An unsigned manuscript which contains details on two mariners, Captain Robert Gray (1755- c.1806) and Cornelius Soule (or Sowle) (1769-1818) both natives of Tiverton, Rhode Island. Captain Robert Gray was an American merchant sea captain who is known for his achievements in connection with two trading voyages to the northern Pacific coast of North America, between 1790 and 1793, which pioneered the American maritime fur trade in that region. In the course of those voyages, Gray explored portions of that coast and in the year 1790 he completed the first American circumnavigation of the world. He was also noted for coming upon and naming the Columbia River, in 1792, while on his second voyage.

            Captain Cornelius Soule, not as well-known as Gray, was also a sea captain engaged in Pacific voyages, the manuscript relates an incident in his career in which he rescued a group of shipwrecked Japanese sailors circa 1806 and took them to Hawaii. He was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island October 15, 1769, and died presumably at sea Nover 22, 1818, aged 49.

      “Capt Robert Gray was associated with Capt John Kendrick in a trading voyage to the N W Coast of America, Capt K commanding the Ship Columbia of Boston (the vessel which gave name to the Columbia River) & Capt Gray the Sloop Washington, atander to the C. Capt. Kendrick was the first American who ever visited the NW Coast and was the pioneer to open the way for others who have reaped immense fortunes by following in his wake. He surveyed Columbia River & the coast to the north of it and purchased of the natives a large tract of land of the natives adjoining the river. This was the first transfer of the soil to any person and with his discovery forms at least one of the grounds of our claim to the Oregon Territory The deeds have been forwarded to our government by Capt Alfred Kendrick of New Bedford for their approval with the hope that, if the country is held by the U States this claim to the property will be confirmed. [The deeds were lost -] (in pencil)

         As soon as Captains Kendrick & Gray had obtained furs enough to purchase a cargo in Canton for the Columbia, she was dispatched for Canton & home in charge of Capt Gray- Capt Kendrick remained to make further surveys of the coast & afterwards went to Canton where he refitted & sailed again for the NW Coast. He touched at Oahu Wahoo one of the Sandwich Islands and was then very unfortunately killed. His death was occasioned by a salute fired by an English commander in honor of him, it being Capt Kendricks birthday.  One of the guns The guns of the vessel being loaded with round & grape shot in drawing the charges one of them could not be drawn & the gun was passed & the apron left on that it might not be used – but a gunner ignorant of this object & supposing the apron left on through mistake took it off & primed the piece and fired when the cannonade was given The shott passed across the deck of the Washington, killed Capt K who stood looking on appreciating the honor intended him & two boys who stood by his side.

      Capt Delano speaks of Capt. K as a man of extraordinary natural abilities, of an enterprising spirit, good judgment & superior courage and as having few equals as a sailor & navigator. Capt. Gray returned to Boston in the Columbia”

      “Capt Cornelius Soule sustained a high reputation as a ship master & merchant and was highly respected by those who knew him both at home & abroad. He spent many years in the Pacific Ocean running up & down the coast of America both and trading with the Spaniards & the natives around Columbia river & still farther North & marketed his furs at Canton. When he was In these voyages he often visited Coquimbo for refreshments, & thus became  intimately acquainted with the governor & the first people of the place. And so highly did they esteem him, that they very often went down to the town & visited him on board of his vessel, when in port. It is related by Capt Amasa Delano, who makes this honorable mention of Capt. S. that in the 1805 a British privateer, the Antelope, anchored in the harbour of Coquimbo, when the Governor, supposing that it was the Tabor, hastened on board with a number of his friends, to pay his respect to Capt. Soule, and did not discover his mistake until he found himself & all his party prisoners to the English. They were afterwards released by paying a ransom. Capt. Delano relates still further – “On my arrival at Wahoo in 1806 I found eight Japanese who had been taken off a wreck at sea by Capt. Cornels Soule of Providence RI, who was bound from China across the Pacific to the coast of America. After he had passed by, & considerably to the eastward of the Japan Islands, he fell in with the wreck of a vessel that belonged to those Islands. This generous man took the sufferers on board his vessel, the Tabor, & being near the longitude of the Sandwich Islands, steered for them & landed the eight men with all their clothing & effects Wahoo where I found them. He left them in the care of the king, with whom he made an agreement to take care of them & provide for their support until something should turn up for their relief. He left one of the anchors which was taken from the wreck, forty axes, & some other articles to compensate for their living while at this place. He also left a letter with them describing their situation at the time he found & relieved them, & recommending them to the care & assistance of any visitor that might touch at this Island. I regret very much my having mislaid the copy of this letter, as it would do the write much honour to have it published; but let it suffice to say, that it was replete with the principles & feelings of a generous, humane disposition. I never had the satisfaction of knowing Capt. Soule in person, but his good deeds speak loud in the wake of his course.”

       Capt. Delano carried the eight Japanese to Canton where he was able to converse with them through an interpreter. They stated they belonged to the Island of Osaca – that there were originally 22 on board their vessel – that a number were washed overboard in a gale of wind, but that a greater number were killed & eaten by their comrades, all of whom died by lot fairly drawn.

      Capt. D thinks he could discover the greatest number of favourable traits in their character of any people he ever saw. He observed on being asked how they were treated by Capt Soule they replied “We acknowledge him as our saviour; next to God we adore him.”

      They were sent to Japan by the way of Batavia in the American ship Mount Vernon of Philadelphia when they arrived safety. Some of the swords & other curiosities taken from the Japanese vessel by Capt. Soule are now in the possession of his family in Providence.”

       “On May 11, 1792, Robert Gray, the first American to circumnavigate the world (1787-1790), sailed the Columbia Rediviva into the Columbia River, the first documented ship to anchor in the river’s broad estuary. He named the river “Columbia’s river” after his ship and drew a sketch map of the river mouth. With Gray’s entry into the river, the United States had an arguable claim to discovery in the deliberations with Great Britain that led to the Oregon Treaty of 1846. Even though Gray’s accomplishment played no material role in the consummation of the treaty, he nonetheless became among the most famous Americans to establish a national claim on Oregon Country.

      Born on May 10, 1755, in Tiverton, Rhode Island, Gray apparently went to sea at a young age. His family claimed that he served in the Continental Navy, although if he did, it is undocumented. He became a successful commercial mariner during the 1780s before Boston investors chose him to captain the Lady Washington in a fur-trading voyage to the Northwest Coast in 1787. Gray returned to Boston as captain of the Washington’s companion ship the Columbia and sailed to the Northwest in the ship on a second trading voyage In 1790.

      Gray was a no-nonsense trader who forcefully pursued acquiring pelagic furs from Natives, often driving hard bargains and entertaining little equivocation. On two occasions, one in present-day Tillamook Bay (his men named it Murder’s Harbor) and another in present-day Gray’s Harbor, Washington, Gray fired on Native traders who would not accept his price for furs, killing several. On May 9, 1792, Fifth Mate John Boit recorded the Gray’s Harbor incident in his log: “I am sorry we was oblidg’d to kill the poor Divells, but it cou’d not with safety be avoided.”

      As a mariner, Gray displayed an impatience that led him to sail too close to dangerous coastlines, a practice that resulted in damage to the ships he captained. But it was that aggressive attitude that led to his sailing boldly into the Columbia River in May 1792. As a commercial mariner, Gray played no role as an emissary for his country, so he willingly passed on his sketch chart of the Columbia to British Capt. George Vancouver, who had told Gray that he did not believe the river existed. Realizing his error, in October Vancouver sent his tender ship, the Chatham, captained by Lt. William Broughton, into the Columbia and ordered a hundred-mile-long survey of the lower river. The voyage produced a detailed map, published in 1798, that gave Britain legitimate claim to the river.

      After his return to Boston in 1793, Gray continued in merchant shipping and married Martha Howland Atkins in 1794; they had four daughters who survived to adulthood and one son who died by age seven. During the Quasi-War with France in 1798-1800, Gray commanded the Lucy, an American privateer. Most of his commercial voyages from Boston took him to Atlantic coastal ports and the Caribbean.

      Although it is undocumented, he likely died in 1806 from yellow fever in South Carolina. There are no documented images of Gray, although the one often identified as his portrait may be a reasonable likeness, save that it does not reveal that Gray had only one eye and wore a patch during most of his career. His name is memorialized in Gray’s Harbor and Grays River in Washington State and a middle school in Portland.”

       https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/gray_robert/