This place he
presumed would be somewhere about the Straits of Annian, at which point
he supposed the Oregon disembogued itself. It was his opinion, also,
that a settlement on this extremity of America would disclose new
sources of trade, promote many useful discoveries, and open a more
direct communication with China and the English settlements in the East
Indies, than that by the Cape of Good Hope or the Straits of Magellan. *
This enterprising and intrepid traveller was twice baffled in individual
efforts to accomplish this great journey. In 1774, he was joined in
the scheme by Richard Whitworth, a member of Parliament, and a man of
wealth. Their enterprise was projected on a broad and bold plan. They
were to take with them fifty or sixty men, artificers and mariners.
With these they were to make their way up one of the branches of the
Missouri, explore the mountains for the source of the Oregon, or River
of the West, and sail down that river to its supposed exit, near the
Straits of Annian. Here they were to erect a fort, and build the vessels
necessary to carry their discoveries by sea into effect. Their plan had
the sanction of the British government, and grants and other requisites
were nearly completed, when the breaking out of the American Revolution
once more defeated the undertaking.
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