The Log School-House on the Columbia

by Hezekiah Butterworth

  I.

  VANCOUVER.

  The remarkable progress of the Pacific port cities of Seattle and Tacomamake Washington an especially bright, new star on the national flag.Surrounded as these cities are with some of the grandest and most poeticscenery in the United States, with gigantic forests and rich farm-lands,with mountains of ores, with coal-mines, iron-mines, copper-mines, andmines of the more precious treasures; washed as they are by the water ofnoble harbors, and smiled upon by skies of almost continuous Aprilweather--there must be a great future before the cities of Puget Sound.

  The State of Washington is one of the youngest in the Union, and yet sheis not too young to celebrate soon the one-hundredth anniversary ofseveral interesting events.

  It was on the 15th of December, 1790, that Captain George Vancouverreceived his commission as commander of his Majesty's sloop of war theDiscovery. Three of his officers were Peter Puget, Joseph Baker, andJoseph Whidby, whose names now live in Puget Sound--Mount Baker, andWhidby Island.

  The great island of British Columbia, and its energetic port city,received the name of Vancouver himself, and Vancouver named most of theplaces on Puget Sound in honor of his personal friends. He must have had aheart formed for friendship, thus to have immortalized those whom heesteemed and loved. It is the discovery and the naming of mountains,islands, and ports of the Puget Sound that suggest poetic and patrioticcelebrations.

  The old journals of Vancouver lie before us. In these we read:

  "From this direction, round by the north and northwest, the high, distantland formed, like detached islands, among which the lofty mountainsdiscovered in the afternoon by the third lieutenant, and in compliment tohim called by me Mount Baker, rose to a very conspicuous object."

  It was on Monday, April 30, 1792, that Mount Baker was thus discoveredand named. In May, 1792, Vancouver states that he came to a "very safe"and "capatious" harbor, and that "to this port I gave the name of PortTownshend, in honor of the noble marquis of that name."

  Again, on Thursday, May 29, 1792, Vancouver discovered another excellentport, and says:

  "This harbor, after the gentleman who discovered it, obtained the name ofPort Orchard."

  In May, 1792, he makes the following very important historical note:

  "Thus by our joint efforts we had completely explored every turning ofthis extensive inlet; and, to commemorate Mr. Puget's exertions, thefourth extremity of it I named Puget Sound."

  A very interesting officer seems to have been this lieutenant, PeterPuget, whose soundings gave the name to the American Mediterranean. Once,after the firing of muskets to overawe hostile Indians, who merely poutedout their lips, and uttered, "Poo hoo! poo hoo!" he ordered the dischargeof a heavy gun, and was amused to note the silence that followed. It wasin April and May, 1792, that Puget explored the violet waters of the greatinland sea, a work which he seems to have done with the enthusiasm of aromancer as well as of a naval officer.

  Mount Hood was named for Lord Hood, and Mount Saint Helens was named in1792, in the month of October, "in honor of his Britannic Majesty'sambassador at the court of Madrid." But one of the most interesting of allof Vancouver's notes is the following:

  "The weather was serene and pleasant, and the country continued to exhibitthe same luxuriant appearance. At its northern extremity Mount Baker borecompass; the round, snowy mountain, now forming its southern extremity,after my friend Rear-Admiral Ranier, I distinguished by the name of MountRanier, May, 1792." This mountain is now Mount Tacoma.

  The spring of 1892 ought to be historically very interesting to the Stateof Washington, and it is likely to be so.