|
San
Francisco and Sacramento
during gold rush days.
Sailing around Cape of
Good Hope and Cape Horn.
Historical notes on
Port Orford and
getting in to the primitive
Coos Bay country.. Doggerel
poetry on Coquille River and
Coos Bay.
"THE
DAYS OF OLD AND THE DAYS OF
GOLD."
_____
(from Coquille Bulletin,
Apr 1, 1904)
A sketch of pioneer days
embracing the topics of
interest and history,
beginning with the year
1845,
and connecting an experience
on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the United
States.
(Continued from Last Week.)
Having joined the St.
Mary's, we sailed under
orders for Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. From that
port we proceeded around
Cape Horn to Valparaiso,
Chili [sic]. Passing
through the Strait of
Le Maire in the night, we
had a narrow escape from
losing the ship and all
hands. The
weather or western end of
Staten Island was a lee
shore for us, Terra [sic]
del Fuego being to
the windward. The land
was covered with snow and
ice, and the force of the
gale had blown
away our fore, main, and
mizzen topsails. With
the courses (that means
foresail and mainsail)
and fore-topmast staysail,
we managed to pull through
but it was a close call, and
a fair
current must have been in
our favor. The
commander gave up all hope,
saying, "We'll go
ashore!"
From Valparaiso we sailed to
Monterey [sic], California,
and from there to the Bay of
San
Francisco, where, on
arriving, we anchored in
Sausalito. The number
of vessels in the bay,
counting the St. Mary's, was
six, three naval vessels and
three merchantmen.
What a contrast
to the present era!
To
many of our readers, both in
Oregon and California, a
retrospective glance at the
little
village of Yerba Buena,
destined in after years to
be the queen city of the
Pacific, may prove
interesting. In the
latter part of the year
1838, when the writer
arrived in Sausalito, he was
transferred to the U. S.
storeship Southampton [sic],
then under orders of
Commodore Ap
Catesby Jones [sic] to
proceed to San Pedro and
convey Gen. Joseph Lane and
a company of
dragoons to San Francisco.
We
proceeded there accordingly,
returning with the General
-- then on his way to the
territory of Oregon to
assume the governorship --
his son, Nate Lane, and
Joseph Meeks, who
held the appointment of
marshal. We now
anchored in front of the
town and I remember
counting the houses it
contained at the time, but
have forgotten the number.
My term of
service having expired, I
obtained my discharge and
procured employment with the
firm of
Mellus, Howard & Co., at
the southwest corner of Clay
& Montgomery, leaving
them in a
few days to engage in the
Sacramento river trade under
the notorious Sam Brannan.
San
Francisco at that time
extended no farther east
than Montgomery street;
there was a deep
cove, with an extensive mud
flat at low water. A
line running from Clark's
Point (the only
landing at low water), the
present corner of Broadway
and Front streets, to Rincon
Point
would mark the edge of the
flat, the high water mark
reaching west of Sansome,
close to
Liedsdorf street.
The
customs-house may be said to
stand a short distance north
of the center of this mud
flat. I have sailed
over this flat frequently in
a 30-ton schooner, loaded
with freight for the
Sacramento. A person
desiring a walk to North
Beach could make a bee line
to the Plaza,
with no impediment or
obstruction in the way but
fences, and they were few
and far between.
But all this was soon
changed. Before the
end of the year, from
Montgomery to Dupont and
from Pacific to Sacramento
streets there was a solid
mass of wooden buildings,
some --
notably the Eldorado --
three stories high and all
of the most inflammable
material, dry
redwood. I was an
eyewitness to the December
fire of '49, and, thought it
took some time to
put the Eldorado building up
and at enormous expense, it
went down like a piece of
paper.
Those were brisk times for
men in business and those
having vessels on the
rivers; one
hundred dollars a ton for
freight and twenty-five for
a single passenger, finding
his own food
and sleeping on the open
deck. The passage up the
river was anything but a
pleasure trip,
particularly the Sacramento.
Owing to the density of the
trees and snags on the
river, a
vessel's progress would be
fearfully slow. I have
been three days warping with
lines through
the Steamboat Slough,
distance seven miles, with
the mosquitos thick enough
to smother you
and no relief until night
came; then we would make a
landing and build fires, the
smoke of
which would cause a
cessation of hostilities.
Truly it may be said,
"All is not gold that
glitters."
(To Be Continued)
___________
=
(from Coquille Bulletin,
Apr 8, 1904)
"THE DAYS OF OLD AND
THE DAYS OF
GOLD."
_________
A sketch of pioneer days
embracing the topics of
interest and history,
beginning with the year
1845,
and connecting an experience
on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the United
States.
(Continued from Last Week.)
Having given a description
of the passage up the
Sacramento, it may not be
out of place to
present a picture of the
city of that name as it
appeared in the month of
March, '49. The
landing was known as the
"embarcadero,"
this being the Spanish term
for a place where
freight is either landed or
shipped. It was a
nice, level spot, with open
timber. You could
drive an oxteam anywhere
through it, and, the
circulation of the wind
being rree, it afforded
considerable relief from the
ever-dreaded mosquitos.
It had been used for a
number of years
by Gen. Sutter, as it was no
great distance from his
fort. The business
tents -- there were no
houses -- were two in
number, one a store kept by
Sam Brannan and the other a
restaurant
kept by a person named
McDougal. In this
restaurant you could revel
in the delights of fresh
salmon jerked beef, beans
and hard sea biscuit at the
reasonable price of $1 a
meal, with no
change in the bill of fare
from breakfast to supper,
coffee and tea excepted.
Down below the
landing on the same bank of
the river, you would always
see a portion of
Sutter's Indians
engaged in fishing, while on
the opposite bank, still
farther down, dwelt
Schwartz, a German
vetran of Waterloo.
This man was Sutter's
drillmaster. The
general would instruct his
Indians
in the arts of civillization,
and Schwartz would instruct
them in the civilized art of
handling
the old flintlock. By
these means they were
enabled to slaughter and put
to flight their wild
brethren of the forks of the
American river whenever they
approached Sutter's fort in
a hostile
attitude. Schwartz was
a genial man. I
remember him as the first
raiser of watermelons on
the Sacramento, selling them
in the city at from $1.50 to
$2.50 apiece. He died
many years
ago.
As
I remarked before, there
were no houses in the place
in March, but each
succeeding trip
developed the energy of the
inhabitants. Before
the close of the ear it had
surpassed the Bay
City, if we take into
consideration the greater
facilities possessed by the
latter and the ratio of
population. In 1852 a
great flood swept over it,
and the denizens of that
period are in the
habit of classing that as
the greatest calamity ever
witnessed in that city.
In this they were
mistaken. In the
winter of 1852 a large
portion of the city was
burned down, and this was
supplemented by a flood as
great as, if not worse than,
that of '62. I was
engaged at the time
removing stock from the
ranches and taking them down
to the bay. It is
certainly deplorable
to be compelled to suffer
from the devastating
influence of one element,
but where two of
them are combined the effort
must be still greater.
Having described the
appearance of the two
cities, in their early days,
let us return to San
Francisco and investigate
the cause of a great
excitement which took place
in mid-summer,
'49. For some time
during that year; [sic] a
small portion of Col. J. D.
Stevenson's regiment,
New York volunteers, had
made their headquarters in a
saloon called the Tammany
Hall,
between Sacramento and
Clay [streets]; they were
known as the
"Hounds." And,
having been
brought into California to
conquer it, it was their
implicit belief that they
had more rights in
the premises than those who
did not come, consequently
they undertook to organize
themselves into a band
called "Regimentors."
Having great opportunities,
I noticed that they
were all young, thoughtless
men; they drank, seemingly
never to excess; they
gambled,
almost everyone else did so
in '49; they paraded the
Plaza with bright ribbons
tied in their
hats, in this they were
simply foolish; and while
they could not be classed
with the rowdy
hoodlums of San Francisco of
the present day, still, it
was evident that the
opportunity only
was missing, and that the
inclination was ever present
and ready for a fight.
It came at last. A
young Mexican sailor who
belonged to an American
ship, in fact he had been
raised on
American vessels, left his
ship and went to live in a
boarding house called the
Fremont Family
House, situated on the side
of the steep hill dipping
abruptly into the water, at
what is now the
north side of Vallejo
street, on Battery, but at
that time a very lonely
place, Clark's point,
which was in the vicinity,
was almost covered with the
tents of Mexicans and others
of that
race. The place bore a
hard name; it was not safe
to be in that vicinity after
dark; several men
had been assaulted there and
cut with knives. These
reports engendered a deep
feeling of
hostility in the
"Hounds;" they
swore vengeance on the first
opportunity, and the young
sailor
was the instrument destined
to present the opportunity
for a display of their
belligerent
propensities.
Wandering up town in the
evening, he entered a
gambling saloon and
commenced to play, at the
same time entering into
conversation with two
Mexicans. He won
about four hundred dollars
and on leaving, his Mexican
friends infatuated with his
luck,
concluded to see him home,
as they lived on the Point,
and that was not much more
distant
than a stone could be
thrown, to where he lived.
Their road lay along Kearny
[sic] street, and
while they could have gone
home by way of Pacific, his
road was a little north of
Broadway.
Enough, he did not arrive at
his hotel that night, but in
the morning he was found not
more
than three hundred yards
from the hotel, stabbed in
several places, insensible,
but not dead.
He was taken into the house,
and doctors summoned, who
pronounced the wounds not
mortal;
he had become unconscious
from loss of blood.
When he became conscious,
his statement
was as I have related it.
In fact I had it afterwards
from his own lips. And thus
the storm
began. How it ended
the conclusion of the
narrative will explain.
(To be continued.)
__________
=
(from Coquille Bulletin
Apr 15, 1904)
"THE DAYS OF OLD AND
THE DAYS OF
GOLD."
_________
A sketch of pioneer days
embracing the topics of
interest and history,
beginning with the year
1845,
and connecting an experience
on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the United
States.
(Continued from Last Week.)
The
town, at the time of this
robbery, and attempted
murder, employed no justice.
This
dastardly crime served to
arouse in the minds of the
people, the necessity for
some measure to
be taken, with the view to
checking those midnight
outrages. In the mean
time the "Hounds"
were not idle. They
called a council of war, and
augmented their number with
recruits from
the ranks of the boatmen at
Clark's Point, a few of whom
had suffered from these
nightly
assaults. Their plan
of action, which was fully
explained in their defense,
was, first: That the
women residing on the Point,
were to be invited into a
large tent, where wine and
liquor were
sold, and kept by a
Portugese [sic]; this man
was prevailed on to keep the
women there on the
night of the attack.
Second: No Mexican
would be molested, unless he
resisted, in that case,
he would have to accept the
consequences resulting from
his temerity. Third:
no person
should appropriate any of
the goods or chattels, the
work was to be, solely, an
act of devastion
[sic]. On one point
they were fully determined,
that every tent occupied by
a "Greaser,"
should be torn from its
foundation. Residing
on Broadway, a short
distance from Sansome
street, it was an easy matte
for me and others so
situated, to hear the yells
and the report of
pistols fired in the air.
It was a perfect
realization of the words of
the poet: "Cry
havoc; and
let loose the dogs of
war." The scene
presented in the morning,
was wild and ludicrous, were
it not for its solemnity.
Not a Mexican was to be
seen; they had fled to the
bars, solitary
crevices [sic] on Telegraph
and Observatory hills.
The ground was covered in
all directions,
with the torn canvass [sic]
of the tents, blankets and
other household goods
belonging to this
people. It was a
deplorable sight, and, no
doubt, as it is often the
case, the innocent suffered
as well as the guilty, the
result of indiscriminate
association. Man, it
is said, is a gregarious
animal; yet, a well ordered
society is governed by
judicious rules. The
Mexicans and others
of that race, seem to draw
the line nowhere; they have
no distinction. I am
speaking of the
middle and lower classes,
and a minority of the upper
class, also. The good
and the bad; the
honest and dishonest; the
virtuous and those who
neither possess virtue, nor
care a fig for its
meaning; the priest and the
game-cock fighter; all meet
on the same plane; and if
they
occasionally suffer from
this false method of
association, the fault lies
in the base of the
superstructure, it having no
moral foundation upon which
to rest. As there may
be some
persons who will doubt my
assertions in the ast
paragraph, it becomes
necessary for me to
state that I have lived in
South America, and became
conversant with the manners
and
customs of that people.
On the other hand, I
value not the doubts of the
ignorant, nor the
sneers and scoffs of the
prejudiced, they merit
nothing but contempt.
I am no enthusiast, but I
laugh at those who are. --My
motto is, to speak by the
card, and to abjure
equivocation.
In
the first part of the year
'49, San Francisco was
governed by a magistrate,
called the
"Alcalde."
The name of the incumbent at
that time was Leavenworth.
A history of the city,
that made no mention of him,
would be incomplete. A
meeting of the citizens
having been
called, it was decided that
a sheriff should be
appointed, and a company of
citizen police
formed, who were armed with
muskets, and an endeavor
made to capture the rioters.
The
sheriff's name was Merrill.
Procuring some witnesses and
escorted by a squad of armed
police, he proceeded to
execute the duties of his
office. Having been a
member of
Stephenson's regiment, he
had facilities for
discovering the ringleaders,
and, about the first
arrests he made were the two
principal ones, Sam Roberts
and T. R. Saunders. I
was present
at the arrest of Saunders,
and from what occurred, I
formed the opinion that
Merrill was an
over zealous official.
Saunders and a boy were
talking, at the door of
their boarding house,
when the armed posse came
up, the sheriff stepping up
to Saunders, addressed him
as follows:
"Saunders, I am sorry
to have to arrest a member
of our old regiment, but,
you have been
pointed out as one of the
rioters, and I must do my
duty," then turning to
the boy, he said, "I
must arrest you two."
The boy expostulated, and
tried to reason with the
sheriff; he had been
pointed out; but that was
his boarding house; he had a
right to be there, etc.
All was of no
avail he had to march [sic].
The dignity of the office
sat heavily on Mr. errill,
and, like
Dogberry, he felt the weight
of responsibility. The
Plaza, or as it is properly
named,
Portsmouth Square, was
literally crowded with
people. Seventeen men
had been arrested, and
as that was all they could
find, they proceeded to an
Investigation. Whilst
the excitement ran
high, the renowned Mormon
prophet, Sam Brannan,
mounted to the rof of a
house, making a
conspicuous and ridiculous
show of himself; ranting,
tearing his hair, beating
his breast, in
fact, he assumed the
functions of a braying and
kicking ass. He
harangued the crowd on the
blessings and privileges of
freedom -- as he understood
them -- and then, as an
illustration of
his peculiar ideas of
freedom, he advocated, aye,
demanded that the seventeen
prisoners,
innocent or guilty, without
judge or pity, be taken out
and hung to the tree of
liberty. Of a
certainty, this tree could
have existed only in the
brain of this incarnation of
diabolism.
Finding that his words had
no effect on the people --
they knew Sam, and accepted
his
vaporings ad valorum -- he
rushed into the Alcalde's
office interrupting the
proceedings and
repeating his demand for the
execution of the prisoners.
Col. J. D. Stevenson was
addressing
the court and on being thus
interrupted, he opened out
on Brannan. He told
him that he ought
to be ashamed, that while
some of the prisoners might
be guilty, no doubt, others
were
innocent. Braunan,
like the generality of
demagogues, was unable to
repel a manly attack,
single handed, consequently,
he fled from the court room
ingloriously. After
the lapse of so
many years, when the
reflections engendered at
the time have fully matured,
and passion may
be said to have cooled down,
still, my opinion f Brannan
has undergone no change.
Knowing
the character of the man,
and claiming, as I do, to
have understood him
thoroughly, it was an
utter impossibility to
entertain the least respect
for him. Clothing
himself in the garb of a
blasphemous Mormon prophet,
and in that capacity,
controlling the funds of
that association,
he was guilty of a breach of
trust, deserting his
ignorant proselytes and
appropriating the
money in his own use.
Many years afterwards, when
he became distinguished as a
man of
means, the twitchings of
conscience compelled him to
return this money, or
rather, the loss of
caste in the position that
he occupied, made him
refund, and, in so doing, he
acknowledge his
former guilt. In
filling in the characters,
it is necessary at times to
digress from the main
feature; I will now
proceed with the trial.
(To be continued.)
_____________
(from Coquille Bulletin
Apr 29, 1904)
"THE DAYS OF OLD AND
THE DAYS OF
GOLD."
_________
A sketch of pioneer days
embracing the topics of
interest and history,
beginning with the year
1845,
and connecting an experience
on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the United
States.
(Continued from Last Week.)
Leavenworth was of the
opinion that a jury could be
empanneled [sic] and the
case tried
that night. Stephenson
argued him out of the
position, observing, that,
owing to the
excitement and the
impossibility of procuring
witnesses, it being then
about 4 o'clock P. M.,
the prisoners would be
unable to obtain a fair
trial. "My advice
is, your honor," said
he, "to
have the men conveyed on
board the U. S. ship-of-war
Warren; and deliver them
into the
custody of Commander Long
until preparations are made
for a fair and impartial
trial." This
wise counsel prevailed.
The men were taken in boats
to the U. S. ship, and a
delegation of
citizens were sent with
them, to inform the Captain
of the facts in the case,
and to draw up an
indictment. This
indictment contained five
counts, the first and second
were correct, the third
might be termed excusable,
yet, not true, the fourth
was absurd, and the fifth,
as yet uncertain.
When the indictment was
presented to the Commander,
the prisoners were ranged in
a line
on the quarter deck, and he
proceeded to address them.
"Men," said he,
"you have been
brought here charged with a
certain amount of crime, but
the indictment does not
state that
you are the very men who
committed this crime, you
are here only on suspicion.
I will now
read the indictment to you,
remarking , by the way, that
it seems hardly possible
that such a
young, and seemingly,
intelligent body of men
would be guilty of the acts
herein set forth.
The first count is
conspiracy, the second,
riot, the third, robbery,
the fourth, rape, and the
fifth,
what is still worse, murder.
Master-at-arm, Ship's
Corporal, put these men in
double irons."
The reader may, possibly, be
surprised at my acquaintance
with the minutest details of
this
trial. That is easily
explained. In this
city, I had the same
opportunities enjoyed by
others;
but, on board the ship, I
possessed an advantage;
being but recently a
man-of-war's man, I
could go and come whenever
it pleased me so, to do.
An old servant of the
government is not
treated exactly like a
stranger. After an
interval of three days, the
Commander was notified
that the citizens had
arranged matters, and were
prepared to try the accused,
with a court,
somewhat resembling lynch
law. This was heaping
one crime on another; they
had no legal
power to try the case. The
Commander refused to give
the men up. Here was a
dilemma.
Any attempt to take them by
force from the ship, would
end in disaster and defeat.
Commander Long's advice was
that they should apply to
the governor of the
territory, Gen.
Percifer [sic] F. Smith, for
authority to organize a
legal tribunal, and that
when they pledged
their honor as gentlemen,
that the prisoners should be
tried by a jury of twelve
men, in a court
so organized, he would
deliver the men up,
otherwise, he would try them
himself.
Application being made to
Gen. Smith, it was so
ordered that Leavenworth was
appointed
chief justice, with power to
select two associate
justices; a prosecuting
attorney. And counsel
to aid him, also, counsel
for the defense; territorial
government assuming the
burden of the
expense of the trial.
I forget the names of the
prosecuting counsel,, with
one exception, and
that was McAlister.
Judges Norton and Barry were
selected to conduct the
defense. Barry
was an Irishman, with
a slight brogue. It
was the first serious case
that had arisen, and abut
the first opportunity for
the lawyers , most of them
having but recently arrived;
the display of
talent was fair, on both
sides. The
preparations being now
complete, the prisoners were
brought on shore, and
escorted to the school house
situated on the S W. corner
of the plaza
and Brenham place. On
the morning that the trial
commenced, it was discovered
that there
were sixty-five witnesses
for the prosecution, the
major portion of them
Spanish , or speaking
that language, some French,
and one rioter, a New York
volunteer who turned state's
evidence
and, on whose testimony the
principal reliance was
placed to convict the other
members of the
regiment who took part in
the riot.
An
artist named Pendergrast was
employed as interpreter, he
speaking French and Spanish
fluently. One
circumstance connected with
the riot should be
mentioned, before proceeding
any further with the trial.
Two brothers, natives of
Chile, resisted the attack
on their tent, and
one of them received a
pistol shot in the leg. The
shot was fired by a New York
"rowdy"
named Cornell, who was not
connected with the regiment
of volunteers; he made his
escape.
Many years afterwards, he
kept a low dance hall on
Jackson, between Kearney and
Dupont
streets. This was what led
to the indictment for
murder; but he (the wounded
man) was
pronounced out of danger
during the process of the
trial. In examining a
witness, each
prisoner as made to stand up
consecutively, to allow the
witness an opportunity to
indentfy
[sic] him. Out of the
seventeen prisoners, three
passed through the ordeal,
safely, not a finger
being pointed at them.
These were, Kanaka Jim, a
well educated half-breed of
that race [Ed.
Note: Hawaiian], whose only
fault was associating with
the habitues of Tammany
hall,
Robison, an Irishman, in
whose place, some of the
goods were found, which,
belonged to the
Mexicans; it was proved on
the trial that the goods
were brought to his place
for safe keeping,
by the owners. This
man's compassion might have
led him into the danger of
risking his
neck; had the owners been
killed in the row, he would
have stood fully convicted
without a
particle of evidence in his
favor. The third
prisoner exonerated was the
boy, before
mentioned, as arrested while
talking to Saunders.
The prosecuting attorney
having entered a
nol proseque [sic] in these
cases, they were discharged.
___________________
=
[M. 2006. I
skipped the May 13, 1904
article. There
were no other articles after
Apr 29]
(from Coquille Bulletin
May 20, 1904)
"THE DAYS OF OLD AND
THE DAYS OF
GOLD."
_________
A sketch of pioneer days
embracing the topics of
interest and history,
beginning with the year
1845,
and connecting an experience
on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the United
States.
(Conclusion.)
_______
Passing over a period during
which I sailed on the coast
and on the bay of San
Francisco, I
engaged in the business of
shipping lumber at such
places as Salt Point and
Timber Cove,
finally drifting into
"The Land of
Webfoot" at Port
Orford. Here let us
moor ship for awhile
and take a survey of that
healthful harbor. In
my minds eye there comes
occasionally a
retrospective glance at that
magnifiable [sic] and
delightful position.
Without any attempt to
bombast and in defiance of
criticism, I select and
place Port Orford as
possessing the most
enjoyable climate of any
place on the coast, from San
Diego to Yaquina bay.
I have been
over the course and speak by
the card.
Port Orford is situated
half-way between San
Francisco and Cape Flattery.
With a
breakwater of sufficient
length to protect it and
counteract the effect of the
sea from the
southward prevalent during
winter, Port Orford can be
made a perfectly safe harbor
throughout both winter and
summer. Being
protected on three sides --
east, north and west --
the bay is as smooth as a
millpond in summer, when the
northwest wind prevails.
Port Orford
offers a delightful and
healthy site for a town.
Its westerly projection
seems to be in its favor,
ridding it of the heavy fog
that quite frequently
prevails on other portions
of the coast. I
predict that the long-buried
prospects of Port Orford
will yet see the light, and
that it will
maintain its legitimate
position as the depot of a
thriving trade, and, with
just recognition of
its merits, become a safe
harbor. If our
government would recognize
the importance as well
as necessity of improving
the harbors of the Pacific
Coast, then there would be
no relaxations
of efforts to that goal.
Having given you my
impressions from an
experience of two years'
residence at Port
Orford, I bade adieu to that
port in the winter of 1863,
and, in company with the
mail carrier,
Mr. John Nasburg, I climbed
onto the back of a horse
(something unusual in my
line) and
commenced the trip to Coos
bay via the hills, beach and
crossing of "the
beautiful Coquille."
The ferry at the mouth of
the river was kept by Mr.
John Lewis, and the
postoffice [sic] on the
north bank was under the
control of Mr. John Hamblock.
The mail route through the
timber
was full of mud holes, and
when we came to the dead
timber at the head of South
Slough it
was blocked in all
directions with fallen
timber of large size. We had
to foot it for two or three
miles, lead the horses and
jump the logs.
On
that occasion I had no
opportunity to observe the
upper portion of the
Coquille river,
but during my long residence
in this section of Oregon
[forty-one years] I have
visited the
river frequently and resided
in Coquille City from the
month of June, 1884, until
May, '85, at
which time I was engaged on
the staff of the Coquille
City Herald. I often
reflect on the
advantage it would be to the
large section of the country
tributary to the Coquille
river if that
bar at the entrance were
improved by some permanent
method and carried on with
persistence
until definite and
successful results were
obtained. The river
banks constitute the
greatest
portion of Coos county's
farming lands, and its
resources in timber and coal
are immense. I
will pay a parting tribute
to the river, engendered by
my later experience of its
peacful flow
and fertile surroundings.
THE COQUILLE RIVER
I
have floated on its bosom,
And I've strayed along the
shore
When the
trees were rife with blossom
And enjoyed it o'er and
o'er.
So,
wherever I may wander,
'Twill be pleasant still to
feel
It was
cheerful to meander
On the banks of the
Coquille.
In
my trip to Coos bay I was
fortunate in having a
companion who had been over
the route
previously. The mail
carrier, being better
mounted, was able to clear
the logs rapidly;
consequently he left us
behind. We arrived at
the town after sundown, and
on coming into the
open, my first receptive
glimpse across Coos bay was
the extensive accumulation
of sand that
separates the bay from the
Pacific Ocean. I soon
began to look around for
employment, and,
as m latest occupation was
that of a lighterman, I
obtained an introduction to
Patric Flanagan,
one of the owners and
operators of the Newport
coal mine. Mr.
Flanagan, in his early
years,
had followed the sea, and on
comparing notes, a barque
which he was in had been
moored
close to a ship in which I
was an apprentice.
This occurred at a guano
island near the Cape of
Good Hope in the latter part
of the year 1844.
Being in need of a hand and
preferably a
seaman, he employed me to
lighter coal to the vessels
carrying it to San
Francisco, remarking
by the way, "You have
done some work of that kind
in some rough places;
notably that guano
island near the Cape of Good
Hope; but at my place it is
as smooth as a millpond.
[sic; no
closing quote.]
Here I will digress for the
purpose of comparing seas
in various quarters of the
globe.
Cape Horn has a long, heavy,
but fairly easy sea to ride
over. The Cape of Good
Hope has a
long sea, with the addition
of its being heavier than
that of the Horn and liable
to topple over,
and carry destruction to any
vessel which it may
overwhelm. This phase
of the situation
occurs when the gale
subsides, and, she cannot
keep ahead of the sea;
consequently she
"poops" -- takes a
heavy sea over the stern --
and goes down with all
hands. Even with a
breeze of wind comparatively
light, a vessel will become
becalmed in heavy
"rollers" and
therefore helpless.
Now, I have run my course
and retrospectively arrived
at my destination -- Coos
bay. I
had heard of it under
various names in earlier
days. My old
acquaintance, H. H. Baldwin,
of
Bandon, vouches for one
name, "the Cowan."
On McArthur's charts of the
coast, date 1850,
which I had examined by
Thomas Tennant, of San
Francisco, it is called
"Kowes river.".
Well,
let me give it a parting
puff:
COOS BAY
A
safe, snug retreat from the
waves that do beat
On that sandspit piled up in
the west,
There's
the finest of fish ever seen
on a dish,
And its clam soup goes down
with a zest
Therefore, I bade adieu to
the ocean that's blue;
From its rancid salt pork I
cut loose.
Go to sea
if you will, but I'v had a
fill
And have cast my sheet
anchor in Coos.
ROBERT STARKEY.
___________
[Ed. Note.
Rancid salt pork seems
likely to refer to ship's
rations.]
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