104 A DELEGATE TO CONGRESS.
entry, and the extension of the revenue laws of the United States over the country. In the spring of 1849 arrived Oregon s first United States revenue officer, John Adair, of Kentucky; and in the autumn George Gibbs, deputy-collector. 6 No trouble seems to have arisen for the first few months, though the company was subjected to much inconvenience by having to go from Fort Victoria to Astoria, a distance of over two hundred miles, to enter the goods designed for the American side of the strait, or for Fort Nis- qually to which they must travel back three hundred miles.
About the last of December 1849 the British ship Albion, Captain Richard O. Hinderwell, William Brotchie, supercargo, entered the strait of Fuca with out being aware of the United States revenue laws on that part of the coast, and proceeded to cut a cargo of spars at New Dungeness, at the same time trading with the natives, for which they were prepared, by permission of the Hudson s Bay Company in London, with certain Indian goods, though not allowed to buy furs. The owners of the Albion, who had a govern ment contract, had instructed the captain and super cargo to take the spars wherever they found the best timber, but if upon the American side of the strait, to pay for them if they could be bought cheap. But during a stay of about four months at Dungeness, as
6 Gibbs, who came with the rifle regiment, was employed in various posi tions on the Pacific coast for several years. He became interested in philology and published a Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, and other matter concern ing the native races, as well as the geography and geology of the west coast. In Suckley and Cooper s Natural History it is said that he spent two years in southern Oregon, near the Klamath; that in 1853 he joined McClellan s sur veying party, and afterward made explorations with I. I. Stevens in Wash ington. In 1859 he was still employed as geologist of the north- west boundary survey with Kennerly. He was for a short time collector of customs at Astoria. He went from there to Puget Sound, where he applied himself to the study of the habits, languages, and traditions of the natives, which study enabled him to make some valuable contributions to the Smithsonian Insti tution. Mr Gibbs died at New Haven, Conn. , May 1 1 , 1 873. He was a man of fine scholarly attainments, says the Qlympki Pacific, Tribune, May 17, 1873, and ardently devoted to science and polite literature. He was something of a wag withal, and on several occasions, in conjunction with the late Lieut. Derby (John Phcenix) and others, perpetrated "sells" that obtained a world wide publicity. His friends were many, warm, and earnest.