the Chinook in exchange for various European trade goods. Notably, coming from an Indian background himself (albeit from a people whose way of life was more sophisticated, having possessed both the benefits and disadvantages of contact with whites for decades), Vann had a better insight into what the locals would want than most European traders. In particular, nautical items such as barometers were in high demand due to their aid in predicting the weather, though this innovation did not of course come without raising problematic religious issues among the natives. Nonetheless, the fort survived.

  North and the Enterprize returned home to Norfolk in Virginia via Cape Horn in September 1804. The ship was greeted with enthusiasm by Virginians and indeed all Americans. The naturalist Andrew Sibthorpe, who had been part of the voyage, immediately organised an exhibition, displaying the scientific specimens he had collected both from exotic Gavaji and the mysterious Northwest. Sibthorpe, a born showman scientist best known for his arguments that Linnaeanism should not be applied to humans, but equally should not be rejected for the natural world simply because it had been hijacked by megalomaniacs, played a big role in the cultural impact of the mission.

  George North’s now deceased father had been the popular first Lord Deputy of the Empire after its acquisition of home rule, and he retained some political influence. Furthermore, the ruling Constitutionalist Party, just having been re-elected on their promise to annex Cuba to the Empire, had interests in both expanding American power and in confronting the newly established Empire of the Indies (later New Spain) to the south. Lord President James Monroe believed that a firm blow might bring the rotten relic of Bourbon absolutism crashing down, little dreaming that his target would become a cobelligerent a few years later. In any case, this confusing time was the right one to chance America’s hand in the west. An overland mission to relieve Fort Washington was required. Therefore, explorers Robert Morton and Henry Lewis were placed in command of a large expedition, including a band of 84 American soldiers (recruited from the backwoods frontier of Tennessee, Chichago and Washington Provinces[144]), twelve slaves from Carolina and Virginia, four missionaries and one naturalist, whose name now perhaps overshadows those of even Morton and Lewis: Michael Weston.

  The overland journey to Fort Washington was certainly not without incident. The expedition took advantage of the existing maps of the Great Lakes charted by Captain Iain Taylor and Erasmus Darwin II a decade before, taking passage by ship to the penal colony of Susan-Mary [Sault Ste. Marie] before then setting off westwards. Both Lewis and Weston wrote of the appalling conditions in Susan-Mary at the back of beyond. It is thought that this represents the only reliable account of the colony before it was swelled in the late 1800s and early 1810s by the vast number of suspected British collaborators with the invading French deported by the Marleburgensian regime.

  From Susan-Mary, the expedition set out with the spring and soon encountered the Oceti Sakowin, the Confederation of Seven Council Fires. This powerful Indian nation, generally known by the racial term Sioux, ruled a large inland region and, more to the point, had been swelled several years before by the addition of two Huron tribes fleeing Anglo-Hauden victory in the Third War of Supremacy: the Arendarhonon and Attigneenongnahac. These Hurons naturally had carried a very negative impression of the British and Americans with them, with the result that those Sioux groups tended to be hostile to the expedition. The exception was with the southern tribes in the loose Confederation, the Isantee, who were facing attacks by the Ojibwa – another formerly French-allied tribe pushed westwards by the Anglo-American victory. Rather than assimilating into the Confederation, though, the Ojibwa had used the muskets they retained and their knowledge of European military tactics to achieve swingeing defeats on the Isantee, who far outnumbered them.

  After weathering several attacks from the northern Sioux (the Lakota and Yanktonai), Morton decided that that route was unfeasible without an even larger armed escort, and on Lewis’ advice turned south. Although initially suspicious, the Isantee gave the expedition safe passage – and even assisted them – in exchange for muskets and training of their own to help hold against the Ojibwa. This initially produced a division between the Sioux, but eventually led to new ideas filtering northwards.

  Having overcome their major obstacle, the expedition built a shelter and wintered east of the Falls of Despair,[145] as Weston acerbically dubbed a series of waterfalls which required arduous portage to circumvent. However, this was achieved in the spring and the mission pushed on. Initially heading in the wrong direction thanks to a faulty compass, the expedition was saved in an unlikely encounter with Shoshone Indians who had heard of Fort Washington by third-hand word of mouth.

  The Morton and Lewis expedition reached Fort Washington on July 4th 1806, finding that the tiny colony had survived, albeit having lost seven men to disease, a Modoc attack and accidents. Nonetheless, Morton expressed his admiration of Commander Markham and presented him with his post-captain’s epaulette, which the expedition had carried on behalf of the Royal Navy “in the event of his survival” as Admiral “Black Jack” Jervis had sardonically put it.

  Meanwhile, of course, the Third Platinean War had broken out, meaning the American plan to send a ship around the Horn to reinforce the colony could not be put into practice; the Horn was now hostile waters. However, a New Spanish envoy visited the fort and informed them (probably through gritted teeth) that, as a price for continued American involvement in the war against the UPSA, the new Hamilton ministry had demanded the New Spaniards surrender Noochaland to the Empire of North America. In any case, the Empire of the Indies could scarcely afford to waste an admiral, several ships and an occupying force on this island at the back of beyond when Meridian troops were landing in Mexico.

  Although lacking ships, the Fort Washington colonists constructed a crude sloop (with the help of the Chinook) and sailed to Noochaland to take formal possession of the island. As of yet there were too few men to actually occupy the small fort the Spaniards had built on the site of Goodman’s trading post, but Weston insisted on travelling there to take several specimens and consult with the native Noochanoolth and Salish, the Indians whom Goodman had established relations with. Both tribes had clashed with Rodriguez’ Spaniards and were relieved that “the British” were back, even without Goodman.

  The colony continued for another year, with the destruction of the Meridian navy finally meaning that a ship could be spared to relieve the fort. This was the Dauntless, detached from Commodore Christopher Perry’s squadron, and she arrived in September 1807. Her commander, Captain Harold Groves, was impressed with Fort Washington’s survival. Yet the mood in the encampment was bleak; Weston had been bitten by a poisonous snake while on one of his expeditions in Noochaland, and had lain in a coma on the border between life and death for over a week, mumbling to himself in his deep sleep. Weston had not been a particularly pleasant man. He was sardonic in his humour, looked down on those less-educated (which in his opinion was everyone) and upset the men with his proud embrace of Robespierre’s deistic-atheism. He had nonetheless gained grudging respect thanks to his establishment of good relations with the peoples of Noochaland and his medical knowledge helping heal several fevers with local plants. But now, like the Christ he did not believe in, Weston could not help himself.

  Groves de
cided to take Weston back with him in the hope that medical treatment might be found back home in the Empire. He also removed Markham (who was relieved by Groves’ own second-in-command, Thomas Hayward) and Morton, with Lewis agreeing to stay. For the present, with the Sioux problem in the interior, it seemed possible that the fort might be primarily dependent on resupply by sea for the foreseeable future.

  A month after the Dauntless’ departure, Hayward and Lewis were visited by a surprising individual: John Goodman, now mapping the coast again on the auspices of the Russian Empire. Goodman remarked cavalierly that he had established a small fort of his own further north, called Baranovsk after the retiring governor of Russian America.[146] Furthermore, he had re-established relations with the peoples of Noochaland himself, for the Tsar was very interested in expanding the fur trade…

  The race for dominance of the West was joined in earnest, and the New Spaniards soon hit back for their humiliating surrender of Noochaland to the Americans. As soon as the Third Platinean War was over, the exiled King-Emperor Charles IV ordered the overall capital of the whole Empire moved to Veracruz while the destroyed City of Mexico was rebuilt. However, he also more controversially ordered the capital of the Viceroyalty of Mexico moved to the frontier town of Monterey in the Californias, something which alarmed the Mexican nobility. However, there was method in his madness; Charles and his brother King Antonio of Mexico intended the move as a means of focusing Mexican attention on the oft-neglected northern frontier, also the reason why responsibility for the Philippines and the remnants of the Spanish West Indies had been given to the Kingdom of Guatemala instead. With conflict over the Pacific coast heating up, in 1811 Antonio established the new fort of San Luis a relatively short distance south of Fort Washington.[147] The race was on. The Empire of the Indies (soon known as New Spain) had an advantage over the Russians and Americans – the region was much closer to their own centre of power. To encourage increased links between the new fort and long-settled Mexico, Antonio opened up Alta California for settlement with various economic incentives for Mexicans, and offers of cheap land for foreigners to settle there provided they converted to Catholicism. Something which would later come back to haunt the young Empire…