342 T. C. ELLIOTT

of 1621 in such log huts as could be hurriedly erected for their protection. About one hundred and fifty years after that event, one, Jonathan Carver, a collateral descendant of Governor Carver, wintered in a log hut not far distant from where the cities Saint Paul and Minneapolis now stand, with only an Iroquois Indian and French-Canadian voyageur as companions. He established friendly relations with the Sioux Indians then residing in that vicinity, and, eleven years later, in London in 1778, published a book in which are recorded his observations and experiences that winter and during the months immediately preceding and following, when he was traveling on the Missis- sippi River and its tributaries and on Lake Superior. In that book appears the first known record of the word Oregon, 3 as a name then applied to the river already called "River of the West" but afterwards officially designated Columbia. Thus, before the maritime discoveries of Perez, Heceta or Cuadra, of Cook or Vancouver and of Kendrick or Gray, and before the overland explorations of Mackenzie, David Thompson or Lewis and Clark, the name Oregon was spoken.

One important but undetermined item in the history of the Pacific Northwest relates to the origin of this name Oregon, as communicated by Jonathan Carver in his book, and pre- sumably as set down by him in a journal in that winter of 1766-67. Did he hear this word while among the Indians of Minnesota? Did he see the name or something like it on some map or in the writings of some other person? Did he invent or coin it in his own mind when writing the book? These questions may never be positively answered, but a knowl- edge of the career of Jonathan Carver and of the conditions existing when he made his journey and was writing his book will assist in the forming of an individual opinion and a final answer may be in sight.

The history of the "Oregon Country" connects itself with that of the state of Missouri by the meanderings of the Oregon Trail, over which so many of the pioneer families of Oregon traveled with patience, fortitude and endurance. But in search- ing for the name Oregon, the path leads to the states of

3 This statement applies only to the word as now spelled.