PREFACE.

The study of local history and civil government is an essential part of the training of the young people of our country.

The design of the present work is to furnish for the youths of the state of Washington a reliable text book on the history and government of our commonwealth.

Pains have been taken to verify every historical

event presented. The task was difficult one,

a

and doubtless errors still exist in the book. Any corrections pointed out by readers will be thankfully received by the author.

The plan and execution of the book are believed to conform to the true principles of pedagogy.

J. M. TAYLOR.

PART I.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.

1. Early Voyages. The history of the state of

Washington begins with the early voyages of Euro-

pean navigators to the northwest coast of the Pacific.

The Spanish, the Russians, the English and the

French all sent vessels to this coast; some to search

for a northwest passage connecting the Atlantic with

the Pacific, some to engage in the fur trade with the

Indians.

2. The Strait of Anian. It was long believed that
Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, who ex-
plored the coasts of Labrador in 1499 and 1500 had
actually sailed through a channel, named by him the
Strait of Anian, westward from the Atlantic, nearly
on the line of the 58th parallel of latitude, into
another great sea, tributary to the Indian ocean. The
belief in the existence of such a northwest passage to
India caused many voyages to be made to the coasts
of North America both on the Atlantic and the Pacific
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

3. The Northwest Passage Eagerly Sought. All the great maritime nations of Europe were anxious to discover the northwest passage. Jacques Cartier from 1534 to 1541 made three voyages to the North Atlantic under the French flag to find it. The English in 1576 sent Martin Frobisher to the North Atlantic coast to find it. One of the injunctions given to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1669 was to prosecute the search for a northwest passage for ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1745 the British government offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds for the discovery of a northwest passage "through Hudson's Bay, by ships belonging to his majesty's subjects."

Nearly all the early voyages of the Spanish, Russian, and English navigators to the northwest Pacific coast were made to find this supposed interoceanic communication.

In 1542

4. Voyages of Cabrillo and Ferrelo. Cabrillo, a Spanish navigator, with two small vessels sailed northward along the coast of California to search for the Strait of Anian. He discovered a small harbor which he named Port Possession, situated in the island of San Bernardino, near the main land in latitude 34 degrees north. This was the first land taken possession of by the Spanish on the Pacific coast. Here Cabrillo died, and the pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo, was left in command. Fully as zealous and determined as his predecessor, Ferrelo resolved, if possible, to accomplish the objects of the expedition