Today, the Oregon State Quarter Coin remembers the voyage of Captain Cook and his sighting of the Oregon coast 238 years ago.
He wasn’t the first explorer to visit Oregon but his journey resulted in names for several points on the coast and set the stage for the lucrative fur trade.
In the Centennial History of Oregon, published in 1912, Joseph Gaston included this excerpt describing Captain Cook’s adventure.
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In 1776, the famous navigator, Captain James Cook, was dispatched to the Pacific coast with instructions to search for a passage eastwardly through North America to Europe, either by Hudson’s Bay, or by the Northern sea, then recently discovered by Captain Hearne, or by the sea north of Asia; and in such search he was instructed to explore all the northwestern regions of America.
His instructions were to strike the Coast of New Albion at 45 degrees north, which was supposed to be north of any discoveries then made by the Spanish. This was Cook’s third and last voyage around the world, and he had left England without knowing what the Spanish navigators had accomplished before that time.
And he was specially instructed “to take possession, with the consent of the natives, in the name of the king of Great Britain, of convenient situations, as you may discover, that have not already been discovered, or visited by any other European power, and to distribute among the inhabitants such things as will remain as traces and testimonials.
“You are also on your way thither strictly enjoined not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions on the western continent of America, unless driven thither by unavoidable accident, in which case you are to stay no longer than shall be absolutely necessary, and to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offense to any of the inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty.
“And if in your further progress to the northward, as hereafter directed, you find any subjects of any European prince or state upon any part of the coast, you may think proper to visit, you are not to disturb them, or give them any just cause of offense.”
Now, it is clear from these instructions that Cook was bound to respect the claims of Spain set up as prior discoveries of the Oregon coast, and the British government was bound by these instructions — Cook was to take possession of such lands as had not been discovered or visited by any other European power.
He had reached the Sandwich islands in February, 1778, and sailing from the islands, came in sight of the Oregon coast on March 7, 1778.
He speaks of the coast as “New Albion” in his log, using the name given it by Drake nearly two hundred years before.
At noon on March 7, the ship’s position was 44° 33′ north by 236° and 30′ east from Greenwich, and Cook’s orders were to strike the coast at 45° north, so that he was showing good sailing qualities.
The location on the Oregon coast reached first thus by Cook, is practically about the entrance of Yaquina Bay.
In his log, he describes the land fairly well as of “moderate height, diversified with hill and valley, and almost everywhere covered with trees.”
Cook laid his course north up the coast and after passing a head land, foul weather set in and he named the point Cape Foulweather, which name has stayed with the headland to this day.
Cook held to his course up the coast with continued stormy weather, until March 29, passing both the mouth of the Columbia river and the Straits of Fuca, without seeing either opening, and then turned into what he named Hope bay on the west coast of Vancouver island, and finding an extension of the bay into the land, gave it the Indian name of Nootka sound.
Here he explored the country and traded with the Indians. Cook gave the names to Capes Foulweather, Perpetua and Gregory, all of which have been permanent except the last, which is now known as Arago.
He traded with the same Indians as did Perez, and found silver spoons and other trinkets of European origin among them, and rightly concluded that they had been visited by more than one navigator on the coast and did not pretend to take possession of the country, although he remained at Nootka on the coast of Vancouver island for a month, making repairs on his ship.
On April 26, Cook resumed his cruise northward surveying the coast line as best he could keeping a sharp lookout for a ship passage eastwardly across the continent, for the discovery of which the British government had offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds.
But he found no Strait of Anian, or any other strait; and coasted around northwesternly reaching Bering sea, and finally the coast of Asia, and after satisfying himself that there was no passage from the Pacific eastwardly to the Atlantic, he sailed for the Sandwich islands, which he reached February 8, 1779.
Here he met with great trouble from the natives, and in attempting to recover a small boat they had stolen from his ship, he was violently attacked by a multitude on February 14, 1779, and brutally killed with clubs before his men could rescue him, and carried away and eaten by the cannibals.
He had made three voyages of discovery around the globe, had discovered the Sandwich islands and many other lands.
Captain James Cook was the greatest of all the navigators and explorers of unknown seas, and in every respect a very great man.
His services to mankind were so highly esteemed that when Franklin was in Paris as representative of the United Colonies he was empowered to issue letters of marque against the English, but in doing so, inserted an instruction that if any of the holders of such letters should fall in with vessels commanded by Captain Cook, he was to be shown every respect and be permitted to pass unattacked on account of the benefits he had conferred on mankind, through his important discoveries.
Cook is described as over six feet high, thin and spare, small head, forehead broad, dark brown hair, rolled back and tied behind, nose long and straight, high cheek bones, small brown eyes, and quick and piercing, face long, chin round and full with mouth firmly set — a striking, austere face, showing his Scotch descent, and indicative of the man most remarkable for patience, resolution, perseverance and unfaltering courage.
The irony of fate which snuffed out the life of a great and good man, and deprived him of the honor and credit of opening to the world a great region filled with unexampled wealth, yet even in this last fateful voyage, gave to the commercial world a clue to vast wealth which was eagerly snapped up by citizens of four great nations.
In Cook’s brief stay at Nootka sound, he got in barter, a small bale of very fine furs from the Indians.
These furs reached China after the death of Cook, and their extraordinary quality at once so caught the attention of all vessels trading to Canton, that the news of it spread rapidly to England, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
In consequence of this information there was a sort of gold mine stampede to the new-found El Dorado in the fur-bearing haunts of the north Pacific, which set in toward the northwest seven years after Cook had sailed away.
This was the beginning of the great fur trade from which the Hudson’s Bay Company made so many royal millionaires in England.
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The Oregon State Quarter Coin shows beside a portrait of Captain James Cook, circa 1777.
