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Morning of Fire

Page 42

by Scott Ridley


  327 to issue a summons: Ibid., 27–28. He grew savage: Ibid., 61.

  328 Vancouver couldn‘t help worrying: Ibid., 60–62. “little squadron and the trading vessels”: Ibid., 52. “theperiod was not very remote”: Ibid., 53.

  329 The only whiff of reality: Ibid., 46.

  “The domestic affairs of Kamehameha”: Ibid., 47. “for the purpose of formally ceding‘: Ibid., 90–91.

  330 “when a force for their protection”: Ibid., 93. and that a war vessel or two: Ibid., 93–94.

  Vancouver promised Kamehameha: Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 42. “These preliminaries being fully: Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 5, 94.

  331 “and took possession of the island”: Ibid., 95.

  “the natives of most of the Leeward Islands”: Ibid., 114. But no arguments could induce Kamehameha: Ibid., 114–15.

  332 he was perfectly convinced: Ibid., 83–84. Kendrick sailed to Oahu: Ibid., 121.

  333 “Having beaten around the east end”: Ibid., 124. tried to pressure Kendrick: Ibid., 122. Kendrick and his men were still there: Ibid., 133.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  334 “Having ascertained satisfactorily”: George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World …, vol. 5, 135–36. “stupendous” mountains: Ibid., 170.

  335 if the “great explorer”: Ibid., 213–14.

  came across Brown and the Jackall: At 59°6’ north latitude. Ibid., 354. Brown had just arrived on the coast: One American trader’s log reports Brown at

  the Sandwich Islands, where he might have picked up communications left by Vancouver. John Boit, Remarks on the Ship Columbia’s Voyage from Boston (on a Voyage, round the Globe), October 16, 1795. Boit says Brown was back at Oahu in February 1794 where he entered “Fair Haven” harbor and remade the two sloops—one into a ship and the other into a cutter.

  335 “the latest accounts of the state”: Vancouver, Voyage, 355.

  336 In dark squalls and showers: Ibid., 355–56.

  At Nootka, Kendrick heard: The Aranzazu had arrived bringing news and dispatches to Saavedra, who also reported them to Vancouver when he arrived. Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 6, 71.

  337 But the rift with Wickaninish: Archer, “Seduction before Sovereignty,” 158. “anything of consequence”: Bernard Magee, Log of the Jefferson, March 31, 1794.

  a three-day gale: Magee, Log, August 2, 1794. The storm raged from May 15 to May 18.

  338 By mid-July, he started south: Ibid., July 17, 1794.

  On August 16, 1794, in a harbor: Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 6, 38.

  339 “and all the other formalities”: Ibid., 39.

  On August 22, the ships started south: Ibid., 59–60.

  Roberts had taken the Jefferson: Magee, Log, August 21, 1794.

  His eldest son, now known as Juan Kendrick: Warren L. Cook, Flood Tide of

  Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543–1819, 414.

  340 Juan Kendrick learned of the massacre: Samuel Burling, Log of the Eliza (1798–99).

  341 Waiting at Macao was a letter: This letter was in answer to Kendrick’s offer of March 28, 1792.

  “wouldsend [him]”: Joseph Barrell to John Kendrick.

  “I place no dependence on this”: John Scofield, Hail, Columbia: Robert Gray, John Kendrick, and the Pacific Fur Trade, 300.

  342 Two days before Vancouver arrived at Nootka: Alava arrived on August 31, 1794. Cook, Flood Tide, 416.

  Bodega y Quadra had died: Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 6, 65.

  The Third Nootka Convention: Convention for the Mutual Abandonment of

  Nootka.

  Alava‘s orders were to sail for Monterey: Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 6, 65–68.

  343 The weather did not seem: Ibid., 72–73. By September 11, no instructions: Ibid., 73.

  344 Brown had collected: Ibid., 91.

  Vancouver’s health was worsening: Vancouver’s complaints about his health

  began to enter his journal when he arrived back on the coast. He would die in 1798, before completing work on the journals. His gravestone mentions nothing of the Royal Navy to which he had dedicated his life.

  the Discovery and the Chatham were towed: Vancouver, Voyage, vol. 6, 93.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  345 the British had stepped up attacks: Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography, 545.

  On June 1, a major naval battle: The battle became known as “The Glorious First of June.” Britain claimed victory for capturing and sinking seven French ships. France also claimed victory because the American grain ships survived to make port. See Robert Gardner, ed., “The Glorious First of June” Fleet Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War, 1793–1797.

  346 To stay out of war: John Jay had previously served as secretary of state for the Congress of the Confederation and become mired in controversy over his recommendation to accept Spain’s shutdown of the Mississippi River in 1787. At the time of being appointed envoy to London he was Chief Justice of the United States.

  347 a young Spaniard, Francisco Palo Marin: Ross H. Gast, Don Francisco de Paula Marin: A Biography, 3–5.

  A Kauai native: Ebenezer Townsend, “Extract of the Diary of Ebenezer Townsend, Jr., Supercargo of Sealing Ship Neptune on Her Voyage to the South Pacific and Canton.”

  the Jefferson had run aground: Bernard Magee, Log.

  Kahekili, the last of the old: Peter Mills, Hawaii’s Russian Adventure: A New Look at Old History, 85.

  348 Kaeo gathered up a large party: Abraham Fornander, The Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I, 262.

  Kalanikupule arrived and withdrew: Ibid., 262–63. Kaeo continued along the shore: Ibid., 263.

  Reluctantly, he chose to attack: Ibid.; also William De Witt Alexander, A Brief History of the Hawaiian People, 141.

  349 On November 21, Brown appeared: Ralph S. Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom: Foundation and Transformation 1778–1854, 46.

  Brown had named it Fair Haven: Alexander, A Brief History, 141.

  In the first encounter: Alexander, A Brief History, 141; Fornander, Polynesian

  Race, 264.

  350 Kaeo steadily advanced: Fornander, Polynesian Race, 264.

  On December 3, the Washington: Alexander, A Brief History, 141. there are widely varying accounts: As might be expected, Kendrick’s legend generated divergent tales of events. Three main sources provided descriptions of what occurred in December 1794:John Young, Isaac Davis, and native observers. Visiting captains became secondary sources who created variant versions, and writers attempting to make sense of the conflicting statements have created further variations of the stories. The primary conflicts are: whether Kendrick assisted Brown and Kalanikupule in the warfare on December 12; whether Kendrick requested a salute from Brown to celebrate the victory; and whether the firing of the Jackall‘s loaded cannon was accidental. The version of events incorporating native observations, recorded by Dibble and his researchers in the 1830s and reported by Judge Fornander and Ralph Kuykendall, has been relied upon in this work because it complies closely with existing historical relationships. Consistent with the hostility between Brown and Kendrick, Dibble states explicitly that Kendrick took no part in the warfare, gives Kendrick no part in the salute, and makes no mention of the “accidental” loading of the cannon, saying only that the inquest found Kendrick a “casualty” of the battle. Some accounts say that Kendrick joined Brown. Other accounts go so far as to say that Kendrick, and not Brown, participated in the warfare. The versions in which Kendrick was engaged in warfare apparently arise from descriptions given to John Young by Brown’s men.

  Kendrick took no part in the fight: Sheldon Dibble, History of the Sandwich Islands, 68; Fornander, Polynesian Race, 264–65; Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, 46.

  351 He sent out eighteen or twenty men: Alexander, A Brief History, 141; Charles Bishop, The Journal and Letters of Captain Charles Bishop on t
he North-West Coast of America, in the Pacific and in New South Wales, 1794–1799, 102.

  On the morning of December 11: Fornander, Polynesian Race, 264. cut off any retreat along the shore: Ibid., 264–65; Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, 46.

  352 they killed him and his wives: Fornander, Polynesian Race, 265. Kahulunuikaaumoku, one of the daughters: Ibid., 265–66. Her tale was apparently told to Dibble’s researchers before 1837, or to Fornander’s native sources. According to Isaac Davis: Bishop, Journal and Letters, 102–3; Dibble, History, 68.

  353 Late that afternoon: Dibble, History, 68–69.

  354 Kalanikupule was allegedly warned: Dibble, History, 69; Fornander, Polynesian Race, 266.

  The gunner fired the first two: Boit relates John Young’s version of Kendrick’s killing, stating that Kendrick was “met with a very friendly reception by Capt. Brown” when he arrived at Honolulu. Young places Kendrick in the warfare and has Kendrick requesting a salute from Brown. John Boit, Log of the Union: 1794–1796, 70–72. “ye Apron of ye 4th Gun”: Ibid., 72. found John Kendrick “a casualty”: Dibble, History, 69.

  355 as Kendrick’s “assistant”: John Howell to Joseph Barrell, May 28, 1798, itemizing his wages as “assistant.”

  He immediately demanded: Fornander, Polynesian Race, 2 67. on January 1, 1795: Ibid. Also Alexander, A Brief History, 142–43. “rang’d up alongside the Prince”: Boit, Log of the Union, 72.

  356 paid himself $1,817: Wages $900 per year—double what Gray had been paid—and a commission on the sale of the furs, $840. The commission of 5 percent was double what Howell would charge other ships two years later. John Howell to Joseph Barrell, May 28, 1798.

  Howell then sold the Lady Washington: Howell to Barrell, May 11, 1795.

  357 "the debts he [Kendrick] accumulated”: Joseph Ingraham, Joseph Ingraham’s Journal of the Brigantine Hope on a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, 1790–1792, 182.

  358 Although Kendrick had written to Barrell: John Kendrick to Joseph Barrell, March 28, 1792.

  The first word of John Kendrick’s death: “Courier’s Marine Journal,” Courier 1,

  no. 9 (July 29, 1795), 35. No ship from China is reported as arriving at Boston

  between July 27 and August 5, when the first notice of Kendrick’s death was

  published. John Howell said that he arrived in Macao with the Washington

  in “early February” 1795. The Jefferson had been 168 days at sea, placing its

  departure from Macao on February 8.

  Up and down the coast: Peterson, Thomas Jefferson, 547.

  Those who defended the agreement: David McCullough, John Adams, 456–57.

  359 A brief article appeared: “Deaths,” Columbian Centinel 23, no. 43 (August 5, 1795), 3.

  Juan Kendrick resigned: Gast, Don Francisco, 4–5.

  In August 1798, Juan signed on: Ibid., 5. Also F. W. Howay, “The Ship Eliza at Hawaii in 1799,” and Samuel Burling, Log of the Eliza (1798–99).

  360 Juan Kendrick also sought Francisco Marin: Gast, Don Francisco, 5.

  360 he grounded the Lady Washington: Jim Mockford, “The Lady Washington at Kushimoto, Japan, in 1791.” Mockford cites The Journal of Daniel Paine, 1794–1797, 59.

  “in daily expectation”: John Howell to Joseph Barrell, May 28, 1798.

  361 “Capt. Kendrick was the first American”: Amasa Delano, A Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, 400.

  EPILOGUE

  362 In January 1803: “Thomas Jefferson Confidential Message to Congress.” Jefferson requested twenty-five hundred dollars for a small expedition west “for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States.” This was in addition to military pay. The cost for the expedition would ultimately total thirty-nine thousand dollars.

  his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis: Lewis had a history of prior involvement with the western expedition. When he was eighteen years old he applied to lead the expedition west that had been given to André Michaux and was later canceled. Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography, 763. on the morning of November 7, 1805: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery, William Clark entry, November 7, 1805. Also see facsimile pages online at http://lewisandclarkjour nals.unl.edu/.

  363 “who visit this part of the coast”: Ibid., William Clark entry, January 1, 1806. schooner “Washilton”: Ibid., William Clark note attached to January 1, 1806. There is no record of John Kendrick’s entering the Columbia River, although his additional rumored land deed was said to be for the area around adjacent Gray’s Harbor.

  “shortly derive the benefits”: Meriwether Lewis to Thomas Jefferson, September 23, 1806, in Thomas Jefferson and Early Western Explorers, transcr. and ed. Gerard W. Gawalt, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, General Correspondence Series 1, 912. Also see Donald Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and the Stony Mountains: Exploring the West from Monticello, 200.

  364 Some in Congress believed: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Commerce and Manufacturers, “No. 178, Exploration of Louisiana,” March 8, 1804.

  In 1800, there were eight: Warren L. Cook, Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543–1819, Appendix E: Nationality of Vessels Visiting the Northwest Coast, 1774–1820.

  364 In 1791, five vessels: Curtis P. Nettles, The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815, 219.

  By 1823, as many as forty ships: James Morton Callahan, American Relations in the Pacific and Far East, 1784–1900, 39, fn 4.

  managed by Francisco Marin for Kamehameha: Ross H. Gast, Don Francisco de

  Paula Marin: A Biography, 40–43, 46–47.

  In the War of 1812: Callahan, American Relations, fn 3; 25.

  365 sent the navy frigate Essex: Ibid., 25–27.

  In June 1816, President James Madison: Congressional Globe, 25th Congress, 2nd Session: 56 (May 1838). Also American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 662–65; 3:85–86, 126, 185–86.

  “in the most satisfactory manner”: B. Joy to Secretary of State James Monroe, November 28, 1816, in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Public Lands, Report No. 335 (Felch Report), 31–32.

  from Robert Gray’s brother-in-law: John Boit, “A New Log of the Columbia,” 5.

  366 These were shown to Adams: Letter of JQA to Charles Bulfinch, December 1, 1817, in Felch Report, 32. It’s important to note that the original log from which the copies were made in 1817 had been destroyed as waste paper by 1837. Boit, “A New Log,” 5.

  In 1818, Britain returned Astor’s: Anglo-American Convention of 1818. Seeking to shut out Britain: Adams-Onus Treaty of 1819.

  James Tremere of Boston: Sworn statement, October 30, 1838, Felch Report, 28. Ebenezer Dorr of Roxbury: Sworn statement, November 16, 1839, Felch Report, 25. John Cruft of Boston: Sworn Statement, November 18, 1839, Felch Report, 26.

  367 John Young, in his late eighties: Sworn statement, July 26, 1835, Felch Report, 27. “manifest destiny”: John L. O’Sullivan, “The True Title.” O’Sullivan wrote that the claim to the Oregon Country “is by right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us …” This first recorded use of the term echoed a long-held sentiment concerning the destiny of the United States, which was preceded by the “westering” impulse among colonists. It also foreshadowed events for the next century and beyond.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  BOOKS

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  Alexander, William De Witt. A Brief History of the Hawaiian People. New York: American Book Company, 1891.

  Allen, Gardner Weld. Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.

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  San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft, 1886.

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  Bishop, Charles. The Journal and Letters of Captain Charles Bishop on the North-West Coast of America, in the Pacific and in New South Wales, 1794–1799. Edited by Michael Roe. Cambridge, England: University Press, 1967.

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  Briggs, Vernon L. History of Shipbuilding on North River, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Boston: Coburn Brothers, 1889.

  Broughton, William Robert. A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean Performed in His Majesty’s Sloop Providence and Her Tender in the Years 1795, 1796, 1797,1798. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1804.

  Bulfinch, Susan Ellen, ed. The Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect; With Other Family Papers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/Riverside Press, 1896.

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  The Chinese Repository, vols. 1–5. Canton: 1834. Reprint: Boston: Adamant Media, 2005.

  Clayton, Daniel W. Islands of Truth: The Imperial Fashioning of Vancouver Island. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000.

 

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