History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 4

by Frances Fuller Victor

CHAPTER IV.

METHODIST OCCUPATION

1834–1838.

Removal of Effects—Fencing, Building, and Planting—The Sorrowful work of Conversion—Missionary Failures—Daniel Lee Visits the Islands—Arrival of Kelley and Young—Figueroa's Letter—Estrangement of Ewing Young—Attack on an Incoming Party by the Natives of Rogue River—The Affair of the Distillery—Arrival of a Government Agent.

We left the missionaries with their effects upon the landing at French Prairie. The labor of removal to the spot selected had given the well-trained muscles of Daniel Lee and Edwards ample exercise. Lee relates how they missed the trail in going to the farm of Thomas McKay for horses, soon after landing, and floundered through quagmires and wet tide-land grass and how they were welcomed, on finally reaching their destination, by Monsieur La Bonté whose son Louis assisted in driving the animals. Taking the fur-traders' path over the mountains that border the Columbia and lower Willamette, through the Tualatin^[1] plains, and the valley of the Chehalem, they met at Campement du Sable the canoe party with the goods, and together they soon concluded their journey.

The little company who here pitched their tent during these last days of the Oregon summer, found before them much to be done. All around prairie, river, and sky; mountain, beast, and man stood innocent of contact with human intelligence. Their business now was to apply this mind-culture of theirs to reclaiming for civilized man this wilderness, and to wage war upon primeval nature. And by so-called humble ways this mighty achievement must be begun. There was the grindstone to be hung, and tools had to be sharpened; before proceeding to build for themselves a habitation, rails must be split to make an enclosure for the half-wild oxen, and yokes and ox-bows must be made. The task of yoking and driving the refractory brutes was one to try the patience, courage, and ingenuity of the missionaries, whose united efforts could scarcely reduce them to submission. The cows, too, lately driven off the pastures, were intractable, and had to be tied by the head, and hobbled, before they could be milked. "Men never worked harder and performed less," says Daniel Lee. The trees being felled, cut into the proper lengths, and squared,^[2] a building twenty feet by thirty was in the course of erection when the first autumn storm of rain and wind came on, drenching some of the goods, to which a tent proved only a partial protection. By the 1st of November they had a roof over their heads, and a puncheon floor beneath their feet, while a bright fire blazed under a chimney constructed of sticks and clay. The doors of this primitive mansion were hewn out of fir logs, and hung on wooden hinges; a partition divided the house into two apartments, and four small windows, whose sashes were whittled out with a pocket-knife by Jason Lee, admitted the dull light of a cloudy winter. Little by little tables, stools, and chairs were in like manner added. Of bedsteads there is no mention in the writings of the only one of their number who has left any record. A blanket and a plank served for a couch. As to the food of the family, it was as simple as their lodgings. They had shipped nothing from Boston except some salt pork, which was boiled with barley or pease purchased of the French settlers. Unleavened bread made from flour brought from Fort Vancouver, and a little milk, to which was sometimes added a haunch of venison obtained from the natives, completed their stock of provisions.

To Cyrus Shepard, unable to endure the hardships, McLoughlin gave charge of the school at Fort Vancouver, previously taught by Solomon H. Smith, who had taken up his residence with Joseph Gervais, and whose children, among others, he instructed.^[3] Shepard rejoined the mission probably soon after, the house was made comfortable, about which time C. M. Walker, having fulfilled his engagement with the Lees, entered the service of Wyeth as clerk.

Then came the labor of beginning a farm; and the winter being mild, a field of thirty acres was ploughed and enclosed by a rail-fence, and in the spring was planted and sown in wheat, corn, oats, and garden vegetables. For the security of the prospective crops a barn was erected thirty by forty feet, of logs cut by the Lees and Edwards, assisted by Rora, a Hawaiian, and a Calapooya boy called John, the Canadians of the vicinity helping to lay up the logs. Later, two of the men who came with Kelley and Young were hired to saw logs into planks and boards for flooring and doors, the barn being in some respects an improvement on the house. Shingles were split from four-foot sections of fir logs, and were kept in place by heavy poles, the buts of the second course resting against the pole on the first, and so forth. In this manner a good roof was obtained without nails.^[4]

 

Such were their secular pursuits. But it must not be forgotten that missionaries had other labors to perform. The first sermon in this quarter was delivered by Jason Lee on Sunday, the 28th of September, before a mixed congregation of officers and servants of the fur company at Fort Vancouver. On the 14th of December religious services were again held at the same place, when Lee baptized four adults and seventeen children, and received from the gentlemen of the fort a contribution to the Mission of twenty dollars.^[5] And now on every Sunday since their arrival at the station, a meeting of the settlers was held at Gervais' house, and a sermon preached on the duties of godliness and sobriety, an occasional meeting being appointed for the Champoeg settlement. A sabbath-school also was soon begun at Gervais for the benefit of the children in that neighborhood. But these hebdomadal efforts could hardly be regarded as regular missionary work. Three native children only were received at the Mission house the first winter, namely, two orphans, John, already mentioned, his sister Lucy, who was called Hedding after the Methodist bishop of that name, and another lad, all Calapooyas. John, being a healthy boy, was required to fell trees and perform other outdoor labor. This was directly opposed to the aboriginal idea of dignity, and contrary to taste and habit; so John soon returned to his former ways, leaving sick and scrofulous Lucy to be cared for and converted by the men-missionaries.

Alas for the wily wickedness of the savage heart! No sooner did genial spring begin to warm his blood than the other lordly young aboriginal, who had come hither naked and starving in the cold wet winter for comfort and consolation, peremptorily declined all labor, whether of the hand or mind, and marched away to his purple-glowing mountains.

Certain Umpquas in planting-time left a boy with the missionaries, to be taught farming and religion; but in the midsummer the lad died of consumption, which circumstance Hines says came near bringing destruction on Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard;^[6] but this Lee denies. The Killamooks brought a lad of their tribe to the Mission for instruction, who would neither work nor learn to read; all day long he would sit on the bank of the Willamette gazing tearfully toward the coast, where he was born, exhibiting all the anguish of an exile; hence on the first visit of his people he was permitted to depart. In the midst of the harvest the effect of noxious exhalations from the freshly ploughed earth, which had for a long time been poisoning their blood while unsubstantial diet thinned it, became distressingly manifest in fierce attacks of intermittent fever, each member of the Mission family being in turn prostrated. Fortunately the disease yielded to medicine, and all recovered.

About the beginning of September Louis Shangaratte of the French settlement, suddenly died from the bursting of a blood-vessel, leaving three half-breed orphans and five Indian slaves without a home. McLoughlin, zealous for the Mission and the children, desired Jason Lee to take charge of this family and of whatever property Shangaratte might have left them. The proposition was accepted on condition that the slaves be emancipated. These eight persons proved a burden on the establishment, which was partially relieved by the elopement of two of the natives.^[7] Soon three of the others, including one of Shangaratte's children, died of syphilis, a disease by which more than half the native children in the Willamette and Columbia valleys were infected. A fourth lingered in a scrofulous condition for two years, and then died, leaving but two of these Mission wards remaining. During the autumn the Calapooyas brought a young child, the daughter of a chief who was dying of consumption, to be cared for by the missionaries, but she soon followed her father to the grave. Of the fourteen children received the first year, five died before winter and five ran away; of the remaining four two died during the next two years, leaving two for secular and sacred ministrations.^[8] This was brave work indeed for champions of the cross. To the poor missionaries, about this time, the place seemed as profitless as that of dentist to King Stanislaus, obtained by L'Eclure the day upon which the king lost his last tooth; and Jason and Daniel talked about it, and wondered if hitherto heaven's light had come to them colored as through a painted window, for it was as clearly apparent to them now, as the mark of the avalanche on the mountain side, that their efforts were a failure. And later Daniel Lee was called upon to satisfy public inquiry by giving the reasons which caused his uncle to abandon the Flatheads and settle among Canadians and half-breeds.^[9]

Besides harvesting a plentiful crop,^[10] an addition was made to the house more than equal in size to the original structure, and fifteen acres of land additional were ploughed for sowing the labor being performed by the Lees and Edwards, Shepard acting as housekeeper and nurse. With his own hands Jason Lee salted six barrels of salmon, then the chief food of the country.

By the time this was accomplished the Mission was approaching a state of dissolution. Edwards had joined the Lees in the first instance from love of adventure, and to benefit his health, which being accomplished, he was desirous of returning home. The fur company's vessel, the Ganymede, Eales commander, was about to sail for the Hawaiian Islands, and Edwards bade farewell to the Mission superintendent. He was accompanied to Fort Vancouver by the younger Lee, who was in need of medical advice for a disease of the throat which threatened consumption.

But on arriving at Fort Vancouver Edwards' plan of returning to Missouri was changed by the verdict of McLoughlin upon the case of Daniel Lee, who he said should go immediately to the Islands for his health, and to whom he offered free passage by the Ganymede. To leave the elder Lee with only the half-invalid Shepard was to leave him virtually alone, which Edwards was too generous to do. Overcome by Lee's persuasions, he went back to the Mission disappointed, and Daniel Lee proceeded to the Islands. On this ship was Nuttall, the botanist, who had spent a year in studying the flora of the Pacific coast. The previous winter both Nuttall and Townsend had visited the Hawaiian group in Wyeth's ship, the May Dacre. The naturalists were now separating, Townsend to remain another year in Oregon, and his friend to go to California by way of the Islands. All these people travelled freely on the fur company's vessels without charge. ^[11]

Daniel Lee remained away nearly a year, that is to say, till August 1836, when he returned in the Hudson's Bay Company's bark Nereid, Captain Royal, with renewed health, and contributions to the Oregon Mission from christianized Hawaiians. Among his fellow-passengers were the Reverend Herbert Beaver, newly appointed chaplain of the fur company, and his wife, who took up their residence at Fort Vancouver, and of whom mention has already been made.

Meanwhile the winter of 1835–6 had passed quietly at the Mission. Edwards had taught a small school near Champoeg. The following summer some twenty-five children were brought in from the settlers of French Prairie, and from the natives on either side of the Cascade Mountains, increasing the number of persons at the Mission to thirty. Though in a lovely wilderness, in midsummer, the folly of breathing foul air was permitted. All the people there must be crowded into one small house; all of them were unaccustomed to such confinement; many of them were diseased; many became ill from change of diet, so that in the malarious atmosphere there came an epidemic bearing in its diagnosis a near resemblance to diphtheria.^[12]

Besides this, there were frequent cases of intermittent fever. Soon the house became a hospital, in which sixteen children were lying ill in one small room. No physician being at hand, the younger Lee applied his poor skill, assisted by the ever-patient and truly devoted Shepard, whose part in the Mission labors was most trying. Jason Lee himself had not escaped the prevailing sickness. It is not always the virtuous that the oak shrub will not poison, nor the fair whom the mosquitoes refuse to bite. He was at Fort Vancouver for medical aid when his nephew arrived. Lucy Hedding, the Calapooya girl, was also there, though past relief, for she died on the 5th of October. Edwards afterward took another patient to Fort Vancouver; and in November Jason Lee, suffering from his third attack, once more resorted to the superior practice of Doctor McLoughlin, remaining with him five weeks.

The fact that only two had died and one deserted greatly encouraged the Mission superintendent this year. The sum of spiritual benefits received as an offset to the physical penalties paid for religious instruction appears to have been this: Joseph Pournaffe, a half-breed, seventeen years of age, of gentle and obedient temper, gave evidence to his teachers that their labors were not lost, by dying with the same docility that he had shown during life.^[13] Probably there never was formulated a creed which might be adapted to the purpose with less friction than that of the Methodists. No expounding of dogmas is necessary; sufficient is the simple statement that sin is present, and that Christ's blood will wash it away. To the Indian, who had some idea of atonement, the doctrine requires but little elucidation. Happy indeed is the poor, sickly, degraded being here, who can be brought to look forward to riches, health, pleasures, and a glorious existence hereafter. It is the ideality of religion, the poetry of everlasting life.

But though the Mission seemed for a short time to promise some fruit, the expectation was lessened by a return in the first months of 1837 of the former disorders in a more threatening and fatal form. A chief of the Cayuses, having removed in the autumn with his family to the Willamete Valley in order that his children might attend the Mission school, lost two of them in quick succession, and a third became extremely ill. In his alarm he fled to Fort Vancouver with his family, but at the moment the canoe touched the landing the child expired. An incident like this, together with the continued sickness of the inmates of the Mission, produced a dread of the place in the minds of the Indians, and their parents refused the risk of earthly loss even for heavenly gain. At no time were there more than thirty-five or forty pupils in attendance, and of all that were received to the close of 1838, one third died, and the remainder were sickly.^[14] When will men learn that in the affairs of the savages the benevolence of civilization curdles into a curse, and missionary efforts are like a burst peat-bog sowing its black mud over the land!

While the missionaries were building, ploughing, and harvesting, teaching, preaching, and enduring, and becoming somewhat incorporated with the French settlers, a new element, and one in some respects less tractable, introduced itself in an unexpected manner. It was the party of Hall J. Kelley and Ewing Young, which arrived in the Willamette Valley late in October 1834. Something has been said of Kelley in the History of the Northwest Coast, but his appearance in Oregon at this time was a feature in the early history of the country demanding more than a passing notice here.

Kelley's object was to found an American settlement, and assert the rights of the United States government to the sovereignty of the country. Disappointed in his scheme of colonization, he set out with a few persons in 1833 to visit Oregon, travelling by a circuitous route through Mexico. At New Orleans he separated from or was deserted by his party, and proceeded alone to Vera Cruz. He was robbed, and suffered many hardships, but was not deterred from prosecuting his design.

Reaching California, he fell in with a number of American adventurers, chief among whom was Ewing Young, a native of Knox County, Tennessee, a cabinetmaker by trade, a man of fine intelligence and nerve united to a grand physique, and too restless and fond of new experiences to remain beside a turning-lathe all his life. As early as 1828–9, Young had visited California with a trapping party, hunting on Tulare Lake and San Joaquin River.^[15] Returning to New Mexico, he married a Taos woman, and was soon back in California with another party of trappers, which in 1831 broke up at Los Angeles, leaving Young to follow his bent among the friars and native Californians.

He and Kelley first met at San Diego; subsequently at Monterey the acquaintance ripened. On one side were the thrilling tales of wild life which Young loved to tell; on the other, the romantic scheme of colonizing Oregon. These were always themes of mutual interest. Kelley recognized in Young the bold and enterprising spirit he needed to accompany him to the yet far away Columbia, and being possessed of superior attainments as well as extraordinary enthusiasm, he was able to gain him over to his plan of laying the foundations of American empire beside the River of the West.

The party which left California for the north in the summer of 1834 consisted of sixteen men, picked up at Monterey and San Jose, some with a character not of the best. They had among them nearly a hundred horses and mules designed for use and sale. Several parted from the expedition before it reached the northern limits of California, but they had remained long enough to stamp upon the company their own thieving reputation, as we shall presently see.

While toiling among the mountains of southern Oregon, Kelley was stricken with fever, which rendered him helpless, from which condition he was rescued by Michel La Framboise, who nursed him back to life, while continuing his way to Fort Vancouver with the season's return of furs. The only other incident of the journey worth mentioning was a difficulty with the Indians on Rogue River, a rapid and beautiful stream which derived its name from the rascally character of the natives in its vicinity.^[16]

In passing through the valley of the Willamette, Young's party paused at the Mission station, one of his men remaining to assist the Lees in constructing a cart. Daniel Lee says some of them had been sailors, some hunters in the mountains and in southern Oregon, and "one Mr Kelley was a traveller, a New England man, who entertained some very extravagant notions in regard to Oregon, which he published on his return," and with this notice he dismisses the party of "about a dozen persons."^[17]

Proceeding to Fort Vancouver, a somewhat peculiar reception awaited them. The Hudson's Bay Company's schooner Cadboro, which arrived there before them from the bay of Monterey, had brought a communication from Figueroa, governor of California, to Chief Factor McLoughlin, denouncing Young and Kelley as horse-thieves, and cautioning the fur company to have nothing to do with the party, as they were banditti, and dangerous persons—an accusation all the more significant because Young had between seventy and eighty horses in his possession.

This letter of Figueroa's closed the gates of Fort Vancouver against both Young and Kelley, though on account of Kelley's health, the fever having returned, he was given a hut such as was occupied by the servants of the company outside the fort, with an attendant, medical aid, and all necessary comforts for the winter.^[18] In return he vigorously plied his pen, setting forth the abuses practised on American citizens by the British company in Oregon.

Meanwhile Young returned to French Prairie to find himself posted bandit and horse-thief. Strangers were cautioned to receive none of the vagabond party into their houses. Young was furious. He tore down the notices, hurled maledictions on the California governor, and warned the Canadians against accepting such lies. Though the haughty temper and indignant denial of Young were not without effect on McLoughlin, yet official information to an official could not be disregarded.

On one occasion, being in need of clothing, Young sent some beaver-skins to Fort Vancouver with which to purchase the desired articles. McLoughlin refused the skins, but sent the goods, with some food, as a present. Thereupon Young's rage broke out afresh, and he returned every article. Then, he went to Fort Vancouver and poured forth his displeasure in person, the interview ending in rather strong words between the autocrat of Oregon and the Tennessee cabinetmaker.^[19] The former modified his opinion somewhat; and when the Cadboro returned to Monterey in the spring of 1835 McLoughlin inquired of Figueroa the foundation of his charges against Young and party. A letter also went from Young demanding why he had been so maligned. But as no answer could be expected to these inquires for several months, affairs remained in statu quo, Young meanwhile locating himself in the Chehalem Valley, opposite Champoeg, where he tended his mustangs, and traded when he had aught to sell. He had some dealings with C. M. Walker, late of the Mission, but now at Fort William, as agent of Wyeth, who had returned to Fort Hall.^[20]

There is no doubt that by forbidding the Canadian farmers to trade with Young, and himself refusing to sell to him, McLoughlin expected to drive from the country what he had been assured was a band of thieves, and so save trouble with the natives and injury to the settlers. But Young and Kelly gave to McLoughlin's conduct a different interpretation. Kelley said to Young, and all others who visited him outside the fort,^[21] that it was opposition to American settlement upon political and pecuniary grounds. He so placed the matter before Jason Lee, who, he says, often clandestinely left the fort that he might converse freely with him on his plans; but Lee had obligated himself to retard immigration to the country by accepting a loan from McLoughlin for the purpose of opening a farm which should be a supply establishment for other missionary stations yet to be erected.^[22] With a scheme of an exclusively Methodist colony, a sort of religious republic in his own mind Jason Lee was not likely to listen with favor to the plans of a man who, however religious in his own sentiments, had come to the country in company with horse-thieves and banditti; and Kelley, with a sore heart and half-crazed brain, was left to dwell in solitude on the failure of his magnificent scheme of an ideal American settlement devoted to liberty, virtue, order, education, the enlightenment of the savage tribes of the north-west, and the promotion of individual happiness.^[23] So little sympathy and so much blame did he receive from those he had unwittingly involved in his misfortunes, that he did not venture during his stay in the country to visit the Willamette Valley, being deterred therefrom by threats of vengeance.^[24] In the spring, accepting passage on the company's ship Dryad, Captain Keplin, he departed from the country upon which his grandest hopes had been so centred, sailing for the Hawaiian Islands.

But if Kelley was forced by untoward circumstances to leave the country, he did not fail solemnly to affirm in a communication to McLoughlin, that while he was not a public agent, acting by authority from the United States government, but only a private individual, he was yet a freeborn son of American independence, moved by the spirit of liberty, and animated with the hope of being useful to his fellow-men.^[25] That those who had come with him were not idle or profligate, in such degree as to threaten the peace of the community, is evident from the rarity of offences. They were indeed useful in their way.^[26]

One of Young's men, Webley J. Hauxhurst, erected a grist-mill at Champoeg in the summer of 1834, adding greatly to the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants of French Prairie, including the missionaries, who had previously pounded their barley in a large wooden mortar, and ground their wheat in a small cast-iron mill called a corn-cracker. Hauxhurst, who was a native of Long Island, subsequently joined the Methodist church, being the first fruit of missionary work among the settlers. His conversion took place in January 1837, and he was ever after a faithful adherent to the organization; nor were there any of this so-called band of horse-thieves who seemed indisposed to earn an honest living.

Another party of eight, coming in the summer of 1835 to join in the colonization of Oregon,^[27] on reaching Rogue River were attacked by the savages, and four of the number slain, the others with difficulty escaping.^[28]

The names of three were William J. Bailey, George Gay, and John Turner. The last-named, with his native wife, was the first to reach the Mission, where he landed from a raft, induced by the welcome sight of cattle. They were kindly cared for by the missionaries, while all waited with painful anxiety for the appearance of any others who might have escaped. After the lapse of several days Gay and Bailey were discovered standing on the bank across the river from the Mission. Perceiving signs of civilization, Bailey plunged in and struck for the opposite shore; but the current being strong, and the swimmer having been badly wounded and without food, save roots, for fifteen days, he would have perished had not his companion saved him. While the two were battling with the water, a canoe was sent to their rescue. Bailey was afterward placed in a hospital at Fort Vancouver. The fourth man failed to discover the settlements, and struggled on the whole distance to the Multnomah River, arriving at Fort William more dead than alive.^[29] This murderous attack upon travellers caused no small excitement at Fort Vancouver. An expedition was proposed to destroy the savages, but the scheme was not undertaken, and it was left for American settlers, miners, and United States troops to consummate the destruction of this tribe at a later date.

If John McLoughlin for political or commercial reasons, or Jason Lee for other cause, had thought to discourage the settlement of the Willamette Valley by independent parties from California or elsewhere, they must ere now have been convinced of the hopelessness of such an effort. McLoughlin, at least, was wise enough gracefully to accept the situation, and extend a helping hand—a conciliatory course for a time imitated by Lee with good results. As to Ewing Young, though Governor Figueroa in due time returned a letter of exculpation, explaining that the real thieves had attached themselves to Young's party, but on finding themselves suspected had deserted it; and though McLoughlin was willing to make amends, Young chose to remain sullen and unyielding, and employed his time in disseminating those anti-British monopoly sentiments which Kelley had so strongly expressed in their stormy interviews at Fort Vancouver. In this spirit, and rendered desperate by the social outlawry to which he was subjected on the part of both the fur company and the Mission, Young resolved to erect a distillery for the manufacture of ardent spirits at his settlement on the Chehalem.

In the beginning of 1836, when Wyeth broke up his establishment at Fort William, Young secured one of the caldrons used in pickling salmon, and set about the accomplishment of his purpose, aided by Lawrence Carmichael, another of the aggrieved colonizers. Now this was a well-aimed blow, and it struck both fur company and Mission in a most sensitive point, their commercial as well as moral conscience. During the year in which trade was carried on at Fort William, intoxicating drink was sold to the natives and settlers, in consequence of which some brawls and petty offences disturbed the good order otherwise maintained in the country.

On hearing of the design of Young and Carmichael, McLoughlin showed them how drink would ruin the farming interests, and destroy the colony he proposed to plant, and offered Young pecuniary aid, and agreed to establish him in some honorable enterprise. The missionaries took alarm. The Oregon Temperance Society was organized, and a meeting convened to consider the steps necessary to prevent the threatened evil. The conclusion reached was that Young and Carmichael should be addressed by letter, and requested to abandon their enterprise. And for the following reasons: the prosperity of the settlement, temporal and spiritual, would be retarded, and the already wretched condition of the natives rendered worse. Nor did they fail to appeal to Young's loyalty to American ideas, reminding him that selling intoxicating drink to aborigines was contrary to law.

To those who can discover it, there is an avenue to every heart. Young pompously professed allegiance to the United States government as the best and purest the sun ever shone upon, whose citizens—among whom he was by no means the least—were the rightful owners of all that region, though on what ground it would have puzzled him to tell. And how was he to be at once champion and law-breaker? The missionaries said further: "You do not pretend to justify yourself; you plead the want of money. We are very sure you will not find it profitable, and we will reimburse you for your expenditures thus far."

This communication was signed by nine Americans and fifteen Canadians,^[30] who subscribed in all sixty dollars toward purchasing the obnoxious distillery, and promised to furnish whatever further amount was required. Yet another influence, to be mentioned presently, was brought to curb the purposes of the obstreperous Yankee.

Young arrogantly rejected the advances of McLoughlin, and refused reimbursement at the hand of the missionaries, but he promised to abandon his scheme for the present.^[31] He would withhold his hand from sowing drunkenness broadcast over the land, but he could not deny himself the pleasure of railing at the fur company. In his reply to the temperance society, Young declared that McLoughlin's tyrannizing oppression and disdain were "more than the feelings of any American citizen could support;" and declared that the innumerable difficulties placed in his way by the company under McLoughlin's authority were the occasion of his being driven to consider so objectionable a means of obtaining a livelihood.

On arriving at Boston, Kelley hastened to publish a pamphlet setting forth in strong terms the fact that the American settlers in Oregon were suffering great hardships through the exclusiveness of the British fur company, which, while pretending to occupy the country jointly with the Americans, maintained a policy which practically reduced to servitude all persons in the country. It did not hesitate to put in force the most cruel and arbitrary measures to drive away such as would not submit.^[32] Thereupon John Forsyth, secretary of state, by direction of the president, addressed a letter to William A. Slacum, a gentleman connected with the United States naval service, instructing him to proceed to the Northwest Coast of America and to the River Oregon, by such means as he should find best, and there ascertain the truth of Kelley's story. He was to visit the different settlements on the "coast of the United States" and on the banks of the Oregon River, and learn the relative numbers of white men and Indians, the nativity of the latter, the jurisdiction they acknowledged, the sentiments entertained by all in respect to the United States and the powers of Great Britain and Russia and to collect all information, political, physical, and geographical, which could prove useful or interesting to the government.

Slacum soon entered upon his duties, proceeding to Baja California, where, being unable to procure passage to the Columbia River, he took a vessel to the Sandwich Islands, and there chartered the American brig Loriot, Captain Bancroft, in which he sailed for his destination. He crossed the bar of the Columbia December 22, 1836, taking shelter from a high wind in Baker Bay, but advancing as far as Fort George the following day. Here he was politely received by James Birnie, the gentleman in charge, who at once despatched an express to Fort Vancouver, with information of the arrival of an American vessel on an unknown errand. The same express carried a request from Slacum to Finlayson of the latter station, to send a pilot to bring the Loriot up the river, which was done. Slacum was also invited to visit Fort Vancouver. Further, Douglas, being on an errand to Fort George, took Slacum in his canoe and landed him at Fort Vancouver the 2d of January, 1837.

As the Loriot had no cargo, the object of her visit was politely asked. In terms equally courteous, the fur magnates were told that it was a private expedition for the purpose of gaining knowledge, and to meet an expedition overland from the United States.

But McLoughlin was not to be so easily deceived. He plainly saw the spy in the private gentleman travelling for information,^[33] and further, that the visitor was a government agent of the United States. All he saw and heard would in due time be reported to his government. As a matter of course, McLoughlin need not answer impertinent inquiries, but would it not be better for the fur company to make its own statement fully and freely in regard to all matters at issue, and so have them placed upon the record? And this was done.^[34]

Slacum remained several days at Fort Vancouver, departing on the 10th of January for the Willamette settlements, in a canoe furnished by McLoughlin, with a crew and every comfortable provision for the journey. At Champoeg he was met by Jason Lee, to whom the same ever-courteous autocrat had sent an express to make announcement of the arrival in the country of a distinguished stranger, and of his intended visit. By this unbounded liberality and unremitting attention two objects were gained: a favorable impression of the personnel of the fur company was established, and a perfect knowledge of the movements of all strangers was acquired. By politely assuming that every individual who came to the country was dependent on Fort Vancouver for the conveniences of living, a perfect system of surveillance was maintained without offence being given.

In company with Lee, Slacum called on all the settlers of French Prairie at their homes, after which he spent a few days at the Mission, rendering himself thoroughly conversant with the affairs of the American settlement.

The case of Ewing Young had been stated to Slacum at Fort Vancouver, and he found it a subject of anxiety, both at the fort and the Mission, that a distillery was to be put in operation in the Willamette Valley. At the fort he was authorized to say to Young that if he would abandon his enterprise of making whiskey, he would be permitted to get his necessary supplies from Fort Vancouver on the same terms as other men,^[35] and to this proposition Slacum counselled him to accede, saying that in his opinion his point with the fur company was gained by this concession.

Young, however, continued obdurate. Slacum then proposed to furnish him a loan of one hundred and fifty dollars with which to procure for himself and Carmichael a supply of proper clothing from Fort Vancouver, to be purchased in Slacum's name; and to give both a passage to California, where Young desired to go, being still very much incensed with Governor Figueroa. To so generous an offer no reasonable objection could be made, and Young promised a reply on the following day. It was while entertaining this proposal that he sent his answer to the appeal of the temperance society, in which he alluded to some favorable circumstances which had governed him in relinquishing the design of manufacturing ardent spirits.

Slacum remained but a short time in Oregon, taking his departure from the Willamette on the 23d of January and his final leave of the country on the 10th of February. The further results of his mission are reserved for another chapter.

1. That is to say, 'lazy man,' from its sluggish movements. Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 22.
2. The broadaxe which hewed those logs is now kept as carefully as was the bow of Ulysses. It came round Cape Horn in Wyeth's ship, and was exhibited at the meeting of the Pioneer Association near Salem in 1878. Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., 13.
3. Smith was from N. H., and fairly educated. He was a large, well-formed man, with a ruddy complexion and clear gray eye, intelligent and pleasing in conversation. See appendix, chap. iii., this volume.
4. This method of making a roof was not original with the missionaries, but common to the frontier of Missouri and the settlements of Oregon. The shingles were called 'clapboards,' and were often used for siding a cabin, being put on perpendicularly.
5. Hines' Oregon Hist., 13.
6. Hines' Oregon History, 14. Soon 'after his death his brother came to the Mission, determined to seek revenge for the death of Kenoteesh, by taking the life of Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard. He remained overnight, and was prevented from accomplishing his design only by the interposition of an Indian who accompanied him. Bent upon glutting his vengeance on somebody, he crossed the river, and fell upon a band of unarmed Indians, and savagely murdered several of them.' Lee affirms of the lad's death that 'a messenger had been sent to notify his relations of his danger, that they might come and see him before his death, and that they might have no occasion for jealousy in case of his decease. However, some days before they came he was dead. They gathered around his grave, and remained some time wailing aloud; but they appeared to be satisfied that everything had been done well on our part on his behalf; and after a friendly parting, they returned again to their own country.' Lee and Frost's Or., 130.
7. Daniel Lee himself says it was a relief 'in a case where there was so little to hope.' Lee and Frost's Or., 133.
8. During the winter of 1835 a singular complaint attacked the Indian children. The first symptom was a violent pain in the ear, which rapidly spread through the head, the pulse being feeble and not very frequent. The extremities soon became cold, and a general torpor spread over the system. Unconsciousness and death shortly followed. Parker's Jour., 165.
9. See chap, iii., this volume. In the Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1880, is given a paper under title of 'Copy of a document,' wherein McLoughlin speaks plainly upon this subject. He admits that he used all his influence to induce the missionaries to settle where they did, giving among others the reasons afterward furnished by Lee. He told them that to do good to the Indians they must station themselves where the Indians could be collected about an agricultural establishment, taught to cultivate the ground and live without hunting, while receiving religious instruction. He assured them that the Willamette afforded a suitable situation for this purpose, and promised the same aid in beginning farming which the Canadian settlers received, all of which engagements were generously kept. In giving advice, however kindly intended, the great fur magnate did not lose sight of what he deemed to be the best interests of his company. He could not know how missionaries would be received among the warlike tribes of eastern Oregon. Should there be hostility, war would follow; the company must punish any shedding of white man's blood. War tended to diminution of profits. By inducing the missionaries to establish themselves on the Willamette, in the vicinity of the former servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, this danger would be avoided, the lives of the missionaries would be rendered secure, and at the same time those tribes most frequently brought in contact with white men, and least liable to resent innovations upon their customs, or to yield to the temptations of their savage natures, might gradually be taught foreign arts and a foreign religion. It could not be expected that when the rules of the corporation imposed upon the manager the duty of sending the company's own servants, of whatever class, out of the country as soon as their terms of service had expired, lest peaceful relations with the natives should be disturbed, the head of the company should encourage wide-spread settlement by other nationalities. But by placing the missionaries beside the Canadians, whose names on the company's books gave them a right to be there, the unpleasant necessity was avoided of objecting to any choice they might otherwise make, and the ends of fur-trading and mission work thus became happily adjusted. But Jason Lee, with a few months' experience, such as has been described, began to entertain serious doubts of the rapid evangelization of the natives of western Oregon. This I gather from his nephew's account; but that he did not so inform the board of the missionary society in New York is evident from succeeding events.
10. It consisted of 150 bushels of wheat, 35 bushels of oats, 56 bushels of barley, and 85 bushels of pease, not to mention potatoes and other vegetables. In 1836, 500 bushels of wheat were raised from 27 on the mission farm, 200 bushels of pease, 40 bushels of oats, 4½ bushels of corn, 3½ bushels of beans, 319 bushels of potatoes, and plenty of other vegetables.
11. Townsend left Oregon in November 1835 in the company's bark Columbia, Captain Royal, bound to England by way of the Islands. He expresses regret at leaving Vancouver. 'I took leave,' he says, 'of Dr McLoughlin with feelings akin to those with which I should bid adieu to an affectionate parent; and to his fervent "God bless you, sir, and may you have a happy meeting with your friends," I could only reply by a look of the sincerest gratitude. Words are inadequate to express my deep sense of the obligations I feel under to this truly generous and excellent man.' Nar., 253. Townsend was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The idea of joining Wyeth's expedition across the continent being suggested to him by Nuttall, who had determined to do so, was eagerly seized upon, the thought of visiting unexplored regions being irresistible. Townsend seems to have been very industrious, and was assisted frequently by the scholarly gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company. He gives a list of the quadrupeds and birds of the Oregon territory, many of which were new to science. Among the former are the dusky wolf, Canus nubilus; two species of hare, Lepus, Townsendii and Lepus artemesia; a third new species is called Nuttall's little hare, Lepus Nuttallii. Two new species of marmot, Spermophilus Townsendii and a small pouched marmot not named; also two of the meadow-mouse species, Arvicola Townsendii and Arvicola Oregonii. Several new species of squirrel are named; downy squirrel, Sciurus lanuginosus and Scurius Richardsonii; little ground-squirrel, Tamias minimus and Tamias Townsendii; and Oregon flying-squirrel, Pteromys Oregonemis. Of moles there is Scalops Townsendii, given as new; and a new shrew-mouse undescribed; besides two species of bats, Plecotus Townsendii, or great-eared bat, and a small bat undescribed. Townsend's list of birds found in Oregon is long, and many of the species were new to naturalists. They were the chestnut-backed titmouse, Parus rufescens; brown-headed titmouse, Parus Minimus; mountain mocking-bird, Orpheus montanus; white-tailed thrush, not described; Townsend's thrush, Ptiliogonys Townsendii; Morton's water-ouzel, Cinclus Mortonii; Columbian water-ouzel, Cinclus Townsendii; Tolmie's warbler, Sylvia Tolmei, named in compliment to Dr Tolmie of the Hudson's Bay Company; hermit warbler, Sylvia occidentalis; black-throated gray warbler, Sylvia nigrescent; Audubon's warbler, Sylvia Auduboni; Townsend's warbler, Sylvia Townsendii; ash-headed warbler, not described; western bluebird, Siaha occidentalis; brown longspur, Plectrophanes Townsendii; Oregon snow-finch, Fringilla Oregona; green-tailed finch, not described; black white-banded woodpecker; and black red-backed woodpecker, not described; Harris' woodpecker, Picus Harrisi; Vaux' chimney swallow, Cypselus Vauxi; long-tailed black pheasant not described. Of water-birds there were added to the catalogue the white-legged oyster-catcher, Hamatopus Bachmani; Rocky Mountain plover, Charadrius montanus; Townsend's sand-piper, Frinca Townsendii; violet green cormorant, Phalacrocorax splendens; Townsend's cormorant, Phalacrocorax Townsendii; and slender-billed guillemot, Uria Townsendii. Of these birds a half-dozen are credited to Audubon, who was exploring in the region of the Rocky Mountains; and one, Townsend's warbler, to Nuttall. From Townsend I learn all that I have to tell of the scientific labors of Nuttall. 'Throughout the whole of our long journey,' he says 'I have had constantly to admire the order and perfect indefatigability with which he has devoted himself to the grand object of his tour. No difficulty, no danger, no fatigue has ever daunted him, and he finds his rich reward in the addition of nearly a thousand new species of American plants.' This was certainly reward enough. One of the most beautiful trees of Oregon bears his name, Cornus Nuttal, a tall and full blossoming dogwood, equal in the splendor of its silvery flowers to the magnolia of the gulf states. The Oregon alder, Alnus Oregona, a handsome tree, and Fraximus Oregona, the Oregon ash, were first described by this botanist.
12. Daniel Lee says of it: 'Some of the symptoms were alarming, resembling the croup'—membranous croup is probably meant, as in both diseases a membrane either forms or is sloughed off. Lee's own throat was affected with that sloughing off when he went to the Islands. There would seem to be evidence that this character of throat disease is due to malaria, or miasmatic conditions of the atmosphere; and it is a fact that the scourge of diphtheria is even now more dreaded, because more fatal, than any other in the rich valley lands of Oregon, and also that it breaks out in newly ploughed districts where it was never known before, as, for example, where pasture-lands are turned into grain-fields.
13. Lee and Frosts' Or., 142; Hines' Or. Hist., 18.
14. Hines' Or. Hist., 35. These details are gathered from the writings of the missionaries themselves; but I find in a report made to the United States government by its agent, Mr Slacum, a more flattering account. According to this report, made it must be assumed from information furnished by the Lees, there were within fence 150 acres of land in the winter of 1836. The Mission family consisted of 3 adults and 23 Indian and half-breed children, ten of whom were orphans. There were, besides, 22 Indians and 8 half-breeds who attended the day-school. All were taught to speak English, and several could read. The larger boys worked on the farm in fine weather, earning, at the lowest pay of the Hudson's Bay Company, their board clothing, and tuition. The school and family, it was said, could be increased, but the missionaries did not wish to add to their number until they had further assistance; and nothing whatever was stated showing any of the discouragements under which they labored. Mr Slacum's report was much like other similar documents furnished the government, that is, made to suit the occasion. Of the faithfulness and zeal of the Lees and their assistants up to the period of Slacum's visit, no doubt could be entertained. We have McLoughlin's testimony that no men 'could exert themselves more zealously'. Copy of a Document, in Trans. Or. Pioneer, 1880, 50. For Slacum's account, see 25th Cong. 3d Sess., House Rept. 101.
15. Los Angeles Hist., 18–19.
16. 'It was sometimes called Rascal River by early explorers.' Williams' S. W. Or., MS., 2. 'Hence the name Les Coquins (the Rogues) and La Rivière aux Coquins (the Rogue River), given to the country by the men of the brigade.' Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 94. Townsend calls them the Potámeos, but says that they are called the 'rascally Indians,' from their uniformly evil disposition, and hostility to white people. Nar., 228. This is the true origin of the name, though several other theories have been advanced. In Ellicott's Puget Sound, MS., 20, he makes the mistake of confounding it with Rio San Roque or the Columbia. Grover, in Pub. Life, MS., 13–15, 18–19, mentions a map of French origin and some antiquity, whereon the Klamath and Rogue rivers are united and called 'Rouge Clamet,' or Red Klamath. The author of the map could hardly have called the Rogue River red had he ever seen it, as it is of a beautiful blue color. See also Cram's Top. Mem., 33.
17. Kelley resents this ignoring of himself and his efforts to establish missions in Oregon, which was a part of his plan, and says that Daniel Lee in his book, and Jason Lee in his lectures delivered subsequently in the east, assigned untrue causes for the Oregon mission, 'insinuating that they themselves were its originators.' See Kelley's Settlement of Oregon, 62–3.
18. While Kelley in his numerous pamphlets complains bitterly of the indignities put upon him at Fort Vancouver by reason of Figueroa's letter, he admits the charity of McLoughlin in providing for his wants, and acknowledges that he was presented with a small sum of money on leaving for the Islands.
19. At the same time Kelley says that Young called on him, and threatened his life for having persuaded him to undertake the settlement of Oregon. Kelley's Colonization of Oregon, 54.
20. C. M. Walker, who knew Young well in the times referred to, in January 1881, at his home in Tillamook, furnished a Sketch of Ewing Young, from which I have drawn some of these facts. See Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans. for 1880, 56–8. Walker states that Young was the first settler on the west side of the Willamette River. He calls him industrious and enterprising, and a man of great determination. See also White's Emigration to Or., MS., 3; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 205; Los Angeles Co. Hist., 34.
21. These were not many. Kelley dwells with proud sensitiveness upon his own countrymen's neglect of him. That Wyeth, whose name was on the catalogue of the 'American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory,' founded by Kelley, should not have bestowed some attention upon a man of his antecedents, even at the risk of opposing himself to McLoughlin, is significant. Kelley also reviles Townsend and Nuttall, who, he says, were the recipients of the company's civilities and liberal hospitality, and were receiving their 'good things,' while he was only receiving their 'evil things.' 'One of them,' he says, 'had resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years, within a mile of my place of abode, and had read my books, seen my works, and learnt more or less about the spirit which moved me. He was not ignorant of the fact that the only path leading to the country of pretty flowers west of the Rocky Mountains had been opened wholly at my expense, and his journey thither had been made easy and pleasurable through my means.' Cyrus Shepard was the only person from the fort in the habit of visiting Kelley. Kelley's Colonization of Oregon, 56, 58.
22. Kelley's Settlement of Oregon, 59. While Kelley exhibits much excitement and jealousy in his remarks on Jason and Daniel Lee, we must admit that there was some foundation for the assertion that the Lees were 'opposed to persons coming to settle' in the Oregon territory, except such as should become members of the Mission, and aid in its purposes; and that his views were identical with those of McLoughlin, though their motives may have been different. Kelley blames the Lees for claiming to have begun the settlement of Oregon without respect to his previous efforts, and his simultaneous appearance in the country with a party of settlers; for their avoiding him while there; for disparaging remarks concerning him made in the east, which he construed to be an effort to deprive him of any credit as a pioneer of colonization; and for the small notice of him in Daniel Lee's book, where he is dismissed with three lines. This work, to which I must often refer as the earliest authority on this period of the history of Oregon, if the manuscripts of McLoughlin are excepted, is unfortunately divided in the authorship with a Mr Frost, who came to the country some years later than Lee, and is so arranged that without an intimate knowledge of the subject the reader is at a loss to know what portion of it to attribute to either writer. It is only that part of the book which relates to events happening previous to 1840 that we can feel sure was furnished by Lee, unless it be where he speaks of himself by name. Lee writes fairly, and with less of the usual religious cant than might be expected of a Methodist missionary of nearly fifty years ago. He simply puts down events, leaving the reader to make his own comments. His truthfulness, compared with other authorities, is nearly absolute. Like his uncle, he could refrain from mentioning a subject; but if he mentioned it, what he said was likely to be correct. The title of his book is Ten Years in Oregon, and it was published in 1844 in New York. It is quoted in this work as Lee and Frost's Or.
23. Kelley's General Circular, 13–27.
24. Kelley s Colonization of Or., 56.
25. Kelley's Colonization of Or., 57.
26. Mention is made, in chapter iii. of this volume, of the killing of Thornburg by Hubbard at Fort William. But these were Wyeth's men. Captain Lambert and Mr Townsend held an inquest, and after hearing the evidence, returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. Townsend's Nar., 224. Gray, in Hist. Or., 197, tells Hubbard's story as happening several years later when there was a magistrate in the country, before whom he was tried. No such trial ever took place. Hubbard was given a certificate by the coroner's jury to show that the killing was in self-defence and to clear him in case of arrest. Lee contributes the fact that the desire for strong drink, that article being obtainable at Fort William, led to the stealing of a pig, and the selling of it for liquor which the thief 'barbarously compelled the owner to drink; and now, poor man, he has no pork to eat in harvest!' Lee and Frost's Or., 140.
27. Townsend's Nar., 228. Gray with his usual inaccurracy says there was no arrival of settlers in 1835.
28. The same who later caused the bloody wars of 1853 and 1855–6. Kelley relates that while he and Young were en route for Oregon, some of those men who had joined and left them, and who were formerly trappers under the famous leader, Joe Walker, of the American fur company in the Rocky Mountains, wantonly slew the California Indians on several occasions where they hung upon their rear, and that Young approved of the murders, saying they were 'damned villains, and ought to be shot.' But no mention is made of any encounter with the natives after entering the Oregon territory, not even on Rogue River, a probable consequence of their having fallen in with the Hudson's Bay Company trapping party, returning from California under Michel La Framboise. The policy pursued by the British company made the presence of one of their parties in the neighborhood a safeguard to all white men alike, though even La Framboise was sometimes compelled to inflict a salutary punishment upon the Rogue River people, as Wilkes was told by him. 'I questioned him relative to the stories respecting the shooting of Indians on the route to and from California, and he told me they had no battles, but said it was necessary to keep them always at a distance. On my repeating the question, whether the report we had heard of several being killed during the late expedition were true, he, Frenchman-like, shrugged his shoulders, and answered: "Ah, Monsieur, ils sont des mauvais gens; il faut en prendre garde et tirer sur eux quelquefois." Wilkes Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., v. 152.
29. Townsend, who was at Fort Vancouver when Bailey arrived, describes his appearance as frightful, and his sufferings as excruciating. He was literally covered with wounds. One upon the lower part of the face entered the upper lip just below the nose, cutting entirely through both the upper and the lower jaws and chin, and passing deep into the side of the neck, narrowly missing the jugular vein. Not being able, in his extreme anguish, to adjust the parts, but only to bind them with a handkerchief, in healing the face was left badly distorted. Nar., 229; Lee and Frost's Or., 131–2. Bailey was an English surgeon of good parentage, but had led a life of dissipation, to break him off from which his mother removed to the United States. Leaving his new home, his mother and sisters, he shipped as a common sailor coming in that capacity to California, where for several years he led a roving life. On recovering from his wounds he joined the Willamette settlement, and his medical and surgical acquirements coming to the notice of the missionaries, he was encouraged in his practice. He thus became an attaché of the Mission, married an estimable lady who came to Oregon as a teacher—Miss Margaret Smith—settled on a farm, and became one of the foremost men of Oregon colonial times. See White's Ten Years in Or., 111–15; Wilkes' Nar., U.S. Explr. Ex., iv. 387. Bailey died at Champoeg, February 5, 1876, aged about 70. Salem Mercury, Feb. 11, 1876. George Gay was also an Englishman who left home in 1830 on a whaling voyage to the North Pacific. In 1832 he deserted with a whole boat's crew, in a California harbor, and after various adventures determined to join Kelley and Young's Oregon settlement. He took a farm in the Willamette, becoming a notable personage in his way, or as Wilkes calls him, 'a useful member of society,' but not at all an ornamental one. For a lengthy description of the man and his manners, see Wilkes Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., iv. 382. John Turner was with Jedediah Smith when attacked by the Umpquas. At that time Turner had defended himself with a firebrand successfully, and on this occasion he resorted to the same means, laying about him like a madman, and being a large and powerful person, with equal success. He too became a resident of the Willamette Valley, though living in seclusion at some distance from the other settlers. White's Ten Years in Or., 114. The name of the fourth man who escaped to the settlements is not mentioned, though his arrival at Fort William is recorded in Lee and Frost's Or., 132.
30. Hines Oregon Hist., 20. This author seems inclined unfairly to ignore the efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company in the matter. The fifteen Frenchmen were still on the books of the fur company, and Daniel Lee more correctly affirms that 'McLoughlin seconded the efforts of the missionaries and friends of temperance, and that the course he has taken in regard to spirituous liquors has done much to preserve the general order and harmony of the mixed community of which the settlement is composed.' Lee and Frost's Or., 140.
31. Walker, in his sketch of Ewing Young, in Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1880, 58, says that 'upon this appeal and offer he abandoned the distillery, and then was planning for a saw and grist mill.'
32. 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101, 60. McLoughlin says: 'He published a narrative of his voyage, in which instead of being grateful for the kindness shown to him, he abused me, and falsely stated that I had been so alarmed with the dread that he would destroy the Hudson's Bay Company's trade that I had kept a constant watch over him, and which was published in the report of the United States congress.' Private Papers, MS., 2d and 4th series.
33. McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 5.
34. Slacum's report, after relating briefly the incidents of his journey and reception at Fort Vancouver, gives an abstract of the history of the Hudson's Bay Company from the date of its charter, with the extent and rules of trade of the company in Oregon, a description of Fort Vancouver, an account of the American vessels that had visited the Columbia River since the restoration of Astoria in 1818, remarks upon Indian slavery, with other statistical information about the Indians, an elaborate account of the mission, and some brief observations upon the physical features of the country. In addition to Slacum's report, the same document contains one by Kelley, giving a brief account of his expedition to California and Oregon, with many valuable remarks upon the geography, topography, and natural history of those countries, ending with an account of the profits of the fur company, its monopoly of trade, and arbitrary rule over all persons in the country, with reminiscences of his own unpleasant experiences. The document contains other memorials, to which I shall have occasion to refer in a future chapter. The whole constitutes the Report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which was referred a Message from the President of the United States, with a resolution of the House, in relation to the territory of the United States beyond the Rocky Mountains. February 16, 1839.
35. 24th Cong., 3d Seas., H. Rept. 101, 38; Sen. Doc. 24, 1836–7; Kelley's Settlement of Or., 56.