In 1812 Ross Cox, an 18 year-old Irish immigrant, was
hired on as a clerk for John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company and
immediately posted to Astoria, the company’s outpost at the mouth of the
Columbia River. Adventures on the Columbia River is his first-hand
account of life in the Pacific Northwest written before the adventures of
Lewis and Clark.
Cox departed New York by ship, rounded Cape Horn, and
sailed up the Pacific Coast of the Americas. Along the way, the ship and
crew suffered losses in stormy weather after leaving the Falkland Islands.
All the lighter sails were instantly furled; in the
hurry of doing which, the gaskets or small ropes which bound the flying
jib gave way, and two sailors were sent out to adjust it. While they
were in the act of performing this hazardous duty, a tremendous wave
struck the forepart of the ship, carried away the jib-boom, and with it
the two unfortunate men who were securing the sail. The ship was
immediately hove to, and every piece of timber, empty barrel, or
hen-coop on deck was thrown over to afford the unfortunate men a chance
of escape. Unhappily, all our efforts were unavailing; the poor fellows
remained in sight for about ten minutes, when they disappeared amid the
raging billows.
Cox richly details the appearance and customs of the
natives he meets along the way. Many of the encounters were peaceful, but
sometimes-fatal skirmishes led to less than savory results. At one point,
a group of Indians came aboard the ship, en masse, and wreaked havoc on
the captain and crew.
[Captain Thorn’s] only weapon was a jack knife, with
which he killed four of his savage assailants by ripping up their
bellies, and mutilated several others. Covered with wounds, and
exhausted from the loss of blood, he rested himself for a moment by
leaning on the tiller wheel, when he received a dreadful blow from a
weapon called a pautumaugan, on the back part of the head, which felled
him to the deck. The death-dealing knife fell from his hand; and his
savage butchers, after extinguishing the few sparks of life that still
remain ed, threw his mangled body overboard.
Despite arduous challenges that would set any armchair
adventurer sailing home to the luxuries of city life, Cox persevered and
logged a collection of fascinating stories of life and death in the
untamed lands of the Pacific Northwest. Adventures on the Columbia
River is a must read for anyone interested in the earliest accounts of
adventure on America’s western shores.
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