Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/180

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
168
H. W. Scott

discovery might belong to Spain. But all these are fruitless conjectures.[1] We know where we find the name of Oregon first written, when it was written, and by whom; and the circumstances completely disprove the "oregaiio" and the "orejon" theories. A notable fact it is that a slight incident of Carver's career, so slight that he thought nothing about it the creation of a name, or the casual use of a name hitherto unknown has immortalized his own name upon the tongues of men dwelling in the region of his "Kiver of the West.' But Minnesota has not neglected him. She does justice to him in her records and historical transactions, and has not forgotten to name a county for him. He died in poverty and misery in London, January 31, 1780.

H. W. SCOTT.

  1. Professor John Fisbe, in his "History of the United States," says that Oregon 'may perhaps be the Algonquin Wau-re-gan, 'beautiful water.'"