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diff --git a/old/62009-0.txt b/old/62009-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 44938c6..0000000 --- a/old/62009-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4759 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical -Society,(Vol. I, No. 3), by Oregon Historical Society - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society,(Vol. I, No. 3) - -Author: Oregon Historical Society - -Release Date: May 3, 2020 [EBook #62009] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY *** - - - - -Produced by Gísli Valgeirsson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - - THE QUARTERLY - - OF THE - - OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - - ===================================== - VOLUME I ] SEPTEMBER, 1900 [ NUMBER 3 - ===================================== - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - THE OREGON QUESTION II.—_Joseph R. Wilson_ 213 - - REMINISCENCES OF HUGH COSGROVE—_H. S. Lyman_ 253 - - REMINISCENCES OF WM. M. CASE—_H. S. Lyman_ 269 - - THE NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE NATIVE RACE IN OREGON 296 - WHEN FIRST SEEN BY WHITE MEN—_John Minio_ - - INDIAN NAMES—_H. S. Lyman_ 316 - - DOCUMENTS—Oregon articles reprinted from a file of the 327 - N. Y. _Tribune_, 1812. - - Letter by William Plumer, Senator from N. H. 336 - - * * * * * - - PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER MONTH, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY - - ORGANIZED DECEMBER 17, 1898 - - --------------------- - - H. W. SCOTT PRESIDENT - C. B. BELLINGER VICE-PRESIDENT - F. G. YOUNG SECRETARY - CHARLES E. LADD TREASURER - GEORGE H. HIMES, Assistant Secretary. - - --------------------- - - DIRECTORS - - THE GOVERNOR OF OREGON, _ex officio_. - - THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, _ex officio_. - - Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1900, - H. W. SCOTT, MRS. HARRIET K. McARTHUR. - - Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901, - F. G. YOUNG, L. B. COX. - - Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1902, - JAMES R. ROBERTSON, JOSEPH R. WILSON. - - Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1903, - C. B. BELLINGER, MRS. MARIA L. MYRICK. - - --------------------- - -_The Quarterly_ is sent free to all members of the Society. The annual -dues are two dollars. The fee for life membership is twenty-five -dollars. - -Contributions to _The Quarterly_ and correspondence relative to -historical materials, or pertaining to the affairs of this Society, -should be addressed to - - F. G. YOUNG, - EUGENE, OREGON. _Secretary_. - -Subscriptions for _The Quarterly_, or for the other publications of the -Society, should be sent to - - GEORGE H. HIMES, - CITY HALL, PORTLAND, OREGON. _Assistant Secretary_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - VOLUME I] SEPTEMBER, 1900 [NUMBER 3 - - THE QUARTERLY - - OF THE - - OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE OREGON QUESTION. - - II. - - -The conventions of 1824 and 1825 marked the formal and final withdrawal -of Russia as claimant to the sovereignty of the Oregon country, or of -any part of it. The convention of the former year pledged her withdrawal -as claimant against the United States, that of the latter year as -claimant against Great Britain. The boundaries of the territories in -question were thus finally determined, and the parties to the dispute -were reduced to the two nations by whom the question at issue was -ultimately to be decided. - -It was a great step taken toward settlement when the claims of all -nations but Great Britain and the United States were eliminated from the -question. But elimination of claims was not the only respect in which -progress towards settlement had been made during the period which closed -with the convention between Great Britain and Russia. The ten years -between the treaty of Ghent and this convention show a substantial -approach to agreement between Great Britain and America. The events of -the year 1818 in particular mark this approach. This year, so important -in the history of the relations between Great Britain and America, -opened with the issue of the order of January 26 by the British -government for the restitution of Fort George, the post at the mouth of -the Columbia, which, under the name of Astoria, had been taken -possession of by the British early in the late war. This order, which -was formally carried out in October of that year, gains in significance -the more closely the whole history of the case is examined. Astoria, it -will be remembered, was the name of the trading post established in 1811 -by the Pacific Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor, of New York, was -founder and chief stockholder. It was nominally an American company, -and was established under the American flag; but of the party of -thirty-three that landed April 12, 1811, to form the settlement, all -except three are said to have been British subjects. On the twelfth -day of November, 1813, in the absence of Mr. Astor’s agent, who was an -American, Mr. McDougall, his sub-agent, a British subject, representing -himself and the other partners present, likewise British subjects, -signed the bills of sale, and delivered up Astoria to the Northwest -Company, a British company. One month later, Captain Black, of the -British navy, in the sloop-of-war, Racoon, arrived in the Columbia, and -took possession of Astoria in the name of his sovereign, and in honor -of his sovereign changed the name to Fort George. He seems to have been -chagrined not a little to find that, instead of the glory of battering -down an American fort, nothing awaited him but to take peaceful -possession in the name of his king of a British settlement. - -By the first article of the treaty of Ghent, “all territory, places, and -possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the -war” should be restored. In view of the history just given, it is not -strange that the British government, when called upon by the United -States to make restitution of Astoria in accordance with this article of -the treaty, objected, on the ground that the place was already a British -settlement when taken possession of by a British officer. And yet, in -the course of the negotiations that followed, Great Britain yielded this -point, and through her representative, Lord Castlereagh, “admitted, in -the most ample extent, our right to be reinstated, and to be the party -in possession while treating of the title.” Accordingly, October, 1818, -the order first issued January 26 preceding, was executed, and Fort -George was formally handed over to an American officer specially sent to -the Columbia to receive it, and once more the American flag floated over -this British settlement. - -This act of restitution, under these circumstances, can hardly be -regarded as less than a concession on the part of Great Britain, a -concession the full significance of which appears only when the act of -restitution is taken in connection with the convention of joint -occupation entered into by the two governments that year, and with -certain intimations made by the British Plenipotentiaries in the -conferences which led up to that convention. It was in this convention -that the boundary between the two countries west from Lake of the Woods -to the Rocky Mountains on the forty-ninth parallel was agreed upon. In -the preliminary conferences the representatives of Great Britain -insisted that the boundary west of the Rocky Mountains should be settled -at the same time with the boundary eastward; that the two should stand -or fall together. In response to this wish, the American representatives -proposed that the same line of the forty-ninth parallel be extended -westward to the Pacific. This the representatives of Great Britain -refused to accept, nor would they themselves propose a line; but they -did intimate that the Columbia River itself was the most convenient -boundary that could be adopted, and that they would not agree to any -boundary that did not give to Great Britain a harbor at the mouth of the -Columbia River in common with the United States. The American -representatives not consenting to this, after further proposals and -counter proposals, none of which were acceptable to both governments, it -was finally agreed to adopt the now celebrated plan of joint occupation -as that plan is embodied in the third article of the convention of that -year. - -Thus it is that the order of the British government for the restitution -of Astoria at the opening of the year 1818, taken in connection with all -the circumstances of the case, and the convention of joint occupation -made by the two governments at the close of the year, taken in -connection with concessions in conferences made by both parties, make -this year an era in the history of the Oregon Question. In particular, -two important lines had been proposed and discussed, each proposal -showing an important concession on the part of the party making it, and -each line proposed practically setting a limit for the future, in its -direction, to the territory that remained in question. For it may safely -be said that from this time the extreme limits of the claims of the -several parties were fixed; that henceforth the United States would not -press their claim to territory north of latitude 49°, nor would Great -Britain press hers to territory south of the Columbia. The territory -longer in question lay between these two lines, and it is doubtful -if ever after this year there was a time when the question might not -have been settled by Great Britain’s consenting to the line of the -forty-ninth parallel, or by the United States’ consenting to that of -the Columbia. With these limits to their several claims practically -agreed upon by Great Britain and the United States, and a plan of joint -occupation adopted at the close of the year 1818, it remained only to -eliminate claims of other nations to the territory in order to reduce -the question to its simplest terms. This elimination, as we have seen, -was effected by the conventions of 1819, of 1824, and of 1825, the -last of which left Britain and America free to settle the question of -sovereignty between themselves. - -The conditions of the Oregon Question at the close of the period ending -1825 were, upon the whole, not unfavorable to America. It is true Great -Britain was the party in possession at this time through the settlements -of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but when it is remembered that these -settlements were made even before the more important concessions of the -conventions were made, these concessions are only the more strongly -significant of the disposition of the government of Great Britain to -treat fairly, at least, the claims of America. It is especially -significant of this disposition that the settlement at Fort George was -abandoned in the spring of 1825 by the British company in the -expectation that the Americans would speedily occupy it, and, though the -Americans failed at once to occupy it, it was left by the British -unoccupied for five years, as if they were waiting for the Americans to -come and claim their own. When we remember Britain’s well known -doctrine, of occupation within a reasonable time as necessary to -establish full title to lands claimed on the ground of prior discovery -and exploration, this can hardly be regarded as else than an invitation -on the part of Britain to the United States to come and make good their -title to at least that part of Oregon that lay south of the Columbia. - -Occupation had been attempted, it will be remembered, in the case of the -establishments of the Pacific Fur Company at Astoria and other points on -the south and east of the Columbia. The whole conduct of England in -regard to these establishments, made for the purposes of trade, goes to -show that she regarded them as belonging to a legitimate mode of -occupation, the right of which she not only assumed to herself, but was -ready to allow to America. The failure of the settlements and their -ultimate abandonment as a mode of American occupation were due to the -accidents of war, not to the interference of diplomacy. The convention -of 1818, of joint occupation, was the embodiment of no new principle, -but simply the formal assent of both parties to a principle of -occupation assumed by America in the Astoria settlements, and by Great -Britain in those in the valley of the Columbia, and by each tacitly -allowed to the other. - -In 1821, however, three years after the convention of joint occupation, -a movement was begun in the Congress of the United States toward an -occupation of the territory in dispute, of a very different character, -which, if it had actually been adopted as a measure enjoined upon the -executive, and once been attempted to be carried out, would have met -from Great Britain a very different response. In the house of -representatives, December 10, 1821, on motion of Mr. Floyd, of Virginia, -a committee was appointed to inquire into the expediency of occupying -the Columbia River and the country adjacent thereto; and the committee -had leave to report by bill or otherwise. Later in the same session this -committee reported a bill providing for the occupation of the mouth of -the Columbia. The occupation contemplated by this bill was to be, first -of all, military occupation, or, as one of the advocates of the bill -wished to make it by amendment, “an occupation by military force only, -with some encouragement to settlers.” The view of the territorial rights -of the United States in that region on which the bill was based was -briefly and clearly put by another of its advocates: “The bill under -consideration does not attempt a colonial settlement. The territory -proposed to be occupied is already a part of the United States.” The -convention of joint occupation of 1818 left the question of sovereignty -of the entire territory westward of the Rocky Mountains in abeyance. All -occupation, therefore, of any part of this territory, to be lawful under -this convention, must be of such a nature as to leave the question of -sovereignty to be settled by agreement of the powers participant in the -convention. Whatever rights either of the two parties to the convention -had, or conceived that it had, by the act of entering into the -convention it agreed, so long as the convention was in force, neither to -assert sovereignty, nor to do any act in the territory covered by the -convention that could be justly construed as an act of sovereignty. What -acts the two powers might lawfully do under the convention were not -clear at first, but it is difficult at this day to understand how anyone -who looked carefully into the question could have failed to see that the -acts contemplated in this first bill providing for occupation were not -such as could lawfully be done under the convention. The same may be -said of all the measures proposed in congress in regard to the -occupation of the territory during the earlier period of the convention. -There were men in congress who saw the unlawful character of each -measure as it was proposed, and opposed it on this ground. Others joined -these actively, on the ground that the Oregon Territory, if settled, -because of its distance and the barriers which separated it from the -United States, never could become a part of the union. To these were -added enough who based their opposition on other grounds to defeat every -such measure, either in the senate or in the house, or, as was the case -in the early history of congressional agitation, in both houses of -congress. - -This early discussion in congress of our interests in Oregon, though it -failed to reach any practicable plan of occupation, was not without -valuable results. It served to clarify the minds of men in congress, and -out of it, on the nature of the question involved, and through the -information brought out and published in the course of the debates and -reports went far toward enlightening the public mind on the character -and resources of the territory in dispute. In the course of the -negotiations that preceded the convention of 1818, and led up to it, Mr. -Adams, as Secretary of State, in a letter of instructions to the -American Plenipotentiaries, had expressed his government’s low estimate -of the interests involved in the Oregon Question. “It may be proper,” he -then wrote, “to remark the minuteness of the present interests, either -to Great Britain or to the United States, involved in this concern, and -the unwillingness, for this reason, of this government to include it -among the objects of serious discussion with them.” - -Such words, written on the eve of the first congressional agitation of -the question, could hardly have been written at the close of that -discussion. For at that time the Oregon Question had become a matter of -widespread interest, and both government and people were disposed to -include it among objects of serious discussion. Agitation of the -question in congress had the further effect of bringing the two -governments to make another attempt to effect a settlement by -convention. In 1824, when measures providing for occupation had been -discussed in congress for three years, Mr. Adams, Secretary of State, -wrote that though the government was aware that the convention of 1818 -between the United States and Great Britain had four years to run, the -President was of the opinion that the present was not an unsuitable -moment for attempting a new and more definite adjustment of the claims -of the two powers in question; that the Oregon Territory was a country -daily assuming an aspect political, commercial, and territorial of more -and more interest to the United States. Negotiations were at this time -renewed between the two governments, but failed to issue in any -agreement. Two years later they were resumed, on motion of the British -government, but the two governments adhering substantially to their -several positions of 1818, no settlement was reached. The third article -of the convention of 1818 was, however, renewed for an indefinite -period. In the communications of Mr. Clay to Mr. Gallatin during this -period of negotiation, there is manifested an increase of interest in -the question on the part of the American government, even over that of -two years before. - -The depth of this interest and the source of its inspiration appear from -various expressions of these official communications. “The President,” -Mr. Clay writes, “is anxious for a settlement on just principles. Such a -settlement alone would be satisfactory to the people of the United -States, or would command the concurrence of the senate.” “Much better,” -he continues, “that matters of difference should remain unadjusted than -be settled on terms disadvantageous to the United States, and which, -therefore, would be unsatisfactory to the people and to other -departments of government.” - -From these words, and words of like tenor, it is evident that from this -out an interested people and an alert congress will have part in shaping -the policy of the government on the Oregon Question. It is to be noted, -too, that the government of the United States did not advance its -demands beyond the terms proposed at first, nor longer minimized the -interest of the question to itself, and that it took a firmer stand on -the boundary proposed. The Secretary of State now wrote of the line of -latitude 49° as a concession on the part of his government, and boldly -declared that as such it was an ultimatum. - -After the renewal, in 1827, of the third article of the convention of -1818, with a provision for its indefinite continuance, or its abrogation -by either power on due notice, the subject drops out of congress for a -period of ten years, but only to return at the end of that time on the -demand of that voice which, as we have just observed, the administration -of Mr. Adams had already heard and attended to. This interval is an -important period in the history of the Oregon Territory. The two -governments stand stubbornly each on the boundary line of its own -proposal, the United States for the line of latitude 49°, Great Britain -for the line of the Columbia, seemingly making no approach to an -agreement. Other influences, however, were at work preparing the way for -final settlement, and determining the lines on which that settlement -should be made. - -The ten years between the renewal, in 1827, of the convention of 1818, -and the resumption of the discussion of the subject in congress in the -year 1837, present a new phase of the Oregon Question, and may be termed -the period of early American settlement. In thus designating this -period, the settlement of Astoria in 1811 has not been forgotten. It has -already been shown that, though projected and supported by an American -capitalist, and made under letters from the American government and the -protection of the American flag, that settlement was scarcely entitled -to be called an American settlement; that whatever of American character -it had in its inception it lost two years later in its transfer to a -British company and to the protection of the British flag. The -settlement of Astoria, even as a British settlement, was not of a -permanent character. It contributed, it is true, a few settlers to later -communities as they were established, but by far its greatest -contributions to the settlement of the Oregon Question was in the -diplomatic transfer which it was the occasion of under the terms of the -treaty of Ghent. It did serve under the provisions of that treaty to -secure to the United States the valuable concession from Great Britain -of their right to be in possession of this position on the south bank of -the Columbia, pending the final settlement of the question of -sovereignty over the territory. As a permanent American settlement, -however, it has no place in the history of Oregon. - -There is reason, therefore, in making the period of early American -settlement begin with the period mentioned. No actual settlement, it is -true, was made at the very first of this period, but about this time the -question of colonizing the region of the Columbia River began to be -seriously agitated in various parts of the United States. A company -having this end in view was organized about this time in Boston, and -another in New Orleans, while in various parts of the country the -propriety of forming such organizations was seriously discussed. Every -effort was made by these societies, and by individuals whose interest in -the subject had been awakened, to obtain and disseminate such -information as should awaken popular interest in the territory and -further the ends of its colonization. - -The first enterprise that followed from this agitation, was that of -Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Boston, for the establishment of a settlement for -trade and agriculture on the Lower Columbia. After the failure of a -first attempt in 1832, Wyeth succeeded in the year 1834 in planting a -small settlement on Wapato Island, at the junction of the Willamette -with the Columbia. Untoward circumstances and disaffection among his -followers defeated his first attempt, and sent him back to the east, -after two years of gallant struggle, feeling that his second was far -from successful. His settlement, while it has had in some sense an -unbroken continuity, and has contributed of its members to the -subsequent settlements in Oregon, can hardly be said to have had the -character of a permanent colony. The largest results of Wyeth’s -enterprise are rather to be looked for in the contribution he made in -various ways to the furtherance of other enterprises than his own. - -Substantially the same may be said of the enterprise of Hall J. Kelley, -the leading promoter of one or more of the emigration societies already -mentioned. He contributed materially to the ultimate settlement of the -territory by his persistent and widespread agitation in the east, and -later in some measure by bringing into the Willamette Valley a small -band of men, some of whose number became permanent settlers. No colony, -however, was planted in this region under his leadership, and he did not -himself finally make Oregon his home. - -The American settlements in Oregon that have thus far been mentioned, -were organized primarily for the purpose of trade, and that, too, trade -of a character that was not likely to bring into the country and -permanently establish there colonists that should become rooted to the -soil. Traders and trappers might in time abandon their pursuits as such, -and, attaching themselves as individuals to a settled community, become -useful members of that community, as more than one such did in the early -history of Oregon, but no aggregation of such men, brought together for -their own peculiar purposes, was likely to become an organic society, -with powers of life and growth. - -The American settlements in Oregon thus far lacked the first essential -to the planting even of the germs of a state. In no one of them was -there so much as one American home, nor were there the elements of one. -An American white woman had not yet set foot on Oregon soil, nor any -woman, save the native and her offspring. It was now more than a score -of years since that first settlement at Astoria, but Oregon still waited -the coming of that institution that lies at the foundation of every -American state, the American family. - -About the time of Wyeth’s first expedition, there appeared in Saint -Louis what had somewhat of the character of a delegation from the native -tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. It consisted, as the story runs, of -four or five men from the Nez Perce tribe, who, having heard of the -White Man’s God and his Book, were come to ask that men be sent to teach -their people of these. The story of this strange and interesting mission -was taken up by the press and spread throughout the country. It gave a -new impulse and a new direction to the efforts of missionary societies -for the evangelization of the native tribes. One of the first fruits of -this new interest in missions was the organization by the Mission Board -of the Methodist Episcopal Church of a mission to the Oregon Indians. -This mission, as finally constituted, consisted of the Reverend Jason -Lee, as leader, and his nephew, Daniel Lee, and three lay members, Cyrus -Shepard, Philipp L. Edwards, and Courtney M. Walker, five in all, a -mission of men only. Sending their goods and supplies by sea to the -Columbia, they joined Wyeth in the spring of 1834, and traveled with him -overland, reaching Vancouver about the middle of September of that year. -After personal examination of the field by the leader, it was determined -that the mission should settle in the Willamette Valley, and a spot was -fixed upon not far from the site of the present town of Salem, and -within easy reach of a settlement already made by some retired employees -of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The object of the mission was the -evangelization of the Indian tribes of the valley, seemingly with little -thought at first of contributing to the colonization of the country. -This mission, indeed, the first among the Oregon Indians, like the -trading settlements that preceded it, lacked as first constituted one -essential to permanence. It did not include the family. The mistake was -doubtless early seen by the missionaries themselves, but was not -remedied until the arrival of the first reinforcement to the mission, -more than two years later. From the coming of the first reinforcement in -the spring of 1837, and the constitution thereupon of several families, -the mission began to take on somewhat of the character of a permanent -settlement, and with still further reinforcements a year or two later, -became the nucleus of the first permanent American colony in the -Willamette Valley. - -In the meantime a second mission had been established east of the -Cascade Mountains. In the summer of 1836, Dr. Marcus Whitman and Mrs. -Whitman, the Rev. Henry H. Spaulding and Mrs. Spaulding, and William H. -Gray, under commission from the American Board of Commissioners for -Foreign Missions, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and settled among the -native tribes of the Upper Columbia. The primary object of this mission, -as was that of the mission to the tribes of the Willamette Valley, was -the evangelization of the Indians. But this mission, unlike that, was -based from the first on the family, and thus brought with it this first -condition of permanence. Within its limited number were the two first -American white families to settle in Oregon, and were included for a -period of six months or more the only American white women dwelling west -of the Rocky Mountains. From its original number, and more largely from -its later reinforcements, the mission made valuable contributions to the -body of permanent settlers, but perhaps its greatest contribution to the -history of Oregon was one incidental to its primary work as a mission, -in its showing to America and the world by its own first treading of the -same, that there was an open pathway for American families through the -Rocky Mountains into the valley of the Columbia. This mission thus -demonstrated for the first the practical contiguity of the Oregon -Territory to the United States. It was this contiguity as it was -subsequently made patent that was, almost more than all else, to -influence the Oregon Question to an issue favorable to the United -States. Whitman seems to have seen this from the first. The settlement -of the Oregon Question came to appear to him simply a matter of prior -settlement of the territory from contiguous states, and such prior -settlement was a question only of an open pathway through the -intervening mountains. To his mind, therefore, the first duty of the -American government was not in military occupation of the region in -question, nor in the extension over it of civil jurisdiction, but in -making the pathway thither already pointed out, a plain and safe highway -for American settlers. This done, the people would do the rest. - -In the year 1837, after a silence of nearly ten years, the Oregon -Question was again moved in congress. Many things had happened in the -interval since its last appearance there to make it certain that with -its reappearance the question had come to abide until settled. The -settlements already mentioned, small as they were, were not -inconsiderable in their influence at the east. They were the centers of -ties that reached back into various influential communities in the -states of the union; nor were the men who composed the settlements slow -to avail themselves of every such tie to make and influence public -sentiment at home. The same energy and indomitable spirit which they -manifested in reaching the new land were shown again in their efforts to -enlighten the country in regard to the land they had come to possess, -and to persuade others to join them in their efforts to take and keep -possession of it. Never was a new country so much talked of, nor its -excellencies so enthusiastically set forth, when those who could do so -from experience were so few. From the time the first real American -colony was founded in Oregon, and there had been time for word from it -to reach the states from which its members had come, neither the -government nor the country was ever allowed for long at a time to forget -the existence of Oregon, of the Oregon colony, or of the Oregon -Question. - -In the late summer of 1835, President Jackson, through certain letters, -as it appears, of William N. Slacum, a paymaster in the navy, who at -that time was spending some months in Alexandria, Virginia, on sick -leave, became strongly of the mind that the bay of San Francisco should -be in the possession of the United States. He almost immediately, on -receipt of these letters, directed Mr. Forsythe, Secretary of State, to -write to Anthony Butler, then in Mexico for the purpose of negotiating -the purchase of Texas, enlarging his instructions so as to include the -purchase of so much of the possessions of Mexico on the coast as would -embrace the bay of San Francisco. A little later the same year President -Jackson commissioned Slacum to visit the North Pacific Coast, directing -him at the earliest opportunity after arriving in the Pacific, “to -proceed to and up the Oregon, to obtain specific and authentic -information in regard to the inhabitants of the country, the relative -number of whites and Indians; the jurisdiction which the whites -acknowledged; the sentiments entertained by all in respect to the United -States and the two European powers having possessions in that region; -and finally all information, political, statistical, and geographical, -that might prove useful and interesting to the government.” The -commission thus specifically and somewhat peremptorily given was -fulfilled with promptness and energy, and, though the chief by whom the -commission had been given had retired from office before Mr. Slacum’s -return, the country was not deprived of the results of the -investigation. In December, 1837, through a memorial presented by Mr. -Slacum to congress, and by congress ordered to be published, coincident -with the recurrence of the discussion in congress of the Oregon -Question, congress and the country had the detailed results of this -first official inquiry into the condition and prospects of the -settlements in the region of the Columbia. - -Throughout this period when the question was in abeyance, individual -explorers, American and British, had from time to time visited this -region and had returned to write for eager readers of what they saw and -learned in the strange new land, until a piqued interest on two -continents was alert for the next news from Oregon. The publication at -the close of this period of Irving’s Astoria in 1836, and of his -Adventures of Captain Bonneville in 1837, books which were themselves -the offspring of the widespread and romantic interest already felt, -served in turn to make that interest still more keen, and to awaken it -in minds where else it had never been felt. - -But greatest among all the forces that had been at work during this -period toward the solution of this question was one that had worked -silently and unobserved, but persistently and effectively, and withal -wholly in the American interest. In the ten years that followed the -extension of the convention of 1818, more than three hundred thousand -people, immigrants from foreign lands and emigrants from older states, -had crossed the Mississippi and settled in the two states of Arkansas -and Missouri, and the territory of Iowa. At the close of this period, -when congress again took up the question more than half a million of -people were settled between the Mississippi River and the Rocky -Mountains, and of these more than three hundred thousand were in -Missouri alone, the state which stood upon the highway to the new -country, and nearest to the gate of entrance. The fact of this great -array of American families fast moving toward the intervening barrier, -and all but pressing upon it, with myriads of other families in the -older states following after, taken together with the door open no -farther than it had been proved to be open by the few American families -that had passed through, should have been enough to assure any calm -observer of what the issue was to be. There were such observers whom it -did so assure, and their calm faith and clear forecast stood the nation -in good stead in the exciting debates that were to follow. - -The second period of the discussion of the Oregon Question in congress -began late in the year 1837, near the close of the first session of the -twenty-fifth congress. It was opened a few days before adjournment by -each house calling upon the President “to furnish at an early period of -the next session any correspondence that may have taken place between -the government and foreign powers in relation to our territory west of -the Rocky Mountains.” To both these resolutions the President, promptly -on the opening of the next congress, replied that no correspondence -whatever had passed between the government of the United States and any -other government in relation to that subject since the renewal in 1827 -of the convention of joint occupancy. It thus appeared that while the -subject had been in abeyance in congress it had been equally so in the -executive department of the government, and it was not destined to -reappear in this department for a further period of more than four -years. Meanwhile the subject in one form or another was seldom absent -for long at a time from the discussions of congress. This was especially -true of the senate, where, in the person of Dr. Lewis F. Linn, senator -from Missouri, the title of the United States to Oregon and the cause of -the citizens of the United States who had settled there found an earnest -advocate and a zealous and indefatigable friend. Measures were -introduced in both houses of congress, by Doctor Linn in the senate, and -by Mr. Cushing in the house, looking to the occupation and settlement of -Oregon. These first measures elicited but little debate, and failed of -reaching action. They did, however, by bringing out reports from the -executive and committees, get before congress and the country a large -amount of information on the subject. In the house, after a year of -unavailing effort to reach action on the measures introduced, the -subject remained again in abeyance for two or three years. In the -senate, however, chiefly through the active interest of Doctor Linn, new -measures were introduced each session which, though failing in every -case of reaching the point of action, gained more and more the ear of -the senate and a wider attention in the country. In each of the measures -as thus far proposed there was some vitiating clause or provision which -to the calmer and clearer minds in the senate made it inconsistent with -the terms of the existing convention. It was open to congress to -abrogate that convention by giving due notice to Great Britain, and so -to open the way for a larger action on the part of the government, and -resolutions to this effect were introduced, but neither congress nor the -country as yet was ready for this step. Not yet clear as to what action -should next be adopted, congress was not prepared to remove this bar to -hasty or ill-advised measures. Thus far the convention had certainly -been in the interests of peace, and had not seriously interfered with -the progress of settlement. - -The year 1842 was an important one in the history of the Oregon -Question. Early that year Doctor Linn had returned to the contest in the -senate with new zeal and determination, and other friends in congress -and out of it came to his support. His bill, as heretofore, was a bill -for the adoption of means for the occupation and settlement of the -Oregon Territory, and the extension of the jurisdiction of our courts -over our citizens settled there, with a provision promising a large -grant of land to actual settlers. This and previous bills had been -prefaced by a declaration that the United States held its title to the -Oregon country valid, and would not abandon it. The year opened with -better promise of favorable action than heretofore; the preamble, while -its adoption was strongly opposed by the majority in the senate, had -brought from even those who opposed its adoption the declaration that it -was a just expression of the sentiment of the country, while the -provision for the land grant to settlers, though opposed for the present -on the ground that it was not consistent with the convention, was -acknowledged by all to contemplate but a just compensation, which should -be made in due time, to pioneers who had taken the hardships and risks -of early colonization. The bill at this session had been presented under -most favorable auspices; the select committee to which it had been -referred was of great influence in the senate, and had unanimously -instructed their chairman to report the bill with the recommendation -that it pass. And yet, though thus auspiciously introduced, for some -reason as the months of the session went on it failed of being -vigorously pressed. We have the explanation of this in Senator Linn’s -own words, spoken in the senate on the last day of August, the closing -day of the session. After speaking of the favorable circumstances -attending the introduction of the bill, Senator Linn continued: “It was -thus placed in its order upon the calendar, but upon its coming up for -consideration as a special order Lord Ashburton arrived from England, to -enter upon a negotiation touching all points of dispute between the two -countries, boundaries as well as others, Oregon as well as Maine. In -this posture of affairs it was considered indelicate, not to say unwise, -to press the bill to a decision while these negotiations were pending. -They are now over, and a treaty is published to the world between the -United States and Great Britain, in which it seems that the question of -the Oregon Territory has been deferred to some more remote or auspicious -period, for an ultimate decision.” In conclusion Mr. Linn said that he -was confident that there were majorities in both houses for this bill; -and he felt equally certain that it would have passed at this session -but for the arrival of Lord Ashburton, and the pendency of the -negotiations. He gave notice that he would deem it “his imperative duty” -to bring in at an early day of the coming session this same bill, and -press it to a final decision. That the decision would be favorable he -did not entertain the slightest doubt, and he took pleasure in making -that opinion public “for the satisfaction of all those who might take an -interest in this beautiful country, the germ of future states to be -settled by the Anglo-American race, which will extend our limits from -the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.” - -There is a tone of confidence in the words with which Senator Linn -dismissed the bill of 1842 that was not wholly unwarranted. As he spoke -he was aware that the largest colony of American settlers that had ever -set out for Oregon, a colony of staunch men and women, who had been -encouraged to set out by the assurances which his bill had given, were -then steadily nearing their destination. He was aware, too, that in the -brief time since the publication of the Ashburton treaty, in which no -mention was made of the Oregon boundary, congress and the country had -shown a temper that promised well for his measure when next it should be -introduced. - -The interval between the publication of the treaty, August 9, and the -reassembling of congress in December, was one of earnest and often -heated discussion, not only of the provisions of the treaty, but of its -one noted omission. No satisfactory reason had yet been given why the -Oregon boundary had not been included with that of Maine. This omission, -taken together with intimations that soon reached the public that the -two governments were again engaged in negotiations on this subject, -began to awaken, in some quarters, at least, fears for the result. The -nature and ground of these fears, as far as they were capable of being -defined, may be seen in the declaration of the legislature of Illinois, -prefixed to resolutions on the Oregon Question presented to congress -early the next session. That declaration was, that “the safety of the -title of the United States [to Oregon] was greatly endangered by the -concessions made in the late treaty in relation to the boundary of -Maine, by her rights not being persisted in and made part of said -treaty, and will be more endangered by longer delay.” - -In his annual message to congress, December 6, 1842, President Tyler, -after giving as the reason for the omission of the Oregon boundary from -the late treaty the fear that its discussion might imperil the treaty as -a whole, went on to express the purpose of the administration to urge -upon the government of Great Britain the importance of an early -settlement of this question. A few days later, the senate passed a -resolution calling upon the President to communicate to the senate the -nature of any “informal communications” that might have passed between -the Secretary of State and the Special Minister of the British -Government on the question of the Oregon boundary. To this resolution -the President, in his message of December 23, answered that measures had -been already taken in pursuance of the purpose expressed in his annual -message, and, under these circumstances, he did not deem it consistent -with the public interest to make any communication on the subject. But -neither the President’s expressed purpose, nor his subsequent -declaration that measures in pursuance of that purpose had already been -taken, stayed the progress of measures in congress. - -On the nineteenth of December, in accordance with his promise made at -the close of the last session of congress, Mr. Linn introduced a bill of -like import with that of the former session. This bill was referred to a -select committee, of which Mr. Linn was chairman, and was soon reported -back to the house, when it was made a regular order for immediate -discussion. The discussion was continuous and earnest for more than a -month, when by a vote of twenty-four to twenty-two it passed the senate. -A vote of reconsideration failing to pass, the bill went to the house, -and was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, of which John -Quincy Adams was chairman, by whom, a few days later, it was reported to -the house with the recommendation that it should not pass. Thus the bill -failed of finally becoming a law, and doubtless many who advocated it in -the senate, on cooler reflection, felt that it was well that it did -fail. In a wider view, however, the measure was not a failure, for it -served its object well, though not in the way its supporters intended. -Few bills ever have called out from the senate a more earnest or an -abler discussion. The best talent of the body was enlisted in the -discussion, the spirit in which the debate was carried on was broad and -patriotic, and for the progressive illumination of the subject under -discussion the debate has never been surpassed. When it closed there -remained little to be said. The future course of congress in the matter -was practically settled in this debate and the action which followed; -while in the course of the discussion, the pathway by which the question -was ultimately to reach its solution was again and again pointed out. -This was done by no one more clearly than by Calhoun, who spoke twice at -length in opposition to the measure. He opposed the bill with the whole -force of his power of keen analysis and convincing logic, but he opposed -it because he saw in its adoption certain defeat of the very object -which he in common with the promoters of the bill desired to reach. He -counseled patience, and a strict abiding by the terms of the convention, -at the same time assuring his countrymen that time and the sure movement -of population toward and into the region in question were certain to -bring the solution desired. So accurately did he foresee and describe -the course by which the question would advance to its final settlement, -that his words at this day read rather like an epitome of history than -what they were, a forecast of events. - -American colonists in Oregon at that moment were not indeed sufficiently -numerous to promise a speedy fulfillment of this prophesy. All told, -they scarcely numbered five hundred, men, women, and children, and -included not more than two score American families. They were enough, -however, to test the excellence of the land, and enough of them had -entered through the gateway of the mountains to prove that the country -was accessible to men and women who were serious in their purpose of -reaching it. Then, too, at the moment when Mr. Calhoun was speaking, at -various centers throughout the union and on the frontiers of Missouri, a -colony was organizing of men and women of the best stuff of which new -states are made, setting their faces toward the new land with the full -purpose of making it their home. This colony, nearly double in its -numbers the total American population then in Oregon, before the year -ended, successfully passed the barrier of the mountains, and with its -whole great caravan safely reached the valley of the Columbia. Thus, -sooner perhaps, and with a stronger and bolder movement than Mr. Calhoun -himself had expected when he spoke, the onward movement of population -began to make good the words of his prophesy. - -When, in February, 1843, the senate bill failed in the house, it was -understood that the two governments were in communication on the subject -of the Oregon Territory. It was this understanding more than anything -else that led to the suppression of the Oregon bill in the Committee on -Foreign Relations. No proposal had as yet been made in official form, -but it is now known that the President and his secretary had a definite -policy in mind, and that while desirous of checking any measures in -congress which might hinder the negotiations which they aimed to bring -about, they felt obliged to conceal the nature of their policy with the -utmost care, for fear of arousing opposition in congress and the -country. As it was, there was no little dissatisfaction in congress with -the treaty which had just been negotiated by Webster and Lord Ashburton. -Like most treaties on boundary lines, this treaty was a settlement by -compromise. Many citizens from the section affected by the new boundary -line, and enemies of the administration from all sections, were prompt -to say that the secretary had yielded too much—that he had allowed the -United States to be overreached in the negotiations. The friends of -Oregon took alarm. They thought they saw in the omission of the Oregon -boundary from the treaty an occasion for another compromise, in which -there should be a surrender of territory justly claimed by the United -States. That this fear was widespread in the states of the Mississippi -Valley appears from the resolutions of state legislatures presented to -congress early in the following session. In more than one set of these -resolutions it was manifest, through plain statement or through -implication, that apprehensions for Oregon had been awakened by the -terms of settlement of the boundary line of Maine. There was reason for -uneasiness in the well known leaning of Mr. Webster toward certain -commercial advantages to be got by treaty from Great Britain, and his -low estimate of the value of the Oregon Territory to the United States. -We now know that for this and for other reasons the prevalent -apprehensions of the time in regard to the Oregon Territory were not -groundless. The evidence is now at hand that the President and his -secretary did contemplate a treaty with England which would involve a -surrender of territory on the North Pacific Coast such as no -administration hitherto had been willing for a moment to consider. The -compensation, however, for the territory surrendered was not, as was -then surmised, to be found wholly, if at all, on the Atlantic Coast. - -It will be remembered that the Oregon Question was not the only question -that agitated the country at this time. There was the Texas question, -well nigh as old as that of Oregon, lately become pressing through -events in Texas itself, and through the growing importunity of the -Southern States. Then, too, there was the California question,—not a -question of as widespread and popular interest as either of the others, -but one which for a decade or more had been of growing interest to a -narrow but intelligent circle. There was a popular demand for the -assertion and maintenance of our rights in Oregon; there had come to be -a popular demand for the annexation to the union, or the reannexation, -as some chose to put it, of Texas; while as far back as the second -administration of President Jackson there had been a desire on the part -of farseeing statesmen to secure from Mexico the cession to the United -States of so much of California as to include the bay of San Francisco. -England was interested in Texas, was even thought by many in the United -States to be contemplating making it a colony; England had influence -with Mexico, her capitalists having loaned the Mexican government to the -amount of $50,000,000 on security of lands in New Mexico, California, -and other of her possessions; and England was urgent in all negotiations -on the Oregon boundary that she be allowed free navigation of the -Columbia, if not that that river be her southern boundary. In the United -States, the slave states were desirous of Texas; the Western States -pressed for the Oregon Territory at least to the forty-ninth parallel, -while there was a growing desire in commercial centers in the North -Atlantic States to have in American possession what was then regarded as -the only ample and safe harbor on the North Pacific Coast south of the -Straits of Fuca. Out of these various interests in England and America, -President Tyler and Mr. Webster, his Secretary of State, shaped the -policy of the administration. It is not likely that the President and -his secretary were in entire accord on the details of the policy; but -both alike were desirous that the administration should be signalized by -a settlement through negotiation of the questions then pressing upon the -country. In its earlier and more comprehensive form, the policy of the -administration included all the questions that have been mentioned. -These it sought to settle by a comprehension of them all in a tripartite -treaty between the United States, Mexico and Great Britain, whereby it -was hoped to secure from Mexico the recognition of the independence of -Texas, and the cession to the United States of her possessions on the -Pacific down to the thirty-sixth parallel. In compensation for her good -offices in these matters, the United States was to yield to Great -Britain all claim to the Oregon Territory down to the line of the -Columbia River. It was thought that the large acquisition thus secured -of territory south of the forty-second parallel would compensate for the -loss of Oregon north of the Columbia, while the northern and southern -sections would be reconciled to the treaty by the large acquisition it -secured north and south, respectively, of parallel thirty-six. - -The plan of the administration included a special mission to England, on -which it was expected Mr. Webster should be sent, that he might be the -better able to negotiate the treaty; and, failing this, a mission to -China, to which Mr. Everett, then Minister to England, should be -transferred, thus still accomplishing the desired end by allowing Mr. -Webster to take his place in London. The mission to England failed in -committee; the mission to China passed in congress, but failed to carry -Mr. Webster to England, through Mr. Everett’s unwillingness to accept -the China mission. With his failure to reach England at this time, Mr. -Webster’s hope of being able to effect a settlement of the questions -pending between the two governments died; this having been his main -reason for remaining in President Tyler’s cabinet, his resignation -shortly followed. And thus, with Mr. Webster’s resignation from the -cabinet, passed forever all danger of a settlement of the Oregon -boundary on a line below the forty-ninth parallel. - -There were causes operating to produce this result which do not appear -in this narrative. Even if the mission to England had succeeded, and Mr. -Webster had effected the tripartite treaty as he desired, it is doubtful -if it would have been accepted by the senate. Events were occurring -contemporaneously with the movement of these measures that rendered it -probable that the treaty, if made, would have failed of confirmation. -Certain it is that the early spring of that year found the President -less disposed to press for the settlement of the Oregon boundary -contemplated in this scheme, and with less reason to expect the approval -of congress or the country in any such settlement. Events had been -rapidly making such a settlement impossible. A notable one, the great -emigration of 1843, has already been mentioned. There were others -precedent to this. - -Some years previous, the Rev. Jason Lee, while on a visit to the United -States, had visited Washington, and made a strong representation of the -need of a representative of the United States in Oregon. As a late -response to this plea, in the spring of 1842, the government had sent a -sub-agent to look after the interests of the Indians in Oregon. The -appointment fell upon Dr. Elijah White, who himself had been a member of -the Willamette mission. Doctor White had at once set out for Oregon, in -May of that year, and was accompanied by a colony of more than one -hundred persons, assembled largely through his influence, the first real -colony of American families, aside from the missions, to enter the -Oregon Territory. By the end of the winter of 1843, the government was -in possession of Doctor White’s report of the safe arrival in Oregon of -himself, and this colony; of the satisfaction of the colonists with what -they found there; and of the favorable condition and prospects of the -settlers already there. Some of the colonists themselves had written to -newspapers at their old homes giving good accounts of the new land, and -urging their friends to join them there. And these letters, wherever -found, were copied by all the great newspapers, north and south, -because, as their editors sometimes apologetically added, “every one was -eager to hear the latest news from the Oregon country.” About the same -time with the arrival of the report of the government’s own agent, there -appeared in Washington, fresh from his winter ride from Oregon, Dr. -Marcus Whitman, of the Walla Walla mission. In repeated interviews with -the President, and members of his cabinet, as well as with members of -congress, Doctor Whitman presented earnestly the practicability of large -companies of emigrants with their cattle and wagons reaching Oregon -through the mountains, and urged the government to encourage such -caravans by making the way thither as easy and safe as possible. What -was thus said in the ears of government, and through the public press, -was talked by many voices in crowded assemblies, at village stores, and -at firesides throughout the country, from the frontiers of Missouri to -the coast of Massachusetts, and from Portland, Maine, to New Orleans. -The people were thus already aroused, even before the failure in -congress of the administration’s plans for the settlement of the -boundary question. The country of the Oregon had been made to appear -inviting for seekers for new homes in all parts of the land, and -colonization of it by the direct route through the Rocky Mountains -practicable to the nation at large, so that the state of the public mind -at this time boded ill to any plan of settlement that proposed a -surrender of any part of the territory to which the United States was -believed to have a well grounded claim. The time for bargaining away any -part of the Oregon Territory, south of the forty-ninth parallel and the -Straits of Fuca, had now fully passed. No one was quicker to see and -appreciate the changed conditions of the question, than was the -President himself. Naturally desirous that his administration should -have the honor of settling this long pending question, he continued, -through his succeeding secretaries, to endeavor to bring the -negotiations to a successful conclusion; but henceforth his proposals -were based upon a return to the former position of the government on the -line of the forty-ninth parallel. After a proposal of the line of the -Columbia our government was at a disadvantage in renewing proposals -based upon the more northern line, while the changed temper of congress -and the country obliged to a firmer standing to the old position, once -it was resumed. The President’s best efforts, however, to bring -negotiations to a happy issue failed, and his administration closed with -the question still pending. The negotiations of this time show a zealous -purpose on the part of the President to effect a settlement, but show no -real progress toward that end. The same may be said of the measures in -congress of this period. Discussion of the question had been resumed in -the house, and went on in the senate, but since negotiations on the part -of the government with a view to a speedy settlement were almost -continuously pending, congress was induced to refrain from any action -that might thwart or trammel the government in its efforts. - -It has already been pointed out in this paper that the correspondence -between the two governments precedent to the convention of 1818, pointed -to the line of the forty-ninth parallel as the final position of our -government in this question. In subsequent negotiations between the -United States and Great Britain, this line came to be regarded as in -some sort traditional with our government, and as such became -increasingly influential in shaping the proposals of succeeding -administrations. We have just seen how under pressure of considerations -external to the Oregon Question the administration of Mr. Tyler had been -momentarily in danger of yielding this our traditional line for one to -the south, on the Columbia. We have now to see how under pressure of -another sort the government under the administration of Mr. Polk came -near abandoning this traditional position for a line farther to the -north. - -In 1824, in a treaty between the United States and Russia, the line of -54° and 40′ was fixed as the limit of the claim of the United States -northward as against Russia, and of Russia’s claim southward as against -the United States. This line was thenceforth considered as the northern -limit of the Oregon Territory. In the course of negotiations with Great -Britain it had been mentioned as the northern limit of our claim, but -the claim of the United States to this line had never been pressed by -the government. In the same paragraph in which the claim had been -mentioned by our government, it had been abandoned for the lower line of -the forty-ninth parallel. In the year 1842, however, after the treaty of -that year had been concluded and made public, in the reaction caused by -what was regarded as a surrender of rights and just claims on the part -of our government, a disposition was manifested in some sections of the -country, particularly in the west, to recur to the extreme northern -line, and to press our claim to the Oregon Territory fully up to that -limit. This disposition found expression in some of the resolutions of -the state legislatures which were presented to congress at its next -session. Later, it found more distinct and emphatic expression in -resolutions adopted by public meetings and local conventions in various -parts of the country held for the purpose of promoting the occupation -and settlement of the Oregon Territory. The agitation thus carried on in -the latter part of 1842, and the earlier months of 1843, culminated in a -convention held in Cincinnati in July of the latter year. This -convention from its size and representative character had somewhat of -national importance. The circular calling the convention issued from -Cincinnati under date of May 23, was sent to representative men far and -wide over the union, and was given publicity by the leading journals of -the day. In this circular the object of the convention was formally -stated to be, “to urge upon congress the immediate occupation of the -Oregon Territory by the arms and laws of the republic, and to adopt such -measures as may seem most conducive to its immediate and effective -occupation, whether the government acts or not in the matter.” It will -be proposed, the circular continues, “to base the action of the -convention on Mr. Monroe’s declaration of 1823, ‘that the American -continents are not to be considered subject to colonization by any -European powers.’” The convention in a session of three days discussed -thoroughly the various aspects of the subject on which it came together, -and concluded by adopting a declaration of principles which was signed -by the chairman, Col. R. M. Johnson, and ninety other delegates, -representing six states of the Mississippi Valley. The first of the -principles adopted defined clearly what the convention understood by the -Oregon Territory which it was sought to occupy and settle, asserting, as -it did, the right of the United States from the line of latitude 42° to -that of 54° and 40′. Among letters read in the convention from prominent -men unable to be present was one from Mr. Cass, in which he declared -that no one would be present who would concur more heartily with the -convention in the measures that might be adopted than should he; he -would take and hold possession of the territory of the Pacific Coast, -come what might. It is not difficult to see in the utterance of the -Cincinnati convention, when taken in connection with the political -weight of the convention itself, the origin of that party war-cry which -was to make the presidential campaign of the following year so -celebrated in our history. Here was a constituency united in a solemn -pledge, which could not well be ignored in the estimate of political -forces. It was an influence to be bid for, and what more natural than -that it should be bid for, as it was bid for, by the party seeking a -means of reconciling northern and western voters to its more distinctly -southern policy of the annexation of Texas? - -On becoming President, Mr. Polk seems not to have felt himself bound by -the extreme statement of his party’s position on the Oregon Question. -The tone of his inaugural is rather more conservative upon this subject -than might have been expected from the circumstances of his election. -His position, as stated in this paper, was sufficiently advanced, -however, to alarm the British government. In a letter of April 3, -addressed to Packenham, British Minister at Washington, Lord Aberdeen -said: “The inaugural speech of President Polk has impressed a very -serious character on our actual relations with the United States, and -the manner in which he has referred to the Oregon Question, so different -from the language of his predecessor, leaves little reason to hope for -any favorable result of the existing negotiation.” And yet Mr. Polk, -shortly after entering upon office, took up the negotiation as he found -it then pending, and made an honest effort to effect a settlement upon -the compromise line of his predecessors. In explanation of his course, -in his annual message to congress, December following, he said: “Though -entertaining the settled conviction that the British pretensions of -title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon Territory, -upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, yet, in -deference to what had been done by my predecessors, and especially in -consideration that propositions of compromise had been thrice made by -two preceding administrations to adjust the question on the parallel of -the forty-ninth degree of latitude, and in two of them yielding the free -navigation of the Columbia, and that the pending negotiations had been -commenced on the basis of compromise, I deemed it my duty not abruptly -to break it off. In consideration, too, that under the conventions of -1818 and 1827 the citizens and subjects of the two powers held a joint -occupancy of the country, I was induced to make another effort to settle -this long pending controversy in the spirit of moderation which had -given birth to the renewed discussion.” - -In the letter above referred to, Lord Aberdeen, notwithstanding his -fears, directed Mr. Packenham to submit again to the new Secretary of -State the proposal for arbitration which he had submitted to his -predecessor, if conditions for such a proposal seemed favorable. On Mr. -Packenham’s informing Mr. Buchanan, the new Secretary of State, of his -instructions to this effect, Mr. Buchanan expressed the hope that a -satisfactory settlement of the question might yet be effected through -negotiation. In accordance with this expressed hope, Mr. Buchanan, a few -days later, submitted a proposal of the line of the forty-ninth parallel -extended through to the Pacific, offering to Great Britain any port or -ports on Vancouver’s Island she might choose. This proposal was rejected -by Mr. Packenham, without first submitting it to his government, in a -paper in which, after declaring the proposal offered less than was -offered by the United States in 1826, he concluded: “The undersigned -trusts that the American Plenipotentiary will be prepared to offer some -other proposal for the settlement of the Oregon Question more consistent -with fairness and equity, and with the reasonable expectations of the -British government.” This paper was presented on July 29; on August 30 -Mr. Buchanan presented to Mr. Packenham a carefully prepared paper, in -which, after reviewing the position in which the President found himself -in reference to the question on coming into office, and setting forth -the motives which had actuated him in making the present proposal in -spite of his personal views on the subject, he called the British -Minister’s attention to the fact that the President’s proposal had been -rejected by him in terms not over courteous, without even a reference of -it to his government, and concluded: “Under such circumstances, I am -instructed by the President to say that he owes it to his own country, -and to a just appreciation of her title to the Oregon Territory, to -withdraw this proposition to the British government, which was made -under his direction; and it is hereby accordingly withdrawn.” - -We have it on the authority of Mr. Polk’s diary that the concluding -paragraph is of the President’s own wording; that Mr. Buchanan urged the -President so to couch his answer as to encourage the British government -to make an offer on their part; that this the President positively -declined to do, saying that if the British government wished to make an -offer they must do so on their own responsibility. It was a matter of -regret on the part of Lord Aberdeen, on hearing of the matter, that this -proposition of our government had not been referred by Mr. Packenham to -his government. Later, Mr. Packenham, on receipt of a communication from -Lord Aberdeen, approached Mr. Buchanan with a view of getting from the -President encouragement to present another proposition on behalf of -Great Britain. This, though repeatedly urged to do so by Mr. Buchanan, -the President firmly refused to give. And thus the question stood at the -convening of congress in December. - -The President’s message had, on the question of the Oregon Territory, -been prepared with special care. The several paragraphs bearing on this -subject were read and discussed in cabinet, and amended, until they -embodied the President’s policy in its maturest form. Again Mr. Polk was -besought by the Secretary of State to soften the tone of his message on -this point, but he refused, preferring, as he said, “his own bold -stand.” After reviewing briefly the history of negotiations on the -question under his predecessors, and noting that these had uniformly -been maintained on the part of the United States on the compromise line -of the forty-ninth parallel; and after stating somewhat particularly the -reasons that had induced him to take up the negotiations as he found -them pending on his entrance to office, and to continue them on the same -line in spite of his own personal convictions that the United States had -a just claim to the whole of the Oregon Territory, the President -proceeded to recommend to the favorable consideration of congress five -measures, all of which he thought clearly within the right of the United -States under the terms of the convention of joint occupancy. The first -and capital one of these recommendations was, that congress authorize -the President to terminate the convention of joint occupancy by giving -the British government the required notice. In accordance with this -recommendation a resolution to that effect was promptly introduced in -congress, and thereupon the Oregon Question was thought by all to have -assumed a grave aspect. Many men within congress, and without, some of -them Mr. Polk’s best friends and advisors, felt that while the measure -was clearly within the terms of the convention it was neither wise nor -safe at that time to adopt it. To every representation, however, of this -view of the case made to the President, he returned the uniform answer -that in his judgment the notice should be given. - -The Secretary of State was not alone in his alarm at the President’s -bold stand on this question. He, with others, finding themselves unable -to induce the President to change his attitude on this point, and -finding that in the present mood of congress the resolution of notice -was likely to pass, used every endeavor to induce him to consent to a -renewal of the proposition for compromise on the line of the forty-ninth -parallel, or to invite such a proposal from the British government. - -On the twenty-fifth of February, Mr. Calhoun, now returned to the -senate, called upon the President and met there Senator Colquitt, of -Georgia. Mr. Calhoun urged upon Mr. Polk that it was important that some -action of pacific character should go to England upon the next steamer, -and asked the President’s opinion of the policy of the senate’s passing -a resolution in executive session, advising the President to reopen -negotiations on the basis of the forty-ninth parallel. Mr. Polk was -unwilling to advise such a course; he did, however, finally tell Mr. -Calhoun and Mr. Colquitt, in confidence, as members of the senate, that -if Great Britain should see fit to submit a proposition for compromise -on that line, he should feel it his duty, following the example of -Washington on important occasions, to submit the proposition to the -senate confidentially for their previous advice. This course had already -been considered in cabinet two days before, on the reading of a dispatch -from Mr. McLane, our Minister in London, and had met with the almost -unanimous approval of the members. - -The house had already, on the ninth of February, passed the resolution -of notice; the senate yet delayed and debated. But from the time when -the President consented to encourage a further proposition of compromise -from the British government by promising to submit the same to the -senate for advice, events moved rapidly to a favorable conclusion. April -17 the resolution of notice passed the senate. Formal notice -was addressed by our President to the Minister in London on the -twenty-eighth of April, was received by him in London on the fifteenth -of May, and on the twentieth of May was by him presented to Lord -Aberdeen. Two days before receiving the notice, however, on the -eighteenth of May, Lord Aberdeen had addressed a note to Mr. Packenham, -at Washington, instructing him to offer a compromise on the basis of -such a modification of the line of the forty-ninth degree of north -latitude as would give to Great Britain Vancouver’s Island, and allow -her the free navigation of the Columbia for a limited term of years. -On the tenth of June, in a message to the senate, the President -submitted this proposal, and asked the senate’s previous advice. -This was formally given in a resolution adopted June 12, by a vote -of thirty-eight to ten, in which the senate advised the President to -accept the proposal of the British government. A treaty based upon -this proposal was concluded and signed on the fifteenth day of June by -the representatives of the two powers. This treaty, on the following -day, was laid before the senate by the President, for its approval, -and three days later was confirmed without amendment. This convention -provided for the extension of a line on the forty-ninth degree of -north latitude, westward from the Rocky Mountains, to the middle of -the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver’s Island, -and thence southerly, through the middle of said channel, and of Fuca -Straits, to the Pacific Ocean. - -It was found by the commissioners appointed to determine a line in -accordance with this convention that in one part of the strait there -were two recognized channels, an easterly one, by the Straits of -Rosario, and a westerly one, by the Canal De Haro. The commissioners -failing to agree as to which of the channels was the channel -contemplated by the treaty, the determination of this portion of the -line was left in abeyance. It remained so until the year 1871, when the -joint high commission appointed to adjust sundry differences between the -two governments, met in Washington. By certain articles of a convention, -concluded at this time it was agreed by the representatives of the two -powers, to submit to the Emperor of Germany the question as to which of -the two channels was the more in accordance with the treaty of June 15, -1846, the commissioners pledging their respective governments to accept -his award as final. The Emperor of Germany submitted the question to -three experts, Doctor Grimm, Doctor Goldschmidt, and Doctor Kiepert. In -accordance with the report of these distinguished scholars, the Emperor -of Germany, on the twenty-first of October, 1872, rendered his decision, -that the line by way of the Canal De Haro was the one most in accordance -with the treaty. This decision was accepted by the two governments, and -the unsettled portion of the boundary line determined in accordance with -it. - -Thus, after the vicissitudes of more than three-quarters of a century of -debate and negotiations, with the determination of this last detail, the -Oregon Question reached its full and final decision. - - JOSEPH R. WILSON. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - REMINISCENCES OF HUGH COSGROVE - - By H. S. LYMAN. - - -Hugh Cosgrove, an Oregon pioneer of 1847, and a representative of the -men of some means, who established the business interests of the state, -is of Irish birth, having been born in County Cavan, North Ireland, in -1811. Although now in his ninetieth year, he is still of clear mind and -memory, and recalls with perfect distinctness the many scenes of his -active life. He is still living on the place which he purchased, in -1850, on French Prairie, near Saint Paul. He is a man of fine physical -proportion, being in his prime, five feet, eleven inches tall, and full -chested, broad shouldered, and erect, and weighing about one hundred and -eighty pounds. He has the finely moulded Celtic features, and genial -expression of the land of Ulster, and enjoys the fine wit and humor for -which his race is famous. His father was a farmer, but learning much of -the opportunities in Canada, concluded to cross the ocean to improve the -conditions of himself and his family. It was about that period when -assisted emigration from East Britain was in vogue, and mechanics of -Glasgow, Scotland, were loaned 10£ sterling for each member of the -family, to take up free homes in Canada; the loan to be returned after a -certain time. The Cosgroves not being from that city, did not enjoy this -loan, but determined to take advantage of the other opportunities -offered all the immigrants, which were a concession of one hundred acres -of land free, and an outfit of goods necessary to setting up a home in -the new land. - -Taking passage on a lumber ship, the Eliza, of Dublin, at a rate of 3£ -each, and furnishing their own victualing, they made a speedy and -prosperous voyage, some considerable glimpses of which remain in the -memory of Mr. Cosgrove, after the lapse of eighty years. He remembers -well, also, the breaking up of the old home, the auction of the family -belongings, and the general sense of hope and abandon with which they -cut loose from the shores of the old world. None of the family, -probably, had any considerable appreciation of the vast race movement to -which they as units of society were answering, but felt keenly the -bracing effect of increased energy and enthusiasm which that movement -imparted. - -In Canada they hastened to secure their possessions, locating the one -hundred-acre lot of their own, in the hard timber woods out on the -boulder-sprinkled soil of lower Canada, in the Dalhousie township, -within five miles of Lanark, and obtaining a free government outfit at -the government store at Lanark. Here young Hugh spent the most of his -boyhood, helping to clear the farm, becoming an expert axeman, burning -the hard wood, from the ashes of which was leached the potash that paid -for the clearing; and also getting his education at the free school. He -recalls these as very happy years, and the pride and joy that all the -family took in owning their own home did very much to form his character -on a more liberal and progressive plan than could have been had in old -world conditions. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Mary, a -daughter of Richard Rositer,—“a glorious good man,” of Perth. Learning -at length that land of a better quality, less stony, was vacant “out -west,” a move was made to Chatham, in Canada West, as then known. Having -a “birth-right claim,” as it was called, to one hundred acres, and -finding that he could make a purchase adjoining of one hundred acres of -“clerical land,” the young farmer laid out his two hundred-acre farm, -and made buildings to improve it. But learning that land was still -better the farther west one went, he proceeded as far as the Detroit -River. - -But just at this juncture all things were thrown in confusion by the -uprising of the “Patriots,” the extent of whose organization was not -known. There was great alarm felt, and the Canadian militia were likely -to be called out. Now the Cosgroves had been duly taught that “the -Yankees” were terrible people, almost ready to eat innocent people from -the old country. But now that the Canadian side looked warlike, Mrs. -Cosgrove said to her husband: “Very likely now you will be called out -with the militia, and I will be left alone; why not cross over into the -United States, and begin there?” She was acquainted, moreover, with a -family in Detroit. Mr. Cosgrove acted upon the suggestion, and this led -into a very much larger field of operations. - -They found life on the American side much more intense and extensive, -and discovered that the Yankees, instead of being a species of -man-eaters, were royal good fellows. - -Having saved some money for a new start, he prudently looked about how -to invest it so as to make increase as he crossed the line. He found at -the custom house that duty on cattle was low. He bought cows, selling at -$10 each in Canada, which he disposed of in Michigan at as much as $40 -each,—his first “good luck.” This gave him some ready money to begin -business. - -Fortunately in disposing of his cattle he made the acquaintance of a Mr. -Saxon, a business man of very high character, recently from New Jersey. -He was, indeed, not only a strict business man, but strictly religious, -and a crank in habits of morality, taking pains to advise young men -against bad habits. By this Mr. Saxon, Cosgrove was interested in taking -work, just being begun on the railway line from Detroit to Chicago, -Illinois, then a landing place on the marshy shores of Lake Michigan. -“Why not take a contract?” asked Mr. Saxon, who had himself the work of -locating a twenty-mile section of the road; and offered all assistance -necessary in making bids, and was willing to guarantee Cosgrove’s -responsibility. By this great service a paying contract was secured of -grading a section of road. The contract was profitable, and the ins and -outs of business were learned—especially the art of how to employ and -work other men profitably,—Mr. Saxon, the ever ready friend, frequently -giving the young immigrant helpful advice. - -Having saved something like $5,000 from his operations, he was next -visited by a coterie of eastern men who were coming west to mend their -fortunes—to go to Chicago, and take a contract of excavating and filling -on the great projected canal from Chicago to the Mississippi—a work only -just completed at this day. It was then begun under state control. He -soon discovered that he was the only capitalist in the number, and in -order to save the job, bought out the main man, a Mr. Smith, who had a -contract of $80,000. This was finished to advantage, although the state -suspended operations. Prices were excellent, some of the rock excavating -being done at fifty to seventy-five cents, and rock filling at $1.25 per -square yard. Further contracts were taken, but in the course of time -prices were forced down. In following up the railway development, a -residence was made at Joliet, where he bought one hundred and sixty -acres of land, on which much of the city now stands. But two things -acted as a motive to make him look elsewhere. One was the malaria of the -Illinois prairie; the other was the report of Oregon. - -A newspaper man by the name of Hudson, of the Joliet _Courier_, who had -come to Oregon, wrote back very favorable accounts of that then -territory, especially praising the equable climate. A number of Joliet -men, among whom were Lot Whitcomb and James McKay, read these articles -with interest, and finally made up their minds to cross the country to -Oregon, a name that was to the old west about what the new world was to -the old. Lot Whitcomb, a man of affairs, who afterwards made himself -famous in Oregon as a steamboat man, thought Oregon would be a great -place for contractors and men able to carry on large undertakings, as he -heard that there were few such there. - -In April, 1847, accordingly, a party of thirteen families were ready to -start. Cosgrove had been trading during the winter, to get suitable -wagons and ox teams. He preferred to make the eventful journey -comfortably and safely, and lack nothing that forethought could provide. -He did not belong to the poorer class, who had to make the trip partly -on faith. Three well made, well built wagons, drawn each by three yoke -of oxen—young oxen—and a band of fifteen cows constituted his outfit. He -had young men as drivers, and his family was comfortably housed under -the big canvas tops. - -He now recalls the journey that followed as one of the pleasantest -incidents of his life. It was a long picnic, the changing scenes of the -journey, the animals of the prairie, the Indians, the traders and -trappers of the mountain country; the progress of the season, which was -exceptionally mild, just about sufficed to keep up the interest, and -formed a sort of mental culture that the world has rarely offered. -Almost all migration has been carried on in circumstances of danger and -distress, but this was, although daring in the extreme, a summer jaunt, -with nothing to vitiate the effect of the great changes in making out -the American type. - -The following particulars of the journey have the interest of being -recalled by a pioneer now in his ninetieth year, showing what sharp -lines the original experiences had drawn on the mind, and also being in -themselves worthy of preservation. However much alike may have been the -journeyings across the plains in general features, in each particular -case, it was different from all others, and no true comprehension of the -whole journey, the movement of civilization across the American -continent, can be gained without all the details; the memory of one -supplying one thing, and that of another supplying another. The -experiences of the Cosgroves were those of the pleasantest kinds, the -better-to-do way of doing it, without danger, sickness, great fatigue, -or worry, and with no distress. - -After making the drive across Iowa and Missouri, in the springtime, when -the grass was starting and growing, the Missouri River was crossed, -waiting almost a week for their turn at Saint Joe, and then they were -west of the Mississippi, with the plains and the Indian country before -them. An “organization” was duly effected. Nothing showed the American -character more distinctly than the impulse to “organize,” whenever two -or three were gathered together. It was the social spirit. There was no -lack of materials, as besides this party of thirteen families, there -were hundreds of others gathering at Saint Joe, the immigration of that -year amounting to almost two thousand persons. A train of one hundred -and fourteen wagons was soon made up, and Lot Whitcomb was elected -captain. Mr. Cosgrove says, “I was elected something. I have forgotten -what it was”—but some duty was assigned to each and all, and the big -train moved. - -Almost immediately upon starting, however, they were met by some -trappers coming out of the mountains, who said, “You will never get -through that way; but break up in small parties of not over fifteen -wagons each.” - -It soon proved as the trappers said. The fondness of organization, and -having officers, is only exceeded among Americans by the fondness of -“going it on one’s own hook;” and this, coupled with the delays of the -train, broke up Lot Whitcomb’s company in two days. In a company, as -large as that, a close organization was next to impossible. A trifling -break down or accident to one hindered all, and the progress of the -whole body was determined by the slowest ox. When Mr. Cosgrove separated -his three fine wagons, and active young oxen, and drove out on the -prairie, Captain Whitcomb said, “that settles it. If Cosgrove won’t stay -by me, there is no use trying to keep the company together.” With -thirteen wagons, and oxen well matched, all went well. - -Indians of many tribes were gathered or camped at Saint Joe, and -followed the train along the now well traveled road. They were polite as -Frenchmen, bowing or tipping their hats, which were worn by some, as -they rode along. They expected some little present, usually, but were -well satisfied with any article that might be given; and the immigrants -expected to pass out a little tobacco or sugar, or some trifle. - -There was but one affair with Indians that had any serious side. This -occurred at Castle Rock, an eminence out on the prairie, some hundreds -of miles from the Mississippi. Here the train was visited, after making -the afternoon encampment, by a party of about forty mounted Pawnees, -clothed only in buffalo robes. They seemed friendly, asking for sugar -and tobacco, as usual. But as they rode off, they disclosed their -purpose—making a sudden swoop, to stampede the cattle and the horses of -the train. The young men of the train, however, instantly ran for the -trail ropes of their horses, and began discharging their pieces at the -Indians, who, perhaps, were more in sport than in earnest, or, at least, -simply “saucing” the immigrants; and wheeled off to the hills, letting -the stock go. - -But this was not all of it, as the Pawnees soon overtook two men of the -train who were out hunting, and, quickly surrounding them, began making -sport, passing jokes, and pointing at the men and laughing to one -another; and ended by commanding the alarmed and mystified hunters to -take off their clothes, article by article, beginning with their boots. -When it came to giving up their shirts, one of the white men hesitated, -but was speedily brought to time by a smart stroke across the shoulders -by the Indian chief’s bow. When the two white men were entirely -disrobed, the Pawnees again made remarks, and then commanded them to run -for camp; but considerately threw their boots after them, saying they -did not want them. Much crestfallen, the two forlorn hunters came out of -the hills, “clipping it as fast as they could go” to the train, which -was already excited, and thought at first that this was a fresh -onslaught of the savages. The men of the train, however, were not very -sorry for the young fellows, as they were notorious boasters, and from -the first had been declaring that they would shoot, first or last, one -Indian a piece before they reached Oregon. - -The animal life, as it gradually was encountered, was a source of great -interest. The gentle and fleet, but curious, antelopes were the first -game. Mr. Cosgrove had two very large and swift greyhounds, which were -able to overtake the antelopes. But the meat of these animals was not -very greatly relished, being rather dry. - -The wolves were the most constant attendants of the train, appearing -daily, and howling nightly. These were the large gray wolves, much like -our forest species; also, a handsome cream-colored animal, and the black -kind, and most curious of all, the variety that was marked with a dark -stripe down the back, crossed by another over the shoulders. Then the -coyotes were innumerable, and yelped at almost every camp fire. Shooting -at the wolves, however, was nothing more than a waste of ammunition, and -these animals were at length disregarded. Even the greyhounds learned to -let them severely alone, for though at first giving chase ferociously, -they soon found a pack of fierce wolves no fun, and were chased back -even more ferociously than they started out. - -The cities of the prairie dogs were interesting places, and the tiny -chirp, a yelp, of the guardian of the door, became a familiar sound. Mr. -Cosgrove recalls shooting one of these, finding it much like a chipmunk, -only of larger size. - -But the great animal of the prairie was the buffalo. The vast herds of -these grand animals impressed the travelers of the plains quite -differently, almost always giving a shock of strange surprise. One -immigrant recalls that his first thought at seeing distant buffaloes, -but few in number, in the sparkling distance, was that they were -rabbits. With Mr. Cosgrove’s party there were indications enough of the -animals. Indeed, the plains were strewn with the buffalo chips, and it -was the regular thing, noon and evening, as they came to camp, for each -man to take his sack and gather enough of them for the camp fire; and -coming to the Platte Valley they found the region strewn with the dead -bodies of the thousands of the animals, which had probably come north -too soon, and were caught in the last blizzard of the winter; but no -live buffaloes were seen. But at length, as the train crested a slope, -and a vast expanse of prairie opened in view, Mr. Cosgrove looked over, -and seeing what seemed brown, shaggy tufts thickly studding the distance -as far as eye could reach, he exclaimed, “We shall have plenty of -firewood now! No need of gathering chips tonight!” He thought the vast -Platte Valley was covered with stunted clumps of brush-wood. One of the -girls was near, however, and after looking, cried out, “See, they are -moving!” Then first he realized it was a herd of buffaloes. Nor were -they simply grazing; they were on the run and bearing down on the train. -The cry of “buffaloes!” was passed back. It was not altogether safe to -be in the path of such an immense herd, and the train was quickly -halted, the wagon pins drawn, and a band of hunters quickly went out on -horseback to meet the host, and also to get buffalo meat. The herd -divided, leaving the train clear and the oxen standing their ground. One -part went off to the hills; the other took the fords of the Platte, -making the water boil as they dashed through. Enough were shot to stock -the train; yet the herd was so vast that at least four hours elapsed -before the last flying columns had galloped by—like the last shags of a -thundercloud. What a picture—thirteen families with their oxen and -wagons, sitting quietly in the midday blaze, while a buffalo troop, -perhaps one hundred thousand strong, or even more, dashed past on either -side. The best method of preparing the buffalo meat was by jerking it, -over a slow fire of sagebrush sticks; the meat being sliced thin, and -dried in the smoke in one night. At a later time, when buffalo had -become as familiar as cattle, however, the train was stopped by one -single monarch. It was just at evening, and the man detailed to go ahead -to find a good camping place was out of sight. A shot was heard, -however, and the startled train was halted, and the king-pins were -drawn, all ready for any emergency; for it might be Indians ahead. - -The picket soon was seen, riding at top speed, and crying as he came, -“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” and just behind him was an enormous buffalo, -charging the whole train. The animal did not stop until within a few -rods, and then only with lowered head, and huge square shoulders. The -difficulty of shooting him without inducing him to make a charge, if not -dropped, was at once apparent. But at length, at a signal, about fifteen -rifle balls were poured into his front; and after a moment he began to -reel from side to side, and then fell over. Even then no one dared to go -and cut the throat, to bleed him; but after a time one cried, “I’ll do -it!” and the deed was done. It required several yoke of oxen to make a -team strong enough to drag him to camp, and his estimated weight was -twenty-two hundred pounds. - -The last buffalo meat was from an animal that had just been killed by a -party of trappers near the divide of the Rocky Mountains. As for deer -and elk, none of these were seen on the plains. Birds of the prairie -were abundant, especially the sage hens, as the more arid regions were -crossed; but the flavor of this fowl was too high for the ordinary -appetite. Rattlesnakes were innumerable, but no one of the train -suffered from these reptiles except a girl. This occurred at -Independence Rock. As the young lady was clambering among the crevices, -she incidentally placed her hand upon a snake, which struck. Large doses -of whiskey, however, soon neutralized the venom. - -After crossing the divide of the Rocky Mountains to the headwaters of -the Snake River, the numberless salmon of the streams become the wild -food in place of the buffalo meat of the plains. At Salmon Falls there -were many Indians of different western tribes taking the fish as they -ascended the rapids. In consequence, the royal Chinook was sold very -cheap; for a brass button one could buy all that he could carry away. -Here occurred a laughable incident. The whole camp was almost stampeded -by one wild Indian. He was a venerable fellow, dressed in a tall old -silk hat, and a vest, and walked pompously as if conscious of his -finery; his clothing, however, being nothing except the hat and vest. At -his approach, the camp was alarmed. The more modest hastily retreated to -their tents; and some of the men, angry that their wives should be -insulted, were for shooting the inconsiderate visitor. A young married -man, whose bride was particularly scandalized, was greatly exasperated. -But the object of the old Indian was merely peaceable barter. He carried -in each hand an immense fish; and Mr. Cosgrove, seeing his inoffensive -purpose, bade the boys be moderate, and going out to meet him, hastily -sawed a button from his coat, with which he purchased the fish, and sent -the old fellow off thoroughly satisfied. - -On the Umatilla, after crossing the Blue Mountains, with all their -wonders of peak and valley, as they were camped beside the river, -the immigrants were visited by Doctor Whitman and his wife, and Mr. -and Mrs. Spaulding. Mr. Cosgrove remembers them all very distinctly. -Doctor Whitman he describes as tall and well proportioned, of easy -bearing, and hair perhaps a little tinged with gray; and very affable. -Mrs. Whitman was remarkably fine looking, and much more noticeable -than Mrs. Spaulding. Mr. Cosgrove has especial reason to remember the -missionaries, because, himself not being well, and this circumstance -being discovered by them, he was the recipient of various little -delicacies, of fruit, etc., not to be had in the train. A trade was -also made between himself and Whitman, of a young cow that had become -foot-sore, and could go no further, for a very good horse. Doctor -Whitman, says Mr. Cosgrove, “was a glorious good man;” and the news of -his massacre by the Indians a few months later, went over Oregon with a -shock like the loss of a personal friend. - -Mr. Spaulding gave notice of a preaching service to be held about six -miles distant from the camp, and some of the immigrants attended. The -coming of the Catholic priests to that region was alluded to in the -sermon, and they were spoken of as intruders. - -At The Dalles there was a division of opinion among the immigrants as to -the best route to follow into the Willamette Valley; whether over the -mountains or down the Columbia by bateaux to Vancouver. However, this -was easily settled for Mr. Cosgrove’s family. Word having reached -Vancouver that there were immigrants arriving, bateaux were sent up and -in readiness. The price asked for the service was moderate, and the -voyage was made quickly and comfortably. The wagons were taken to pieces -and loaded upon the boats, and the teamsters had no difficulty in -driving the oxen by the old trail, swimming them across the Columbia. - -James McKay, a traveling companion, not being able then—though -afterwards a wealthy man—to employ a bateaux; built a raft, which -brought him through safely. Others went over the mountains. - -On arrival at Vancouver, Mr. Cosgrove found a small house, with a big -fireplace, which he rented, and housed his family, feeling as happy as a -king to be under a roof once more. Here he could leave his family safely -while he looked over the country. - -By the time that he reached the Cascades, the early autumn rains were -falling gently, and at Vancouver they were continuing; but they seemed -so light and warm as to cause little discomfort; and the Indians were -noticed going around in it unconcernedly barefooted. - -At one time Mr. Cosgrove was eagerly advised by Daniel Lownsdale to -locate a claim immediately back of his own, on what is now included in a -part of the Portland townsite. But the timber here was so dense, and the -hills so abrupt that he saw no possible chance to make a living there, -and decided to look further. - -Valuable advice was given by Peter Speen Ogden, then governor of the -fort. Mr. Cosgrove was quite for going down the river to Clatsop, so as -to be by the ocean. Mr. Ogden said, however, “It depends on what you are -able to do. If you want to go into the timber, go to Puget Sound; if you -want to farm, go up the Willamette Valley.” - -Mr. Cosgrove decided that as he knew nothing of lumbering, but did know -something of farming, that he had better proceed to the farming country. - -Coming on up the Willamette Valley, he was met everywhere in the most -friendly fashion; especially so by Mr. Hudson, the newspaper man of the -Joliet _Courier_, who constrained him, “right or wrong,” to turn his -cattle into a fine field of young wheat to pasture over night. Hudson -was living a few miles above Oregon City, opposite Rock Island, and was -a flourishing farmer. He went to the California mines, and was very -fortunate, discovering a pocket in the American River bed, in a crease -in the rocks, so rich that he dared not leave it, but worked without -cessation a number of days, ordering his meals brought to him, at an -ounce of gold dust each, and took over $22,000 from his claim. - -Meeting Baptiste Dorio, of Saint Louis, on French Prairie, he proceeded -with him to look up farm lands. At Dorio’s a somewhat laughable incident -occurred. It was, at that early day, the custom for all to carry knife -and fork with them, and these were the only individual articles of table -furniture. The meal, usually beef and potatoes, was placed on an immense -trencher, hewed out of an oak log, and around this all sat, and each -helped himself at his side of the trencher. - -Mr. Cosgrove ate heartily of the fine beef, which, however, he noticed -looked rather white. At the conclusion of the meal Dorio asked suddenly, -“Which do you like best, ox beef or horse beef?” “I do not know that I -could answer that,” said the fresh arrival, “as I have never yet eaten -horse beef?” “Yes, you have,” said the Frenchman imperturbably; “that -was horse beef that you have just eaten,”—a piece of information that -nearly ruined Mr. Cosgrove’s digestion for the rest of the day. - -He found the Canadian farmers ready to dispose of their places, and was -besieged by many who had square mile claims to sell for $100, or less, -each; and with the fertile prairie, its deep sod, tall grass, and -expanse diversified with strips of forest trees, or lordly old groves, -he was very much pleased. Coming to Saint Paul he found entertainment at -the Catholic mission, and by a Mr. Jones, who was employed then as -foreman, he was furnished much valuable information. By the brusqueness -of Father Baldu, in charge of the establishment, he was, however, rather -taken aback. When he was ready to go, and went to the father to tell him -so, with the idea of offering pay for his entertainment, the reverend -gentleman simply remarked, “Well, the road is ready for you.” -Nevertheless, with St. Paul he was well pleased. There was a church and -a school, and a good place to sell his produce. He therefore purchased -the section adjoining the mission, paying $800,—two oxen and two cows, -and included in the bargain was the use of a fairly good house. - -He had some stout sod plows of much better make than those of the -Canadians, and at once, as the winter was open, began to break the -prairie, and sowed forty acres to wheat. His family were comfortably -established, but met rather a severe shock as they went to meeting for -the first time. With feminine interest and delight his wife and -daughters brought out their best dresses and bonnets, as they would at -Chicago or Joliet. Mr. Cosgrove himself selected his best suit for the -occasion—he had three with him, a blue, and a gray frock, and a -swallowtail coat. The swallowtail and a rather high silk hat, and the -other accompaniments of full dress, was the suit that he chose. At the -meeting, however, where the appearance of the strangers caused minute -observation, the men all sitting on one side and the women on the other, -there were no bonnets,—the women wore only a red handkerchief tied over -the head; and the latest style bonnets from the east created not only -admiration, but much suppressed—though not very well suppressed— -merriment in the congregation. - -On returning home Mrs. Cosgrove was very much dispirited, and exclaimed, -“To think that I have brought my family here to raise them in such a -place as this!” However, taking up the difficulty in a truly womanly -way, she soon had the women of the neighborhood making sun-bonnets, and -then instructed them how to weave wheat straw and make chip hats; and in -course of time they even put on bonnets. Not so, however, with Mr. -Cosgrove’s swallowtail coat and silk hat. These were such a mark for -ridicule that he never tried them again, at least in that circle; but -found his blue frock good enough. Indeed, even to this day, swell dress -is much despised among Oregon men. - -However, the placid life of the Oregon farmer was not to be long -continued. The California mines broke out, and Mr. Cosgrove was -constrained to go along with the rest of the settlers. He made two -trips, returning the first time after a month’s mining to spend the -winter. The second time, which was prolonged to a stay of about twenty -months in the mines, he made very successful, but occasion arising to -sell his store in the mines for $15,000, he finally decided to do so, -and taking his dust, went down to San Francisco to look for a ship for -the Columbia. - -While at the bustling town he was induced to invest $15,000 in a stock -of goods, which he brought to Oregon, and set up a store at Saint Paul. -Here he continued in business for a number of years, but says that he -discovered he was not cut out for a merchant, and so in course of time -fell back upon the farm. - -The place upon which he is now living, which is part prairie and part -wood land, of fine quality, is immediately adjoining his original square -mile, which he sold, as under the donation act, but one square mile -could be claimed. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - REMINISCENCES OF WM. M. CASE. - - By H. S. LYMAN. - - -William M. Case, a pioneer of 1844, who is still living on the donation -claim taken by him in 1845 on French Prairie, was born in Wayne County, -Indiana, not far from the Ohio line, in 1820. He is consequently now -eighty years of age, but is still vigorous, of unimpaired memory, firm -voice, and still master of affairs on his large farm of over one -thousand acres. He is six feet tall, of wiry build, and rather nervous -temperament, and very distinctively an American. In mind he is intensely -positive of the most definite views and opinions, and has the peculiarly -American qualities of fondness for concrete affairs. His hair and beard -are now nearly snow white, and worn long; and his face is almost as -venerable as that of the poet Bryant, which it somewhat resembles. - -His life covers almost numberless interesting experiences, but is -perhaps most intimately connected with the part played by the Oregonians -in the California mines. This sketch will be confined more particularly -to the peculiar facts of his life not common to all the pioneers. Mr. -Case is particularly the man who can tell of the effects of the gold -mining and California life upon Oregon and Oregonians, and he can -explain a number of facts, quite apparent in their effects, but seldom -or never given in their causes, of the feeling that has arisen between -Californians and Oregonians. - -It was an interesting incident that first directed his attention to -Oregon. By William Henry Harrison, while serving as delegate to congress -from the then territory of Indiana, public documents were forwarded -freely to his constituents. To William M.’s father, who was an -acquaintance of Harrison’s, there came, among other volumes, a journal -of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Columbia River. Over this the -boy used to pore, even while still young, and out of the crabbed volume, -whose matter (certainly not the literary style) interested the whole -nation, a most vivid picture was constructed of Oregon scenery, with the -big trees, and the mild climate, and grass green all the winter. He made -up his mind to come to Oregon when he was old enough. Before he was -twenty he told his father of his intention, and was met with no -opposition, the father being both considerate and intelligent; but with -his consent, was given this advice: “Don’t go, William, before you are -married; take a wife with you.” This wise and not at all unpleasant -counsel young Case put into execution; hating, like all born men of -action, to keep an idea long which he did not carry out in performance. -By his young wife, who was from New Jersey, he was encouraged, rather -than otherwise, to make the journey. She said, “My father used to dip me -in the surf of the Atlantic on the New Jersey shore, and I would like to -go and dip in the surf of the Pacific Ocean.” - -Proceedings in congress in regard to Oregon were carefully watched by -Mr. Case, especial note being taken of the Linn bill, by whose -provisions there were to be given a square mile of land to each man, -another to his wife, and a quarter section to each child. It was well -understood that the United States government could not give title to -land in Oregon; but this bill was introduced as a promise of what it -would do; and was in reality a test of the American spirit. Would the -American people settle Oregon? If so, the United States would claim the -territory. - -Men like Case were found, who had a broad outlook, who understood the -value of land in the Columbia or Willamette Valley, and who saw that the -United States must front the Pacific as well as the Atlantic. These -ideas were largely formed by the broad spirit of the west, the Ohio and -Mississippi Valley, whose chief representatives were men like Doctor -Linn and Colonel Benton in congress. Such men wished to live their lives -on a more liberal scale than was possible even in the old west. Mr. -Case, like his father, was an old line whig, and later an uncompromising -republican. He says: “The United States Bank helped the country a great -deal. But when, upon the expiration of its charter, the bill to grant a -second charter was vetoed by President Jackson, there followed a crash -such as can never be described. The country never fully recovered from -the depression until the discovery of gold in 1848.” Wages, he says, -were twenty-five cents a day in Indiana, or $6 a month, or $100 a year, -in special cases. Under such circumstances, a young man saw no chance -for accumulating a competence, but in Oregon he might begin with a -better outlook. - -During the year of 1841, when he was married at the age of twenty-one, -Case was making his preparations, and on April 1, 1842, started out for -Platte City, Missouri, which he reached June 10. However, he was too -late to catch the Oregon train, which had left the first of the month. -Going to Northern Missouri, he remained until 1844, but was on time to -catch the first train of that season. The crossing of the Missouri River -was made at a point about ten miles below the present City of Omaha, at -a place now called Bellevue. The train of sixty wagons was organized -under Captain Tharp; and a regular line of march was established, the -train moving in two divisions, on parallel lines, and about a quarter to -half a mile apart, to be in easy supporting distance in case of an -attack by Indians. The whole train was brought together at nighttime, -the wagons being driven in such a way as to form a perfect corral, -inside of which the tents for the night were placed; although frequently -no tents were set, especially after Nebraska was passed, where the -season of 1844 was very late and stormy. With the company of General -Gilliam of that year, traveling with which were R. W. Morrison, John -Minto, W. R. Rees, and other well-known pioneers, the company of Captain -Tharp and Mr. Case had no connection, and were in advance all the way. -John Marshall, however, who went to California in 1846, and discovered -gold in 1848, was a member of the train. - -The three following incidents on the plains may be mentioned as -presenting something new. One was a charge, or stampede, of about one -thousand buffaloes. This occurred in the Platte Valley. As the two -divisions were moving along deliberately, at ox-speed, in the usual -parallel columns, the drivers were startled by a low sound to the north -as of distant thunder. There was no appearance of a storm, however, in -that or any other direction, and the noise grew louder and louder, and -was steady and uninterrupted. It soon became clear that there was a herd -of buffaloes approaching and on the run. Scouring anxiously the line of -hills rimming the edge of the valley, the dark brown outline of the herd -was at length descried, and was distinctly made out with a telescope, as -buffaloes in violent motion and making directly for the train. The front -of the line was perhaps half a mile long and the animals were several -columns deep, and coming like a tornado. They had probably been -stampeded by hunters and would now stop at nothing. The only apparent -chance of safety was to drive ahead and get out of the range of the -herd. The oxen were consequently urged into a run and the train itself -had the appearance of a stampede. Neither were they too quick; for the -flying herds of the buffaloes passed but a few yards to the rear of the -last wagons, and were going at such a rate that to be struck by them -would have been like the shock of rolling boulders of a ton’s weight. -Mr. Case recalls measuring one buffalo that was six feet, two inches, -from hoof to hump, and was over four feet from dewlap across the body. - -Another most important occurrence was near Fort Platte, where a -Frenchman by the name of Bisnette was in command, and in which another -Frenchman, Joe Batonne, was also an important actor; something, perhaps, -that has never been related, but which probably prevented the -destruction of the train. It happened that at Bellevue Mr. Case found -and employed a young Frenchman by the name of Berdreau, and about two -hundred miles out from Omaha he was asked by this Berdreau to take in -another young Frenchman, Joe Batonne, who had started with a Doctor -Townsend of the train, but had fallen out with him and now was seeking -another position. Batonne was therefore traveling with Case. As they -were approaching Fort Platte, however, word was received from the -commandant, Bisnette, to come forward no further; but if they had anyone -in the train who knew the Sioux language to send him. “There is a war -party of Sioux Indians here,” was his information, “and I cannot -understand why they should be here. The place for them at this time of -the year is on the Blackfoot or Crow border, while this is in the very -center of their territory. I fear they mean some mischief to the train.” -Batonne was the only one in the train who understood Sioux. He was -accordingly sent forward, being inconspicuously dressed, along with some -others, all riding their horses. The party reached Fort Platte and -passed freely among the Sioux Indians. These formed an immense host, -being a full party of six men to a tent, and five hundred tents, which, -although crowded together irregularly, still covered a considerable -space. - -Batonne kept his ears open as his party rode here and there, but said -nothing. Finally, as they were passing a certain tent, a young Sioux was -heard to exclaim, “It always makes me itch to see an American horse; I -want to ride it so bad.” A chief answered him in a low voice, “Wait a -few days, until the immigrants come up, and we shall have all their -horses.” This was soon reported by Batonne to Bisnette, who at once sent -word back to the train to wait until he had contrived some plan to send -the Indians off. The plan he hit upon was this—and he told it afterwards -only to Mr. Case and Joe Batonne, under strict promises of secrecy: - -He called all the chiefs together with the message that he had very -important news for them. They accordingly assembled and sat in solemn -council. After the pipe was passed and smoked, the first whiff, as -usual, being directed to the Great Spirit, Bisnette began: - -“I have lived with you now many years and have always dealt honorably.” - -“Yes,” answered the Sioux. - -“I have never told you a lie.” - -“Never,” said the chiefs. - -“And have been as a brother.” - -“You have been our white brother,” they said. - -“Well,” he continued, “I have just heard news that is of utmost -importance to you. The immigrants who come from the sunrise and will -soon be here have been delayed; a man died; they buried him; he had the -smallpox. I advise you, therefore, to leave this place as soon as -possible, and to go to your northern border and not return for over a -month.” - -No news could have been more alarming to the Indians, who understood -only too well what the smallpox was; not many years before infected -blankets having been distributed among them through the agency of white -trappers whom they had been allowed to rob, as a sort of punishment for -having robbed lone trappers heretofore; and by this the whole tribe had -been decimated by the scourge, very many dying, and some even of those -who recovered, but were badly marked, had killed themselves. They had -been told by the trappers that the smallpox pits were the mark of the -devil. “The devil will get you sure now” they told them. As soon as -Bisnette told these Indians that there was smallpox in the train the -chiefs slid out to their tents, and within fifteen minutes the whole -army was on the move, going to the north, and not returning while the -immigrants of that season were passing. - -The other point was the cause of the breaking up of the organization. -After passing the Sioux country, fear of the Indians wore off, and the -necessity of rapid travel became more and more apparent, but among the -one hundred and twenty men of the train—as many at least as two to the -wagon—at least one hundred, says Mr. Case, were “worthless,” or -dangerously near that line. The daily labor of the march was devolved -more and more upon the twenty men or so that felt the necessity of -pushing on. The majority, however, often spent their evenings playing -cards to a late hour, or dancing and fiddling with the young folks -around the fire, and slept the next morning until called for breakfast -by the women. Various ways were devised to equalize these matters; the -women, among other devices, being put up to taking and burning the packs -of cards, unbeknown to the men. But it finally became old—getting up 2 -o’clock of a morning to hunt the cattle, which, in grazing, always -attempted to go ahead of one another, and thus sometimes were spread out -for several miles on the prairie. Doing this again and again, for men -who would not take their turn, but were sleeping at the camp, was -finally too much to be borne. Case and some others, accordingly made -ready, and one morning struck out with their wagons, and before night -the whole train was resolved into two sections; the jolly boys who -danced and fiddled being left behind. - -Arriving in Oregon, Mr. Case first stopped at Linnton, but soon went -over to Tualatin Plains, and settled first near Mr. Hill’s place, now -Hillsboro. In 1845, he recalls that he was employed in building the -first frame barn in Oregon (W. M. C.), on the Wilkins place; and he here -made the acquaintance of the old mountain men, Wilkins, Ebberts, Newell, -Meek, and Walker. He was not well satisfied, however, with the locality. -It was a long way over the hills and through the deep woods to the -Willamette River at Linnton, or at Oregon City—Portland then being a -mere camping station on the Willamette. Case wished to locate on the -river, and accordingly, in 1846, moved to French Prairie, and acquired, -partly by donation claim, and afterwards by purchase, two sections of -land, being about one-half prairie, and the other half timber. It was -three miles from Champoeg, where Newell acquired the Donald Manson -place, and became town proprietor. Here he has remained, engaged in -farming, saw milling, and running a tile factory, performing his duties -as a citizen, being known during the war period as an unyielding union -man, and occupying the responsible place during that time and later of -County Judge of Marion County. He has had a family of thirteen children, -eight of whom are now living. He has twenty-three grand-children. His -life has been one of intense activity, and he has performed almost no -end of hard physical work, and has borne heavy responsibilities. - -He says, however, that the most intense and thrilling experiences of his -life were during the season that he spent in California, and going to -and returning from the mines. This was 1849. It is worthy of the most -careful record, being remembered to the most minute details by Mr. Case, -and affording a chapter in human experience seldom equalled. It also -shows the moulding influences brought to bear upon Oregon men, who -showed themselves as perhaps of the firmest fibre to be found on the -Pacific slope in 1849; which is saying a great deal. It deserves to be -told in the language of Mr. Case himself, and perhaps it will be. But -for some reasons it will be proper to give these recollections in a -somewhat condensed form, as in their entirety, as told by himself, they -would compose a volume. Indeed, in his rapid and energetic conversation, -with which only the most experienced stenographer could keep pace, it -required him four hours to tell the whole thing—even omitting many of -the details that he remembers. However, it is only an idle thought or -wish to imagine that what men were years in living in the fastest period -of Pacific Coast history, can ever be told in full or the life itself be -reproduced. There are distinct parts to his narrative. The Voyage; the -Oregon Miner’s Vengeance; and The Return Overland. - - - THE VOYAGE. - -News of the discovery of gold in 1848 was first brought to Oregon by an -Oregonian by the name of Barnard. Marshall was building a mill, as is -well known, for Sutter, on the American River, and after allowing the -water to run through the tail ditch to sluice it out, examined the bed, -as the water was again shut off, and found at the bottom of the ditch -many little yellow rocks, which were highly polished and very heavy. Not -being acquainted with gold, which he had an idea occurred in native form -only as dust, not as nuggets, he tried pounding out one of the little -yellow rocks—which instead of crumbling under the hammer, was flattened -finally to the size of a saucer, and of course was made very thin. Even -then, however, the true nature of the rock was not suspected; and it was -not known that it was gold until Marshall had word from the United -States’ Assay Office at San Francisco to which he had sent a small -collection of nuggets to the value, however, of $1,000. - -By this news, Barnard, the Oregonian, was incited to return home and -tell his neighbors. But at San Francisco he was detained two months, -being positively refused passage on the ships for the Columbia. He -believed that he was purposely hindered by parties who wished to go to -Oregon and buy up all the provisions, tools, etc., to be had here, at -low prices, and to sell them at San Francisco at a great advance. -Finally he got a ship, and reaching Oregon late in August, the news was -published, and the Oregonians, many of them just returning from the -Cayuse war, formed a company, and that season broke and completed the -first wagon road to California, taking the high table-land route by way -of Klamath Lake, Lost Lake, the lava beds, and across the Pitt River -Valley far to the eastward of Mount Shasta—or Shasta Butte, as called by -the old pioneers. Mr. Case was not ready to go with the overland party, -but found passage on the bark Anita, which sailed from the Columbia the -middle of February. There was a large crowd of men on board, considering -the size of the ship, being sixty-six in number, and the quarters were -very narrow, 12 × 20 feet, and the ceiling being only 5 feet high, with -two tiers of berths arranged around the sides of the apartment. The -voyage, moreover, was long and tedious. As the crossing of the Columbia -bar was made, with a stiff wind, Mr. Case was reminded by the breakers -as they ran and tossed and finally broke upon the rocks of Cape -Disappointment, of the herds of buffaloes that thundered over the -plains—the movement of the waves seeming about equally swift and -tumultuous. But the wind soon stiffened to a gale, the bark put to sea, -and land was lost to sight; and the storm did not at last abate until -they were far off the coast to the west of Vancouver Island. Then, -however, with a west or north wind, that was bitterly cold, the voyage -was made down to the latitude of San Francisco, but in constant storms -of snow, frequently sufficient to leave as much as a foot of the article -on deck over one night. When at last the clouds dispersed and a fair -west wind blew, and the skies were again clear, the entire sweep of the -horizon appeared as one world of water, except that far to the -northeast, the very tip of Shasta, white and glittering, just jutted out -of the sea. It was then seventeen hours sailing before the shore -appeared in sight. Then the Golden Gate was reached and passed, and the -voyage was over. It occupied a month. Sailing to Sacramento and -proceeding thence to Coloma, Mr. Case, being a mechanic, found -employment at such good prices as to detain him from the mines. But the -season proved to be one of excitement during which even bloodshed -occurred; and Mr. Case was forced to play an important part in the -program. - - - THE COLUMBIA RIVER MEN’S VENGEANCE. - -Very soon after reaching Coloma, Mr. Case found that the community was -in a broil. No open troubles had yet occurred, but there were causes of -exasperation which were working rapidly to a climax. It was due -primarily to a difference in system and ideas between the various -elements of the people then in California. It was in fact a part of the -final clash between the old Spanish system and the American; the -beneficiaries of the Spanish system, or Grandees, being on one side, and -on the other the Oregonians, representing the American idea. It was -proved in the event that men who could establish an independent -government in Oregon, and were able to compel the obedience of the -Cayuse Indians, were able also to make in California a deep impression -for their idea of liberty. The disturbed, or rather the entirely -unorganized condition of government in California, made possible the -following course of events. The military government of this territory, -just taken from Mexico, had not given place to a civil organization, and -it was not thoroughly known what authorities were in power. Sutter had -received a large grant of land, and with this was coupled certain power -to enforce justice among the Indians, and he was recognized as a sort of -justice of the peace; but this was of very limited extent, and there was -no central authority in the whole state, unless military. - -California was occupied originally by men who had received great land -grants, some of which were as much as six leagues square. These men were -at first Spanish-Americans, who were thus rewarded for government -services. They formed a sort of nobility or aristocracy, and held their -places like the baronies or counties of the old world, and their -possessions were frequently of the dimensions of a county. Their ranches -were on an average about twenty-five miles apart, and the ranges between -were stocked with great bands of cattle. The Indians, a mild and -inoffensive people, were employed as laborers and cattle drivers by the -Spanish-Americans, and a genuine European feudal system was in force. -The first Americans (or Germans, or English) who went to California -acquired some of these ranches, and continued the Mexican system. Only -they employed it with characteristic American energy, and pushed it to a -much greater extreme. With the discovery of gold and the opening of the -mines, a prospect of vast profits appeared to the early Californians, -who were English, or American, or German; and their first intention was -to work the mines in the same manner that they worked their ranches—by -the labor of the native Indian, or by importation of Mexican debtors, -who could be procured very cheap. It was still the law in Mexico to put -debtors in prison on the complaint of their creditors, and they could be -held until the debt was paid, and the debtor himself failing in this, -his son could be held. Many of these debtors were imprisoned for but -trifling sums, and upon settlement with the creditors, could be -practically bought by other parties almost like slaves, the purchase of -the debt giving the right to hold the debtor. Hundreds of Mexicans were -thus procured and sent to the mines, at a cost in some cases of but a -few dollars to the purchasers, and contracted to work for some trifling -sum, often not over twenty-five cents a day, in washing gold. Contract -labor from Chili (W. M. C.) was also obtained, and it was estimated that -by the midsummer of 1849 as many as five thousand such laborers were at -work on the California placers. - -But the original traders were making even more profit by trade with the -contract laborers, or with the Indians who were employed to wash gold, -the Indian women doing such work along with the men. When they had a -little dust their natural fondness for finery was stimulated, and cheap -and gaudy articles, such as shawls and shirts, were sold for dust. But -the dust that was brought by the Indians was balanced by the shrewd -trader with a weight which was the Mexican silver dollar, weighing just -an ounce, with whose value the Indians were well acquainted. By this -method of reckoning, the gold was valued the same as the silver. A -shirt, for instance, which was marked to begin with at the regular price -of $3, was bought with a balance of three silver dollars in gold dust, -making $48 in actual value. Indeed the amount of dust obtained of the -Indians for some of the articles was truly “fabulous.” Mr. Case recalls -that a certain shawl of unusually magnificent pattern and blinding -colors, which cost the trader but $1.50, was bought by an Indian chief -for his favorite daughter for $1,500 worth of dust. - -Into this flourishing condition of things the Oregonians, or Columbia -River men, as they were called, entered in 1849. The most of them went -into the mines, but there were some who quickly saw that there was more -profit in trading with the Indians than in digging the gold. -Consequently they began setting up stores, and bought and sold goods. -Competition thus began. The price of a shirt, a standard article, was -forced down to $2, that is, to two ounces of dust; and then to one -ounce, and even lower. By this operation the old traders, such as Weimer -and Besters, of Coloma, and Marshall, and even Sutter, were offended, as -it soon became apparent to those who were intending to operate the mines -on the medieval Spanish system, and by the employment of Indians and -contract labor, that their whole system of trade and business was in -danger of collapsing. Mr. Case is confident that the Indians were then -incited against the Columbia River men, that they were told that the -people from Oregon were intruders and had no business there, and were -taking gold that belonged to themselves. At all events, mysterious -murders began to take place in the mountains and along the mining -streams. This was not greatly noticed at first, but as one after another -fell and it began to be asked who was killed, it became plain that in -every case the victim was a Columbia River man. The authorities, such as -they were, gave the subject no attention. Sutter himself, acting as a -justice of the district under his old concession, showed no concern; and -the Californians, among whom were such traders as Weimer and Besters, -Winters, Marshall and others, when asked for their explanation, replied -that these murders were evidently committed by the Oregonians -themselves; they were old trappers and mountain men of the most -desperate character, and they were undoubtedly murdering and robbing one -another. This the Oregonians knew to be false, and that it should be -said created a presumption in their minds that the California traders -were inciting the Indians to cut off the Columbia River men. This -suspicion led them to talk quietly to one another and to consider what -should be done. Finally a little band of about thirteen in number was -organized quite secretly, and of this Mr. Case, as one of the most -intelligent, was chosen virtual leader. In this band of Oregonians was -Fleming Hill (usually called Flem), and Greenwood, a half-breed Crow -Indian. - -Affairs were brought to a crisis at last by the murder of six -Oregonians, all on one bar. The first that Case heard of the affair was -at the house of Besters, where he was boarding while he was working upon -a building. Besters, coming in late to supper, was in great glee, saying -that he had taken in $2,500 that afternoon from the Indians. The news of -the murder of the six Columbia River men was soon abroad, and it seemed -impossible but that the murderers were the Indians who had brought the -dust. This was the conclusion at which the Oregonians arrived, but they -would not proceed until full evidence had been procured. Meeting Hill, -as if casually, on the streets of Coloma, Case told him to take the -thirteen men and find and follow the trail of the murderers, whom he -felt certain were the Indians of the tribe in the vicinity, belonging to -that very valley, and not a distant tribe from the mountains. A -circumstance favoring such a conclusion was the fact that the tribe in -the valley numbered over a hundred; but those who had come in to trade -at Weimer and Bester’s store were only about twenty-five. The rest of -the tribe, it was apparent to those acquainted with the Indians, had -struck off in a body to make a trail to the mountains, to lead off -suspicion, and would return, singly or in small groups, to their homes. - -Case himself continued working as usual at Coloma, as it was very -necessary that some one be at that point to watch the progress of -affairs. He soon discovered, however, that there was a spy on him, an -Indian employed at the sawmill of a Californian, Mr. Winters. - -At the end of several days Hill appeared again in town. Seeing him while -he was working upon the roof, Mr. Case contrived to meet him as soon as -possible, and inquired what had been discovered. Hill replied, “We found -various tracks from the pit where the six miners who had been killed and -stripped were buried. These, taking across the river, then made one -plain, broad trail out to the mountains. We followed this for two days, -when it suddenly disappeared, scattering in all directions, and could be -followed no longer.” “Then they are not mountain Indians,” said Case; -“they belong right here in this valley.” - -This brought the Oregonians decisively to what was to be done; whether -to tell their discoveries to the Californians, or Sutter, or to take -vengeance into their own hands. The former course seemed entirely -useless, as they felt sure that the Californians knew enough of the -affair already, and had decided to let the Oregonians take care of -themselves. Confirmation of the guilt of the Indians, if any were -needed, was found in the report of an American who kept a horse ranch at -some distance from town. He had, shortly before, seen a large number of -Indians coming down the mountain side on foot, and dispersed in separate -groups, and not in single file, as he had always observed them before. -They were evidently that part of the band who had led a trail off to the -mountains, returning home. The Oregonians concluded, therefore, that the -only way to put an end to the murders was to proceed precisely as they -would out on the plains; that is, make war on the Indians irrespective -of the California authorities and wipe out the tribe, if that was -necessary. This was accordingly done. The tribe was found and surprised -by the band of thirteen armed Oregonians. Twenty-six of the Indians were -killed on the instant. No women were shot, however, though they fought -the same as the men. They and six men surrendered. Greenwood shouted as -the blow was struck, “Now, this is what you get for killing Columbia -River men.” - -After the surrender, the Indian women began weeping and wailing in a -manner truly heart-rending over the bodies of their dead husbands and -fathers; but they acknowledged that the punishment was just, as they had -killed the Columbia River men. But they pleaded that they were told to -do it, which, if true, cannot but create a feeling of sympathy for them, -the unfortunate dupes. After the slaughter and surrender, Hill mounted -his horse and rode to Coloma, and the six Indian men were hurried after -under a guard, and the women and children were driven after these by the -rest of the thirteen Oregonians. It was 4 o’clock when Hill arrived. The -six Indians were but a short distance behind, and hardly had been placed -in prison, together with the Indian spy, at Winter’s mill, who was owned -as a leading partner in the crime, when the remnant of the tribe, on the -run, with the Oregonians galloping behind them, came into town. It was a -burning day, the mercury standing at 106° in the shade, but the distance -from the scene of the slaughter, forty miles, had been covered since 11 -o’clock that forenoon. The town was excited beyond measure. Men and boys -to the number of hundreds gathered in a circle about the Oregonians, who -drove the tribe to the shelter of a spreading pine tree, in whose shade -they lay stretched on the ground. There was great complaint and deep -mutterings on the part of the Californians, who said, “See what you have -done! We can stay here no longer. There are eighty thousand Indians in -California, and now they will drive every white man from the mines.” So -great indeed was the terror, that many new arrivals just up the river -from San Francisco, coming to the mines from the east, turned around -immediately and left. Others were scarcely dissuaded by the Oregonians -themselves, or those who took their part, who declared that the trouble -was now ended, if all stood together. However, it required great -firmness on the part of the Columbia River men. Sutter, to whom word was -sent asking if he would try the seven Indians in prison, replied that he -had better not, as he could do nothing but release the men who had been -captured by the murderers from Oregon. With this message from the civil -authority, such as it was, the Oregonians proceeded to try the Indians -themselves, disregarding Sutter entirely. But just as the Indians were -being taken from prison, and were in the midst of a thick crowd of -spectators, the one known as the spy made a sudden shout, and all the -seven dropped on the instant to the ground and began wriggling on all -fours between the legs of the astonished bystanders; the Oregon guard -instantly attempted to shoot them—which created a scene of strange and -almost ludicrous excitement. Two were shot at once; two were shot after -they left the crowd; the other two reached the river and began swimming -away, and one of these was shot as he rose on the opposite side of the -stream. What became of the seventh was not known. - -The women and children were of course released, but with the warning -that no Indian should again work on the bars. But this did not end the -trouble. Another Oregonian was killed. The Oregonians again took the -warpath, with the intention of killing all the savages they saw. One was -soon found and dispatched. Eleven were next found and pursued to the -cabin of an English rancher named Goff, who at first made no response to -their summons at his door. But as the boys began picking the mud -chinking out of the logs, and threatened to fire into the room, he -opened the house and delivered the Indians, who were then immediately -hanged. The tribe was then traced, and although taking refuge in the -tules of a swamp of a marshy lake, were attacked by the guards on -horseback, and all the men, and one woman, who was fighting with the -men, were killed—making in all seventy-six of the tribe that fell, the -Oregonians having lost by secret murder thirty-three. The women and -children were again brought back by the Oregonians to Coloma, and were -furnished by them with provisions and pans, and were allowed to wash -gold and support themselves. But they secretly took their leave, and -were found at length in a distant canyon of the high mountains, at the -limit of snow, nearly starved, but subsisting on pine nuts and the roots -of wild clover, gathered by a few old men in a lower valley. It was a -man named Smith who traced them, as among the tribe were his Indian wife -and child. They were again induced to return to Coloma, and now in a -pitiable condition, Californians injudiciously sent them a large supply -of beef and flour—a sort of food to which they were unaccustomed, and of -which they ate so greedily as to induce a virulent disease, of which -fifty-two died, practically exterminating the tribe. - -This was Rocky Mountain men’s justice that was thus dealt out in the -California mines, and of the same piece as that of the Cayuse war, or -that of the general Indian war of 1855-56. - -It was rough and terrible, and the Indians were the victims; but the old -California system was the real cause. The attempt was made to work the -mines upon a system of inequality—of proprietors and peons. The -Oregonians, accustomed to a system of equality, finding themselves -exposed to outlawry, and not protected from the poor savagery of the -Indians, struck as they could. It is to be remembered, too, that the -secret murder of thirty-two men, without any attempt at meting out -justice, was an enormity that no community should brook. But that it was -not mere personal vengeance, but the purpose to establish the system of -free labor, and to root out the contract system, or rather the peon -system, was shown by the following: - -At length Case decided to go up into the mines when affairs were at last -settled, and the men were working without trouble or danger; he had -fallen in with a certain Major Whiting, an American by birth, who had, -however, been living in Mexico, and had even served in the Mexican army -against the United States. This Mexican officer was now bringing up from -that region a long mule train of provisions and a company of peons whom -he had taken from prison at a cost to himself on the average of but $2 -each, and had contracted with them to work for him at eighteen cents a -day. Case reached the mines before him. When Whiting arrived he called -upon Case first of all to ask what was the intention of the Oregon -miners about allowing his debtors to work upon the bars. Case replied, -“I speak only for myself; but I am opposed to it.” Whiting then asked -him to call a meeting to determine the opinion of the miners. Case -complied. Mr. Finley of Oregon City happened to be chosen chairman of -this meeting, and a young man named——, secretary. The call had been made -most literally by Case’s getting up upon a high rock and shouting so as -to be heard all over the canyon, and then those that came first raised -such a cry that it could be heard for a distance of two miles up and -down, and a pistol was also fired. At such a summons, of course, the -miners came to the camp in great numbers, and upon the object of the -meeting being announced, resolutions were passed unanimously to allow no -working of the mines except by those who were American citizens and -intended to remain in the United States; thus forbidding those who were -not citizens or who came simply to work and then return to foreign -homes. In the face of this decision, Whiting, of course, was obliged to -leave, having no inclination to meet the Oregon riflemen; and took his -Mexican debtors along with him. When Case came to inform him of the -action of the meeting he showed the utmost coldness, refusing to speak -except to say that he knew their action already, having been present. -This resolution of the miners, backed by their reputation acquired as -dead-shots and no let-up, not only decided Major Whiting to leave, but -those very same resolutions forwarded to the military governor, Smith, -were issued by him as a proclamation. He believed that this was the only -way to restore and maintain order in the mines, the will of the mountain -men not being safely disregarded. A national spirit and a certain -primary justice also required that American mines and privileges for -which many millions of dollars had been paid to Mexico should be -preserved to American citizens and worked for the benefit of this -country, and not be turned over to the speculators and contractors of -the whole world. - -By this proclamation the Mexican and Chelano peons were required to -return to their own country. The system of equality which the Oregonians -rudely, but rightly represented, was established. Thousands of miners in -California who never heard of this little contest which was worked out -principally by a few rugged young mountain men from Oregon, began to -enjoy thenceforth the free and equal opportunity of the California -mines, and California thus became Americanized, and in the end a great -free state. The influence of Oregon, therefore, cannot be disregarded— -although the actions of the Oregon men at the time created intense -feeling against themselves, and Mr. Case considers this the source of -the still persistent dislike of Oregon shown by Californians; which has -hardened into a sort of tradition. - - - RETURN HOME. - -The journey overland from the Sacramento up to the Willamette was, in -1849, one long adventure; and, on three hundred miles of the distance, -that of no peaceful kind. Case had had enough of sea voyaging in going -to California, and when, in the early fall, he counted over his -earnings, amounting to about $2,800, he said that he would go home by -land. The Indians of Northern California and Southern Oregon were -hostile, being declared enemies to the whites. The Oregon men had, -during the previous autumn, built a road through, making a long detour -from the Rogue River Valley to the borders of Klamath Lake by the old -Applegate route, and thence by Lost River and Lake, the Lava Beds, and -the long plateau east of Mount Shasta, to Pitt River, and then two -hundred miles across the chain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the -Sacramento. The Indians of this region had ever been of the wildest and -most warlike character, regarding white men as natural enemies. The -famous Modocs were a remnant of one of these tribes. The large party of -the Oregonians who had passed through the previous year had, to quite an -extent, overawed the natives, especially in the Pitt River Valley. The -party of Case consisted of only eight men, himself being chosen captain, -and they carried some $28,000 worth of dust. - -Over the mountains, from the Sacramento to the Pitt River Valley, a -distance of some two hundred miles, and through the Pitt River Valley, -they proceeded in a leisurely manner, allowing their horses to graze at -will upon the wild pea vines that grew luxuriously, and thus kept them -thriving. A large number of travelers were met on the way, going to the -mines, among whom was a party of strict Presbyterians from Springfield, -Illinois, who always rested on the Sabbaths. It was almost universally -taken by new travelers of that road that the Pitt River Valley was the -main Sacramento, and they were loth to strike over the mountains as the -way required. - -Later upon the journey, Major Warner was fallen in with, having a party -of one hundred soldiers, mostly Irishmen. With this officer pleasant -conversations were held. He expressed his surprise that Case should try -to go through the Indian country with but eight men, while he felt -unsafe with his one hundred. But Case replied that his party was the -best. They all knew the Indians were like snapping dogs, that would snap -and run, while Warner’s men knew nothing of Indians. The event proved -only too truly Case’s estimate. Warner with his one hundred men were -subsequently attacked and all were destroyed (W. M. C.). Warner also had -imbibed the California idea of Oregon. He once remarked to Case, “I -understand that Oregon can never be an agricultural section.” “Why?” -asked Case. “The valleys are too narrow. I am told that there are few -over a thousand yards wide—that gives no room for ranches.” “The -Willamette Valley,” said Case, “where I live is forty miles across, not -counting the foothills. That gives room for ranches.” - -Emerging finally out of the Pitt River Valley and entering upon the -great plateau east of Shasta Butte, Case’s little party traveled so near -the snow of the mountain region, and it was now late September, that the -snow-banks seemed no higher above them than the tops of the trees. They -were coming to the Modoc country, and the lava beds. These last were a -great curiosity; the natural forts made by boiling and finally subsiding -little craters of not over an acre in area, and looking so much like -fortifications that many took them for the work of Indians, especially -attracted attention. Here began the forced marches. For three nights and -four days Case slept not a wink, and the distance covered during that -time was about three hundred miles. Skirting the marshy shores of Lost -Lake, where Lost River disappears, and the water is so stained with -ochre as to be a deep red; and finally crossing the natural bridge, or -causeway, and coming to the Klamath Basin; and crossing the Klamath -River where there is a series of three low falls of about two feet -high each, over some flat tabular rock formations—they finally reached -the dangerous Indian country of the Rogue River. Here occurred one -of the strangest Indian fights. Mr. Case’s party was not concerned -in this, but was a few hours behind; yet enjoyed the results of the -victory. The road at a certain point skirted along a bluff where there -were many crevices and natural hiding places, and below the road ran -the river. The wagon-way here was only just about wide enough for one -vehicle to pass. This was a natural place for the Indians to ambush a -passing party, and Case and his comrades would no doubt have suffered -and probably have been cut off entirely, if it had not been that just -before they reached this place, two other parties were passing, one -on the way to California and the other but a few hours ahead of Case -going to Oregon. The Oregon party was that of Robert Newell, consisting -of thirty men, for California. As he came to this dangerous point, -about four or five o’clock in the afternoon, Newell discovered that -there were Indians in the crevices of the rock ready to attack him. -With the capacity of a general, he divided his force so as to command -the situation. Five of his men he sent forward so as to attract the -Indians’ attention along the road and to draw their fire, but still to -keep out of reach. A reserve of seven he stationed under cover; and in -the meantime he detailed the eighteen others to pass under the shelter -of the wild plum bushes that skirted the river and faced the bluff, -and under this shelter to creep up into the very midst of the Indians, -select their men and shoot them down instantly—which would surprise and -stampede the savages, and is the true way, so says Mr. Case, to fight -the Indians. - -This manouvre was executed with perfect success. The eighteen men that -crept up through the brush succeeded in falling upon the Indians in the -rocks, and were shooting them down before their presence was discovered; -and the Indians, surprised and confused, seeing white men in front and -in their midst, rushed out of their hiding places and began retreating -along the face of the bluff. But just at this time the party from -California, under Weston and Howard, arrived from the other direction, -and hearing the firing, hurried forward, and seeing the Indians pouring -out of the rocks, began discharging their rifles upon them. By this the -savages were entirely demoralized. The only space left was the river -itself, and into its tumultuous current they began to precipitate -themselves, the miners still firing upon them as they struggled in the -water, until the river ran red. The slaughter must have been very great. -Yet of all this, though but a few miles away, Case knew nothing. He -placed his camp for the night in a sink, so that any Indians creeping up -must be seen, and kept guard himself, with his ear to the ground, so as -to hear any stealthy steps approaching. He saw or heard nothing. -Nevertheless, the next morning, when one of his men went to the river -for water, he reported upon his return that there were the footprints of -as many as five hundred Indians upon the sand bar of the river, where -the night before there were none to be seen. This, Case found to be -about so, and with hands on the trigger, and hearts ready for anything, -the little company started out, expecting an ambuscade at any moment. -Case’s advice to his men was, “If we are attacked, keep close together. -If you divide up, we are lost.” But they had not gone far before they -heard a shot, and soon were greeted by the advance of Newell’s men; and -the next moment were met by Newell himself, who told them of the fight, -and that the country was full of hostile Indians; but Weston and Howard -were not far ahead, and the best thing for them was to shove forward and -overtake them. Accordingly, Case shoved forward, passing hour after hour -in the depths of the canyons, and hearing almost continually the Indians -calling to one another from the mountains—now on this side and now on -that. But still they were not attacked. They were often upon the trail -of the white men, but they, too, were shoving ahead, and not until the -Rogue River Valley was passed and the Umpqua reached, was Weston’s party -overtaken. The junction was made early in the morning. The night before, -Mr. Case, although for the third night without sleep, kept guard, and at -about 2 o’clock A. M. heard a dog baying not over a quarter of a mile -away. He knew this indicated the white men’s camp, and in fact -recognized the dog. Very cautiously approaching the camp, for fear of -being mistaken for Indians, and being fired upon, the little party -advanced and were recognized. Then the peril was over. The rest of the -journey was made more deliberately, but though now relieved of guard -duty, Mr. Case felt sleepless, and scarcely rested until some days had -passed. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -THE NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE NATIVE RACE IN OREGON WHEN FIRST SEEN BY - WHITE MEN. - - -The first estimates we have of the number of the native race in the -valley of the Columbia were by Lewis and Clark, who gained their -information while exploring the river from its sources in the Rocky -Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Based upon information derived from the -natives, their estimate was forty thousand. This was in 1805-6. - -Forty years later, Rev. C. G. Nicolay, of King’s College, Oxford, and -member of the Royal Geographical Society of London, writing in support -of England’s right to the country created by the assumed moral benefits -to the natives effected by the trade influences of the Hudson’s Bay -Company—and, doubtless, with all the information that company could -furnish—estimated the number at thirty thousand, including all the -country from the California line north to 54° 40′. Noting that the -second estimate is for the wider bounds, and yet twenty-five per cent. -less, the numbers seem strongly to indicate that the native race was -rapidly decreasing between the dates mentioned. - -In looking for the causes of this decrease of population of the native -race, we find at the outset diseases common to, but not very destructive -to civilized life, are, nevertheless, terrible in their effects on -people living so near the plane of mere animal life as were the natives -of Oregon—especially those of them in the largest valleys, and near the -sea,—when first seen by white men. The first American explorers received -information from the Clatsop tribe of Indians during their stay near -them in the winter of 1805-6, that some time previous to that a malady -had been brought to them from the sea, which caused the death of many of -their people. As they reached the Lower Willamette Valley, on their -return eastward, they found living evidence that the malady had been -smallpox, and the remains of capacious houses within the district—now -covered, or being rapidly covered, by the white race,—which indicated -that the disease had swept out of existence, or caused to flee the -locality, large numbers of the natives. A woman was seen by Captain -Clark in the company of an old man, presumably her father, sole -occupants of a building two hundred and twenty-five feet long and thirty -feet wide, under one roof, and divided by narrow alleys or partitions -into rooms thirty feet square. Other buildings, empty or in ruins, were -found near this. This woman was badly marked with smallpox; and from her -apparent age, and information the old man endeavored to convey, this -disease had killed many people and frightened others away about thirty -years previously. - -Information received from natives by signs cannot be deemed reliable; -but no writing can be plainer than the human face marked by smallpox. We -have, then, from the journal of Lewis and Clark, traditional information -from the Clatsop natives, and in the appearance of this woman—presumably -of the Multnomah tribe—evidence of the presence of smallpox one hundred -miles in the interior; and fifty years later we have from the Yakima -chieftain, Kamiakin, at the Walla Walla council held by Gov. I. I. -Stevens, intimations that the suffering of his people from smallpox in -former times was one reason for his objection to whites’ settling in his -country. - -Whatever truth there may be in these earlier traditions of the natives, -the rapid decrease of the tribes on the Lower Columbia and in the -Willamette Valley, between 1805 and 1845, and the decaying condition of -those found here at the latter date, are facts which cannot be called in -question. Those writers who are predisposed to blame the white man for -all the results of the commercial and social contact between the races -will see only the fearful and repulsive effects upon the ignorant -native—supposed to be innocent—of drunkenness and debauchery, which the -white man’s avaricious trade and licentiousness ministered to. While, -beyond question, these were destructive agencies, they, in my judgment, -never were but a small moiety of the cause of the general decay of the -race west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges, from Alaska to Lower -California. As to the licentious intercourse between the sexes, the -natives were ready and sought opportunity to participate in the -destructive commerce. And their customs, which were their only laws, -left womanhood—especially widowhood—an outcast, where she was not held -as a slave. It was a fact well known to pioneers yet living that a woman -of bright, kindly disposition, of natural intelligence, which made her a -natural leader of her sex, who was in 1840 the honored wife of the chief -of one of the strongest coast tribes, and as such styled a queen by some -writers, was in 1845 a leader and guide of native prostitutes, who -watched and followed ships entering the Columbia from the time they -crossed the bar in until they crossed out. And between opportunities of -this kind, she went from camp to camp of white settlers on the Lower -Columbia, thus seeking trade without the least sign of shame. The -customs and usages of the race, for which the leading men were -responsible, debar us of any just right to hold native womanhood -responsible for a social system which deemed a female child the best -trading property—valued high or low according to the status of the male -portion of her family. The husband bought his wife, and might, where she -did not suit, send her back to her people and claim a return of the -property given for her, ostensibly as presents.[1] This, if her family -had any pride or courage, would probably lead to trouble. A native -husband could dispose of an unsatisfactory wife. He could kill her by -personal ill-usage,[2] or keep her to labor for means to purchase and -support another wife, or as many more as his means and desires induced -him to buy.[3] - -The general relations between the husband and wife among the native -races in Western Oregon were that the husband should kill the game or -catch the fish, as the subsistence was from game or fish. The dressing -of skins for clothing, the weaving of rush mats for camp covers or for -beds, the preparation of cedar bark for clothing, nets and ropes, and -the digging of roots, gathering of berries, etc., were all left to the -wife and the slaves at her command, if there were any. The husband and -wife seemed to have separate property rights as to themselves, and on -the death of either the most valuable of it, and often all of it, was -sacrificed to the manes of the dead. Sometimes living slaves were bound -and placed near the dead body of a person of importance in the tribe.[4] - -Under this custom, when a leading man like Chenamus, Chief of the -Chinooks, died, the body was carefully swathed in cedar bark wrappings; -his war canoe or barge of state was used as his coffin, and his second -best canoe, if he had two, was inverted and placed over the body as a -defense against the weather or wild beasts; a small hole was made in the -lower canoe and it was placed in a slanting position to facilitate -complete drainage. No money reward would induce an Indian of the Lower -Columbia to enter and labor in a canoe that had been thus used for the -dead. Thus the best and generally all the property worth notice was -rendered useless to the living. The wife in such a case might be owner -of slaves in her own right, or of a _business canoe_, and in some cases -of a small canoe used on the Lower Columbia root gathering, or by the -husband or sons in hunting water fowl. Such a wife becoming a widow— -supposing her dead husband a chief, succeeded by a son by another of his -wives, or by a brother, unfriendly and jealous of her influence,—would -not be a totally helpless outcast. She would have the means of gathering -her own subsistence. This, however, was above the common lot of native -widows. The same custom of destroying the property of the dead prevailed -amongst natives of the Willamette Valley when the American home builders -first came; and it was a common sight to come upon a recently made grave -and scare the buzzards or coyotes from feasting on carcasses of horses -slain to the departed, the grave itself being indicated by the cooking -utensils and tawdry personal adornments of the deceased. Under this -custom there was no property left for distribution by the average -native. A chief, living with thrifty care for his family, might leave -slaves to be divided among his sons or daughters, as some few did, but -often when the heirs were sons or daughters of different mothers bitter -family feuds were a natural result, and the law of might decided. There -was no marriage record, no law to distribute fairly what might justly -belong to the widow and the fatherless, no individual ownership of land, -no definite boundaries to districts claimed by tribes. Thus the whole -polity of the native race here limited the exertions of the people to -seeking a present subsistence, or, at the most, enough to tide them over -from one season to another. Diversity of seasons has a much more -intimate relation to the food supply of the wild life than to a people -who have arrived at the agricultural stage of evolution. Many wild -animals and feathered game have sufficient of the instinct of the -passenger pigeon and squirrel of the Atlantic seaboard to induce them to -migrate from districts in which their food fails as a result of untoward -seasons and go to others where there is plenty.[5] The native tribes -west of the Cascade Range could not do that, and therefore must have -often been reduced in numbers by bad seasons, before they were known to -the white race. - -The condition of the natives as to surplus food and the scarcity of -large game in the Columbia Valley, as found by Lewis and Clark, shows -that the normal season left the then population little they could spare. -The party may be said to have run a gauntlet against starvation in their -journey from the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia. They saw -few deer, and no antelope or elk. Salmon and dogs were their chief -purchases from the Indians, and they ate of the latter till some of the -men got to prefer dog flesh to venison. The salmon grew rancid and -mouldy under the influence of the warm wet winter, and made the men -sick. Their hunters, in what was forty years later the best elk range in -Oregon, often failed to meet their daily wants, and sometimes killed -their game so far from camp that it spoiled in the woods. So that when -they learned that a whale had been thrown on the beach, at the mouth of -the Nehalem, they went thirty miles, and with difficulty succeeded in -the purchase of three hundred pounds of whale blubber. - -They stayed at their winter camp until the latter part of March, 1806. -The game had left their vicinity; they exhausted the surplus of the -Indians near them, so they started on their return journey in order to -reach the Chopannish “Nation,” with whom they had left their horses, -before the natives would leave for their spring hunt for buffalo east of -the Rockies. - -Under date of March 31, their journal reads: “Several parties were met -descending the river in quest of food. They told us that they lived at -the great rapids (the cascades), but the scarcity of provisions had -induced them to come down in hopes of finding subsistence in the more -fertile valley. All living at the rapids, as well as nations above, were -in much distress for want of food, having consumed their winter’s store -of dried fish, and not expecting the return of the salmon before the -next full moon—which would be on the second of May. This information was -not a little embarrassing. From the falls (The Dalles) to the Chopannish -Nation, the plains afforded neither deer, elk, nor antelope, for our -subsistence. The horses were very poor at this season, and the dogs must -be in the same condition, if their food, the dried fish, had failed.” -These considerations compelled the party to go into camp, and send out -their hunters on both sides of the Columbia, from its north bank, -opposite the quick sand (Sandy) river. Their purpose being to obtain -meat enough to last them to where they had left their horses, and this -they did, with the addition of some dogs and wapatos they were able to -secure from the natives by hard bargaining. The eight days they thus -delayed they used to good purpose. Captain Clark, acting on information -by an Indian of the existence of a large river making in from the south, -which they had passed and repassed without having seen it, because of a -diamond shaped island lying across its mouth, hired an Indian guide, and -returning down the south shore, penetrated the Multnomah (Lower -Willamette), to near the present location of Linnton, and saw evidences -in ruined buildings of a much denser population than then existed there, -and in the two hundred and twenty-five foot building already mentioned, -saw the woman marked by smallpox. Here, also, were met Clackamas and -other Indians from the falls of the Willamette. - -Elk, deer, and black bear were the large game their hunters killed. Some -of the deer were extremely poor. They do not mention having seen flesh -of any kind in the hands or camps of natives, much less a successful -native hunter of such game.[6] Neither do they mention seeing a horse -west of the Cascade Range. The receiving of one sturgeon from a native -is mentioned, and some dried anchovies (smelt). But the chief wealth of -this richest part of the district—the most inviting to settlers in their -estimation of any they had seen west of the Rocky Mountains, is the -wapato—“the product of the numerous ponds in the interior of Wapato” -(Sauvie’s) Island. This was almost the sole staple article of commerce -on the Columbia. - -This bulb, the root of the arrowhead lily (_sagittaria variabilis_) is -described by Lewis and Clark as “never out of season,” and as being -“gathered chiefly by the women, who employ for the purpose canoes from -ten to fifteen feet long, about two feet wide, nine inches deep, and -tapering from the middle. They are sufficient to contain a single person -and several bushels of roots, yet so very light that a woman can carry -them with ease. She takes it into a pond where the water is sometimes as -high as the breast, and by means of her toes separates this bulb from -the root, which, on being freed from the mud, immediately rises to the -surface of the water and is thrown into the canoe. In this manner these -patient females will remain in the water for several hours, even in the -dead of winter.”[7] - -This first party of the white race, thirty-six in number, were thus -detained eight days gathering a sufficiency of food to make it prudent -to risk a journey of ten days through the heart of the great and fertile -Columbia Valley, then so devoid of large game as to make it reasonable -to assume that at some period not very remote from the time of their -visit the population had slaughtered the elk, deer, and antelope, and -driven the buffalo to the east side of the Rockies. The practice of -large parties of the strongest tribes passing that backbone of the -continent every summer to hunt this noblest of North American game is -good presumptive evidence that it had at no remote period ranged in the -valley of the Columbia. In 1806, then, we have the fact of a population, -roughly estimated at forty thousand, ekeing out a hand-to-mouth living, -from salmon chiefly, with the additions of wokas kouse (wapato and -camas),—the latter much the more generally distributed from the Pacific -Ocean to the summit flats of the Rocky Mountains—by going across those -mountains annually for game. They had, of course, to go in parties -sufficiently strong for defense against the hated, dreaded and -destructive Blackfeet. The taking of such journeys proves their -necessity. The tribes unable through weakness or situation to make such -expeditions, as were all those of Western and Southwestern Oregon, had -to gather their precarious living from the plants mentioned, grass -seeds, the small native fruits, of crab apple, haw, huckleberries, -cranberries, etc. Looking over a recent report of the Division of -Botany, United States Department of Agriculture—a contribution from the -United States Herbarium, Vol. V, No. 2, by Frederick V. Coville—I find -one hundred plants described as used by the Klamath Indians, forty-six -of which—as seeds, fruits or roots—were used as food by that tribe. No -effort has yet been made to enumerate all the kinds of flesh, fish, and -insect life used by the native race for sustenance. Lewis and Clark -found evidence that the coast native sometimes resorted to searching the -beach for fish cast up by the tide. The tribes on the south bank of the -Snake River, and southward, used to fire the high, arid plains, where -possible, and collect the crickets and grasshoppers thus killed. As late -as 1844 these insects were dried and made into a kind of pemmican by -pestle and mortar. The Rogue River natives used the grasshopper meal as -a delectable food as late as 1848, and as late as 1878 the writer saw -the chief medicine man of the Calipooyas collecting in a large mining -pan the tent caterpillars from the ash trees within four miles of Salem. -He asserted most emphatically that they were “close muckamuck” (good -food). - -For years before and after the last mentioned date the writer knew -Joseph Hudson (Pa-pe-a, his native name), the lineal chief of the -Calipooyas, who signed the treaty of cession of the east side of the -Willamette Valley to the United States. He was the only native of -Western Oregon the writer ever talked with who seemed to comprehend, or -care for, the consequences to the natives of the appropriation of -ownership of the soil by the white race. He had judgment to perceive -that the latter had agencies of power and of progress with which his -people could not have coped, even at their best estate—which family -tradition had handed down to him. This pointed to a time when his people -had numbered eight thousand, as he estimated, at which time and later, -to the time of his grandfather, Chief San-de-am, _his people used the -circle hunt_, driving the deer to a center agreed upon, by young men as -runners, the point to drive to being selected as good cover to enable -the bowmen to get close to the quarry. From him the information was -gained as a family tradition that about 1818 eight men, carrying packs -on their backs and coming from the north, reached his grandfather’s -village, near where the town of Jefferson now is. They were set across, -and, going southward, they conveyed to other natives that they had -crossed San-de-am’s river. The whites shortened the name to Santiam, as -they did Yam-il to Yamhill. These eight men returned after several -months and brought the first horses the Calipooyas ever saw. They sold a -mare and colt for forty-five beaver skins. Joe, as he was familiarly -called, a man of truth and honor, could not but mourn the fate of his -people. Being in a small way his banker for small loans (he working for -me) I know he was kept poor by the general worthlessness of his tribe, -as it was one of the functions of a Calipooya chief to help the weak and -good for nothing members of his tribe. This man honestly performed any -rough and common contract labor (he would never work for day wages), -carrying his burden of sorrow for his people’s condition to where the -wicked and low can no longer trouble. The writer received from him many -hints and plain statements as to the mental capacity or mode of -reasoning of the native race. Custom led them to appeal to him in -troubles resulting from drunken rows. A young dandy of the tribe, -getting into the power of the law for knifing a woman in a camp fray, -would appeal to Joe, as chief, for financial help, with no more sense of -shame than an Irish landlord who had wasted his property in riotous -living would have in spunging off his former tenants to a green old age. -There are many people of the white race who cannot help being -participants in the results of the change of racial dominion which has -taken place on the North Pacific Slope within the past century. They -feel they are participants in a gigantic act of robbery. A lady whose -writings on any subject it is a delight to read, in the June number of -the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, shows the origin of land -titles so far as the English race of men have made them. It would be an -instructive addition to her able paper if some one, well read on the -effects of guarded land titles in sufficient area to support family life -on each allotment, would describe their influences upon a community so -blessed. - -Already enough has been said to indicate that prior to the visit of -Lewis and Clark, the native race was in a condition of decline; that in -a normal or average season a body of forty men, or less, found it -difficult to avoid starvation while moving from place to place in a -country estimated to contain forty thousand. - -It may be admitted, because it is true though shameful, that the -licentiousness of trade had sown the seeds accelerating the decay of the -native race in Western Oregon, from the Columbia River to the Umpqua, -and from its mouth to Fort Hall. Within these bounds, but especially -near the chief lines of commerce, the missionary even had as much need -of a medical book as he had of his bible, as far as the people he had -come to guide in the way of life was concerned. - -Abundant reason had Dr. John McLoughlin (that living copy of the great -heart of Bunyan’s matchless fancy) for giving welcome to the American -missionaries. He knew the value of a clean mind or soul in keeping a -clean and healthy body; though with a wise physican’s care he kept the -hospital at Vancouver open to any white sick, whom the resident doctor -the Hudson’s Bay Company maintained there recommended to it. - -Doctor McLoughlin instituted the first hospital in Oregon for white -people here prior to the overland immigration of family life from the -Missouri border in 1843. The native race then were being removed rapidly -by a disease they themselves called the “cold sick,” which had raged -among them from 1832. Some of the symptoms indicated a malarial cause, -but quinine and other ague remedies had no effect upon the Indian sick. -Like the plague now raging in India, it was confined, seemingly, -entirely to the natives; also, almost entirely to the fishing villages -on the large rivers. I have long had a theory which I confess being -unable to give an intelligent reason for; that that plague had its -origin in eating filth. The natives themselves found that to thrust -their arrow points through the putrid liver of a deer or elk would -enable them to kill their enemies by a slight wound by blood poison. Is -it not, then, possible that eating putrid flesh, or fish—the garbage -cast up by the tide,—the spent salmon from the river shore, or those -wallowing in death throes on its surface, could not be done with -impunity? - -In times of famine the natives, on the sea coast and on the rivers, did -eat such food; as the inland tribes, like the Klamaths, sometimes -sustained life by eating black moss, and the bark of certain trees. -These latter foods, however, were not putrid. - -To support the theory that this cold sick plague, which began on the -Lower Columbia in 1832, and which kept the wail for the dead sounding -along its banks till 1844, may have originated in poisoned food, we have -the statement of Lewis and Clark’s journal that salmon pemmican which -they purchased in quantity at The Dalles moulded, and made the men sick, -in the damp and warm winter camp, near the sea. But, whatever the cause, -the effect was to depopulate, or cause the abandonment of once populous -villages. - -In 1805, the central seat of the Multnomahs, near the east end of Wapato -(Sauvie’s) Island, had a population of “eight hundred souls” noted, “as -the remains of a large nation,” surrounded by kindred near-by tribes, -aggregating two thousand two hundred and sixty souls. In 1845 the site -was without human habitation. “The dead were there,” in large numbers, -swathed in cedar bark, and laid tier above tier on constructions of -cedar slabs about four inches thick, and often four feet wide,—causing -the observer to wonder how the native, with such agencies as he -possessed, could fell and split such timber. At this time so many as two -hundred natives, could not be seen on the banks of the Lower Columbia, -between the mouth of the Willamette and Clatsop Point, without special -effort at counting the few living in the scattered villages, often -separated by several sites once inhabited by large numbers apparently. -This was particularly noticed on the south bank, at Coffin Rock, and the -main shore, between that and Rainier. “The dead were there,” in -abundance, but no life but the eagle, the fish hawk, the black loon, and -the glistening head of the salmon-devouring seal, then very numerous. -There was a village of the Cowlitz tribe on the south bank, below where -Rainier now stands. The people looked poor, ill fed, and worse clothed. -The chief had come to us in the stream to invite us to camp near, -exhibiting a single fresh hen’s egg as inducement. We did so, and -visiting their camp had the first sight of life in a native fishing -village. Some of the children were nearly naked. Though it was -midwinter, the adult females, with one exception, were dressed in the -native petticoat, or kilt, as second garment, the other being a chemise -of what had been white cotton; one was engaged in the manufacture of -cedar bark strings used in the formation of the kind of kilt she wore. -The exception in the camp was a young woman of extraordinary personal -beauty, a daughter of the chief family of the Cathelametts. She had -recently been purchased, or espoused, by the heir-apparent of the -Cowlitz chief. She seemed to be indifferent to the life around her, and -shortly after was, presumably, the cause of tribal war. She was -permitted a few weeks later to pay a visit to her own tribe, accompanied -by an old woman of her husband’s. They both joined a party of the women -of her tribe in a wapato gathering expedition. The old duenna did not -return,—her body was found next day near the wapato beds, horribly -mutilated by a knife murder. The natural fruit of the Chinooks’ polity -of marriage. A short tribal war resulted. - -In order to show the measure of manhood this system produced in a -different phase from that of Chiefs Kalata’s and Chenowith’s, I will -relate from memory a short visit at the lodge of the Cathelamett chief: - -As one of a party of the employees of Hunt’s mill, making our way from -Astoria to the mill, we were approaching Cathelamett Point, the village -of the tribe, on the south shore. We were hailed from the shore and -found ourselves near the women and girls of the tribe, having a good -time gathering the newly risen stems of the common fern and preparing it -for food in earth ovens over heated rocks. They voluntarily told us they -had no prepared food, but pressed us to go on to their village, and -“Lemiyey” (old mother) (pronounced in a tone that conveyed love and -respect) would gladly entertain us. They made no mistake in this. The -old lady seemed proud of the opportunity to act as hostess, and without -ostentation put her help to work and gave us a bountiful meal of fresh -salmon and wapatos, and afterward put on what had evidently been often -used as a robe of state, and passed back and forward in illustration of -scenes she had been part of. Her son, apparently utterly oblivious to -the spirit of his mother’s eye and movement, continued repeating the -offers to sell to us his tribal claim to the lands lying between Tongue -Point and Cathelamett, that he had begun on our arrival. He was but a -youth, not so tall as his stately old mother appeared in her robe (of -what I afterwards concluded was badger skins, but may have been -mistaken), and he seemed mentally incapable of appreciating the -influences then forming around him and his people, which appropriated -their lands, while not one of them had the spirit to assert a right or -raise the question of justice against the action of the white race. This -was, with perhaps one exception, the cleanest, most self-respecting body -of natives left on the Lower Columbia in 1845, where Lewis and Clark -had, only forty years before, enumerated, by information from the -natives, thirteen thousand eight hundred and thirty below the cascades -and between that and the ocean. I do not believe that thirteen hundred -could be found within the same limits at the latter date. There was not -in all that distance, to my knowledge, a single man of the race who had -the intelligence and public spirit combined to appear before the -authorized agents of the United States ten years later and plead for the -rights of their people in the treaties made south of the Columbia. It is -questionable whether there was one in all the country north of Rogue -River who would have done so of his own motion, had not the humane -General Palmer and J. L. Parrish, as agents, advised the Indians to act. -It is not to be understood from this that all good and all beauty had -departed from the native life. When J. L. Parrish was in charge of -Methodist mission property, in 1845, a white man from Oregon City -appeared temporarily at Solomon S. Smith’s to solicit the hand of a -young woman named Oneiclam in marriage. The young woman civilly and -modestly declined the honor, saying such a marriage could not secure the -respect of either the man’s people or the woman’s, and would fail in -conferring happiness. She was clean enough and good enough to secure the -personal friendship and advice of Mrs. J. L. Parrish, which proved her a -rare exception to her class. Such marriages soon ceased after the -American home-builder assumed dominion over Oregon, the white mother -thus arriving being strongly against inter-racial contracts. Doubtless -the hopelessness of the struggle against race prejudice has borne -heavily on the heart of many a man and woman on both sides of the race -question, but the fight is over now and many a heart broken in the -struggle (as I think was that of my friend Joseph Hudson, last Chief of -the Calipooyas) is at rest. The responsibility for the red race is now -the white man’s burden. He carries it well, while already the light of a -brighter day than the red man of fifty years ago could forecast is -piercing the prejudices and hates of that time. The white man brought -the surveying compass, the book in which to record titles to land, -another for the record of marriages, still another to record the rights -of property to the results of wedlock. Schools are open to the native -race and every generous mind wishes it well. But, while our sympathies -may go out toward the ignorant or incompetent race in a conflict of -power, we should not fail to note the services to all races rendered by -the victor. - -A glance at the changed conditions of life within the bounds of old -Oregon: Instead of forty thousand persons ill-fed, ill-clad, living from -hand to mouth, often bordering on famine, unable to support forty -interesting visitors passing through their country, we have now, -perhaps, fully one million, and the surplus of foodstuffs and clothing -material they send out to the markets of the world, would feed well four -millions. And, it is not extravagant to say that the territory to which -the Oregon trail was made fifty-eight years ago will some day be made to -support forty millions in comfort. - -This paper, it will be observed, has dealt entirely with the native race -in Northwestern Oregon, because this was the field of the race contest. -The point to which the guiding minds of the white race looked as most -desirable. Jefferson said, and Benton repeated: “Plant thirty thousand -rifles at the mouth of the Columbia.” The first exploring party sent out -by the former selected as the most interesting region in which to make -excursions, the district now containing the first and second chosen -commercial centers,—Vancouver and Portland. - -The native race amid whom these were planted were described in their -average manhood as mean, cowardly and thievish. Forty years later, -to this description might be added ignorant, superstitious, and -utterly without public spirit. The tribes east and south from this -district were, excepting those located at the great fishing centers -on the Columbia, less thievish, and much more bold and spirited in -self-defense. - -To the recent and valuable historical description of those tribes, -including the natives in what is now Western Washington, I am indebted -to the life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, by his son, Hazard Stevens, for -the number of natives west, as well as east, of the Cascades treated -with by Governor Stevens in 1855, just before the natural leaders of the -native race made their only united effort to stem the tide of inflow of -the white race. - - {Total number found west of the Cascades 9,712 - {Total number with whom treaties were made 8,597 - - {Total number east of the Cascade Mountains 12,000 - {Total number treated with 8,900 - - {Total number found in Washington Territory 21,000 - {Total number treated with 17,497 - -For Governor Stevens’ success in getting the eastern section of the -native race into treaty relations he was indebted solely to the -steadiness and good faith of the Nez Perces, the tribe which was always -conspicuous for its care of its womanhood. - - JOHN MINTO. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - This custom of purchasing wives seems to have extended through many of - the interior tribes, and amongst some the privilege seems not to have - been confined to the men. It is related of a large war party of Sioux - who, near Independence Rock, in 1842, found Messrs. Hastings and - Lovejoy, and good humoredly gave them up to their fellow travelers, - taking a small present of tobacco as ransom; that, seeing a grown - daughter of one of the few white families of the Oregon immigrants, - they came repeatedly in increased numbers to look at her, until her - father was annoyed and indignant at their visits, and wrathful and - threatening when he learned that the brawny braves desired to purchase - the girl to give her as a present to their war chief. These grown up - children of nature went off like gentlemen when informed by one who - knew their customs that it was not a custom of white fathers, or the - white people, to sell their daughters. [Matthieu’s Reminiscences, Vol. - I, No. 1, Quarterly of the Ore. Hist. Soc.] In 1844, while Gilliam’s - train lay over one day at Fort Laramie, for trade purposes, in close - neighborhood to the tepees of a considerable camp of Sioux, three - female members of the tribe visited the camp of R. W. Morrison, - captain of one of the companies into which the train of eighty-four - wagons was divided. The captain had two assistants, and the Sioux - women seemed to conclude that Mrs. Morrison was blessed with three - husbands. Their proposition, made by signs by the two elder women, was - that the third, apparently a widow, though young, was willing to give - six horses for one of the younger men. It took Mrs. Morrison and the - choice of the young widow some time to convince her two friends that - they had made a mistake, and they departed with all outward signs of - sadness over the failure of their mission. These proposals to secure - connubial happiness by purchase were made, one four and the other two - years, before Francis Parkman, Jr., arrived at Laramie to join a Sioux - camp in order to get material for his Oregon and California Trail. - -Footnote 2: - - Late in 1844, Katata, Chief of the Clatsop Tribe, murdered his - youngest wife, then but recently espoused from a leading family of the - Chinooks. The latter made war upon him for the act. J. L. Parrish, in - charge of the Methodist mission at the time, refused Katata his hand - after learning of his deed. The brutal chief made an effort to be - revenged for what he deemed an insult, but failed in his attempt. - -Footnote 3: - - The kind of chivalry the system bred was illustrated by Chief - Chenowith, supposed instigator of the Cascades massacre in 1855, who - was tried and condemned for fighting with the Klickitats and Yakimas. - “He offered ten horses, two squaws, and a little something to every - tyee, of (for) his life, boasting that he was not afraid of death, but - was afraid of the grave in the ground.”—[L. W. Coe in _Native Son - Magazine_ for February, 1900. Mr. Coe acted as interpreter at the - execution]. - -Footnote 4: - - In 1844 the Chief of the Wascopams died at The Dalles, and was - succeeded by his brother, who was somewhat under the influence of Rev. - Alvan Waller, of the Methodist Episcopal mission there. A young slave - boy was bound and secured in the dead house with the body of the dead - chief, in accordance with the customs of the tribe. Mr. Waller - continued pleading for the release of the boy for three days and got - the new chief’s consent to take the boy out of his horrible situation - on condition that it be done secretly and the boy taken away, so that - the people of the tribe would never see him. He was taken to Mr. J. L. - Parrish, at Clatsop mission, and remained a member of his family till, - in 1849, he went to the California gold mines. - -Footnote 5: - - The writer has observed this instinct manifested one season by wild - ducks. The oak trees in the vicinity of his residence south of Salem, - of which there were considerable areas, bore a heavy crop of acorns. - The wild ducks by some means found it out, and must have by some means - informed each other, as the flocks of them passing over my farm from a - large beaver dam pond, where they rested at night, to their feeding - grounds daily rapidly increased from day to day, and as rapidly - decreased when the supply of acorns was consumed. - -Footnote 6: - - The writer has had his home fifty-five years in the Willamette Valley, - and has never seen or known of a native to kill a deer. He has known - one spend a day hunting to kill five wood rats. - -Footnote 7: - - This extract illustrates the condition of womanhood. Lewis and Clark - write of the production of wapato in this locality as though it grew - nowhere else; but it grew—yet grows—on the margins of ponds and bayous - of most of the streams flowing into the Columbia west of the Cascades. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - INDIAN NAMES. - - -Indian names and Indian words in general of the tribes of the region of -the Columbia have many peculiarities, and amply repay time spent in -trying to study them out. The following pretends to be only the merest -beginning, and the writer has advanced only to the edges of the subject. -It comprises only those names, and those meagerly and superficially, of -the Lower Columbia and Willamette rivers, and these have been obtained -from but two or three original sources. Those sources, however, are as -reliable and intelligent as are to be found, being the recollections of -Silas B. Smith, of Clatsop, and Louis Labonte, of Saint Paul, Oregon. -That others may present anything they may have on the subject, and thus -the stock of information be increased before those who have the original -information shall have passed away, and the later investigators be left -only to conjecture, is my idea in preparing this paper. - -In the first place we must bear in mind a remark of Mr. Smith’s, and -that is that the most of the Indian names we have incorporated into our -own nomenclature are more or less altered. He says that white men always -like to change the original Indian somewhat. This is no doubt true. Such -a disposition arises partly from the white man’s egotism, which rejoices -in showing that he can make a thing wrong if he pleases, and especially -that an Indian name has no rights which he is bound to respect; and it -arises in part from the white man’s ignorance. This ignorance is shown -partly in the lack of training of our ears in hearing, so that we -frequently are unable to distinguish between allied letters, or sounds, -such as “p” and “b,” or “m,” for the consonants, or between a simple -vowel sound, or a compound, or diphthong. Moreover, our English language -is almost hopelessly mixed up between the open, or broad continental -pronunciation of the vowels, and the narrow, or closed sound; so that no -one is sure that an “a” stands for “ay,” as in “day,” or for “ah,” as in -“hurrah.” The Yankee peculiarity, also, of leaving off the sound of “r” -where it belongs, and putting it on where it does not belong, like -saying “wo’k” for “work,” or “Mariar” for “Mariah,” has very materially -changed the original pronunciation. With us, too, the pronunciation of -the vowels follows a fashion, and varies from time to time according to -what particular “phobia” or “mania” we may happen to be cultivating. At -present the prevailing Anglomania is probably affecting our speech as -well as our fashions and politics. An Indian name, therefore, that might -have been rendered into very good English fifty years ago, may now, -having become subject to the mutations of our fads of pronunciation, be -spoken quite differently from the original tongue. - -But, after making all these allowances, due to our white man’s egotism, -ignorance and change of fashions, the main difficulty is in the -strangeness, and, it might be said, the rudimentariness of the Indian -sounds. Many, perhaps the most, of the aboriginal tones have no exact -phonetic equivalent in English. We must remember that their names were -originated away back in their own history, and were not affected by -contact with Europeans, and have therefore a primitive quality not found -even in the Jargon. This makes them more difficult, but certainly not -less interesting. - -In general it will be found, I think, that the aboriginal languages have -the following peculiarities of pronunciation: - -1. Almost all the sounds are pronounced farther back in the throat than - we pronounce them. This brings into use an almost entirely different - set of tones, or more exactly, it brings the various vocal sounds - produced by the vocal chords to a point at a different, and to us an - unused position of the throat or mouth—at a point where we can - scarcely catch and arrest the sound. This makes the vowel sounds in - general pectoral or ventral, and the consonant sounds guttural or - palatal. As to the consonants, also, it often gives them a clucking or - rasping sound not found in our language, unless in certain - exclamations. - -2. As a consequence of the above, the vowel sounds are not very fully - distinguished from the subvowels. There is no “r” sound; if that is - ever seen in an Indian name it has been interpolated there by some - white mal-transliterator. “L” easily runs into “a,” and “m” into “b.” - Names that upon first pronunciation seem to have an “l” turn out upon - clearer sound to have a short Italian “a,” or those having an “m” to - be more exactly represented by “b.” Probably the fact as to “r” is - that it is identical in the aboriginal throat with long Italian “a,” - or the ah sound, as it still is with Easterners and Southerners. - -3. Many of the most common aboriginal consonants, or atonic sounds, - while simple to them, can be represented in English only by compounds. - Such are the almost universal “ch” which can be as accurately rendered - “ts,” (?) and the very common final syllable “lth.” “T” is also - produced so far back in the throat as to be almost indistinguishable - from “k.” It seems to be a principle to slip a short “e” sound before - an initial “k,” and many names begin with a short introductory “n” - sound, which is nearly a pure vowel. Of the vowels, “a” pronounced as - ah is the most common, though long “a,” properly a diphthong, and long - “i” a diphthong, and long “e” are very frequent. While it is true that - the sounds as a rule are _in_, rather than _out_, still the pure - vowels, especially “a,” and this used as a call, or cry, is often very - open and pure. - -4. It will probably be found, also, that the sounds are varied more or - less according to meaning. With us tones are a matter of expression. - With the aborigines they were probably a matter primarily of meaning. - This would arise from the fact that their language was not written, - but spoken, and their terms were not descriptive, but imitative. We - know, for instance, that the Jargon word indicating pastime, which is - “ahncuttie,” means a shorter or longer period, according as the length - the first vowel is drawn out—a very long time ago admitting also of - imitative gesticulation. This principle would modify the pronunciation - of words, lengthening or shortening the vowels, or opening or closing - them, or perhaps drawing semi-vowels out into pure vowels, and - softening or sharpening the consonants. - -While any expression of opinion must be very modest, still this much may -be ventured: That our language has lost many valuable elements in its -evolution from the spoken to the written form, especially in the matter -of picturesqueness. We have, of course, gained immeasurably in -directness and objective accuracy, but true evolution does not abolish -any former element, but retains and subordinates it, and thereby is able -to advance to new utilities. By study of a pure aboriginal language on -the imitative principle, expressed only in tones, not only may the -advantages of our own tongue be understood, but its deficiencies may be -remedied, and a more complete language at length be developed. I am by -no means of the opinion that all that is human, or of value to -civilization, is to be found in the Anglo-Saxon race, or even in the -white race; but that the slow and painful struggles and ponderings of -the other races are also to be wrought into the final perfect expression -of humanity in society, art, literature and religion. - -After the above, which is perhaps too much in the way of introduction, I -will proceed with the names that I have been favored with—only wishing, -if that were possible, that our aboriginal languages might be -reconstructed in their entirety. - -Water, says Mr. Smith, unless enclosed by land, was never named. The -Columbia or the Willamette had no names. Water was to the native mind, -like air, a spiritual element, and just the same in one place as -another; and the circumstance that it was bounded by land made it no -other than simply “chuck”—the Jargon word. If Indians ever seemed to -give a name to a river, all that was meant was some locality on the -shore. The idea of giving an appellation to a body of water from source -to outlet never occurred to them. - -The following are some of the more common Indian names of places, as -given by Mr. Smith: - - _Chinook_, or _Tsinook_—The headland at Baker’s Bay. - - _Clatsop_, or, more properly, _Tlahtsops_—About the same as - Point Adams at mouth of the Columbia. - - _Wal-lamt_, accented on last syllable, and but two syllables—A - place on the west shore of the Willamette River, near Oregon - City, and the name from which Willamette is taken. - - _E-multh-a-no-mah_—On east side of Sauvie’s Island; from which - the name Multnomah is derived. - - _Chemukata_—Chemekata, site of Salem. - - _Chemayway_—A point on the Willamette River about two and one-half - miles southward from Fairfield, where Joseph Gervais, who came to - Oregon with Wilson G. Hunt in 1811, settled in 1827-28. The name - Chemawa, the Indian school, is derived from this. - - _Champoek_—Champoeg, an Indian name signifying the place of a - certain edible root. The name is not the French term _le campment - sable_, as naturally supposed by some, and stated by Bancroft. - - _Ne-ay-lem_—The name from which Nehalem is derived. - - _Acona_—Yaquina. - -To these might be added, perhaps, Sealth, the name of the Indian chief -after whom the City of Seattle is called. The name is of two syllables, -accented on the first. This well illustrates the tendency of the whites -to transpose letters, here making an “lth” into a “tle” in imitation of -the French, or, perhaps, the Mexican names. Bancroft learnedly discusses -the similarity between the Washington and Mexican “tl,” apparently not -knowing that the Washington termination was not “tl,” but “lth.” - -I will now give, in more detail, names of places, chiefs, and of some -primitive articles of food, and utensils, etc.: - - - NAMES OF PLACES AND CHIEFS IN CLATSOP COUNTY. - - _Tle-las-qua_—Knappa. - - _Se-co-mee-tsiuc_—Tongue Point. - - _O-wa-pun-pun_—Smith’s Point. - - _Kay-ke-ma-que-a_—On John Day’s River. - - _Kil-how-a-nak-kle_—A point on Young’s River. - - _Nee-tul_—A point on Lewis and Clark River. - - _Ne-ahk-al-toun-al-the_—A point on west side of Young’s Bay, - near Sunnymead. - - _Skip-p-er-nawin_—A point at mouth of Skipanon Creek. - - _Ko-na-pee_—A village near Hotel Flavel, where the first white - man in Oregon, Konapee, lived. - - _Ne-ahk-stow_—A large Indian village near Hammond. - - _Ne-ah-keluc_—A large Indian village at Point Adam’s, name - signifying “Place of Okeluc,” or, where the _Okeluc_ is made; - “_Okeluc_” being salmon pemmican. - - _E-will-tsil-hulth_—A high sand hill, or broken end of a sea - ridge, facing the sea beach about west of the “Carnahan” place, - meaning steep hill. - - _E-wil-nes-culp_—A flat-topped hill against the beach about west - of the “West” place, meaning “Hill cut off.” - - _Ne-ah-ko-win_—Village on the beach about west of the “Morrison” - place, where the Ohanna Creek once discharged into the ocean. - - _Ne-ah-coxie_—Village at the mouth of Neacoxie Creek. - - _Ne-co-tat_—Village at Seaside. - - _Ne-hay-ne-hum_—Indian lodge up the Necanicum Creek. - - _Ne-ahk-li-paltli_—A place near Elk Creek where an edible plant, - the Eckutlipatli, was found. - - _Ne-kah-ni_—A precipice overlooking the ocean, meaning the abode - of _Ekahni_, the supreme god; called “Carnie Mountain” by the - whites. - - _Ne-tarts_—Netarts. - - _Nestucca._ - - _Tlats-kani_—A point in Nehalem Valley reached either by way of - Young’s River, or the Clatskanie; and hence the name - “Claskanine” for the branch of Young’s River, and “Clatskanie” - for the stream above Westport. In saying “_tlastani_,” the - Indians meant neither of those streams, but merely the place - where they were going to or coming from; but with usual - carelessness the whites applied it to both. - - There were two lakes on Clatsop plains, one of which was - called _O-mo-pah_, Smith’s Lake: and the other, much larger, - _Ya-se-ya-ma-na-la-tslas-tie_, which now goes by the name of an - Indian, _Oua-i-cul-li-by_, or simply _Culliby_. - - The name of Cape Hancock was _Wa-kee-tle-he-igh_; _Ilwaco_, - _Comcomby_, _Chenamas_, _Skamokoway_, _Kobaiway_, _Tostam_, and - _Totilhum_, were chiefs. - -These chiefs’ names illustrate some of the peculiarities of Indian -pronunciation. _Kobaiway_, who was the Clatsop chief when Lewis and -Clark came, was called by them _Comowool_; _Tostam_ was sometimes called -_Tostab_; and _Totilhum_, “a powerful man of the people,” had the -Columbia River called after him by some whites. Seeing some Indians -coming down the great stream with camas, etc., they asked where they -obtained this: “From _Totilhum_,” was the reply; meaning that they had -been on a visit to the chief. Then thinking they had made a great -discovery, the whites announced that the Columbia was called _Totilhum_. -_Totilhum_ was chief of the Cathlamets, who originally had their village -on the Oregon side, near Clifton. - - - INDIAN NAMES OF PLACES IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY—SOME CHIEFS. - - _Ni-a-kow-kow_—St. Helens. A noted Indian chief here was - _Ke-as-no_. He was made a friend by the Hudson’s Bay Company, was - given fine presents, and entrusted with the duty of firing a salute - to the company’s vessels as they came in sight up the river. - - _Nah-poo-itle_—A village just across the river from - _Niahkowkow_. The name of the chief was _Sha-al_, who was very - large sized. - - _Nah-moo-itk_—A point on Sauvie’s Island. - - _Emulthnomah_—A point a little above. - - _Wa-kan-a-shee-shee_—A point across the river from - _Emulthnomah_; meant “white-headed duck,” or diver. - - _Na-quoith_—On mainland, old Fort William. - - _Na-ka-poulth_—A pond a little above Portland, on the east side, - where the Indians dug wapatoes. - - _E-kee-sa-ti_—The Willamette Falls. The name of the tribe here - was _Tla-we-wul-lo_. The name of a chief was _Wah-nach-ski_; he - had a nephew, _Wah-shah-ams_. - - _Han-te-uc_—Point at mouth of Pudding River. - - _Champo-ek_—Champoeg, meaning the place of a certain edible - root. “Ch” pronounced hard, as in “chant.” - - _Che-sque-a_—Ray’s Landing. - - _Cham-ho-kuc_—A point near the mouth of Chehalem Creek; Chehalem - Village, in Chehalem Valley. A Chehalem chief was _Wow-na-pa_. - - _Chemayway_—_Chemayway_ was also a name given to Wapato Lake. - - _Cham-hal-lach_—A village on French Prairie. - -It will be noticed that the names above the Willamette Falls frequently -begin with “Che” or “Cham,” as the coast names often begin with “Ne.” -The name for Clackamas was _Ne-ka-mas_, and for Molalla, _Mo-lay-less_. -The name Tualatin was _Twhah-la-ti_. At Forest Grove, near the old -A. T. Smith place, was an Indian village, _Koot-pahl_. The bare hill -northwest, now called David’s Hill, was _Tahm-yahn_, and an open -spot up Gales’ Creek Valley was _Pa-ach-ti_. A Tillamook chief was -_Tae-sahlx_. The name of a chief at The Dalles was _Wah-tis-con_. -Labonte remembers several chiefs at Spokane, one of whom was _Ilmicum -Spokanee_, or the Chief of the Moon; another, _Ilmicum Takullhalth_, or -the Chief of the Day, and another, _Kah-wah-kim_, or Broken Shoulder. A -chief of the Colville tribe was _Skohomich_, a very old, white headed -man when Labonte saw him in about 1827. A tribe at the Cascades were -the _Wah-ral-lah_. - - - NAMES OF ANIMALS. - - Coyote—Chinook, _Tallapus_; Klikitat, _Speeleyi_; Spokane, - _Sincheleepp_. - - Fox—Spokane, _Whawhaoolee_. - - Gray wolf—_Cheaitsin_. - - Grizzly bear—Spokane, _Tsim-hi-at-sin_; Chinook, _E-shai-um_. - - Black bear—Spokane, _N’salmbe_; Chinook. _Itch-hoot_. - - Deer—Spokane, _Ah-wa-ia_; Doe, _Poo-may-ia_, or _Poom-a-wa-ia_. - (?) Calapooia, “A big buck,” _Awaia umpaia_. - - Black bear—Clackamas, _Skint-wha_. - - Beaver—_Wa-ca-no_. - - Deer—Chinook, _Mowitch_; Calapooia, _A-mo-quee_. - - Elk—Calapooia, _An-ti-kah_. - - Elk—Clatsop, _Moo-luk_. - - Duck—Clatsop, _Que’ka-que’kh_ (_onomatopœia_). - - Geese—Clatsop, _Kah-lak-ka-lah-ma_ (_ono._). - - Yellow legged goose—_Hi-hi_. - - Columbia Sucker—_Kaht-a-quay_. - - Smelt—Clatsop, _O-tla-hum_. - - Hake—Clatsop, _Sca-nah_. - - Silverside salmon—_O-o-wun_. - - Blue back salmon—Clatsop, _Oo-chooi-hay_. - - Large black salmon of August run—Clatsop, _Ec-ul-ba_. - - Steelhead—Clatsop, _Qua-ne-ah_. - - Dog salmon—Clatsop, _O-le-ahch_. - - Cinook salmon (Royal Chinook)—Clatsop, _E-quin-na_, from which - “_Quinnat_,” the name of the Pacific Coast salmon species has - been taken. - - Trout—_O-tole-whee_. - - Whale—Clatsop, _E-co-lay_. - - Horse—Clatsop, _E-cu-i-ton_. - - Cow—Clatsop, _Moos-moos_ (_ono._). - - Sheep—_Ne-mooi-too_. - - Wildcat—Clatsop, _E-cup-poo_. - - [Mr. Smith conjectures that the name of wildcat was - given from the alarm call of the squirrel, which was - hunted by the wildcats, and whose cry indicated the - presence of these animals.] - - Beaver—Clatsop, _E-nah_. - - Seal—Clatsop, _Ool-hi-you_. - - Sea lion—Clatsop, _Ee-kee-pee-tlea_. - - Sea otter—Clatsop, _E-lah-kee_. - - Coon—Clatsop, _Twa-las-key_. - - - EDIBLE ROOTS, ETC. - - Wapato—Clatsop, _Kah-nat-sin_. - - Camas—Calapooia, _Ah-mees_. - - Loaf of Camas—_Um-punga_. - - Foxtail tuber—Clatsop, _Che-hup_; Calapooia, same. - - [The _che-hup_ was quite an article of commerce, being - prepared by the Calapooias and traded with the coast - tribes. It was black, and sweet tasting.] - - Thistle root—Clatsop, _Sh-nat-a-whee_. - - Blue lupine root—Clatsop, _Cul-whay-ma_. - - [This was a root as large as one’s finger, a foot long, - and roasted, tasted like sweet potato.] - - Wild tulip, or brown lily—Clatsop, _Eck-ut-le-pat-le_. - - Cranberry—Clatsop. _Solh-meh_. - - Strawberry—Clatsop, _Ah-moo-tee_. - - Service berry—Clatsop, _Tip-to-ich_. - - Blue huckleberry—Same as service berry. - - Buffalo berry—Clatsop, _Smee-ugh-tul_. - - Sallal—Clatsop, _Sal-lal_. - - Hazel nuts—Calapoolia, _To-que-la_. - - Wasps’ nest—Calapooia, _An-te-alth_. - - [The nest of the “yellow jackets” was dug out of the - ground, the insects being first well smoked so as not to - sting; and the combs, with the honey and larvæ, were - considered a great delicacy. The expression (Calapooia) - “_msoah quasinafoe antealth_,” means “yellow jacket’s - nests are good eating.”] - - Tar weed seed—Calapooia, _Sah-wahh_. - -The tar weed seeds were small and dark, ripening late. One of the -objects of burning the prairie over in the fall was to ripen and -partially cook these seeds, which, after the fire had passed, were left -dry and easily gathered. They were ground like camas root in a mortar -and then resembled pepper in appearance, but were sweet tasting. - - - CHINOOK AND SPOKANE NUMERALS. - - One—Chinook, _ikt_; Spokane, _nekoo_. - - Two—Chinook, _mox_; Spokane, _es-sel_. - - Three—Chinook, _clone_; Spokane, _tsye-sees_. - - Four—Chinook, _lack-et_; Spokane, _moos_. - - Five—Chinook, _quin-am_ or _quun-un_; Spokane, _chyilks_. - - Six—Chinook, _tahum_; Spokane, _e-tecken_. - - Seven—Chinook, _sinomox_; Spokane, _sees-pul_. - - Eight—Chinook, _sto-ken_; Spokane, _ha-en-um_. - - Nine—Chinook, _quoist_; Spokane, _h’noot_. - - Ten—Chinook, _tat-ta-lum_; Spokane, _oo-pen_. - - Twenty—Chinook, _tattalum-tattalum_; Spokane, _es-sel oo-pen_. - - One hundred—Spokane, _en-kay-kin_. - - - HOUSEHOLD ARTICLES, IMPLEMENTS, ETC. - - Blankets—Calapooia, _Pas-sis-si_. - - Kettle—Calapooia, _Moos-moos_. - - Slaves—Calapooia, _El-ai-tai_. - - _Haiqua_ shells, used for money, a small turritella, found on - the northern coast. - - Small _haiqua_—Calapooia, _Cope-cope_. - - Tobacco—Calapooia, _E-kai-noss_. - - Knives—Calapooia, _Eoptstsh_. - - Powder—Calapooia, _Poo-lal-lie_. - - Buffalo robe—Clatsop, _Too-i-hee_. - - Wagon—Clatsop, _Chick-chick_ (_ono._). - - High-bow Chinook canoe—Clatsop, _Esquai-ah_. - - Big tub Chinook canoe—Clatsop, _Ska-moolsk_. - - Small duck canoe—_Kah-see-tic_(_h_). - - Clackamas canoe—Clackamas, _Tse-quah-min_. - -Even from the above meager list a number of interesting inquiries might -be begun, but my object at present is only to make a small contribution -along what I believe will prove a profitable line of investigation, -hoping that others will add theirs. In this way something will be -accomplished toward reconstructing the simple life of our natives, doing -them a justice, and discovering, I am sure, what will be a delight and -benefit both to the present and to the coming generations of our own -people. - - H. S. LYMAN. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - DOCUMENTS. - - -All of the following newspaper articles were taken from a single year of -the New York _Tribune_. They serve well to indicate the interest with -which Oregon Territory was regarded throughout the country in 1842: - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), January 18, 1842.] - - FROM OREGON. - - EXTRACT OF A LETTER DATED WILHAMET, FEBRUARY 19, 1842. - - I will now tell you something of the people of this country. There - are about seventy-five to eighty French Canadians settled in this - country, principally discharged from the service of the Hudson Bay - Company; there are also about fifty Americans settled in and about - this country, making, perhaps, one hundred and twenty-five to one - hundred and thirty male inhabitants, who are married to Indian - women. They raise from their farms, on an average, from three to - five hundred, and some from ten to twelve hundred bushels of wheat, - besides great quantities of pease, potatoes, oats, barley, corn, - etc. The Hudson Bay Company have in their employ at Fort Vancouver - about one hundred and twenty-five persons, and many in several - other forts both sides of the Rocky Mountains. - - These people, as I said before, are married to Indian women, and - live very much the same, in all respects, as our farmers at - home, with the exception of not being obliged to labor half as - much. They generally have from fifty to one hundred head of - horses, half as many cows, and about the same number of hogs; - these all take care of themselves. The people here cut no hay - and make no pastures; they do not give their hogs any feed, - excepting about a month before they kill them. There is one - church here, and the people have contracted for a brick church - and other buildings necessary, such as a school house for the - French and one for the Americans. The French have one priest - here and one at Fort Vancouver. - - The Americans generally attend at the mission, and, as far as I - can see, the people here are as well behaved and moral as in our - town. We have now a committee at work drafting a constitution and - code of laws; have in nomination a governor, an attorney-general, - three justices of the peace, etc.; overseers of the poor, road - commissioners, etc. We have already chosen a supreme judge with - probate powers, a clerk of the court and recorder, a high sheriff, - and three constables; so that you see we are in a fair way of - starting a rival republic on this side of the mountains, especially - as we are constantly receiving recruits— those people whose time - has expired with the Hudson Bay Company, and from mountain hunters - coming down to settle.—_National Intelligencer_. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), Friday morning, March 24, 1842.] - - Oregon is now the theme of general interest at the west. Large - meetings to discuss the policy of taking formal possession of - and colonizing it have been held at Columbus, Ohio, and several - other places. Many are preparing to emigrate. A band of hardy - settlers will rendezvous at Fort Leavenworth, and set out thence - for Oregon early in May, under the command of Major Fitzpatrick. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), April 26, 1842.] - - FROM OAHU. - - The ship William Gray brings to Salem, Massachusetts, date from - Honolulu, November 27. * * * Late intelligence from Oregon - confirms previous accounts with regard to missionary operations. - From the fewness of the Indians and their migratory habits it is - feared that little good can be effected among them. Many of the - missionaries have become farmers and others are preparing to - leave. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), March 13, 1842.] - - OREGON. - - The following letter is from an intelligent sea captain just - returned from the Pacific Ocean. It gives information of the - progress of the British appropriation of the trade and all the - accessible regions of the Northern Pacific, which should be - impressed upon the American public.—_Globe_. - - BOSTON, May 1, 1842. - - SIR: Thinking it may be interesting or important to know some of - the late operations and present plans of the Hudson’s Bay - Company in the North Pacific Ocean, I beg leave to present to - your notice some facts in relation to the same, and which have - come to my knowledge from personal observation, or from sources - entitled to the fullest credit. - - All that extensive line of coast comprehending the Russian - possessions on the Northwest Coast of America, from Mount Saint - Elias south to the latitude 54° 40′ north (the last being the - boundary line between the Russian and American territories), - together with the sole and exclusive right or privilege of - frequenting all ports, bays, sounds, rivers, etc., within said - territory, and establishing forts and trading with the Indians, - has been leased or granted by the Russian-American Fur Company - to the British Hudson’s Bay Company, for the term of ten years - from January, 1842; and for which the latter are to pay, - _annually_, four thousand seal skins, or the value thereof in - money, at the rate of thirty-two shillings each, say £6,400 - sterling, or $30,720. - - In the above-named lease the Russians have, however, reserved to - themselves the Island of Sitka, or New Archangel; in which - place, you probably are aware, the Russians have a large - settlement—the depot and headquarters of their fur trade with - the Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, and the continental shore - westward of Mount Saint Elias. All the trading establishments of - the Russians lately at Tumgass, Stickene, and other places - within said territory, leased to the Hudson’s Bay Company, have - of consequence been broken up. Thus the Hudson’s Bay Company not - content with monopolizing the heretofore profitable trade of the - Americans, of supplying the Russian settlements on the Northwest - Coast, have now cut them off also from all trade with the most - valuable fur regions in the world. - - Whether the arrangements made between the Russians and English, - above alluded to, are conformable to the treaties existing - between the United States on the one part, and those nations - respectively on the other, I leave to your better knowledge to - determine. - - With the doings of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Puget Sound and - the Columbia River you are doubtless fully informed; those, - however, lately commenced by them in California will admit of my - saying a few words. - - At San Francisco they purchased a large house as a trading - establishment and depot for merchandise; and they intend this - year to have a place of the same kind at each of the principal - ports in Upper California. Two vessels are building in London, - intended for the same trade—that is, for the coasting trade; and - after completing their cargoes, to carry them to England. These - things, with others, give every indication that it is the - purpose of the Hudson’s Bay Company to monopolize the whole hide - and tallow trade of California, a trade which now employs more - than half a million of American capital. At the Sandwich Islands - the company have a large trading establishment, and have - commenced engaging the commerce of the country, with evident - designs to monopolize it, if possible, and to drive off the - Americans, who have heretofore been its chief creators and - conductors. - - I have been informed, by one of the agents of the Hudson’s Bay - Company, that the agricultural and commercial operations of the - English at Puget Sound, Columbia River, California, and Sandwich - Islands, are carried on, not actually by the Hudson’s Bay - Company, but by what may be termed a branch of it—by gentlemen - who are the chief members and stockholders of said company, and - who have associated themselves under the firm Pelly, Simpson & - Co., in London, and with a capital of more than $15,000,000! - - Seeing these companies, then, marching with iron footsteps to - the possession of the most valuable portion of country in the - Northern Pacific, and considering, too, the immense amount of - their capital, the number, enterprise, and energy of their - agents, and the policy pursued by them, great reason is there to - fear that American commerce in that part of the world must soon - lower its flag. But, sir, it is to be hoped that our government - will soon do something to break up the British settlements in - the Oregon Territory, and thereby destroy the source from which - now emanates the dire evils to American interests in the western - world. In the endeavor to bring about that desirable object, you - have done much; and every friend to his country, every person - interested in the commerce of the Pacific, must feel grateful - for the valuable services rendered them by you. - - With great respect, your obedient servant, - - HENRY A. PRICE. - - HON. LEWIS F. LINN, - - Senator of the United States, Washington. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), July 4, 1842.] - - SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION. - - The Missouri _Reporter_ of the fourteenth instant contains a - notice of the expedition of Lieutenant Fremont, of the United - States Topographical Engineers, to the base of the Rocky - Mountains, in the latitude of the Platte and Kanzas rivers, with - a view to ascertain positions and localities, to explore the - face of the country, and to make the government fully acquainted - with that remote and important point of our extended territory - now becoming of so much greater interest from the extension of - our trade to the northern parts of Mexico and California, and - the settlement growing up in the valley of the Columbia River. - - The line of communication now followed by immigrants, traders - and travelers to the Columbia and California, is upon this - route, and through the famous South Pass—a depression in the - Rocky Mountains at the head of the River Platte, which makes a - gate in that elevated ridge, passable in a state of nature, for - loaded wagons, of which many have passed through. This - examination of the country on this side of the Rocky Mountains - comes at a very auspicious moment to complete our researches in - that direction, and to give more value to the surveys and - examinations of the Columbia River, its estuary, and the - surrounding country, made by Lieutenant Wilkes in his recent - voyage, and of which a full report has been made to the - government. These two examinations will give us an authentic and - interesting view of the important country belonging to the - United States on each side of the Rocky Mountains; and taken in - connection with the great scientific survey of Mr. Nicollet, - commencing at the mouth of the Missouri River, and extending - north to the head of the Mississippi, and to latitude 49°, and - covering all the country in the forks of these two rivers, over - an extent of ten degrees of latitude, will shed immense light - upon the geography and natural history of the vast region west - of the Mississippi River.—_Globe_. - - - The following is the article from the Missouri _Reporter_: - - Lieutenant Fremont, of the corps of the topographical engineers, - left here under orders from the war department, about ten days - ago, with a party of twenty men on a tour to the Rocky - Mountains. The object of the expedition is an examination of the - country between the mouth of the Kanzas and the headwaters of - the great River Platte, including the navigable parts of both - these rivers, and what is called the Southern Pass in the Rocky - Mountains, and intermediate country, with the view to the - establishment of a line of military posts from the frontiers of - Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River. This expedition is - connected with the proposition now before congress to occupy the - territory about the Columbia River as proposed by Dr. Linn’s - bill. - - The great River Platte is the most direct line of communication - between this country and the mouth of the Columbia, and that - route is known to be practicable and easy. It therefore becomes - important to ascertain the general character of that river and - the adjacent country, and the facilities it will be likely to - afford in prosecuting contemplated settlements in Oregon. This - Southern Pass, or depression in the Rocky Mountains, is near the - source of the extreme branch of the River Platte, and affords an - easy passage for wagons and other wheel carriages, which have - frequently passed over the mountains on that route without - difficulty or delay; and it is important that the latitude of - this point should be ascertained, as it is thought that it will - not vary much from the line established between the United - States and Mexico by treaty with Spain, 1819. If this pass - should fall south of that line (the forty-second degree of north - latitude) it may become necessary to examine the country north - of it, the line of the Yellowstone and south branch of the - Columbia would, it is thought, afford the next best route. - - Lieutenant Fremont, though young, has had much experience in - surveys of this kind, having made the topographical survey of - the Des Moines River, and having assisted the scientific Mr. - Nicollet in his great survey of the Upper Mississippi. He is - well supplied with instruments for making astronomical - observations; for fixing the longitude and latitude of important - points; and a daguerrotype apparatus for taking views of - important points and scenes along the route; and, if not - obstructed in his operations by large bands of wild, wandering - Indians, which sometimes trouble small parties passing through - that region, may be expected to impart much valuable information - to the government and to the country. - - Since the attention of the country has been directed to the - settlement of the Oregon Territory by our able senator (Doctor - Linn), and by the reports of those who have visited that region - in person, the importance of providing ample security for - settlers there, and of opening a safe and easy communication - from the western boundary of Missouri to the Columbia River has - been universally admitted. - - The day is not far distant when, if the general government shall - do its duty in the matter, Oregon will be inhabited by a hardy, - industrious, and intelligent population, and the enterprise of - our citizens find a new channel of trade with the islands of the - Pacific, the western coast of this whole continent, and perhaps - with Eastern Asia. Notwithstanding the many obstacles at present - in the way of the settlement of this territory, emigrants are - rapidly pouring into it, and only demand of government that - protection which is due to all our citizens, wherever they may - choose to reside. While negotiations are pending at Washington - to adjust all existing difficulties between this country and - Great Britain, our right to this territory should not be - forgotten. At present, it may seem a small matter to the - negotiations; but they should remember that every year’s delay - will only render the final adjustment of the disputed - northwestern boundary more difficult. - - We are pleased to learn that the proper authorities at - Washington evince a disposition to do something toward - encouraging the early occupation of Oregon by permanent American - settlers. It is known that many of the islands in the Pacific - have already been settled by Americans, and trading houses - established, by which a large and profitable business is carried - on with the Indian tribes on the northwestern coast of America, - and with the East Indies and China. There is nothing to prevent - trading establishments in Oregon from ultimately securing a - large share of this trade, and adding much to the wealth and - prosperity of the whole union. - - But, regardless of these ultimate advantages, the prospect of - immediate success is so great that many of our hardy pioneers - are already turning their attention to the settlement of Oregon, - and many years will not elapse before that territory contains a - large population. Doctor Linn has done much to urge a speedy - occupation of it by permanent American residents. If Lieutenant - Fremont shall be successful in his contemplated exploration of - the route, and if the government shall furnish proper protection - to those who shall seek a home in that distant region, the - English may not only be completely dislodged from the foothold - they have already acquired there, but prevented from making - further inroads upon our western territory, and long - monopolizing the greater part of the trade at present carried on - with the Indian tribes at the Northwest and West. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), July 15, 1842.] - - THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION. - - The Washington correspondent of the _Journal of Commerce_ writes - as follows of the results of the exploring expedition: - - The universal opinion here on the subject of the conduct and - results of the exploring expedition is highly favorable to the - officers who had charge of it. It has certainly given to - Lieutenant Wilkes a reputation as an accomplished seaman and an - energetic and scientific officer. - - He delivered before the national institute a course of lectures, - at the request of that body, on the subject of the expedition, - which gave satisfaction and instruction to a numerous and - enlightened auditory—among whom were Mr. J. Q. Adams, Mr. - Poinsett, Mr. Woodbury, the members of the cabinet, and many - scientific gentlemen from every portion of the union. - - At the close of his last lecture the honorable Secretary of the - Navy (Mr. Upshur) rose and addressed the assembly in the warmest - terms of commendation of the successful labors and efforts of - Captain Wilkes, and the officers and scientific corps under his - command. He adverted to one fact which of itself spoke strongly - of the skill with which the expedition had been conducted—that - it had visited the remotest quarters of the globe, traversed the - most dangerous seas, surveyed the most impenetrable coasts, and - encountered the vicissitudes of every climate with so little - difficulty or loss. - - The secretary also remarked on the immense treasures in natural - science which the officers of the expedition had collected and - transmitted to the government in such admirable order, and which - now formed the basis of the museum of the national institute. - - He commented, also, on Captain Wilkes’ report upon the Oregon - Territory, and declared that this report was alone an ample - compensation to the country for the whole cost of the - expedition. He expressed the opinion, in fine, that the results - of the expedition were highly valuable and honorable, not to - this country alone, but to the cause of civilization in the - world. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), August 10, 1842.] - - _Correspondence from Washington._ - - Points of the treaty. * * * The boundary line agreed upon runs - to the Rocky Mountains, and leaves unsettled the question of the - Oregon Territory. There is nothing lost by this, for our - emigrants are daily settling this question. We grow stronger - there by time, and become _nearer_, too. - - - In the same paper of the same date as the above: - - THE OREGON FUR TRADE. - - This valuable traffic, which is at once the instrument of - exploration and the nursery of seamen, was by the convention of - 1818 suffered to be pursued promiscuously by British and - Americans, and in consequence of that suicidal provision is fast - being diverted from the latter to the former. Our exports of - furs to Canton amounted in 1821, to $480,000; in 1832, to about - $200,000, and in 1839, to $56,000, showing a gradual decrease - between the years 1821 and 1839 of more than seven-eighths, in - the amount and value of this trade. A better practical - commentary is not needed upon the effect of our legislation, and - while Americans are thus annually withdrawing from this trade, - Great Britain is extending her facilities for commanding it - every day. Her hunters and trappers are scattered over the whole - extent of the territory; nor are they content with the - legitimate profits of the business. While within the British - Territory the strictest provisions are made to prevent the - destruction of game unnecessarily, no such precautions are - enforced here, but on the contrary the Indians and others are - encouraged to hunt at all seasons of the year without regard to - the preservation of game. The result of this will be the - extermination of the beaver and other animals killed for their - fur within a few years unless the United States interferes. - - - [From the _Tribune_ (New York), December 14, 1842.] - - THE NORTHWEST COAST. - -Some apprehension exists that a settled design is entertained by Great -Britain of disputing our claim to the territory beyond the Rocky -Mountains and the whole Pacific Coast in that quarter. A letter to the -editor of the _Globe_ from an officer of the United States ship Dale, -belonging to the Pacific Squadron, dated “Bay of Panama, September 23, -1842,” contains the following paragraph: - - We sailed from Callao seventh instant in company with the frigate - United States (Commodore Jones’ flagship), and sloop-of-war Cyane, - but we separated from them and bore up for this port on the seventh - day out. Just previously to our departure two British ships-of-war - (the razee Dublin, and sloop-of-war Champion) sailed thence on - _secret service_! Of course this mysterious movement of Admiral - Thomas elicited a thousand conjectures as to his destination, - the most probable of which seemed to be that he was bound for - the Northwest Coast of Mexico, where, it is surmised, a _British - station_ is to be located in accordance with a secret convention - between the Mexican and English governments! And it is among the - _on dits_ in the squadron that the frigate, the Cyane, and the - Dale, are to rendezvous as soon as practicable at Monterey to keep - an eye upon John Bull’s movements in that quarter. - -The following document is a letter by William Plumer, then United States -Senator from New Hampshire. The original is in the possession of Dr. Jay -Tuttle, of Astoria. Bradbury Cilley, Esqr., to whom the letter is -addressed, was an ancestor of Doctor Tuttle. The copy was secured by -George H. Himes, Assistant Secretary of the Oregon Historical Society. - - WASHINGTON, Feby 25, 1806. - - MY DEAR FRIEND: A few days since I received your kind letter of - the 27th January. It had a long passage. Your letters need no - apology. They always afford me pleasure, and I regret that I so - seldom receive them. - - The papers of the day inform you that we are doing little, - except meeting, talking, and adjourning. Indeed we have little - business to do that is of importance. The great, astonishing - changes that so rapidly succeed one another in Europe admonishes - us to deliberate much and act little in relation to our - connection with them. We ought, in my opinion, to reserve - ourselves for events. - - I do not believe there is any fear of an invasion from any - nation. I am, therefore, opposed to expending millions in - fortifying our seaports. I consider the money to be thus - expended worse than lost. Those works, if erected, will compel - us to an annual expenditure, to a considerable amount, to - support them. The revenues of the United States, for years, - might be expended in erecting fortifications. This kind of a - defense is in its nature unavailing. Witness the great but - useless fortifications at Copenhagen in 1801; witness a single - British frigate in 1776, with the tide and a gentle breeze, - passing unhurt down the Hudson, by all our forts at New York. - If, instead of raising money to fortify against enemies that are - distant as the moon, a reasonable sum was annually and prudently - applied to building a permanent navy, we should then exert our - energies to a useful purpose. We should then find increasing - commerce would not in every sea depend, for protection, on the - capricious whims of nations whose interests it is to capture and - condemn it. But I presume we shall do nothing this session that - will be permanent. In a popular government there are too many - whose constant inquiries are directed rather to please, than - serve, the people. - - The senate to gratify France has interdicted the trade to - Saint Domingo, and to restrain the President from warring - against Great Britain, they have resolved that he must resort - to negotiation. The fact is, the President knew Jay’s rendered - a former administration unpopular, and to remove the - responsibility from the President to the Senate, his friends - induced them in their legislative capacity to assume and - exercise their executive powers and request him to negotiate,— - the very measure he had adopted. I was apprised of the fact, - opposed and voted against it, much against the will of my - friends. I am unwilling to remove the responsibility which the - constitution has imposed on him—’tis dangerous. - - Yesterday I dined with the President. I felt in high glee, and - enjoyed myself; but I thought the President discovered an - unusual weight of care. The times, indeed, require all his - vigilance. - - Mr. Burr is here—but is not yet Minister to Great Britain—nor I - hope never will [be]. - - Our weather is remarkably warm. The grass is verdant, and the - birds of spring are come. I enjoy good health and spirits—but - wish to return to my friends and family—though I fear I shall - not for many weeks. - - Make my compliments agreeable to Mrs. Cilley, and be assured - that I am with much esteem yours sincerely, - - WILLIAM PLUMER. - - BRADBURY CILLEY, ESQR., - - Nottingham, N. H. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PUBLICATIONS - - OF THE - - OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY - - - -------------- - - - SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF OREGON - - VOLUME I - -NUMBER 1.—JOURNAL OF MEDOREM CRAWFORD—AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRIP ACROSS THE -PLAINS IN 1842. PRICE, 25 CENTS. - -NUMBER 2.—THE INDIAN COUNCIL AT WALLA WALLA, MAY AND JUNE, 1855, BY COL. -LAWRENCE KIP—A JOURNAL. PRICE, 25 CENTS. - -NUMBERS 3 TO 6 INCLUSIVE.—THE CORRESPONDENCE AND JOURNALS OF CAPTAIN -NATHANIEL J. WYETH, 1831-6.—A RECORD OF TWO EXPEDITIONS, FOR THE -OCCUPATION OF THE OREGON COUNTRY, WITH MAPS, INTRODUCTION AND INDEX. -PRICE, $1.10. - -THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1898-9, INCLUDING -PAPER BY SILAS B. SMITH, ON “BEGINNINGS IN OREGON,” 97 PAGES. PRICE, 25 -CENTS. - - -------------- - - - QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - - CONTENTS NO. 1, VOL. I, MARCH, 1900. - - THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A COMMONWEALTH 1 - GOVERNMENT IN OREGON—_James R. Robertson_ - - THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER SETTLEMENT— 60 - _Thomas Condon_ - - NATHANIEL J. WYETH’S OREGON EXPEDITIONS—“In Historic 66 - Mansions and Highways Around Boston” - - REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU—_H. S. Lyman_ 73 - - DOCUMENTS—Correspondence of John McLoughlin, Nathaniel J. 105 - Wyeth, S. R. Thurston, and R. C. Winthrop, pertaining to - claim of Dr. McLoughlin at the Falls of the Willamette—the - site of Oregon City - - NOTES AND NEWS 70 - - -------------- - - CONTENTS NO. 2, VOL. I, JUNE, 1900. - - THE OREGON QUESTION—_Joseph R. Wilson_ 111 - - OUR PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM AND ITS RELATION TO EDUCATION IN THE 132 - UNITED STATES—_Frances F. Victor_ - - GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN EARLY OREGON—_Mrs. William Markland_ 158 - _Molson_ - - NOT MARJORAM.—THE SPANISH WORD “OREGANO” NOT THE ORIGINAL OF 165 - OREGON—_H. W. Scott_ - - REMINISCENCES OF LOUIS LABONTE—_H. S. Lyman_ 169 - - DR. ELLIOTT COURS—_Frances F. Victor_ 189 - - DOCUMENT.—A Narrative of Events in Early Oregon ascribed to 193 - Dr. John McLoughlin - - REVIEWS OF BOOKS.—“McLoughlin and Old Oregon”—_Eva Emery_ 207 - _Dye_ - - “Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest”—_H. K. Hines,_ 210 - _D. D._ - - NOTE.—A Correction 212 - - - PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - UNIVERSITY OF OREGON. - - - -------------- - -_THE GRADUATE SCHOOL confers the degrees of Master of Arts, (and in -prospect, of Doctor of Philosophy,) Civil and Sanitary Engineer (C. E.), -Electrical Engineer (E. E.), Chemical Engineer (Ch. E.), and Mining -Engineer (Min. E.)_ - - -------------- - -_THE COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS confers the degree of -Bachelor of Arts on graduates from the following groups: (1) General -Classical; (2) General Literary; (3) General Scientific; (4) Civic- -Historical. It offers Collegiate Courses not leading to a degree as -follows: (1) Preparatory to Law or Journalism; (2) Course for Teachers._ - - -------------- - -_THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.—_ - -_A.—The School of Applied Science confers the degree of Bachelor of - Science on graduates from the following groups; (1) General Science; - (2) Chemistry; (3) Physics; (4) Biology; (5) Geology and Mineralogy. - It offers a Course Preparatory to Medicine._ - -_B.—The School of Engineering: (1) Civil and Sanitary; (2) Electrical; - (3) Chemical._ - - -------------- - _THE SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINING. - THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at Portland. - THE SCHOOL OF LAW at Portland. - THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC. - THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMY._ - - _Address_ - - THE PRESIDENT, - - EUGENE, OREGON. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. - - - 2. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised if a - predominant form was found within the text, but all other spelling - and punctuation remains unchanged. - - - 3. Underscores in the text, like _this_, are used to represent text - that was italicised in the original book. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical -Society,(Vol. I, No. 3), by Oregon Historical Society - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY *** - -***** This file should be named 62009-0.txt or 62009-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/0/0/62009/ - -Produced by Gísli Valgeirsson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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